History Literature / SherlockHolmes

The literary canon of Sherlock Holmes as written by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle consists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels. See the '''[[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes franchise page]]''' for more information about the character and the various adaptations.

The literary canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Creator/ArthurConanDoyle. See the '''[[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes franchise page]]''' for more information about the character and the various adaptations.

%%* BittersweetEnding: "A Scandal in Bohemia".

* AuthorFilibuster: Several stories feature tragedies that arise due to unhappy marriages and characters in these stories often take the time to rail against both the legal and social difficulties in getting divorced in Britain at the time. For the record there's no evidence Doyle was unhappy in either of his marriages so this view does not appear to arise from his own life.

** In the story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", Sherlock Holmes points out the vital non-clue of a dog failing to react to a mysterious visitor... when a guard dog ''doesn't'' bark at an intruder it generally means it's someone he doesn't think is an intruder at all.

** In "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", Holmes and Watson travel to Dartmoor to investigate the crimes of the disappearance of the great race horse Silver Blaze and the murder of the horse's trainer, John Straker. Straker has been killed by a blow to the skull, assumed to have been administered by prime suspect Fitzroy Simpson with his "Penang lawyer", a clublike walking stick. However, Holmes is able to demonstrate that Straker had been attempting to lame Silver Blaze in order to [[FixingTheGame fix a horse race]] when the horse kicked him in the head.

** Another incident that turned out to be not contrived at all occurs in "Silver Blaze". The stable boy failed to guard the stolen horse because his dinner had been drugged. But the drug used wasn't tasteless. Rather a far coincidence that a man from out of town planning to drug a meal would show up on a night where the target's meal would be something heavily spiced and thus capable of masking the drugs, isn't it? [[spoiler:the person who drugged the food was a member of the household, and chose the dinner menu that night for that very reason.]]

** The killer in "Silver Blaze" turns out to be the horse, getting spooked when he sees a light being lit for an operation intended to lame him slightly.

** In "Silver Blaze", the killer is revealed at the end to be the titular horse, whom the victim intended to make lame after betting against it.
* HorsingAround: TheReveal in "Silver Blaze".

* InsideJob: In "Silver Blaze", two of Holmes' hints are "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" ([[AbsenceOfEvidence it was completely silent]]) and the fact that powdered opium was put in a dish spicy enough to hide its taste. A dog would not have kept silent had it sensed an intruder, nor could an outsider have arranged for a spicy dish to be served on that particular night, so the trope must be in effect.

** In Holmes' adventure of ''Silver Blaze'', the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime is that it doesn't bark, thus showing that it was familiar with the man who stole the titular horse from the stables: namely, John Straker.

** "The Dancing Men": Mr. Cubitt has been murdered by Mr. Slaney, who never got what he wanted and was sentenced to life at labor for it. Mrs. Cubitt lives, but her past has come back to haunt her and she's been widowed.

** Holmes is thin as a rake.

* PosthumousAntagonist: Eduardo Lucas in "The Second Stain". He was killed the night before the story begins, but he is responsible for the main plot going into motion by [[spoiler:blackmailing Lady Hilda into stealing one of her husband's documents.]]

* SentencedToDownUnder: This is what happened to a character in "The Adventure of the ''Gloria Scott''". However, he and his fellow convicts rebel and seize control of the ship before they reach Australia.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Ronald Adair in "The Adventure of the Empty House". It’s heavily implied [[spoiler:that he caught his card partner Colonel Moran cheating and threatened to expose him unless he resigned his membership. Since Moran relied on his cheating as income, he murdered Adair]]. The unique circumstances (such as the bullets) tip off Holmes, creating a situation where he could put Moran away for good and return to London, starting off the third set of short stories: The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

** The decor at Hurlstone from "The Musgrave Ritual" is mostly old wall-mounted trophy weapons. Musgrave picks up [[AnAxeToGrind a battle-axe]] from one of these to deal with an intruder

** The decor at Hurlstone from "The Musgrave Ritual" is mostly old wall-mounted trophy weapons.

* TimeSkip: The [[FanNickname "Great Hiatus"]] between "The Final Problem" (set in 1891) and "The Empty House" (set in 1894). Canonically, Holmes spent this period travelling the world.

** "She pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff" - "A Case Of Identity"

** In "The Five Orange Pips", Holmes knows that the bad guys have killed John Openshaw's uncle and father, and that Openshaw is their next target. But he still tells Openshaw to go back home, unescorted. Unsurprisingly, the bad guys meet him on the way home and kill him. Holmes must've been carrying the IdiotBall that day, because there is only one other short story besides this where a person who has sought his help gets subsequently killed.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: In "The Gloria Scott", two men are blackmailed by an [[UngratefulBastard]] whose life they saved years earlier.

** In "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Dr. Grimesby Roylott is bitten by the poisonous snake he intended to use to murder his stepdaughter Helen. Holmes plays an indirect role in Dr. Roylott's death by attacking the snake with his cane and driving it back through the vent with Roylott on the other side, but notes that he's unlikely to feel much remorse over it.

** "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you." - "The Speckled Band"

-->'''Holmes:''' I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart.

* VictorianLondon: The setting for most of the original mysteries.

* TheVonTropeFamily: Von Bork, the German spy in ''His Last Bow''.

* WatsonianVersusDoylist: Another {{Trope Namer|s}}.

* WithFriendsLikeThese: Arguably, Holmes and Watson.

* MoreThanJustATeacher: Moriarity is the most cunning criminal in England and currently works as an army coach.