The game is still afoot. Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth, on Picardy Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle died in 1930, but Holmes and Dr. Watson live on.

Every day, some child's imagination vanishes into the foggy depths of Victorian England and accompanies Holmes in pursuit of mysteries and malefactors. Descend just once into that world with Holmes and the memory is marked for life.

Some 200 movies have been made starring Sherlock Holmes - he is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most frequently portrayed fictional character. The latest film, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson, will be released later this year.

Countless books of scholarship and mock scholarship have been written about Holmes, and his adventures have been continued by authors who kept the character alive in books set in other times and places.

Doyle, who trained as a physician, brought Holmes into the world in 1887 in A Study in Scarlet. He went on to write four novels and 56 stories starring the detective and his friend and confidante, Dr. John Watson. Their titles, The Sign of Four The Hound of the Baskervilles, "The Five Orange Pips," "The Blue Carbuncle," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," rekindle memories of reading under the covers by flashlight, aloud by firelight and when homework should have been done.

Similarly, Holmes's wit and wisdom live on in language heard every day, although perhaps the detective's most famous words, "Elementary, my dear Watson," were never uttered by him. They are a misquote made famous by writer P.G. Wodehouse.

Many of Holmes's most memorable utterances were made to explain how he arrives at his remarkable conclusions. "You know my method. It is founded on the observation of trifles," he told Watson. Holmes's conclusions occur because "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Holmes was never lulled into forgetting that evil, whether in the form of the criminal genius Moriarty or an innocent looking widow, can be found anywhere and everywhere.

"It is my belief, Watson, founded on my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

He observes and no trifle escapes him. One case hinged on "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

"The dog did nothing in the night-time," the police inspector said.

"That was the curious incident," Holmes replied.

The sleuth was possessed of a great store of arcane knowledge and vain about his prowess at times. Consider this exchange from "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot."

Sterndale: "How do you know that?"

Holmes: "I followed you."

Single page