by Greg B. Seitz - British Fiction at Suite101

Where did detective fiction come from -- specifically Sherlock Holmes? How did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle discover him? What did Mr. Doyle think of his creation?

No doubt Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would be flabbergasted, if channeled from the great beyond, at the enormous industry that comprises detective fiction today. One could certainly argue that even in the 21st century with all the movies, books and television shows, the sub genres and the differentiation; that Sherlock Holmes is still the most cited and busiest detective. The 19th century fan base would not let Doyle kill off the great sleuth in the author's lifetime and there's been no indication of his eminent demise as we move into the 21st.

The genre had a rather streamlined evolutionary path. Many intriguing Gothic mysteries were published pre Doyle by such luminaries as Bulwer-Lytton and Wilkie Collins, not to overlook the prescient and talented German E.T.A. Hoffman. It took the American Edgar Poe however, to give the specialty its unalterable form; a crime, a brilliant amateur detective and somewhat bumbling sidekick, and a solution based upon detailed observation and the extraordinary application of pure reason. As some may recall, Poe attended a British school for a couple of years in his adolescence. Was there something inherent in the British environment that helped fertilize the seeds of a burgeoning detective fiction?

Doyle had little false bravado and certainly no reticence in giving his predecessors their due. In his very first novel, "A Study in Scarlet", he mentions Poe and his detective C. Auguste Dupin specifically; as well as his other model, Gaboriau and his crime solving Policeman Lecoq, within the first several pages. Naturally, in consistent Holmes-ian fashion, both are ridiculed, especially Lecog, and one wonders if this was Doyle's way of saying, thank you gentlemen for the precedents, I will now demonstrate the full potential of the form.

Of course the great irony is that the cold, calculating, scientific rationality of detection, as so beautifully realized by Conan Doyle, came from a man heavily involved in the occult, including a belief in fairies. He also considered his other writings, those on "Spiritualism" and Historical Fiction especially, to be far more important than his detective fiction. He definitely wrote some other great books, "Lost World" comes quickly to mind but his sheer prolificacy and energy seem almost a waste today. What the strange man considered his 'cast offs' written for money are the reason we know his name today. Life isn't always fair Mr. Doyle and if you are channeling us from some spirit region, I regret to inform you that the "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" remain your ticket to immortality!