The Private Detective in Literature – Part 5 | Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes: The Return

Step 1 of the Return: A Play Keeps the Master Detective Alive

In the last part of our series The Private Detective in Literature, the great Arthur Conan Doyle had left us in shock: At the end of The Final Problem (1893), Holmes plunges with his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty over the Reichenbach Falls – Sherlock Holmes is dead, and a return seems impossible! Doyle had lost interest in the greatest of all detectives, preferring to write adventure novels and apparently even to serve in the war rather than continue with his hero.

 

Wonderful and quite successful works did emerge during this time, but the master detective played no role in them. Fans were disappointed and demanded more adventures of their hero. And indeed, their calls did not go completely unheard: Charles Frohman, an American theatre producer, apparently knew exactly how to win Conan Doyle over, as Doyle had always wanted to write a play. Frohman offered him that opportunity, but it had to be with Sherlock Holmes! Doyle took the bait: In November 1899, Sherlock Holmes premiered, a play brought to the stage by Doyle together with author and lead actor William Gillette. Although most of the work was actually done by Gillette, Doyle had to admit that Sherlock Holmes had lost none of his appeal. The play was a huge success for over 20 years in both the U.S. and the U.K., and Gillette’s portrayal of Holmes with deerstalker hat and cape became iconic, as did the phrases newly introduced for the play, “Elementary, my dear Watson!” and the Calabash pipe (see also our articles on detectives and pipes). In the London performance with Gillette in 1903, a 13-year-old boy also appeared, who would later become a film icon: the young Charlie Chaplin.

Step 2 of the Return: The Hound of the Baskervilles

The play was on everyone’s lips and was even filmed a few years later (1916, rediscovered in 2014, subsequently restored, and available online at irregular intervals since 2015). Despite the immense success of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle was still reluctant to fully return to his hero at the beginning of the century: A brief political venture and a longer involvement in the Boer War kept him busy. Shortly thereafter, Doyle fell ill with typhoid and traveled to Norfolk for recovery, where he heard tales of a mythical ghost dog haunting an old, wealthy family. Couldn’t this be something for our old friend Sherlock Holmes? The play with Gillette takes place chronologically before the events of The Final Problem and therefore does not follow the events at the Swiss Reichenbach Falls. Doyle thought this principle might open doors to giving Holmes life again without actually resurrecting him. Soon after, he devised a story that allowed him to do just that and became his greatest success: The Hound of the Baskervilles.

 

Set a few years before the events of The Final Problem, it is this time a long, dark, and atmospheric adventure that engages the master detective and remains the most famous work about Sherlock Holmes to this day. The Strand Magazinewas again a grateful publisher: After Doyle had killed off his brilliant character in The Final Problem, several thousand disappointed subscribers canceled their subscriptions, bringing the magazine to the brink of ruin. Without its “draw,” the numbers fell, and for eight years the magazine struggled to produce real hits – so a new Sherlock Holmes adventure came at just the right time, and Doyle’s salary demands were met without objection. As was customary at the time, The Hound of the Baskervilles was first published in serial form from August 1901 to April 1902, and a month before the third and final part was released, the complete book appeared in shop windows. The novel was a sensational success, and readers demanded more! Pressure on Doyle grew until he had to admit that the story of Sherlock Holmes might not yet be fully told, as reported by the Kurtz Detective Agency in Zürich and Switzerland. But first, a trailer for the restored 1916 silent film Sherlock Holmes:

Step 3 of the Return: Resurrection | Lazarus from the Swiss Waterfall

The Strand Magazine made Doyle an offer he could not refuse, and he began writing. By September 1903, the long-awaited moment for fans worldwide had arrived: In The Adventure of the Empty House, Doyle resurrected the greatest detective of all time – literally. Doyle decided not just to write further cases from Holmes’ pre-Reichenbach days, but to craft a highly engaging story that continued the plot without seeming implausible or forced.

 

Three years had passed since Sherlock Holmes’ disappearance, and Dr. Watson, still fascinated by criminal cases, was at a murder scene as usual. He encountered an older, deformed book collector who later revealed his identity as the supposedly dead Sherlock Holmes! Holmes had survived his duel with Moriarty at the Meiringen Reichenbach Falls and faked his death to escape his enemies. In the following years, he traveled incognito to the most remote corners of the criminal underworld until the events surrounding the current murder brought him back to London to finally dismantle Moriarty’s criminal network.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes – A Highly Profitable Venture for Author, Publisher, and Readers

So he is back after ten years of absence. Doyle brings Holmes back because readers demanded it, and they returned in large numbers after the “revival.” Subscriptions to the Strand Magazine even exceeded the levels of Holmes’ “first” lifetime, quickly offsetting the loss during his absence. A highly profitable venture for the magazine and, of course, for Doyle. By December 1904, twelve more short stories followed, and in 1905 they were compiled as usual in a collection: The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

 

Was that really the end? Arthur Conan Doyle’s war chest had been well filled by the new publications – but had the author also regained his literary enthusiasm for his hero? Well, at least there would not be another long pause as in the previous years – elementary! Doyle had apparently made peace with Sherlock Holmes and continued his work – but more on that in next week’s part of our series.

Author: Gerrit Koehler

 

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