Sherlock Holmes: years of life, character description, interesting facts.

By eliminating the most popular literary character in a fight with Professor Moriarty (“the godfather” of the English mafia, as they would say now) at the Reichenbach Falls.

However, a stream of letters from indignant readers, among whom were members of the royal family (according to legend, Queen Victoria herself), forced the writer to “revive” the famous detective and continue describing his adventures.

Best works

When to Conan Doyle Once asked to list the best stories about Holmes, the author selected 12 works:

Biography

Arthur Conan Doyle himself never reported the date of birth of Sherlock Holmes in his works. Presumably the year of his birth is (based on the story “His Farewell Bow,” which takes place in 1914, and Holmes is about 60 years old). A version also appeared in the press that Holmes was born in 1850. The version was allegedly based on the biography of the doctor Joseph Bell, whom Arthur Conan Doyle himself mentioned more than once as the prototype of Sherlock Holmes, and, according to the writer’s stories, Joseph Bell was nine years older than him, that is, the year of his birth was 1850 (himself Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859). However, in reality, Joseph Bell was born in 1837, which invalidates this version.

However, at Watson's first meeting with Holmes, described in the story "A Study in Scarlet", we encounter a superficial description of Holmes' age from Watson's words.

In this high room, countless bottles and vials glittered on shelves and everywhere. There were low, wide tables everywhere, thickly laden with retorts, test tubes, and Bunsen burners with flickering tongues of blue flame. The laboratory was empty, and only in the far corner, bent over the table, a young man was intently fiddling with something. Hearing our steps, he looked back and jumped up.

Fans of Conan Doyle's work have attempted to establish a more accurate date of birth for Sherlock Holmes. In particular, it was suggested that the date would be January 6. The date was calculated by a certain Nathan L. Bengis based on a comparison of fragmentary information from the works of Conan Doyle and astrological research. Part of the hypothesis is based on the fact that in the story “The Valley of Terror” there is an indirect reference to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night” with a relative time reference to Holmes’ birthday. The date is quite common among fans of the great detective, although in general it is not objectively confirmed.

Little is known about the family and ancestors of Sherlock Holmes. In the story “The Incident of the Translator,” Holmes says:

Holmes also mentions there that his grandmother was the sister of the French battle painter Horace Vernet (1789-1863). In a number of works, Sherlock Holmes' brother, Mycroft Holmes, is active, who is seven years older than him and occupies a significant post in the British government associated with analytical work(Mycroft's specific position has not been revealed). Also mentioned in The Norwood Contractor is a young doctor, Werner, a distant relative of Holmes, who bought Watson's doctor's practice in Kensington. There is no mention of Holmes' other relatives. Grandmother is French, which suggests partial French origin Holmes, although it is difficult to judge how dominant it is.

Key dates in the life of Sherlock Holmes:

• Sherlock Holmes solved the first case (the story about it is called “Gloria Scott”) at about 23 years old - the story says that by this time he had graduated from college.
• In 1881, Holmes met Dr. John Watson (if we take Holmes' birth date as 1854, then at that time he is about 27 years old). He, apparently, is not rich, as he is looking for a partner to rent an apartment together. At the same time, she and Watson moved to Baker Street, house 221b (221b Baker Street), where they rented an apartment together from Mrs. Hudson. In the story "Gloria Scott" we learn something about Holmes' past, about what motivated him to become a detective: the father of Holmes' classmate admired his deductive abilities.
• In 1888, Watson marries and moves out of his apartment on Baker Street. Holmes continues to rent an apartment from Mrs. Hudson alone.
• The story “Holmes's Last Case” takes place in 1891. After a fight with Professor Moriarty, Holmes goes missing. Watson (and with him almost the entire English public) is confident in the death of Holmes.
• Holmes was on the run from 1891 to 1894. Having survived a single combat on the edge of a waterfall, on foot and without money, he overcame the Alpine mountains and reached Florence, from where he contacted his brother and received from him cash. After this, Holmes went to Tibet, where he traveled for two years, visited Lhasa and spent several days with the Dalai Lama - apparently Holmes published his notes about this journey under the name of the Norwegian Sigerson. Then he traveled all over Persia, looked into Mecca (obviously using acting skills, since, according to the laws of Islam, visits to Mecca and Medina by non-believers are excluded) and visited the caliph in Khartoum (about which he presented a report to the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain). Returning to Europe, Holmes spent several months in the south of France, in Montpellier, where he was engaged in research on substances obtained from coal tar.
• In 1894, Holmes unexpectedly showed up in London. After liquidation of balances criminal group Moriarty Sherlock Holmes moves back into Baker Street. Dr. Watson, who was widowed by that time, also moved there.
• In 1904, Holmes retired and left London for southeast England, in the county of Sussex, where he was engaged in bee breeding.
• The last described case of Holmes dates back to 1914 (the story “His Farewell Bow”). Holmes here is about 60 years old (“He could have been about sixty years old”). ABOUT future fate Conan Doyle mentions Sherlock Holmes several times. From the story “The Devil's Foot” it follows that Dr. Watson received a telegram from Holmes with a proposal to write about the “Cornish Horror” in 1917, therefore, both friends survived the First World War safely, although they live separately. Further in the story “Man on All Fours,” Watson again indirectly hints at the date of publication of this case to the general public and about the fate of Holmes:

Watson says "we got it", meaning himself and Holmes; If the actions of the hero of the story, Professor Presbury, worried scientific circles in 1903, and this was “twenty years ago,” then we can conclude that both Holmes and Watson were alive in 1923.

Personality

When first meeting Sherlock Holmes (“A Study in Scarlet”), Dr. Watson describes the great detective as tall, thin young man:

In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson states that Holmes does not use drugs, but in The Sign of Four we see him using intravenous cocaine. Sherlock Holmes used drugs only in the complete absence of interesting crimes:

“My brain rebels against idleness. Give me a case! Give me the most complex problem, an unsolvable problem, the most confusing case - and I will forget about artificial stimulants.”

Moreover, by 1898 (this is exactly the estimated time of action of “The Terror Over London” - the manuscript from “The Testament of Sherlock Holmes”) Sherlock had already gotten rid of this bad habit, as the tireless Dr. Watson told us about in the story “The Lost Rugby Player”.

It is difficult to say anything definite about Holmes’ relationship with alcohol, although he is clearly not a strict teetotaler.

Holmes prefers to receive clients at his home. In a number of stories you can see that even very wealthy clients, royalty and the Prime Minister of Great Britain himself come to see him personally. Holmes is a theatergoer and loves to dine at Simpsons restaurant (the most prestigious place in London). He is well versed in opera and, apparently, knows Italian:

Your code is simple, madam. We need you here. I was sure that if I gave the sign Vieni (Italian for “come”), you would definitely come.

It is also likely that Holmes has a working knowledge of other European languages:

The big "G" with a small "t" is an abbreviation for "Gesellschaft", which means "company" in German. This is a common abbreviation, like our “K°”. "P" of course stands for "Papier", paper.<…>And the person who wrote the note is German. Do you notice the strange construction of the phrase: “We received such feedback about you from all sides”? A French or Russian could not write like that. Only the Germans are so unceremonious with their verbs.

Holmes shrugged: “Perhaps I do bring some benefit.” “L'homme c'est rien - I'oeuvre c'est tout,” as Gustave Flaubert put it in a letter to George Sand.

Weapons and martial arts

Examines evidence as scientific point vision, and from the subject. To determine the course of a crime, he often examines prints, tracks, tire tracks (“Study in Crimson,” “Silver,” “An Incident in a Boarding School,” “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” “The Mystery of the Boscombe Valley”), cigarette butts, and ash remains (“ The Constant Patient", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "A Study in Scarlet", comparison of letters ("Identification", "Reigate Squires"), gunpowder residues ("Reigate Squires"), bullet recognition ("The Empty House") and even fingerprints left many days ago (“Norwood Contractor”). Holmes also demonstrates knowledge of psychology (“A Scandal in Bohemia”), luring Irene Adler into a trap and rightly assuming that in the event of a fire, an unmarried childless woman will rush to save what is most precious (in the story, a photograph), and married woman, the mother of the family, will rush to save her child first of all.

Due to troubles in life (or the desire to leave everything behind), Holmes retires to Sussex to take up beekeeping (“The Second Spot”), where he writes the book “ Practical guide on bee breeding" ("His Farewell Bow"). His love of music can also be considered as one of the ways of relaxation: for example, in the story “The Union of Redheads” he takes an evening free from participation in business to listen to Pablo de Sarasate play the violin.

He also loves very much vocal music(“The Scarlet Ring”) and plays the violin very well:

...I knew that he could perform violin pieces, and quite difficult ones: more than once, at my request, he played Mendelssohn’s “Songs” and other things I loved...

Although Holmes appears as a model of steely endurance and icy calm, he is by no means alien to emotions. A difficult investigation or outright failure removes the mask of indifference from his face:

...Holmes jumped up from his chair.

Grab him from behind, Watson! Don't let me out of the room! Now, sir, we will look at the contents of your notebook...

...My friend returned late in the evening, and his darkened, upset face told me more clearly than any words that not a trace remained of his morning hopes. He played the violin for an hour, trying to calm down...

...Yes, it was worth getting wounded, and even more than one, to find out the depth of caring and love hidden behind the cold mask of my friend. His clear, hard gaze clouded for a moment, his hard lips trembled. For one single moment I felt that this was not only a great brain, but also a great heart...

Sherlock Holmes method

Deductive method

1. Based on all the facts and evidence, it is built full picture crimes
2. Based on the obtained picture of the crime, the only accused person corresponding to it is sought.

When drawing up an idea of ​​the crime scene, Holmes uses strict logic, which allows him to reconstruct a single picture from scattered and individually insignificant details as if he had seen the incident with his own eyes.

From one drop of water, a person who knows how to think logically can conclude about the possibility of the existence of the Atlantic Ocean or Niagara Falls, even if he has never seen or heard of either one. Every life is a huge chain of causes and effects, and we can understand its nature one by one.

An observer who has thoroughly studied one link in a series of events should be able to accurately establish all the other links - both previous and subsequent ones. But to bring the art of thinking to highest point- it is necessary that the thinker can use all established facts, and for this he needs the most extensive knowledge...

The key points of the method are observation and expert knowledge in many practical and applied fields of science, often related to forensics. Here Holmes's specific approach to understanding the world is manifested - purely professional and pragmatic, seeming more than strange people, unfamiliar with the personality of Holmes. Having the deepest knowledge in areas specific to forensic science, such as soil science or typography, Holmes does not know basic things. For example, Holmes does not know the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, because this information is completely useless in his work.

It seems to me that the human brain is like a small empty attic that you can furnish however you want. A fool will drag any junk he can get his hands on there, and there will be no place to put useful, necessary things, or best case scenario You can’t even get to them among all this rubble. And a smart person carefully selects what he places in his brain attic.

Drop all the impossible; what remains is the answer, no matter how incredible it may seem.

For example, while investigating the case of the missing treasures of Agra, Holmes is faced with a situation where the criminal, based on signs and evidence left behind, turns out to be a short man with a leg like a child’s. Having rejected all options, Holmes settles on the only one: this is a short savage from the Andaman Islands, no matter how paradoxical this option may seem.

In the name of the method the term deduction used by Conan Doyle not strictly. It can be understood as:

• negation or discarding of excess (English deduction - subtraction). [ ]
• a logical method that allows one to come from the general to the specific. Examples:

However, at least part of the method is based on induction - conclusion from the particular to the general. Some researchers see abduction as the basis of Holmes' method.

Holmes's unusual ability to make astonishing guesses based on the smallest signs causes constant amazement for Watson and the readers of the stories. The detective uses and trains this ability not only during the investigation, but also in everyday life. As a rule, Holmes subsequently thoroughly explains his train of thought, which after the fact seems obvious and elementary.

Consequence

In most cases, Holmes is faced with carefully planned and complexly executed crimes. At the same time, the range of crimes is quite wide - Holmes investigates murders, thefts, extortion, and sometimes he comes across situations that at first glance (or ultimately) do not have the elements of a crime at all (the incident with the king of Bohemia, the case of Mary Sutherland, the story of a man with split lip, the case of Lord St. Simon, the mystery of the man with the yellow face).

Sherlock Holmes prefers to act alone, performing all investigative functions in one person. He is helped by Dr. Watson and the staff of Scotland Yard, but this is not of a fundamental nature. Holmes finds evidence and, as an expert, evaluates the involvement of those involved in the crime. Questions witnesses. In addition, Holmes often directly acts as a detective agent, searching for evidence and persons involved, and also participates in the arrest.

Holmes is no stranger to various tricks - he uses makeup, wigs, and changes his voice. In some cases, he has to resort to complete transformation, which requires the art of an actor.

In some cases, a group of London street boys work for Holmes. Holmes mainly uses them as spies to assist him in solving cases.

Holmes versions. Images, representations, vision of the character by other authors

There are several hundred works featuring Holmes, written by other Russian and foreign authors. Some of them:

Data

Sherlock Holmes Monuments and Museums

• Film adaptations

  In terms of the number of film adaptations, the story about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was included in the Guinness Book of Records. On this moment there are about 210 films, TV series, animated films with the participation of a detective. The list shows the performers of the role of Sherlock Holmes, unless otherwise noted.

  USA (1939-1946)

  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) - a series of 14 films, a number of films based on original stories, the action is moved to the 1940s

  USSR-Russia

  • “From the stories about Sherlock Holmes” (1968, Nikolai Volkov)
  • "Dr. Watson's First Case" (1968, Nikolai Volkov)
  • “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1971, Nikolai Volkov)

Sherlock Holmes - famous character in literature, authored by Arthur Conan Doyle. All works about a detective who lives in London belong to detective genre. It is believed that the prototype of this literary character was the writer’s colleague. It is known that Joseph Bell worked in a hospital and could easily guess and predict a person’s character from details.

Biography of Sherlock Holmes

If you analyze all the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, you can also calculate what Sherlock Holmes's date of birth is. It is believed that this character was born around 1854. Readers of works about the great detective constantly tried to establish his date of birth. But soon, after analyzing several stories, they came to the conclusion that Holmes was born on January 6th. It is this date that is now indicated in museums that are dedicated to this interesting and exciting literary character.

Little is known about his life. So, Sherlock has never been married and he has no children either. But he still had relatives. His older brother Mycroft appears in some works.

Pedigree of the famous detective

There is little information about the detective’s ancestors in the works. In one of the stories, Sherlock Holmes himself, whose years of life are still of interest to readers, talks about his ancestry. He says that his ancestors were landowners who lived in some outback. The life of these landowners was quiet and calm, as befits people of this class.

Sherlock also talks about his grandmother, whom he still remembered a little. She was a sister famous artist from France. By the way, he himself is also mentioned several times in the works of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock Holmes, whose years of life still remain a mystery and have only been determined approximately, talks about his brother Mycroft, who is seven years older than the detective. Sherlock mentions several times that he holds a high and important position in the government, but still never calls him that.

In addition to close family members, his distant relatives are also mentioned in works about Sherlock Holmes. For example, Werner, who is just starting to work as a doctor. It is he who buys the doctoral practice from Watson.

Character Description

Holmes's main profession is as a private detective-consultant. But he was helped along this difficult path by the father of a classmate, who was delighted unusual abilities young man.

Sherlock Holmes, long years who dedicated his life to investigating and finding criminals, is described by Arthur Conan Doyle as a tall and thin man.

The following details stood out especially in the detective’s appearance: piercing gaze gray eyes, and a square chin that resolutely protruded slightly forward. The detective himself said about his height that he was no higher than six pounds, which is equal to 183 centimeters.

Holmes was a biochemist by training. He even worked for some time as a laboratory assistant in one of the London hospitals. But he still devoted his whole life to investigations. Even knowing the law, he did not always follow it when it came to the life of an innocent person. The detective never refused to help a poor man. He took almost no payment for his work, and if he had to do it, it was often symbolic.

Detective Habits

Sherlock prefers to stay at home and tries not to go out for any particular reason. He even investigates all his cases at home. But at the same time he is completely indifferent to any conveniences and luxuries.

Holmes has never been married and, as he himself states, he has never even been in love in his life. Although he is always polite with women and is always ready to help them.

Sherlock has bad habits. For example, he smokes often and a lot. His especially strong tobacco fills the entire room when he is trying to solve one of the new crimes. Sometimes he uses intravenous drugs because he cannot bear to live without work.

Holmes' methods

Sherlock conducts each investigation of the next crime in his own different ways. Among them, the deductive method stands out. Having studied all the evidence and facts that are in the case, the detective draws up his own picture of the crime, and then begins to look for the one who benefited from committing it.

Most often, the crimes that Holmes investigates are complex and confusing, so it is impossible to understand them without an investigation. He himself tries to find evidence and question witnesses in order to understand everything about the crime committed.

Sometimes, to catch a criminal, a detective uses not only makeup, but also his excellent acting skills.

Sherlock Holmes: years of events and facts

The famous detective happily talks about his first solved case in the work “Gloria Scott.” At that time he was still in college.

Sherlock Holmes, whose date of birth and death is uncertain, was not rich at 27 years old. Therefore, he could not rent an apartment alone, but was looking for a companion, who became John Watson. They moved into an apartment together on Baker Street at 222 B. Their owner was the calm and balanced Mrs. Hudson.

Watson and Holmes move into the apartment in 1881, and seven years later the doctor marries and leaves his friend. Sherlock is left to live alone.

In 1891, Sherlock disappears from everyone. He sets off to travel, although many readers believed that he died in a battle with the In the future, the detective even published his notes about the journey, but under a pseudonym.

Only in 1894 did Sherlock Holmes, whose years of life are not given precisely and specifically, return to London and again settle in his apartment. Watson soon also moves in with him after the death of his wife.

But here, too, Holmes is tired of everything, and soon he leaves London again to go to the countryside and start breeding bees. It is known that in the last story Sherlock was about 60 years old.

Literary works with Sherlock Holmes

It is estimated that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 works about the famous detective. Of these, there are only four stories, and the rest of the works are short stories. Many of them are narrated from the perspective of his friend, Dr. Watson.

The first work about the great detective was the detective story “A Study in Scarlet,” which was written in 1887. The last story about Sherlock Holmes, the years whose actions are always interesting to readers, was published in 1927. His story “The Sherlock Holmes Archive” became his farewell work.

It is worth noting that Arthur Conan Doyle was always dissatisfied with the fact that his detective works found more responses among readers than his historical novels who were in his literary activity main ones.

According to the writer himself, best stories about Sherlock Holmes, whose years of life cannot be precisely named, are the following works: “Motley Ribbon”, “Union of Redheads”, “Empty House” and others.

To date, more than 210 films have already been released, where the main character is the private detective Sherlock Holmes. That is why the number of film adaptations was included in the Guinness Book of Records. It is known that about 14 films were shot in America. A large number of films were also released in Russia. Many viewers fell in love with the film, where Vasily Livanov played the role of a private detective.

IN Lately in connection with the development technical progress were also created based on the plot of detective Arthur Conan Doyle and computer games which are very successful.

Literary hero invented by writer and doctor Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most popular fictional characters in the world. A consultant detective from London, whose deductive abilities border on the fantastic, is famous not only for his rare insight, but for the harmonious logic of his reasoning, the ability to change his appearance beyond recognition, his passion for playing the violin and his amazing ignorance of issues that Holmes does not need to solve. unraveling detective cases.

It is likely that Sherlock Holmes, without whom it is impossible to imagine modern world, and especially literature and cinema, would not have been born if in 1877 young Arthur Conan Doyle had not met Joseph Bell, a respected surgeon and professor at the University of Edinburgh, whose assistant Doyle subsequently worked at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Like Holmes, Dr. Bell was distinguished by rare insight and the ability to draw correct conclusions from the smallest observations. Bell was aware that he was the inspiration for Holmes, and he was even a little proud of it.

The first story about Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887 (the first Russian translation of the story appeared 11 years later). In total, the famous detective appears on the pages of 4 novels and 56 short stories written by Doyle, not counting the countless creations written by followers, imitators, parodists and even those who want to profit from someone else’s idea. "The Relatives," Conandoyle's stories and stories about Holmes and his constant companion Dr. John H. Watson, cover more than 30 years, from approximately 1880 to 1914, with last story about the English detective was published in 1927, a couple of years before the writer’s death. All but four stories are told from the perspective of Dr. Watson, Holmes' friend and biographer. In two more the narrator is Holmes himself, and the last two are written in the third person.

It is interesting that Arthur Conan Doyle himself did not consider the stories about Sherlock Holmes to be the pinnacle of his creativity and more than once tried to get rid of the hero who was boring him, arranging for his premature death. However, the detective's popularity was so high (a fifth of readers are still sure that Sherlock Holmes really existed) that desperate readers bombarded the author and publishing house with bags of letters demanding the return of their favorite hero. The author flatly refused - Sherlock Holmes “prevented” him from writing historical novels - and then the fans, who did not want to part with their favorite character, themselves began to create new stories about the British detective. This is how stories about Sherlock Holmes got their own fan fiction, one of the first in the history of this curious phenomenon. By the way, another early example of fan fiction is considered to be stories invented based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll ( Lewis Carroll).

Today, stories about Sherlock Holmes have become one of the most filmed literary works on the ground. Starting with the silent thirty-second short "Sherlock Holmes Baffled" ( Sherlock Holmes Baffled), which appeared in 1900, more than 210 films and television series on this topic have been shot around the world. The most recent of them are Guy Ritchie's detective action films "Sherlock Holmes" and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" with Robert Downey Jr.; the acclaimed British series Sherlock with the irresistible Benedict Cumberbatch in leading role; American “Elementary” with Jonny Lee Miller (Jonny Lee Miller) - the series distinguished itself by turning Dr. John Watson into Joan Vanson played by Lucy Liu; and the Russian "Sherlock Holmes" with Igor Petrenko. Although for Russia, of course, the most familiar and beloved Sherlock Holmes is the wonderful actor Vasily Livanov. Successful jokes and lines from the most popular screen adaptations

tions have long become " catchphrases". Hardly anyone in our country has not heard the phrase “Damn it, Holmes, but how did you guess?” or “It’s elementary, Watson!”

Despite his deafening fame and the details of his affairs known to everyone, the reader actually knows little about the canonical Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle didn't even bother to gift the character exact date birth, and among fans of the British detective there are still fierce debates about what date and year Holmes was born. It is now generally accepted that Sherlock was born on January 6, 1854. And, judging by the story "The Adventure of the Creeping Man", both Holmes and Watson were quite healthy in 1923. Nothing is known about their further fate.

Holmes first thought about the deductive method as a student, thanks to the father of one of his fellow students, who praised his insight. He spent about six years as a consulting detective before financial difficulties forced Holmes to look for a flatmate, who became Dr. Watson. At this moment the reader gets acquainted with both of them. Holmes and Watson live in London, at 221B Baker Street - when Conan Doyle wrote his stories, a house with that number did not exist. Then the street was extended, and one of the houses was officially assigned the postal address 221B - it was there that the Sherlock Holmes Museum was located, in which the interior described by the writer was reproduced to the smallest detail.

There is also almost no mention of Holmes' family. One of Sherlock’s grandmothers was French, the artist’s sister, and Holmes speaks of other ancestors as rural landowners who led a normal life for their class. The reader knows that Sherlock has an older brother, Mycroft Holmes, an influential government official who has the same talents as Sherlock, and from time to time turns to his brother for help, or helps him himself. However, Holmes himself has repeatedly told Watson that Mycroft’s abilities are many times greater than his own, but at the same time Holmes’s older brother does not have the ambitions or energy necessary to solve mysterious cases. He doesn’t even bother to check the conclusions he has reached through deduction, and this is what his younger brother. It is worth noting that in film and television adaptations, Mycroft usually appears to the viewer as much more enterprising and energetic than his literary prototype.

What else do we know about Holmes? He is eccentric, smokes a pipe, plays the violin, is an excellent boxer, wields a revolver, a sword and a whip, understands poisons, types of soil and tobacco ash, and is rather indifferent to money - Watson often has to take on the functions of not only Holmes’ biographer, but also treasurer, especially in matters of fees for solved cases. He does not seek fame and often appears arrogant and arrogant to other people, when in fact he is simply immersed in yet another mystery. He doesn’t have many friends, but thanks to Watson’s stories, he has more than enough fans. The famous detective also has dark times - when Holmes has no suitable cases, he plunges into such melancholy that he can only dilute it with the help of cocaine. His brain does not tolerate idle time; peace literally kills him. And although Watson often reproaches Holmes for devil-may-care attitude to your health, there is only one way to dispel Holmes's black melancholy - by slipping him a case that will be too tough for all the detectives of Scotland Yard combined.

"begins like this: In 1878 I graduated from the University of London......
It is not known how old Watson is. But if we remember that he is to some extent the alter ego of Conan Doyle, then we can assume that Watson was 22 years old at that time. This is exactly how old Conan Doyle himself was when he graduated from Edinburgh University and became, like his hero, a doctor. And exactly the same age was Herbert Wells and Mahatma Gandhi, who graduated from this same University of London around the same years.
Read on: I was transferred to the Berkshire Regiment, with whom I participated in the fatal battle of Maiwand. A rifle bullet hit me in the shoulder, broke the bone and hit the subclavian artery.
The Battle of Maiwand took place on July 27, 1880. Then Watson spends time in hospitals, suffers from typhus and is finally sent to England. For everything about everything, I think it didn’t take more than a year, well, maybe a little more. Those. Already somewhere in 1881, Watson appeared in London. So he was already about 25 years old.
Where Holmes was introduced to Watson. Here's how Watson himself described it: The laboratory was empty, and only in the far cornerbent over the table, someone was fiddling with something intently young man . Those. Holmes was clearly younger than Watson, and most likely much younger.

Interesting research. Well, plus behavioral touches. When Holmes fights to the death with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls (the story is from 1893, but describes 1891), one can hardly assume that a middle-aged man would resort to such tricks. But the young man could easily start a fight on the edge of the waterfall, and then even let his fingers get shot off.

A small clarification to confirm that Holmes must be quite young in 1881.

His first case is described in the story “Gloria Scott” - it was from this case that Holmes decided to devote himself to solving crimes. The story describes how Holmes became ill in college and became close with fellow student Victor Trevor. After Holmes recovered, Trevor invited him to conduct summer holidays on his father's estate in Norfolk. Well, the plot unfolds further. The beginning of the plot is approximately 19 years distant from the time of the story and is precisely identified - October-November 1855, the height of Crimean War. The story takes place around 1874. And Holmes is a college student this year. His exact age is unknown. But in 1874, an English college was, in fact, something like an elite secondary school. So Holmes must have been 15 years old or so in 1874 (maybe even younger). And 7 years later, in 1881, Watson meets him. Therefore, Holmes at that moment must have been about 22-23 years old.