a few questions

[holmesian]

hi! this is my first post here. i have a few questions. these are:

1. is the full name of sherlock holmes "Thomas Sherlock Scott Holmes" or "William Sherlock Scott Holmes"? was it ever mentioned in any of the stories?

2. should i write holmes's or holmes'?

[B-Mental]

I will refrain from your questions, as I can think of a couple of self-proclaimed experts in 'holmesology'. Therefore, please be patient. They can smell a Holmes question like a shark smells blood in the water. Welcome and enjoy

[holmesian]

I will refrain from your questions, as I can think of a couple of self-proclaimed experts in 'holmesology'. Therefore, please be patient. They can smell a Holmes question like a shark smells blood in the water. Welcome and enjoy

what do you mean?

[B-Mental]

They're probably asleep right now, but there are several regular Sherlock Holmes fanatics that could answer your questions correctly.

[Reichenbach]

I have read and re-read ALL 60 of the fantastic stories and never once does he claim his real name to be anything but Sherlock Holmes, his brother was Mycroft(seven years sherlocks senior) and he also had an older brother called Shennilin, who was 10 years sherlock's senior (I think that's how you spell it.)

Secondly, you should write Holmes'. Sir Authur Connan Doyle did so.

Thirdly, just to show that I am the type of sherlockian mensioned by 'B-Mental' I'v compiled a load of facts from different sources to tell you a bit about Holmes' life! I love to show off...


PERSONAL:
Born c. 1854; retired late early 1904 after 23 years of active practice. ､ Descendant of country squires; grandson of a sister of the French artist Emile Jean Horace Vernet. World's first Consulting Detective. Worked for the love of his art rather than for the acquirement of wealth. Professional charges were upon a fixed scale. "I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether."

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
1878 began professional career as a detective. 1882 Began professional partnership with Dr. Watson. Between 1878 - 1889 investigated some 500 cases "of capital importance" 1878 - 1891. Devoted to exposing & breaking up criminal organization of Prof. Moriarty. 1894 Returned to active practice 1894 - 1901 Handled hundreds of cases. 1895 Private audience with Queen Victoria, for services to England June. 1902 Refused offer of knighthood. 1903 - 1904 Began retirement in solitude in a villa on the Sussex coast overlooking the English channel, reviewing the records of cases and the destruction of those which might compromise more exalted clients. "The approach of the German war caused him, however, to lay his remarkable combination of intellectual and practical ability at the disposal of the government" with the result of communicating much false intelligence to the Germans, and arrest of Prussian spymaster Von Bork

CHARACTER:
"Dual nature" of personality: "Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night." ､ During these moods, alternated "between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug and the fierce energy of his own keen nature", then an even blacker depression took hold of him in reaction to the narcotics, from which he could only be rescued by a case ､ His own powers became irksome when not in use: "My mind rebels at stagnation", and he chafed and brooded over "the insufferable fatigues of idleness" ､ "My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built" ､ Hasd an 'animal lust for the chase': "The man is nothing, the work everything" ､ "Work is the best antidote to sorrow"; "a change of work is the best rest."

APPEARANCE AND CONSTITUTION:
Tall, thin; narrow face, large forehead, black hair, brows dark & heavy ､ Nose thin, hawk-like; lips thin, firm; voice quick, high, strident ､ Eyes gray, sharp, piercing, taking on "far-away introspective look" ､ Seldom take exercise for its own sake, yet "always in training" ､ A good runner; possessed of strength which one would hardly credit ､ "I am exceptionally strong in the fingers"; "grasp of iron" ､ Few men were capable of greater muscular effort ､ "An abnormally acute set of senses"; "extraordinary delicacy of touch" ､ "Frugal"; habits "simple to the verge of austerity"; "Idleness exhausts me completely" yet from time to time spend whole days in bed ､ "Catlike love of personal cleanliness"; quiet primness of dress ､ Normally dressed in conventional tweeds or frock-coat ､ Occasionally don an Ulster; dressing-gown in privacy of own rooms ､ In country, a "long gray travelling-cloak" with close-fitting, ear- flapped, cloth "travelling cap" ､ Late riser as a rule "save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night" during which up early on a case, vigorous and untiring, going for days or even a week without rest ､ Diet, spare at the best of times, abandoned altogether when working ､ "I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix." ､ State of health "not a matter in which he took the faintest interest." ､ Wiry, iron constitution; suffered breakdown from nervous prostration in Spring 1887; ordered to take complete rest in March 1897 due to "constant hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional indiscretions of his own" ､ In retirement, somewhat crippled by occasional bouts of rheumatism ､ Took up swimming, nonetheless; little or no knowledge of amateur sports ､ Baritsu (Japanese self-defense); boxing expert; excellent swordsman; enjoy fishing in the Broads near Donnithorpe; knowledge of golf clubs; singlestick expert.

PUBLICATIONS:
Author of a number of monographs, all of them on technical subjects ､ Upon the Distinction Between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos ､ Monograph on polyphonic motets of Lassus, printed for private circulation, said by some experts to be the last word on the subject ､ Two short articles on ears in the Anthropological Journal ､ A "trifling" monograph upon the subject of secret writings, 160 separate ciphers analyzed ､ Monograph upon the dating of documents ､ A contribution to the literature of tattoos ､ Monograph upon the tracing of footsteps ､ Monograph upon the influence of the trade upon the form of the hand ､ The Book of Life, the "somewhat ambitious" title of an article written for an English magazine, attempting to show how much an observant man might learn by accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way ､ Practical Handbook of Bee Culture ､ Francois le Villard translated some of these works into French

PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE:
Minute knowledge of the history of crime ､ Immense knowledge of "sensational literature"; "appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century" ､ The higher criminal world of London; details of Continental crime ､ Disguises, wearing and recognizing: "It is the first quality of a criminal investigator that he should see through a disguise" ､ See publications on: tobacco ashes, shapes of ears, cryptography, dating of documents, tattoos, footsteps, influence of trades on form of hands ､ Dogs ､ Researches of a "medico-criminal aspect" ､ An exact knowledge of London ､ Newspaper types ､ Perfumes ､ The typewriter and its relation to crime ､ Bicycle tyres ､ Names and trademarks of the world's major gunmaking firms

HOBBIES:
Art -- spend some time in Bond Street picture-galleries; "art in the blood is likely to take the strangest forms" ､ Study of honey-bee, bee-farming upon the South Downs ､ Special study of the Buddhism of Ceylon (Hinayana) ､ Cornish Language, conceived the idea that it is akin to the Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician traders in tin ､ Some weeks in a great University town pursuing laborious researches in Early English charters which, it was said, led to some striking results ､ Study of polyphonic motets of Orlandus Lassus ､ Deep and continuing interest in the Middle Ages, making special studies in Miracle Plays, a 15th Century Palimpsest, Early English charters, medieval pottery, music (especially Lassus)


(Was that a little bit over board?)

[B-Mental]

I was expecting to know if he was right or left handed, but I'll let it slide this time Reichenbach.

[Reichenbach]

He's right handed! I just thought that was going too far!!

[holmesian]

thank you very much for those informations, Reichenbach. but where did you get those from? are they ever mentioned in the stories? (i've read them only once and i can't remember)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
1878 began professional career as a detective. 1882 Began professional partnership with Dr. Watson.

didn't the partnership began in 1887 in "A Study in Scarlet"?

[Reichenbach]

No, he had been a consulting detective long before he met up with Watson.(Not to mension that in a study in scarlet he wasn't a partener, just a tag along)
My information comes from several sources, a lot of is from the books and the rest of it comes from Sir Aurthur Connan Doyle's official website so it should be pretty reliable!

[holmesian]

but how can the partnership with Watson begin in 1882 if Holmes met Watson in 1887?

[Pendragon]

The third brother was Sherrinford, the oldest son. This is according to Sir William S. Baring-Gould who wrote Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. He also said that Holmes' name was William Sherlock Scott Holmes. He says they met at St. Bart's in late 1881, that Watson writes up the case six years later, or in 1887. I have often thought that this was a case of someone claiming more knowledge of a character than the person who invented him! This view gets me in Dutch with a lot of other Holmes fanatics, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it!

[Reichenbach]

The oldest brother was not called sherrinford. Sherlock was originally going to be called Sherrinford, Doyle changed this later on, however it was still rocorded in some of his earlier notes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes

However, after looking at a few other sites I am begging to wonder if the oldest brother is a mistake rather than a truth. I believe some people have gotten mixed up with SH original name, I'll keep looking for the text that I first read about Shennilin.

[holmesian]

2. should i write holmes's or holmes'?

Secondly, you should write Holmes'. Sir Authur Connan Doyle did so.

but in "The Final problem", Watson wrote,

It was not Holmes’s nature to take an aimless holiday

In the morning I obeyed Holmes’s injunctions to the letter.

There was Holmes’s Alpine-stock still leaning against the rock by which I had left him.

Then I began to think of Holmes’s own methods and to try to practise them in reading this tragedy.

[Sherlock Holmes]

this is staring to annoy me slightly now! Sherlcok Holmes only had ONE brother and his name was Mycroft. there is absolutey no evidence in the whole of the canon to support these claims. i'm sorry if this is slightly wierd but i feel very strongly about people spouting nonesense about S.H.

[Literary_Cat]

Holmes only had ONE brother and his name was Mycroft. there is absolutey no evidence in the whole of the canon to support these claims.

Though I have not read it myself, I understand William Baring-Gould's biography of Sherlock Holmes, entitled Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street to be accepted as canon. In it, Baring-Gould writes of the three Holmes Brothers, Sherrinford, Mycroft, and Sherlock. (It is also known that Sherrinford was one of the names Doyle considered before settling on Sherlock.)

In the actual Doyle manuscripts, however, there is no mention of a third brother.