THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES THE CASE BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES Preface

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$Title{THE CASE BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES --Preface}

$Author{Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan}

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                         THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES

                       THE CASE BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

                                   Preface

                       The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes

I FEAR that Mr. Sherlock Holmes may become like one of those popular tenors

who, having outlived their time, are still tempted to make repeated farewell

bows to their indulgent audiences.  This must cease and he must go the way of

all flesh, material or imaginary.  One likes to think that there is some

fantastic limbo for the children of imagination, some strange, impossible

place where the beaux of Fielding may still make love to the belles of

Richardson, where Scott's heroes still may strut, Dickens's delightful

Cockneys still raise a laugh, and Thackeray's worldlings continue to carry on

their reprehensible careers.  Perhaps in some humble corner of such a

Valhalla, Sherlock and his Watson may for a time find a place, while some more

astute sleuth with some even less astute comrade may fill the stage which they

have vacated.

     His career has been a long one--though it is possible to exaggerate it;

decrepit gentlemen who approach me and declare that his adventures formed the

reading of their boyhood do not meet the response from me which they seem to

expect.  One is not anxious to have one's personal dates handled so unkindly.

As a matter of cold fact, Holmes made his debut in A Study in Scarlet and in

The Sign of Four, two small booklets which appeared between 1887 and 1889.  It

was in 1891 that "A Scandal in Bohemia," the first of the long series of short

stories, appeared in The Strand Magazine.  The public seemed appreciative and

desirous of more, so that from that date, thirty-nine years ago, they have

been produced in a broken series which now contains no fewer than fifty-six

stories, republished in The Adventures, The Memoirs, The Return, and His Last

Bow, and there remain these twelve published during the last few years which

are here produced under the title of The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.  He

began his adventures in the very heart of the later Victorian era, carried it

through the all-too-short reign of Edward, and has managed to hold his own

little niche even in these feverish days.  Thus it would be true to say that

those who first read of him, as young men, have lived to see their own

grown-up children following the same adventures in the same magazine.  It is a

striking example of the patience and loyalty of the British public.

     I had fully determined at the conclusion of The Memoirs to bring Holmes

to an end, as I felt that my literary energies should not be directed too much

into one channel.  That pale, clear-cut face and loose-limbed figure were

taking up an undue share of my imagination.  I did the deed, but fortunately

no coroner had pronounced upon the remains, and so, after a long interval, it

was not difficult for me to respond to the flattering demand and to explain my

rash act away.  I have never regretted it, for I have not in actual practice

found that these lighter sketches have prevented me from exploring and finding

my limitations in such varied branches of literature as history, poetry,

historical novels, psychic research, and the drama.  Had Holmes never existed

I could not have done more, though he may perhaps have stood a little in the

way of the recognition of my more serious literary work.

     And so, reader, farewell to Sherlock Holmes!  I thank you for your past

constancy, and can but hope that some return has been made in the shape of

that distraction from the worries of life and stimulating change of thought

which can only be found in the fairy kingdom of romance.

                                                     ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.