The makings of Sherlock Holmes
juanluis.gasco@jabalonia.com
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sales2@shawellnessclinic.com
Juan L. Gascó
November 2+0=1x2
Multiple Choice
Presentations
 The makings of Sherlock Holmes
 An approach to Golf
 Swinging London
The makings of Sherlock Holmes
 THE AUTHOR
 THE CHARACTERS
 THE ATMOSPHERE
 THE STORIES
 THE REMINISCENCES
AN APPROACH TO GOLF
 THE ORIGINS
 THE COURSE
 THE HOLES
 THE CLUBS
 THE STROKES, SCORES & GOLF SLANG
SWINGING LONDON
 INTRO
 THE PERIOD
 THE ARTS
 THE ICONS & SYMBOLS
 THE DERIVATIVE EFFECTS
INTRO
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.1
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No one can quite explain the lasting appeal of Sherlock Holmes
stories more than 125 years after his first appearance in print.
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Holmes adventures with Dr Watson may not be considered
worthy of such an enduring admiration, and it is well known
that his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, regretted his Holmes
works and even made a sincere attempt to have Holmes
murdered(by Prof Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls).
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This paper looks for clues and black axioms mirorred in the
series, which are founded on the duality and the duplicity of
the Victorian motifs of the covert life of London in 1887.
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Conan Doyle´s braided concept of Duality & Duplicity is
perfected by Holmes and Watson who have only Quixote and
Sancho as rivals in the annals of imaginary friendship.
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This Victorian impulse(D&D) lies behind Holmes´s feats of
inspired guessing: Old London vs. new London, Crime and
Splendour, Depravity and Wonder, Success and Failure, Violin
and Cocaine
RESOURCES
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.2
 Baring-Gould, William S., The Annotated Sherlock
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Holmes, 2 vols.(1992)
Booth, Martin, The Doctor, the Detective and Arthur
Conan Doyle(1997)
Chabon, Michael, The Final Solution(2005)
Coren, Michael, Conan Doyle(1995)
Dudley Edwards, Owen, The Quest for Sherlock
Holmes(1983)
Higham, Charles, The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes(1976)
Weller, Phillip and Roden, Christopher, The Life and
Times of Sherlock Holmes(1992)
56 Stories by Conan Doyle, 37 Books, 5 Movies, 1 TV
Series, Untold No. of Press Articles, Unlimited Internet
entries, 1 Hotel, 1 London Pub, 1 Museum
13 FACTS/I
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.3
 1859: Conan Doyle born at 11 Picardy Place,Edinburgh.
 1876: Enters Edinburgh University to study medicine.
 1886: Writes A Study in Scarlet, the 1st Sherlock
 1887:
 1889:
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1891:
1893:
1900:
1902:
 1905:
 1912:
 1927:
 1930:
Holmes story.
Gold Jubilee Year of Queen Victoria.
Meeting with Oscar Wilde. Later meetings with
R.L. Stevenson and H.G. Wells
Killings in Whitechapel by Jack the Ripper.
Conan Doyle kills off Holmes @ Reichenbach Falls
The Boers War
The Hound of the Baskervilles, set before official
resurrection.
Holmes officially resurrected in The return of
Sherlock Holmes.
Publication of The Lost World.
The last bow in The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
Doyle dies on 7 July, at home in Crowborough.
FACTS /II
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.4
 Doyle was Celt and Englishman, doctor and novelist,atlete
and aesthete, champion of truth and inveterate concealer.
 He was the grandson of a caricaturist, the nephew of the
designer of Punch, and the son of Charles Doyle, an architect
and a painter who died in a sanatorium, and burdened his
son with an eccentric way of looking at the world.
 A number of Holmes stories centre on the activities of sinister
lodgers, madwomen with secret connections, machinating
step-parents, who are ultimately reproachful ghosts of the
immured Doyle´s father.
 Doyle dreamed up of a tale of a bohemian detective, manicdepressive genius who stalks the yellow fog of London, takes
cocaine and morphine to ease the torments of living in this
dreary world, and abates his addiction by scheming to peel
back the surface of other people´s lives, betraying secret
histories of violence and vice.
QUOTATIONS
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.5
+ ”When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever
remains, however improbable, must be the truth”(Sherlock
Holmes)
+ “Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should
be treated in the same cold and unemotional way”(Conan
Doyle)
+ “The Victorian culture was quintessentially that of contrast,
where a street of riches could lead to an alley of despair”
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
+ “ Secret-sharers, deception and disguise, imposture, buried
shame and repressed evil, the concealment of depravity and
wonder behind the dull façade of the Victorian world. These
are the embodied motifs of the Jeckill-and-Hyde impulses of
the covert life of London”(H.G. Wells)
+ “We are used to seeing that man despises what he never
comprehends”(Goethe)
+ “Nature, alas, made only one h-being out of a good man and a
rogue. Individuals vary, but percentages remain the same”(Schiller)
USEFUL LANGUAGE TIPS The making of Sherlock
Holmes /pg. 6
 The Glossary Basics of the Methods of Deduction:
- The game is clearly worth its candle.
- The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.
- Exceptions hardly rise above the common herd(general
public)
- It is better to face the facts than to attempt to brighten it
by mere will-o´-the-wisps of imagination(wishful thinking)
- Crime is always some hocus-pocus(incredible, tricky)
- One can´t ever exult over any mare´s –nest(dire situation)
- Not all is patent and above-board(honest,legal)
- There are no criminals so troublesome as those with some
wit(clever)
- It is too much to be balked by so petty an obstacle, when all else
had been overcome. But that´s how the land lies(that´s the way it´s)
- The true theory must be equally outré and startling( weird/breathtaking)
USEFUL LANGUAGE TIPS
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The making of Sherlock
Holmes/pg.7
Holmes most preferred expressions:
- I shall be as limp as a rag for a week(extremely weary)
- There are in me the makings of a very fine loafer, and also of a
pretty spry of fellow(lazy and superactive)
- A fitting wind-up for an interesting case !(end)
- All day he would wander about as black as thunder(not amiable)
- It´s all fair and above-board !(not deceitful)
- I have learned not to cry over spilled milk(no complaints allowed)
- He made a clean breast of it(tell the truth about sth. done illegally)
- You will be none the worse(not damaged or harmed by sth.)
- I think we have had a close shave ourselves of being arrested for
the crime(a narrow escape)
- What the deuce is with the dog ?(what the hell is going on ?)
- Elementary, my dear Watson, it fits in the sequel(logical)
- Nor did Prof Moriarty come up smelling of roses here(damaged &
unsuccessful)
USEFUL LANGUAGE TIPS The making of Sherlock
Holmes/pg.8
 Criminal Selected Tips: “Bad taste leads to crime”(Beyle)
- Sleuth: Detective
- Twisting effects and palpable clues(unexpected turn)
- Ominous expression of his face, ill-omened looks
and venomous demeanours(menacing)
- There ain´t naught amiss with her(unfortunate)
- A nip and tuck affair(inconclusive)
- A faulty reasoning(defective)
- No mere haphazard burglary(in disorder)
- Police have made a blunder in a good many cases(serious
mistake)
- He slipped out of my clutches(escaped)
- Lest I bias my judgement(to prevent any possibility)
OLD VICTORIAN SLANG SAMPLES
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.9
 Four – wheeler/Hansom: cab drawn by one horse, also
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known as clarence or a growler/ Two wheeled covered cab.
Bobbies or Peelers: London police created by Sir Robert
Peel.
Oyez !: Mid – nineteen century town crier(from Middle Ages)
Vamoos !: Let´s go(from Spanish)
Palace Clock: Big Ben
Bull´s eye: Lantern
As far as Gravesend: Port on Thames accepted as boundary
bet. the river and the estuary.
Whisky-pegs: whisky w/soda(each drink another peg in the
coffin - popular warning).
As well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb(1678 proverb):
In for a penny.
Queen´s shilling: soldiers daily pay.
A bob and a tanner: a shilling and a half
Chokey: prison.
OLD VICTORIAN LONDON PLACES
The making of Sherlock Holmes/pg.10
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Langham Hotel: Luxurious hotel off Oxford Circus where lunch between
Doyle and Wilde took place. Stevenson, Wells and Freud were frequent guests
too.
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Lyceum Theatre: By the Strand, built in 1771 by Edgar Allan Po.e´s greatgrandfather. Rebuilt in 1834 on present site.
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Vincent Square: ½ mile south-east of Victoria Station where William
Somerset Maugham took rooms.
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Bishopsgate: Street to the east of the City named after original medieval
gate, where bishops received one stick from every cart of wood passing
through.
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Pinchin Lane: Subliminally thinking of Pinchin St. in the East End, where in
Sept 1889 the body of an unknown woman with missing legs was found - a
year after a series of murders by Jack the Ripper took place.
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Millbank Penitentiary: Demolished in 1893 and the Tate Gallery built.
The Pool: name given to the Thames bet. London Bridge and the Isle of Dogs.
The Tower: Capital´s oldest surviving building, begun in 1066 by William The
Conqueror
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The Sherlock Homes Pub and Gallery: 10-11 Northumberland Ave. off
Trafalgar Sq.