Sherlock Holmes: Finding Fact Embedded in Fiction
Did you know that one in five modern day Britains believes that Sherlock Holmes was a real person? To this day, mail still arrives addressed to him at 221 Bakers Street, an address that did not even exist during the time of Sherlock Holmes. Did you ever wonder why this is? In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes detective stories, readers are entertained by the ability of the eccentric and erratic detective’s ability to solve unsolvable mysteries using only the powers of logic and keen observation. Although these mystery schemes are often unrealistic, Doyle was influenced by the very real backgrounds and settings of Victorian Era London. Given the fictional nature of Sherlock Holmes and …show more content…
Fire places used for heat and kitchens burning grease while cooking also contributed to the thick haze. The rancid Thames River, was the city's primary source of drinking water, despite the network of open sewers that dumped tons of waste into it (Stanford). The stench from the river was enormous, especially during the hot summers. Victorian London was a place of sharp contrasts, a cultured city where the middle class drank tea in their comfortable quarters while epidemics of typhoid and cholera, no doubt spread by the contaminated air and water in the crowded slums of the city. The overall effect was one of a thick smoky cloud that obscured visibility, blackened buildings and be smutted faces. The heavy darkness was portrayed in A Study in Scarlet, when the Scotland Yard detective had to strike a match during the daytime in order for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to be able see a word painted on the wall (Edzilch). Another example of the dense London fog is given in The Adventures of the Bruce-Partington …show more content…
At the end of the Victorian era, there were twelve train stations in London and because many buildings had to be eliminated to clear the way for the steam engine tracks, the entire layout of the city of London was changed (Edzilch). Many Victorians thought of the London past as “before” trains and the present as “after” trains. Most of the train system in use today was actually opened while Queen Victoria reigned. Charing Cross Station opened in 1864. Doyle uses Charing Cross in many novels such as the following passage from A Scandal in
Did you know that one in five modern day Britains believes that Sherlock Holmes was a real person? To this day, mail still arrives addressed to him at 221 Bakers Street, an address that did not even exist during the time of Sherlock Holmes. Did you ever wonder why this is? In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes detective stories, readers are entertained by the ability of the eccentric and erratic detective’s ability to solve unsolvable mysteries using only the powers of logic and keen observation. Although these mystery schemes are often unrealistic, Doyle was influenced by the very real backgrounds and settings of Victorian Era London. Given the fictional nature of Sherlock Holmes and …show more content…
Fire places used for heat and kitchens burning grease while cooking also contributed to the thick haze. The rancid Thames River, was the city's primary source of drinking water, despite the network of open sewers that dumped tons of waste into it (Stanford). The stench from the river was enormous, especially during the hot summers. Victorian London was a place of sharp contrasts, a cultured city where the middle class drank tea in their comfortable quarters while epidemics of typhoid and cholera, no doubt spread by the contaminated air and water in the crowded slums of the city. The overall effect was one of a thick smoky cloud that obscured visibility, blackened buildings and be smutted faces. The heavy darkness was portrayed in A Study in Scarlet, when the Scotland Yard detective had to strike a match during the daytime in order for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to be able see a word painted on the wall (Edzilch). Another example of the dense London fog is given in The Adventures of the Bruce-Partington …show more content…
At the end of the Victorian era, there were twelve train stations in London and because many buildings had to be eliminated to clear the way for the steam engine tracks, the entire layout of the city of London was changed (Edzilch). Many Victorians thought of the London past as “before” trains and the present as “after” trains. Most of the train system in use today was actually opened while Queen Victoria reigned. Charing Cross Station opened in 1864. Doyle uses Charing Cross in many novels such as the following passage from A Scandal in