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92-598: Detective Inspector G. Lestrade ( / l ɛ ˈ s t r eɪ d / or / l ɛ ˈ s t r ɑː d / ) is a fictional character appearing in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle . Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet . His last appearance is in the 1924 short story " The Adventure of the Three Garridebs ", which

184-583: A "brilliant yet flawed detective" and a "humbler but dependable and sympathetic sidekick", influenced the creation of similar teams in British detective fiction throughout the twentieth century, from detective Hercule Poirot and Poirot's companion Captain Hastings (created by author Agatha Christie in 1920), to Colin Dexter 's Inspector Morse and Sergeant Lewis , introduced in 1975. Watson also influenced

276-566: A Sherlock Holmes (Return) Series of handmade pipes with silverwork . Two Lestrade pipes are in the collection. Fictional character A character who stands as a representative of a particular class or group of people is known as a type. Types include both stock characters and those that are more fully individualized . The characters in Henrik Ibsen 's Hedda Gabler (1891) and August Strindberg 's Miss Julie (1888), for example, are representative of specific positions in

368-549: A TV series (as opposed to a one-off adaptation) was Raymond Francis who appeared in the 1951 British series, We Present Alan Wheatley as Mr. Sherlock Holmes in... . The 1950s Sherlock Holmes US TV series featured Howard Marion-Crawford as a stable Watson with a knockout punch. Nigel Stock played Watson in two BBC series in 1965 and 1968. In the Soviet Union television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson , directed by Igor Maslennikov , Watson

460-638: A blunder, my dear Watson—which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think who only knew me through your memoirs"; and in The Hound of the Baskervilles , chapters 5–6, Holmes says: "Watson, Watson, if you are an honest man you will record this also and set it against my successes!"; whereas in his prologue to " The Adventure of the Yellow Face ", Watson himself remarked: "In publishing these short sketches [of Holmes's cases] ... it

552-463: A certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble role in our alliance. Watson sometimes attempts to solve crimes on his own, using Holmes's methods. For example, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson efficiently clears up several of the many mysteries confronting

644-685: A character on a real person can use a person they know, a historical figure, a current figure whom they have not met, or themselves, with the latter being either an author-surrogate or an example of self-insertion . The use of a famous person easily identifiable with certain character traits as the base for a principal character is a feature of allegorical works, such as Animal Farm by George Orwell, which portrays Soviet revolutionaries as pigs. Other authors, especially for historical fiction , make use of real people and create fictional stories revolving around their lives, as with The Paris Wife which revolves around Ernest Hemingway . An author can create

736-438: A character using the basic character archetypes which are common to many cultural traditions: the father figure , mother figure, hero , and so on. Some writers make use of archetypes as presented by Carl Jung as the basis for character traits. Generally, when an archetype from some system (such as Jung's) is used, elements of the story also follow the system's expectations in terms of storyline . An author can also create

828-446: A detective, Holmes ( Ian McKellen ) comments that Watson took considerable latitude in writing up the cases for publication, to the point that he views the finished products as little more than " penny dreadfuls ". Holmes remarks that several key details of his literary counterpart, including his pipe, deerstalker hat, and 221B Baker Street address, were entirely fictitious. The 2015 mashup anime film The Empire of Corpses features

920-460: A distinction between the individuals represented in tragedy and in comedy arose: tragedy, along with epic poetry , is "a representation of serious people" (1449b9—10), while comedy is "a representation of people who are rather inferior" (1449a32—33). In the Tractatus coislinianus (which may or may not be by Aristotle), Ancient Greek comedy is defined as involving three types of characters:

1012-429: A fictional character using generic stock characters , which are generally flat. They tend to be used for supporting or minor characters. However, some authors have used stock characters as the starting point for building richly detailed characters, such as William Shakespeare 's use of the boastful soldier character as the basis for John Falstaff . Some authors create charactonyms for their characters. A charactonym

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1104-547: A good deal since the days when they had first worked together." By the time of the story " The Adventure of the Six Napoleons ", Lestrade is a regular evening visitor at 221B Baker Street , and "his visits were welcome to Sherlock Holmes" according to Watson. In the same story, Lestrade reveals the high regard in which Holmes is now held by Scotland Yard: "We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow, there's not

1196-572: A man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand". Holmes thanks Lestrade for this comment, and Watson notes that this is one of the few instances when Holmes is visibly moved. In " The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ", Holmes refers to him as "friend Lestrade". Lestrade's involvement in the investigation in " The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans " suggests he has become one of Scotland Yard's most trusted detectives. He

1288-573: A rather belligerent, acerbic Watson portrayed by Colin Blakely in Billy Wilder 's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), in which Holmes was played by Robert Stephens (who starts the rumour that they are homosexual lovers to discourage female interest); and James Mason 's portrayal in Murder by Decree (1978), with Christopher Plummer as Holmes. Alan Cox played a teenage Watson in

1380-699: A reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department . The preface of the collection His Last Bow is signed "John H. Watson, M.D.", and in " The Problem of Thor Bridge ", Watson says that his dispatch box is labelled "John H. Watson, M.D." His wife Mary Watson appears to refer to him as "James" in " The Man with the Twisted Lip "; Dorothy L. Sayers speculated that Mary may be using his middle name Hamish (an Anglicisation of Sheumais ,

1472-460: A science fiction reinvention in which he was portrayed by actor Gareth David-Lloyd . At the beginning of the film, Watson is an elderly man portrayed by David Shackleton during the Blitz in 1940. He tells his nurse the tale of the adventure which he and Holmes vowed never to tell the public. In 1889, he is a home doctor and personal physician and biographer of Sherlock Holmes (Ben Syder). Here, Watson

1564-467: A series of murders related to Mormon intrigue. When the case is solved, Watson is angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it by the press. When Holmes refuses to record and publish his account of the adventure, Watson endeavours to do so himself. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends. In The Sign of the Four , Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan , a governess . In " The Adventure of

1656-751: A younger, re-imagined Watson as the protagonist, in a steampunk world where the dead are reanimated and used as a labor force. He was voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya in Japanese, and Jason Liebrecht in the English dub. In the 2022 film Enola Holmes 2 , Himesh Patel makes an post-credits appearance as Dr. Watson. The film is inspired by The Enola Holmes Mysteries , a young adult fiction series of detective novels by American author Nancy Springer . William Podmore played Watson in The Three Garridebs (1937). The first actor to play Watson on

1748-458: Is a "walk-on", a term used by Seymour Chatman for characters that are not fully delineated and individualized; rather they are part of the background or the setting of the narrative. Dynamic characters are those that change over the course of the story, while static characters remain the same throughout. An example of a popular dynamic character in literature is Ebenezer Scrooge , the protagonist of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. At

1840-598: Is a name that implies the psychological makeup of the person, makes an allegorical allusion, or makes reference to their appearance. For example, Shakespeare has an emotional young male character named Mercutio , John Steinbeck has a kind, sweet character named Candy in Of Mice and Men , and Mervyn Peake has a Machiavellian, manipulative, and murderous villain in Gormenghast named Steerpike . The charactonym can also indicate appearance. For example, François Rabelais gave

1932-506: Is also a capable swordsman. The film portrays Watson as having a gambling problem, which William S. Baring-Gould had inferred from a reference in " The Adventure of the Dancing Men " to Holmes keeping Watson's cheque book locked in a drawer in his desk. Law also portrayed Watson in the 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows . Watson appears on the 2010 direct-to-DVD Asylum film Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes ,

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2024-523: Is also represented as being very discreet in character. The events related in "The Adventure of the Second Stain" are supposedly very sensitive: "If in telling the story I seem to be somewhat vague in certain details, the public will readily understand that there is an excellent reason for my reticence. It was, then, in a year, and even in a decade, that shall be nameless, that upon one Tuesday morning in autumn we found two visitors of European fame within

2116-478: Is considered an excellent doctor and surgeon, especially by Holmes. For instance, in " The Adventure of the Dying Detective ", Holmes creates a ruse that he is deathly ill to lure a suspect to his presence, which must fool Watson as well during its enactment. To that effect, in addition to elaborate makeup and starving himself for a few days for the necessary appearance, Holmes firmly claims to Watson that he

2208-577: Is described "as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut." In subsequent texts, he is variously described as strongly built, of a stature either average or slightly above average, with a thick, strong neck and a small moustache . Watson used to be an athlete: it is mentioned in " The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire " (1924) that he used to play rugby union for Blackheath , but he fears his physical condition has declined since that point. In " The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton " (1899), Watson

2300-549: Is described as "a middle-sized, strongly built man—square jaw, thick neck, moustache..." In "His Last Bow", set in August 1914, Watson is described as "...a heavily built, elderly man with a grey moustache...". Watson is intelligent, if lacking in Holmes's insight, and serves as a perfect foil for Holmes: the archetypal late Victorian / Edwardian gentleman against the brilliant, emotionally detached analytical machine. Furthermore, he

2392-417: Is evident from the fact that inside the watch case are 4 claim numbers scratched by pawnbrokers; his prosperity is from the fact he was able to redeem the watch; his heavy drinking is from the fact that around the watch winding hole are scratches from the key—an unsteady drunkard's hand trying to wind the watch up at night. Watson witnesses Holmes's skills of deduction on their first case together, concerning

2484-421: Is highly contagious to the touch, knowing full well that the doctor would immediately deduce his true medical condition upon examination. Watson is well aware of both the limits of his abilities and Holmes's reliance on him: Holmes was a man of habits... and I had become one of them... a comrade... upon whose nerve he could place some reliance... a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him... If I irritated him by

2576-481: Is included in the collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes . Lestrade is a determined but conventional Scotland Yard detective who consults Holmes on many cases, and is the most prominent police character in the series. Lestrade has been played by many actors in adaptations based on the Sherlock Holmes stories in film, television, and other media. Lestrade is also mentioned in the novel The Sign of

2668-496: Is not attested in OED until mC18: 'Whatever characters any... have for the jestsake personated... are now thrown off' (1749, Fielding, Tom Jones ). Dr. Watson John H. Watson , known as Dr. Watson , is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887). " The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place " (1927)

2760-554: Is only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures", on grounds that where Holmes failed, often nobody else succeeded. Sometimes Watson (and through him, Doyle) seems determined to stop publishing stories about Holmes: in " The Adventure of the Second Stain ", Watson declares that he had intended the previous story ("The Adventure of the Abbey Grange") "to be the last of those exploits of my friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, which I should ever communicate to

2852-439: Is openly rude about Lestrade at times, such as in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" when he tells Lestrade "demurely" that he is unskilled at handling facts, and refers to Lestrade as an imbecile. In The Sign of the Four , Holmes says that being out of his depth is Lestrade's normal state (along with Inspectors Gregson and Athelney Jones). However, Holmes is generally more positive about Lestrade in later stories. In " The Adventure of

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2944-454: Is portrayed as easily confused by Holmes's abilities, but the story is set in 1881, the same year as A Study in Scarlet , which may account for this. He is a skilled gunman and is loyal, if often irritated by Holmes's methods. Watson, portrayed by Colin Starkey, appears briefly in the 2015 film Mr. Holmes (although he has no dialogue and his face is not shown). Reflecting on his career as

3036-496: Is possible, therefore, to have stories that do not contain "characters" in Aristotle's sense of the word, since character necessarily involves making the ethical dispositions of those performing the action clear. If, in speeches, the speaker "decides or avoids nothing at all", then those speeches "do not have character" (1450b9—11). Aristotle argues for the primacy of plot ( mythos ) over character ( ethos ). He writes: But

3128-658: Is revealed to be G. This initial may have been inspired by the Prefect of Police known only as "G—" in Edgar Allan Poe 's short story " The Purloined Letter " (1845). Despite having an apparently French surname (there is a village named Lestrade-et-Thouels in France and "l'estrade" means "the raised platform" in French), Inspector Lestrade shows no overt French ties. According to Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary ,

3220-558: Is ten to twelve years older than Holmes. Klinger estimated that Holmes was born in 1854; together with Holstein's theory, this would suggest that Lestrade may have been born between 1842 and 1844. Doyle seems to have acquired Lestrade's name from a fellow student at the University of Edinburgh , Joseph Alexandre Lestrade, who was a Saint Lucian medical student. In " The Adventure of the Cardboard Box ", Lestrade's first initial

3312-414: Is the last work of Doyle featuring Watson and Holmes, although their last appearance in the canonical timeline is in " His Last Bow " (1917). As Holmes's friend and confidant, Watson has appeared in various films, television series, video games, comics and radio programmes. In Doyle's early rough plot outlines, Holmes's associate was named "Ormond Sacker" before Doyle finally settled on "John Watson". He

3404-626: The BBC radio series (1989–1998), as well as in some non-canonical works, including the 2020 film Enola Holmes . Agatha Christie modelled her police detective character Inspector Japp , who appears in the stories featuring private detective Hercule Poirot , after Inspector Lestrade. Similar to Lestrade, Japp is described as "a little, sharp, dark, ferret-faced man" in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles . In her autobiography, Christie stated that she wrote her early Poirot stories "in

3496-599: The British Army . (In a non-canonical story, "The Field Bazaar", Watson is described as having received his Bachelor of Medicine from Doyle's alma mater , Edinburgh University ; this would probably have been in 1874.) He joined British forces in India with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers before being attached to the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot , saw service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War ,

3588-467: The buffoon ( bômolochus ), the ironist ( eirōn ), and the imposter or boaster ( alazṓn ). All three are central to Aristophanes ' Old Comedy . By the time the Roman comic playwright Plautus wrote his plays two centuries later, the use of characters to define dramatic genres was well established. His Amphitryon begins with a prologue in which Mercury claims that since

3680-472: The debugger in Microsoft Windows "Dr. Watson" . Bruce McRae originated the role of Watson in the 1899 Broadway production of Sherlock Holmes , a play by William Gillette and Doyle. Claude King played Watson in the 1910 premiere of The Speckled Band . In the 1923 play The Return of Sherlock Holmes , Watson was played by H. G. Stoker . In the 1965 musical Baker Street , he

3772-452: The social relations of class and gender , such that the conflicts between the characters reveal ideological conflicts. The study of a character requires an analysis of its relations with all of the other characters in the work. The individual status of a character is defined through the network of oppositions (proairetic, pragmatic , linguistic , proxemic ) that it forms with the other characters. The relation between characters and

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3864-427: The 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes , narrated by Michael Hordern as an older Watson. In the 1988 parody film Without a Clue , the roles of a witless Watson and an extremely intelligent Holmes are reversed. In the film, Holmes ( Michael Caine ) is an invention of Watson ( Ben Kingsley ) played by an alcoholic actor; when Watson initially offered suggestions on how to solve a case to some visiting policemen, he

3956-404: The Cardboard Box ", Holmes remarks that Lestrade's tenacity "has brought him to the top at Scotland Yard". In The Hound of the Baskervilles , he says that Lestrade is "the best of the professionals" (meaning the professionals employed by Scotland Yard as opposed to himself), and in the same story, Watson observes "from the reverential way in which Lestrade gazed at my companion that he had learned

4048-658: The Devil's Foot," "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", and " The Adventure of the Resident Patient ." In " The Adventure of the Red Circle ", we find a rare instance in which Watson rather than Holmes correctly deduces a fact of value. In The Hound of the Baskervilles , Watson shows that he has picked up some of Holmes's skills at dealing with people from whom information is desired. (As he observes to

4140-644: The Empty House ", a reference by Watson to "my own sad bereavement" implies that Morstan has died by the time Holmes returns after faking his death ; that fact is confirmed when Watson moves back to Baker Street to share rooms with Holmes. In " The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier " (set in January 1903), Holmes mentions that "Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife", but this wife was never named or described. In His Last Bow , set in 1914 on

4232-481: The Four (1890), though he doesn't appear in it. Lestrade mentions his "twenty years' experience" in the police force in A Study in Scarlet . In the story, Holmes says Lestrade is "a well-known detective". It is observed by Holmes that Lestrade and another detective, Tobias Gregson , have an ongoing rivalry, and he identifies the two as "the pick of a bad lot. They are both quick and energetic, but conventional – shockingly so." Holmes regularly allows members of

4324-497: The Second Stain ". According to Holmes in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", Lestrade's tracks can be identified due to the "inward twist" of his left foot. His age is not given in the stories. Lestrade works with Holmes as early as A Study in Scarlet (which according to Leslie S. Klinger takes place in 1881) and continues to do so as late as " The Adventure of the Three Garridebs " (which is set in 1902). According to Klinger, L. S. Holstein used this information to conclude that Lestrade

4416-587: The Sherlock Holmes tradition—eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp". A search engine , the Inspector Lestrade, is used by MacIntosh, a "fast, lightweight meta searcher." "The Inspector Lestrade Award" is a rising term among message boards for a person who is "almost correct." It has shown up on zdnet and "Bad Astronomy and the Universe Today" forum. The Peterson Pipes company has

4508-452: The action of the story shifts historically, often miming shifts in society and its ideas about human individuality, self-determination , and the social order . In fiction writing , authors create dynamic characters using various methods. Sometimes characters are conjured up from imagination; in other instances, they are created by amplifying the character trait of a real person into a new fictional creation. An author or creator basing

4600-569: The actor attempts to quit, only for both men to gain a new appreciation for each other during the latest confrontation with Professor Moriarty (one of the few men who knows the truth of their dynamic). In the Guy Ritchie -directed Sherlock Holmes movies, Watson is portrayed by Jude Law . Law portrays Watson as knowledgeable, brave, strong-willed, and thoroughly professional, as well as a competent detective in his own right. Apart from being armed with his trademark sidearm, his film incarnation

4692-466: The beginning of " The Adventure of the Devil's Foot ". In "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier", one of only two stories narrated by Holmes himself, the detective remarks about Watson: "I have often had occasion to point out to him how superficial are his accounts and to accuse him of pandering to popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly to facts and figures", but the narrative style seldom differs, and Holmes confesses that Watson would have been

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4784-997: The better choice to write the story, noting when he starts writing that he quickly realizes the importance of presenting the tale in a manner that would interest the reader. In any case, Holmes regularly referred to Watson as my "faithful friend and biographer", and once exclaims, "I am lost without my Boswell ". At the beginning of " The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger ", Watson makes strong claims about "the discretion and high sense of professional honour" that govern his work as Holmes's biographer, but they do not keep Watson from expressing himself and quoting Holmes with candour of their antagonists and their clients. In " The Red-Headed League ", for example, Watson introduces Jabez Wilson: "Our visitor bore every mark of being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow"—wearing "a not over-clean black frock-coat". In A Study in Scarlet , having just returned from Afghanistan, Watson

4876-503: The case. If you won't, I will for you". Holmes suavely responds: "You may do what you like, Doctor". Therefore, the story is presented as "a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson", and most other stories of the series share this by implication. In the first chapter of The Sign of the Four , Holmes comments on Watson's first effort as a biographer: "I glanced over it. Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in

4968-531: The characters of their antagonists and their clients. Despite Watson's frequent expressions of admiration and friendship for Holmes, the many stresses and strains of living and working with the detective make themselves evident in Watson's occasional harshness of character. The most controversial of such matters is Watson's candour about Holmes's drug use. Though the use of cocaine was legal and common in Holmes's era, Watson directly criticises Holmes's habits. Watson

5060-453: The characters, but they include the characters for the sake of their actions" (1450a15-23). Aristotle suggests that works were distinguished in the first instance according to the nature of the person who created them: "the grander people represented fine actions, i.e. those of fine persons" by producing "hymns and praise-poems", while "ordinary people represented those of inferior ones" by "composing invectives" (1448b20—1449a5). On this basis,

5152-461: The creation of other fictional narrators, such as Bunny Manders (the sidekick of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles , created by E. W. Hornung in 1898) and the American character Archie Goodwin (the assistant of detective Nero Wolfe , created by Rex Stout in 1934). Author Kodō Nomura modeled his characters Heiji Zenigata and his sidekick Hachigoro on Holmes and Watson. Microsoft named

5244-529: The detective showed reluctance "to the continued publication of his experiences. So long as he was in actual professional practice the records of his successes were of some practical value to him, but since he has definitely retired...notoriety has become hateful to him" ("The Adventure of the Second Stain"). After Holmes's retirement, Watson often cites special permission from his friend for the publication of further stories, but received occasional unsolicited suggestions from Holmes of what stories to tell, as noted at

5336-609: The detective whom Dr. Watson described unflatteringly as sallow, rat-faced, and dark-eyed and whom Holmes saw as quick and energetic but wholly conventional, lacking in imagination, and normally out of his depth – the best of a bad lot who had reached the top in the CID by bulldog tenacity. Inspector Lestrade is described as "a little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow" in A Study in Scarlet . In " The Boscombe Valley Mystery ", Watson describes Lestrade as "a lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking", and also says, "In spite of

5428-826: The doctor as a lovable but incompetent assistant. Some later treatments have presented a more competent Watson. Watson was played by actor André Morell in the 1959 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles , wherein Morell preferred that his version of Watson should be closer to that originally depicted in Doyle's stories, not Nigel Bruce's interpretation. Other depictions include Robert Duvall opposite Nicol Williamson 's Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1978); Donald Houston , who played Watson to John Neville 's Holmes in A Study in Terror (1965);

5520-586: The earliest surviving work of dramatic theory , Poetics ( c.  335 BCE ), the Classical Greek philosopher Aristotle states that character ( ethos ) is one of six qualitative parts of Athenian tragedy and one of the three objects that it represents (1450a12). He understands character not to denote a fictional person, but the quality of the person acting in the story and reacting to its situations (1450a5). He defines character as "that which reveals decision , of whatever sort" (1450b8). It

5612-564: The eve of World War I , Holmes notes that Watson (who would then be in his early 60s) is "joining up with [his] old service", and they spend a "few minutes" in what Holmes described as possibly "the last quiet talk that [they] shall ever have." Throughout Doyle's novels, Watson is presented as Holmes's biographer. At the end of the first published Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet , Watson is so incensed by Scotland Yard claiming full credit for its solution that he exclaims: "Your merits should be publicly recognised. You should publish an account of

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5704-521: The fact. In " The Adventure of the Norwood Builder ," Holmes notes that John Hector McFarlane is "a bachelor, a solicitor, a Freemason, and an asthmatic". Watson comments as narrator: "Familiar as I was with my friend's methods, it was not difficult for me to follow his deductions, and to observe the untidiness of attire, the sheaf of legal papers, the watch-charm, and the breathing which had prompted them." Similar episodes occur in "The Adventure of

5796-499: The initials on the watch, "H. W.", as well as the 50-year-old date of the watch tell Holmes that it belonged to Watson's father (he had the same surname as Watson) and was passed down to Watson's elder brother; his untidiness from the fact that the outside of the watchcase is dented (from being in the same pocket with coins and keys). His good prospects are deduced from the fact that if he inherited an expensive fifty-guinea watch, he must have inherited substantial wealth as well. His poverty

5888-462: The light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Scotland Yard." Watson states that Lestrade is "as wiry, as dapper, and as ferret-like as ever" in " The Adventure of the Cardboard Box ". He is described as "a small, wiry bulldog of a man" in The Hound of the Baskervilles , and there is a description of him as having "bulldog features" in " The Adventure of

5980-406: The most important of these is the structure of the incidents. For (i) tragedy is a representation not of human beings but of action and life. Happiness and unhappiness lie in action, and the end [of life] is a sort of action, not a quality; people are of a certain sort according to their characters, but happy or the opposite according to their actions. So [the actors] do not act in order to represent

6072-642: The name Gargantua to a giant and the huge whale in Pinocchio (1940) is named Monstro . In his book Aspects of the Novel , E. M. Forster defined two basic types of characters, their qualities, functions, and importance for the development of the novel: flat characters and round characters. Flat characters are two-dimensional, in that they are relatively uncomplicated. By contrast, round characters are complex figures with many different characteristics, that undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise

6164-589: The name Lestrade can be pronounced either "Le'strayed" (rhyming with "trade") or "Le'strahd" /ləˈstrɑːd/ . In The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes , Leslie S. Klinger writes that there is no consensus among scholars on the pronunciation of "Lestrade". The original French pronunciation of the name would have been close to "Le'strahd". However, according to the book The Sherlock Holmes Miscellany by Roger Johnson and Jean Upton (Holmesian scholars and members of The Baker Street Irregulars ), Arthur Conan Doyle's daughter Dame Jean Conan Doyle stated that her father pronounced

6256-500: The name with a long a sound (as "Le'strayed"). The pronunciation of Lestrade as "Le'strahd" has been used in multiple adaptations such as the 1939–1946 film series , the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes , and the television series Sherlock (2010–2017). The pronunciation of the name as "Le'strayed" has also been used in multiple canonical adaptations, including the 1931–1937 film series , the Granada television series (1984–1994), and

6348-406: The narrative structure, unlike core characters, for which any significant conflict must be traced during a considerable time, which is often seen as an unjustified waste of resources. There may also be a continuing or recurring guest character. Sometimes a guest or minor character may gain unanticipated popularity and turn into a regular or main one; this is known as a breakout character . In

6440-424: The pair, including Barrymore's strange candle movements turning out to be signals to his brother-in-law Seldan, and Holmes praises him for his zeal and intelligence. However, because he is not endowed with Holmes's almost-superhuman ability to focus on the essential details of the case and Holmes's extraordinary range of recondite, specialised knowledge, Watson meets with limited success in other cases. Holmes summed up

6532-404: The play contains kings and gods, it cannot be a comedy and must be a tragicomedy . [...] is first used in English to denote 'a personality in a novel or a play' in 1749 ( The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary , s.v.). Its use as 'the sum of the qualities which constitute an individual' is a mC17 development. The modern literary and theatrical sense of 'an individual created in a fictitious work'

6624-489: The police to take the credit for his deductions, including Lestrade in cases such as those in " The Adventure of the Empty House " and " The Adventure of the Norwood Builder ". Lestrade is able to write in shorthand . Lestrade is initially doubtful about Holmes's methods, and he suggests that Holmes is "too much inclined to be cocksure" in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". He is "indifferent and contemptuous" of Holmes's exploration in " The Boscombe Valley Mystery ". Holmes

6716-480: The problem that Watson confronted in one memorable rebuke from " A Scandal in Bohemia ": "Quite so... you see, but you do not observe." In " The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist ," Watson's attempts to assist Holmes's investigation prove unsuccessful because of his unimaginative approach, for example, asking a London estate agent who lives in a particular country residence. (According to Holmes, what he should have done

6808-471: The public", but later decided that "this long series of episodes should culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called upon to handle" ("The Second Stain" being that case). Despite this, it was succeeded by twenty other stories. In the later stories, written after Holmes's retirement (c. 1903–04), Watson repeatedly refers to "notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never alluded", on grounds that after Holmes's retirement,

6900-446: The reader, "I have not lived for years with Sherlock Holmes for nothing." ) Watson is endowed with a strong sense of honour. At the beginning of "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger," Watson makes strong claims about "the discretion and high sense of professional honour" that govern his work as Holmes's biographer, but discretion and professional honour do not block Watson from expressing himself and quoting Holmes with remarkable candor on

6992-481: The reader. In psychological terms, round or complex characters may be considered to have five personality dimensions under the Big Five model of personality. The five factors are: Stock characters are usually one-dimensional and thin. Mary Sues are characters that usually appear in fan fiction which are virtually devoid of flaws, and are therefore considered flat characters. Another type of flat character

7084-520: The real locations. As the first-person narrator of Doyle's Holmes stories, Watson has inspired the creation of many similar narrator characters. After the appearance of Watson, the use of a "Watsonian narrator", a character like Watson who has a reason to be close to the detective but cannot follow or understand the detective's line of investigation, became "a standard feature of the classical detective story". This type of character has been called "the Watson". The Holmes-Watson partnership, consisting of

7176-471: The rooms, Holmes reveals that he is a "consulting detective " and that the guests are his clients. At the beginning of A Study in Scarlet , Watson states he had "neither kith nor kin in England". In The Sign of the Four , it is established that his father and older brother are deceased, and that both had the same first name beginning with "H", when Holmes examines an old watch in Watson's possession, which

7268-576: The same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism... The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it"; whereupon Watson admits, "I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings". In " The Adventure of Silver Blaze ", Holmes confesses: "I made

7360-400: The series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main focus. A guest or minor character is one who acts only in a few episodes or scenes. Unlike regular characters, the guest ones do not need to be carefully incorporated into the storyline with all its ramifications: they create a piece of drama and then disappear without consequences to

7452-450: The start of the story, he is a bitter miser, but by the end of the tale, he transforms into a kindhearted, generous man. In television, a regular, main or ongoing character is a character who appears in all or a majority of episodes, or in a significant chain of episodes of the series. Regular characters may be both core and secondary ones. A recurring character or supporting character often and frequently appears from time to time during

7544-479: The vocative form of Seumas , the Scottish Gaelic for James), though Doyle himself never addresses this beyond including the initial. David W. Merrell, on the other hand, concludes that Mary is not referring to her husband at all but rather to (the surname of) their servant. The year of Watson's birth is not stated in the stories. William S. Baring-Gould and Leslie S. Klinger estimate that Watson

7636-504: The walls of our humble room in Baker Street." Furthermore, in "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger," Watson notes that he has "made a slight change of name and place" when presenting that story. Here he is direct about a method of preserving discretion and confidentiality that other scholars have inferred from the stories, with pseudonyms replacing the "real" names of clients, witnesses, and culprits alike and altered place-names replacing

7728-470: Was "gone to the nearest public house" and listened to the gossip.) Watson is too guileless to be a proper detective. And yet, as Holmes acknowledges, Watson has unexpected depths about him; for example, he has a definite strain of " pawky humour", as Holmes observes in The Valley of Fear . Watson never masters Holmes's deductive methods, but he can be astute enough to follow his friend's reasoning after

7820-537: Was at the time applying for a post in an exclusive but private medical practice and so invented the fictional Holmes to avoid attracting attention to himself. He continues the "lie" of Holmes's existence after he fails to get the post, hiring the actor as people wanted to meet the "real" Holmes. At the same time, Watson becomes increasingly frustrated that his own talents are unrecognised, and unavailingly attempts to win celebrity for himself as "the Crime Doctor" while

7912-506: Was born in 1852. June Thomson concludes that Watson was probably born either in 1852 or 1853. According to Thomson, most commentators accept 1852 as the year of Watson's birth. In A Study in Scarlet , Watson, as the narrator , is established as having studied at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, receiving his medical degree from the University of London in 1878, and subsequently being trained at Netley as an assistant surgeon in

8004-457: Was described by H. Paul Jeffers in the following words: He is the most famous detective ever to walk the corridors of Scotland Yard, yet he existed only in the fertile imagination of a writer. He was Inspector Lestrade. We do not know his first name, only his initial: G . Although he appears thirteen times in the immortal adventures of Sherlock Holmes, nothing is known of the life outside the Yard of

8096-445: Was formerly his father's before it was inherited by his brother. Holmes estimates the watch to have a value of 50 guineas . Holmes deduced from the watch that Watson's brother was "a man of untidy habits—very untidy and careless. He was left with good prospects, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died". Holmes explains his reasoning:

8188-648: Was played by Peter Sallis . Derek Waring played Watson in the 1989 London premiere of Sherlock Holmes: The Musical . Lucas Hall portrayed Watson in the 2015 premiere of Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery . Actors to play Watson in early film adaptations of Sherlock Holmes include Edward Fielding ( 1916 ), Roland Young ( 1922 ), Ian Fleming ( 1931 ), Athole Stewart ( The Speckled Band , 1931), Ian Hunter ( The Sign of Four , 1932), Reginald Owen ( 1932 ) and Warburton Gamble ( A Study in Scarlet , 1933). The series of Holmes films with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson portrayed

8280-428: Was played by Vitaly Solomin . The Telegraph included Solomin in their list of the 10 top actors to play Dr Watson. Watson was portrayed by David Burke and later by Edward Hardwicke in the 1980s and 1990s television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , The Return of Sherlock Holmes , The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes , all starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes. In

8372-415: Was probably inspired by one of Doyle's colleagues, Dr James Watson. Watson shares some similarities with the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe 's stories about fictional detective C. Auguste Dupin , created in 1841, but unlike Watson, Poe's narrator remains unnamed. Watson's first name is mentioned on only four occasions. Part one of the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet , is subtitled Being

8464-604: Was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand (July 1880) by a jezail bullet, suffered enteric fever and was sent back to England on the troopship HMS Orontes following his recovery. With his health ruined, he was then given a daily pension of 11 shillings and 6 pence for nine months. In 1881, Watson is introduced by his friend Stamford to Holmes, who is looking for someone to share rent in rooms in 221B Baker Street . Concluding that they are compatible, they subsequently move in. When Watson notices multiple eccentric guests frequenting

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