UNKNOWN

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 47, 25 February 1901, Page 8

UNKNOWN

■ ii:. DOYf-K TKLLS THE HISTORY OF a i.;iw-:at idha. The iu'--;i of Sherlock Ilolmps was, ?"V5 !.•:■. I'oriftn I'uy'i- in !!."■■ thousandth ntinii,. r ~r -Tit Hit-," -;—<•-;■•.! l.y v professor i;nf.'-r v/h'-ni h- h.'i'J worVrci] in KUinburgh, arid In jmn !■;.• i:.i?ar Allan Poe\s (Jetc.tivt'S, v/hii-ii, att'.T all, ran on tbf; lim.-H of !til ntii'-r d«:tf':tivts who have appeared in '■In '.vjrl; r.hi'-b <r.t.-'i-L- in tho drawing of (1-Lctivf-s there ur<; only <,w. or two (ju.'jli.-.if-s wliieh ort': r-aii v-", and an autbof i< i'->v(:i-'l to hark Imob upon tlicm constant-hi-mbU: '-vi-ry otbf-r (lft>-f-tiv(; io :t '^ri-au-i or lfs.s f;stf-ut. Tb-p- is no great originality rpqiiireil in devising or r-onstrac-tini; such a man, and the- oniy possible orijfinalitjwhicb on<: can get iu>> :i story .about a de-tf-rtivf; 13 in giving him original plots and problems to solve, a.H in his equipment there most be of necessity an alert ar-ntc-ne-t-i of mind to grasp facts and the rolatlon which t-aiih of thpm boars to the other. "At lhn time I first thought of a dotec,ivr—it was about 18*MJ—I hud been reading s.i.-nc il«tf:tlve storitH, aud it struck me what nonsfcn.se they w>t<-, because for getting tii<: solution of the mystery the au-' thors always) licyi-ud'd on some coincidence. This struck in>- :ts not a fair way of j playing the gum?, because the detective ! ought really to depend for his success <m I Konv-thing In his own mind and not on merely adventitious circmii.stam-es, wlii'.-ii do not by any means always occur in real life. THE SfJE.N'CR OF HOLMES. "Fur fun, therefore, I started constructing a story and my detective a scientific system, so as to niaki; him reason everything out. Intellectually that hud been done before by Kdgar Allan Poe with M. Dupin, J)ut where Holmes differed from Dupin was that he had an immense fund of exact knowledge to draw upon in consequence, of his previous Bcientitie, education. i mean by Uiis, that by looking at a man's hand hf; knew what, the man's tradii was, as In' looking at liU trousers \'-'j; ho could ! deduce the character of the man. He was | practical and he v,;is systematic, and his I success in t.bn detection of crime was to be the fruit, not of luck, but of his qualities." ' Dr. Doyle explains hin reasons for bringing the detective series to ;ir/ end. "I was Ktill a ynung mrifi and a young novelist, aud 1 have always noticed that th>- ruin of every novelist who has come up has been effected by driving him into a groove. . . Now, why should a ,niiin be driven into a groove and not write about what interests him? "My objection to detective Btortes Ik that they only call for the uw of a certain portion of oue's imaginative faculty, the Invention of a plot, without giving any scope for character drawing. "The best literary work Is that which loaves the reader better for having read It. .Wjw, nobody can possibly bo the better—in the high sense In which I mean it — for reading Sherlock Holmes, although he may have passed a pleasant hour in doing so. "My own view of Sherlock Holmes — I mean the man as X saw hlai in my imagination—was quite different from that which Mr 7'aget pictured. I, however, am eminently pleased with his work, and quite understand the aspect which he? gave to the character, and urn even prepared to accept him now as Mr I'aget drew hiin.K