How Arthur Conan Doyle Plotted Against Sherlock Holmes

How Arthur Conan Doyle Plotted Against Sherlock Holmes

Larry Holzwarth - October 15, 2020

How Arthur Conan Doyle Plotted Against Sherlock Holmes
A Paget illustration from The Final Problem. Wikimedia

10. Sherlock Holmes returned to the “living” in 1903

The success of The Hound of the Baskervilles and continued pressure from fans and The Strand Magazine led Doyle to resurrect Holmes in short story form. The Adventure of the Empty House, which curiously appeared in America’s Collier’s Magazine in September, 1903, preceding its British publication in October, explained his long absence. Holmes told Watson he had defeated Moriarty, but decided to remain “dead” in order to thwart other dangerous enemies, including cohorts of his late nemesis. Doyle presented Mycroft as taking care of Sherlock’s affairs during his long absence, including maintaining his rooms in Baker Street.

Doyle eliminated Watson’s wife, making him a widower. Through this device, he enabled Watson to return to the Baker Street address. Though eight years had passed since the publication of The Final Problem, Doyle compressed it to three in the series, setting the return of his detective in 1894. The return of Holmes and Doyle’s establishing the characters as once again sharing their quarters, with Mrs. Hudson attending to their needs, indicated more stories were to follow. Over the next twelve months, a like number of Holmes short stories appeared in The Strand Magazine, as Doyle surrendered to the demand of his fans.

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