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Good Reading : June 2005
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word of mouth general fiction ‘You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive,’ says Sherlock Holmes on being introduced to the man who would play an indispensable part in his adventures – Dr John H Watson.The world’s greatest detective is, as usual, correct. As Holmes later explains,Watson’s tanned and haggard face suggests he has ‘undergone hardship and sickness’.Where could an English doctor have encountered such grim circum- stances? ‘Clearly in Afghanistan,’ he surmises. Bor n in 1852, John Watson received his doctorate in medicine from the University of London in 1878 before serving as a British Army field surgeon during the Second Afghan War. His military career is cut short when he is wounded in 1880 and he retur ns to London in search of lodgings. A medical student friend introduces Watson to an eccentric researcher who wants a lodger to share the rent of his consult- ing rooms at 221B Baker Street. This chance meeting, as recorded by Arthur Conan Doyle in A Study in Scarlet, marks the begin- ning of the greatest partnership in English literature. Holmes and Watson are the perfect ‘odd couple’ of crime. Holmes challenges society’s conven- tions with his deductive genius and his eccentric habits, which include using cocaine. Dr Watson, however, is the epitome of upper middle-class Britain. Sporting a full, army regulation moustache and retaining his youth- ful rugby player’s physique, Watson is the unquestioning product of a Brit- ish Empire in its last flush of glory. For too long, our impression of Dr Watson has been shaped by the film perfor mances of Nigel Bruce, who portrayed him as a comical buffoon alongside Basil Rathbone’s charismatic Sherlock Holmes. The Hollywood version is vastly removed from the ‘real’ Dr Watson, whose importance goes well beyond his role as Holmes’ unofficial biog- rapher. If Sherlock Holmes is the ‘brains’ of Baker Street, then John Watson is often the ‘muscle’ – a man of action who isn’t afraid to use his fists, or his service revolver, when circumstances demand. When it comes to women, Watson proves, for once, to be Holmes’ superior. He is an incurable romantic, whose head can be easily turned by a beautiful woman. One such lady is Miss Mary Morstan, whom Watson meets in The Sign of Four.The attraction is clearly mutual, as Miss Morstan becomes Mrs Watson.Watson leaves Holmes to set up his new medical practice in Paddington, but his domestic bliss is short-lived. When Conan Doyle reluctantly resurrected his hero in The Empty House (after killing him off in The Final Problem), he thoughtlessly disposed of Mary Morstan, forcing Watson to retur n to 221B Baker Street. No doubt many Sherlockian devotees thought this was as it should be – you can’t have Sher- lock Holmes without Dr Watson at his side. famous characters DR WATSON is doomed to be always the bridesmaid, never the bride as literature’s most famous sidekick. But he was far from the portly buffoon depicted in Sherlock Holmes films, as KEVIN PATRICK explains. Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (as Dr Watson), taken from one of their 1930s Hollywood films. An original illustration from Beeton’s Christmas Annual (1897), which depicts Holmes’ first meeting with Watson in A Study in Scarlet. 30 goodreading Buy your next good read online at www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au DIRECT
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