ON HOLMES

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Who is your all-time favourite Detective? And tell us why?

My favourite detective is Sherlock Holmes by Sir ArthurConan Doyle of 221b Baker Street London.

I admire Holmes because:-

Holmes lived during Victorianperiod and I consider Victorian era to be one of the best phases in human history. During this period religious faith and the sciences were generally seen to be in beautiful accordance. The study of God's Word, in the Bible, and His Works, in nature, were assumed to be twin facets of the same truth. 

Holmes was a self-made man with a scientific temper who represented this period. 

He is a Victorian Gentleman who believes in Science, Morality, Nationalism, and Democracy.

 “The ideal of the English gentleman was a very real one.  It was looked up to, admired and imitated all over the globe, that strange, indefinable yet quite clear notion of always and in all circumstances doing the decent thing”.  It was an ideal embodied in the person of Mr Sherlock Holmes. 

Holmes lives and thrives in the post-Darwin upheaval. The Scientific temper and spirit of enquiry is what attracts me immensely. The character of Holmes, is a celebration of confidence in the uniform operation of scientific laws that allowed the trained observer to deduce causes from effects.  Just as palaeontologists could identify an organism from fossil fragments, so could Holmes reconstruct a crime by tracing physical clues and piecing together their meaning.

Today’s youth may have lots of Information crammed in their heads, but they lack the spirit of scientific quest and observation skills.

When Holmes first met Dr. Watson, he made a certain observation. "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."

This is how Holmes deduced it:-

•  Watson is a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man. Clearly an army doctor.
•  He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and this is not the natural tint of his skin, for his wrists are fair
• He has undergone hardship and sickness, as his worn-down face says clearly. His left arm has been injured. He holds it in a stiff and unnatural mann
• Where in the tropics could an English army doctor have seen much hardship and got his arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanistan.'"

Holmes loved violin concerts, all Great Minds have an inherent love for music.

Holmes had powerful intellectual ability, yet he possessed above-average physical strength and martial arts skill. 

In spite of being great brain, Holmes was not attracted by any or every women. It was Irene Adler a women of superior intellectual ability to whom Holmes is attracted.

“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex”

 Hence Sherlok Homes represented the Victorian Spirit and The Gentleman (Bhadralok in Bengal) which I admire so much.