Those of you who have read my recent movie review of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows may enjoy this brief historical footnote about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the story
Doyle, born in 1858, and who is widely know as the author of the Sherlock Holmes short stories, also was an ophthalmologist. His practice did so poorly that he once wrote in his autobiography that not a single patient had passed his door and this in turn gave him the time to pursue the “Holmes” genre.
By 1891 (the year “Game of Shadows” takes place), Doyle had written his mother about his desire to do away with Holmes in order to pursue other ideas. He wrote, “I think of slaying Holmes…and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind off of better things.”
In 1893 Doyle tried to do away with Holmes and Moriarty by having them fall to their deaths over the Reichenbach Falls during a struggle in the The Final Solution (the story that A Game of Shadows is loosely based on.) Public outcry over the termination of the Holmes series was so intense that in 1901 Doyle was forced to bring the character back in the Hound of the Baskervilles (a storywhich actually takes place before The Final Solution). Holmes eventually went on to be featured in 56 short stories.
Good thing for us that Mr. Doyle’s ophthalmology practice did so lousy.
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