17. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

Behind Holmes stand two older fictional detectives: Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin and Émile Gaboriau’s Lecoq. Both were exponents of the deductive method, both were ardent examiners of footprints and cigar ash, and both had devoted sidekicks whose main function was to be testily interrupted. Conan Doyle was quite open about his debt to both Poe and Gaboriau, and A Study in Scarlet, the story in which Holmes first meets Watson, contains a concealed homage to Gaboriau: the title is in fact a pun on Gaboriau’s L’Affaire Lerouge. Despite his acknowledgement of these influences, some contemporary commentators were less than indulgent when they discovered the extent of Conan Doyle’s debt. As Arthur Guiterman’s poem ‘The Case of the Inferior Sleuth’ put it:

'Holmes is your hero of drama and serial;
All of us know where you dug the material.'

Consulted:
Edwards, Owen Dudley: The Quest for Sherlock Holmes (1983)
Stashower, Daniel: Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle (2000)

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