“Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.’
“That’s a rather broad idea,’ I remarked.
“One’s ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature,’ he answered.”
―Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, 1887
A Study in Scarlet was first published on this day in 1887 and introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson to the world.
Even if you have never read any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories featuring the “consulting detective” and his astute, intelligent, best friend Dr. John Watson, the narrator of Holmes and Watson’s fantastic tales, you certainly know of them. And while the image of Holmes wearing a deerstalker hat along while smoking a calabash pipe and sporting a magnifying glass is iconic, it is also wholly unrelated to the actual stories written by Conan Doyle.
In film, Holmes has been played by Basil Rathbone, Robert Downey Jr., and many, MANY other actors besides. Nicolas Rowe’s turn in Young Sherlock Holmes is a non-canonical yet personal favorite version of mine. Disney even got into the act with The Great Mouse Detective, an animated film from 1986.
Jeremy Brett famously played the detective in Sherlock Holmes for Granada Television and airing on PBS here in the States from 1984 to 1994. His adaption is renown for its faithfulness to the spirit of Holmes, even as some liberties were taken with both characters and plots.
Benedict Cumberbatch played the titular character in Sherlock, created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, which updated the character to the twenty-first century. Martin Freeman was cast as Dr. John Watson and the game was afoot, as it were.
Do you have a favorite version of Holmes and Watson in film, on TV, or by another author. If so, let’s discuss!
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