I have heard a lot about Sherlock Homes , though I have not read any of the stories of sherlock Homes ..Though I have heard a lot , everybody said sherlock homes , sherlock homes but nobody said who he was and what is his speciality ....
So one fine afternoon , after seeing SIGNS movie, I deceided to go to library and read alfred hitchcok novels as I was told that manoj night shyamalan was very much inspired by alfred hitchcok ...So I kept on searching for his novels in the ’MYSTERY’ section of the library ...
Accidentally I saw sherlock homes novel , somehow with some mental block I took that thinking that it was alfred hitchkok’s ..( Please don’t ask me why !Even I don’t know !!!) ..AFter I reached home, I recognised that I did a mistake and that I will return the book ...But since his name is very popular , I thought I should read atleast one chapter .....
I read one chapter and time flew ..I completed all the chapters and returned the book !!!!
So who is sherlock homes ? Sherlock homes is a character , a detective ....All the sherlock Homes novels were written by Connan Doyle , a doctor by profession ..He was highly unsuccessfull in his profession ...He wrote lot of short stories which faced rejection , left , right and center....
Taken from the Book , preface section
Then one fine day he( connan doyle , the creator of SHerlock Homes character ) thought about his professor Mr.Bell who had very sharp intellect and very high observation power .He was able to tell anybody’s profession in 10 minutes after observing and conversing with him ( of course , not by asking what is ur profession !!!!!!) ..Then he thought ’ WHy don’t I write crime novel based on Mr .Bell ) ..Then he thought about a name ..He had recently read the works of Oliver Wendell Holmes .Ok Now the last name would be Holmes ..Then he rememberd that he had scored 30 runs of a bowler by name sherlock ..SO the name Sherlock Homes !!!!!Secondly , he thought that the detective would need a foil for his brilliance , his name Dr.Wtason ..Thats it ..This is how the story started ...
End taken from the book
What attracted me to Sherlock Homes ?Sheer intelligence , that’s it..The twists , knots and how they are unfolded are superb ...It would be the ideal character or atleast a character whom we awe at !!!!!!
The story narration does follow a linear approach , but it has intelligence all stamped over it ..FOr example , from a Hat sherlock Homes would detect so many things ..His gender ( Her gender ??) , his age , his financial position , if he is married , his character etc ..It would seem so stupid if I don’t tell how it is possible ...But u got to read it by yourself ....The logic he applies for that is just superb .....
Sherlock holmes commands two things ..The first thing that astonished me is that he pursues detective job as an art and not as a job ..Secondly he is least bothered about the fame , recognition or anything else ..he works for the pure pleasure ..!!!!!
His logic is just too good ..FIrst he observes all common things ..If you observe and study military men u will find some common traits and in future if you see a guy with those traits , there is high probability that he is a military man ...So first he gets his database or his rules correct ..Then he focusses on the problem in hand , gets lot of data , facts about it ..tries to match the facts with any of his previous expereinces and tries to match it ....Then he tries to see a link and predict the chain of events ..But u will not feel like as though you are reading a research paper ...You can actually feel the excitement ..In a couple of stories , you will start guessing some of teh things , though most of them will be wrong !!!
The narration is done by his friend dr.Wtason , an ordinary vrain like most of us who awes Sherlock Homes ...
A study in Scarlet is the most famous of the Sherlock Homes stories ..DOn’t miss it ..But you got to read it at one strech , otherwise u will not feel the excitment !!!
On the downside , sometimes u will find its too much , a bit arrogant and unbeliveable ...But that will be just 5% of the stories ..Rest of them is just pure pleasure ...
Personally I enjoyed reading it very much ..only negative aspect is that I started looking everythingf with holmes’ angle ...!!!!!It also taught me to observe things a bit scientifically adn we can apply this in our profession too , but with a lot of common sense and not as a detective :))))