Halloa Wats this!!!
This post was scheduled to be on monday but the tag thing came all of sudden, so i saved that as draft and now i have decided to let this go live, the insight to this post came to me last saturday night around 4.00AM(thats the time to read thrillers) when i finished reading the masterpiece of agatha christie viz The Murder of Roger Ackroyd!!
If you are wondering about the title of this post,stop wondering cause its elementary!!if you are not a fan of detective stories this piece is certainly not your cake you can skip it now itself!!
The readers of sherlock holmes & hercule poirot might have been very familiar with this line "Halloa What's this", these are uttered by them whenever they are hot on a scent of the criminal or they stumble across a clue which we mortals cant even visualise,this post is gonna be on the two of the greatest detectives(fictional) ever to have grazed this planet, this one is gonna be big,brace yourself!!
Before getting to the post i would like to mention about the book i have just read - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,i wanted to do a book review but doing a review thing for a thriller is always gonna be difficult besides i might give out spoilers, so i just decided to write about the deadly double instead, the book was the best ever detective novel i have read till date even upstaging the likes of The hound of the Baskervilles,Murder on the orient express & Cat among the pigeons, if anyone loves a good thriller i would recommend that, the beauty is the twist that occurs at the end just five pages from the end of the book!! i was stunned!!
Sherlock holmes what shall i say about him?? everyone knows about sherlock dont they!! The fictional detective created by sir Arthur conan doyle is the undisputed champion detective among his fictional peers and he is known for his logical and astute observation and also known for his famous principles of deduction, as watson would call him he is the ultimate reasoning machine and his famous residence happens to be @ 221B Baker street,all his stories were narrated by his close friend Dr.Watson with the exception of three cases which had a different perspective of narration.
The stories of Holmes appeared in the strand magazine over a period of 40 years with a hiatus between 1893-1901 after the publication of The final problem,where doyle killed the character saying he cannot write further however public reactions forced him to do a lazarus of holmes by bringing him back in the The Hound of the Baskervilles followed by the The Return of sherlock holmes series,so many fans mourned the death of the detective in the Final problem,the first time it happened for a fictional character!!
In A Study in Scarlet his first novel, Dr. Watson makes an evaluation of Sherlock's skills which are as follows:
1. Knowledge of Literature.—Nil.
2. Knowledge of Astronomy.—Nil.
3. Knowledge of Politics.—Feeble.
4. Knowledge of Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
5. Knowledge of Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
6. Knowledge of Chemistry.—Profound.
7. Knowledge of Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic.
8. Knowledge of Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
9. Plays the violin well.
10. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
11. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.
His stories often begin with his scintillating display of his deduction skills which is popularly called as the sherlockian deduction now a days,and later stories reveal that the above points might be misleading!!
Now we go to Hercule poirot addressed often as M.Poirot who unlike the sherlock is a belgian detective created by madame agatha christie who was given the title as the Queen of suspense!! He was influenced much like sherlock in the first few novels christie wrote it like the sherlock tradition in the place of watson was Arthur hastings and lestrade was replaced by inspector japp who was an integral part in many of poirot novels, but the plot and writing changed in the subsequent novels where she established the typical hercule poirot style!!
Unlike holmes he is a conventional, clue based detective often citing the usage of grey cells,the cells of himself he consider to be one of a kind which often drives hastings crazy,he often talks about the order and method which he follows while investigating any case, another speciality about him is the fact that he is a brilliant liar often giving some false clues and facts to convince his clients to get more important details about the case
The description of poirot by hastings in his first novel Mysterious affair at styles is as follows "He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police."
so much for the description of both the great detectives i can go on describing them for pages what i like in them,they are entirely different but they had some characters which go hand in hand like both of them are very often described like catlike in their personal cleanliness,both care much about it very often in the novels and they are fond of surprising their partners and hiding their chain of reasoning and thoughts from them especially holmes has a passion for startling watson and hastings on the other hand often gets irritated by poirot since he doesnt disclose his plan of action to him, both of them act with unusual energy when they are hot on the scent of a clue,as far as handling ladies is concerned though holmes is considered misogynistic his attitude in convincing his female clients is not all like that infact he handles them with remarkable courtesy,watson himself cites many examples but he calls Irene Adler as the woman, as far as poirot is considered he has greater ease in breaking the defenses of the opposite sex and more instance is the fact that both of them allow the police to take credit of the case after solving it, as far as holmes was considered solving the case always has been his prime agenda & indeed Holmes himself remarks that it is the danger of his profession that has attracted him to it.
So i have summed it up all these are some of the significant traits these two eternal characters have in common and i could go on listing many as well but the post is already too big i want to end this in style with some of my favourite quotes of sherlock and poirot , of these two holmes happen to be my most favourite but i do love poirot as well here are some of my favourite novels involving the two
1.The Murder of Roger Ackroyd-poirot(Beats anything i have read till date)
2.The Hound of the Baskervilles-holmes
3.Murder on the orient express- poirot
4.Cat Among the pigeons- poirot(Amazing thing in this that poirot makes his appearance 40 pages before the end)
5.A study in scarlet-holmes
i stop the list here and here are some of my favourite quotes
"Elementary, my dear Watson" - Holmes(one of the alltime famous quotes)
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" -Holmes in Sign of four
"Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seeker after it"- Poirot in Murder of Roger Ackroyd
"There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you"-Holmes in the The Hound of Baskervilles
"The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances" - Poirot in Murder on the Orient express
"Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home"- Holmes in Boscombe valley mystery (one of my fav)
"Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend" ~ Hercule Poirot in styles
"What one man can invent another can discover"- Holmes in Dancing men
Hope you have enjoyed this piece on the two of the greatest detectives of all time!! untill next time!! cheers!!
If you are wondering about the title of this post,stop wondering cause its elementary!!if you are not a fan of detective stories this piece is certainly not your cake you can skip it now itself!!
The readers of sherlock holmes & hercule poirot might have been very familiar with this line "Halloa What's this", these are uttered by them whenever they are hot on a scent of the criminal or they stumble across a clue which we mortals cant even visualise,this post is gonna be on the two of the greatest detectives(fictional) ever to have grazed this planet, this one is gonna be big,brace yourself!!
Before getting to the post i would like to mention about the book i have just read - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,i wanted to do a book review but doing a review thing for a thriller is always gonna be difficult besides i might give out spoilers, so i just decided to write about the deadly double instead, the book was the best ever detective novel i have read till date even upstaging the likes of The hound of the Baskervilles,Murder on the orient express & Cat among the pigeons, if anyone loves a good thriller i would recommend that, the beauty is the twist that occurs at the end just five pages from the end of the book!! i was stunned!!
Sherlock holmes what shall i say about him?? everyone knows about sherlock dont they!! The fictional detective created by sir Arthur conan doyle is the undisputed champion detective among his fictional peers and he is known for his logical and astute observation and also known for his famous principles of deduction, as watson would call him he is the ultimate reasoning machine and his famous residence happens to be @ 221B Baker street,all his stories were narrated by his close friend Dr.Watson with the exception of three cases which had a different perspective of narration.
The stories of Holmes appeared in the strand magazine over a period of 40 years with a hiatus between 1893-1901 after the publication of The final problem,where doyle killed the character saying he cannot write further however public reactions forced him to do a lazarus of holmes by bringing him back in the The Hound of the Baskervilles followed by the The Return of sherlock holmes series,so many fans mourned the death of the detective in the Final problem,the first time it happened for a fictional character!!
In A Study in Scarlet his first novel, Dr. Watson makes an evaluation of Sherlock's skills which are as follows:
1. Knowledge of Literature.—Nil.
2. Knowledge of Astronomy.—Nil.
3. Knowledge of Politics.—Feeble.
4. Knowledge of Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
5. Knowledge of Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
6. Knowledge of Chemistry.—Profound.
7. Knowledge of Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic.
8. Knowledge of Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
9. Plays the violin well.
10. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
11. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.
His stories often begin with his scintillating display of his deduction skills which is popularly called as the sherlockian deduction now a days,and later stories reveal that the above points might be misleading!!
Now we go to Hercule poirot addressed often as M.Poirot who unlike the sherlock is a belgian detective created by madame agatha christie who was given the title as the Queen of suspense!! He was influenced much like sherlock in the first few novels christie wrote it like the sherlock tradition in the place of watson was Arthur hastings and lestrade was replaced by inspector japp who was an integral part in many of poirot novels, but the plot and writing changed in the subsequent novels where she established the typical hercule poirot style!!
Unlike holmes he is a conventional, clue based detective often citing the usage of grey cells,the cells of himself he consider to be one of a kind which often drives hastings crazy,he often talks about the order and method which he follows while investigating any case, another speciality about him is the fact that he is a brilliant liar often giving some false clues and facts to convince his clients to get more important details about the case
The description of poirot by hastings in his first novel Mysterious affair at styles is as follows "He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police."
so much for the description of both the great detectives i can go on describing them for pages what i like in them,they are entirely different but they had some characters which go hand in hand like both of them are very often described like catlike in their personal cleanliness,both care much about it very often in the novels and they are fond of surprising their partners and hiding their chain of reasoning and thoughts from them especially holmes has a passion for startling watson and hastings on the other hand often gets irritated by poirot since he doesnt disclose his plan of action to him, both of them act with unusual energy when they are hot on the scent of a clue,as far as handling ladies is concerned though holmes is considered misogynistic his attitude in convincing his female clients is not all like that infact he handles them with remarkable courtesy,watson himself cites many examples but he calls Irene Adler as the woman, as far as poirot is considered he has greater ease in breaking the defenses of the opposite sex and more instance is the fact that both of them allow the police to take credit of the case after solving it, as far as holmes was considered solving the case always has been his prime agenda & indeed Holmes himself remarks that it is the danger of his profession that has attracted him to it.
So i have summed it up all these are some of the significant traits these two eternal characters have in common and i could go on listing many as well but the post is already too big i want to end this in style with some of my favourite quotes of sherlock and poirot , of these two holmes happen to be my most favourite but i do love poirot as well here are some of my favourite novels involving the two
1.The Murder of Roger Ackroyd-poirot(Beats anything i have read till date)
2.The Hound of the Baskervilles-holmes
3.Murder on the orient express- poirot
4.Cat Among the pigeons- poirot(Amazing thing in this that poirot makes his appearance 40 pages before the end)
5.A study in scarlet-holmes
i stop the list here and here are some of my favourite quotes
"Elementary, my dear Watson" - Holmes(one of the alltime famous quotes)
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" -Holmes in Sign of four
"Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seeker after it"- Poirot in Murder of Roger Ackroyd
"There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you"-Holmes in the The Hound of Baskervilles
"The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances" - Poirot in Murder on the Orient express
"Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home"- Holmes in Boscombe valley mystery (one of my fav)
"Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend" ~ Hercule Poirot in styles
"What one man can invent another can discover"- Holmes in Dancing men
Hope you have enjoyed this piece on the two of the greatest detectives of all time!! untill next time!! cheers!!
Comments
But your post have simply convinced me that I must go and borrow one of these books... I do like a good mystery...
lol... and as you can see if I am to write that book of me.. your going to need quite a big hard drive. Especially if its an ebook. Cause like my mom, I have something to say about everything.
@ fatima who wud hate books?? they have made me wat i am now!!thanx for visiting my post..
I am a great fan of Sherlock, but haven't read too much of Poirot. Two reasons, one my dad didn't have any of them and two, after a couple of books, the stories seemed repetitive, ofcourse I haven't read the widely acknowledged best Orient Express, so will reserve judgement till I read more of Poirot.
And Elementary, my dear Watson is a phrase never used by Sherlock and supposedly first used by Psmith created by P.G.Wodehouse.
do check out poirot when you have time as well.
Nice post! :-)