why are sherlock holmes books so popular? i need facts really not opinion!! thank you x x x?

Answer 1

Aside from being very well-written, they were the first time in literature that forensics had been used to solve crimes.

Answer 2

This may not quite answer your question, but when I was at primary school (aged 9 or 10) the English master read to us every Friday afternoon. One Friday he read The Speckled Band and I was absolutely captivated. I have read every Sherlock Holmes story, so have my children. What is the fascination? Some of them are not so good. But have you noticed all the detail in them? In one story he is on a train and he works out the speed of the train by how long it takes to go between telegraph poles! I love Watson, the housekeeper, the address, the peasouper fogs, the cocaine, the obsessive reading of the newspapers. He is such an AWARE character and I always go for people who don't miss a thing.

Answer 3

No facts to back this up, but I think the character of Sherlock Holmes is what's appealing. Holmes is both enigmatic and charismatic, super-genius and yet vulnerable because he he has problems understanding people on a purely human level. I think that it's the Holmes character that keeps the stories popular, far more than anything relating to plot or setting. Holmes intrigues us, so we keep coming back for more (so to speak), hoping to get just a little bit closer to who he is and what drives him.

Answer 4

I attach two references showing in depth studies on this very topic. The stories were set at a time of history which takes the reader's fancy -- there is something cosy and romantic about gas lighting and the hansom cab. The characters of his clients are fascinating without the reader having to become over familiar with them. Where members of mysterious royal families in Eastern Europe enter the scene, we feel a flutter of excitement such as we would feel if we beheld the real thing! Where Holmes had dealings with members of the proletariat, these were always rather entertaining characters (such as the boy who could muster up a crowd of street urchins whenever required -- the Baker Street Irregulars) and most of the people with whom he associates are clean, refined people whose company the reader enjoys. The stories -- having originally been published in the Strand Magazine -- are just the right length to read and they stimulate the mind as the reader tries (as vainly as Holmes's side kick, Dr Watson) to work out the solution to the mystery. The hero is so real that it is hard to persuade oneself that he did not exist. In fact, if one visits the Sherlock Holmes museum at the castle of Lucens, roughly halfway between Lausanne and Lake Neuchatel, one sees there letters written a mere half century ago to Sherlock Holmes at his Baker Street address begging for his help to solve various mysteries! Even Baker Street has had to accommodate his fictitious house and a local restaurant is named Mrs Hudson's pantry!

http://ednet.rvc.cc.il.us/~fcoffman/NewDoyle.html
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:gBFOJaKuM0MJ:www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/8950/holmes/shpaper.htm+sherlock+holmes+popularity&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

Answer 5

There are no concrete facts as to why something is or is not popular.

They were well written and continue to stand the test of time.

Answer 6

People love stories about criminals, because most people want to be heroic type criminals but have not got the bottle. Reading stories or watching films is the next best thing.
But it is important to remember we are talking about Heroic villains not your average low life.