The unofficial Sherlock Holmes stories

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 3 short stories which can be related to Sherlock Holmes despite the fact that Sherlock Holmes is not namely mentioned. In one the character investigating lives in Baker Street and in the 2 others the unnamed detective quoted a Sherlock Holmes' maxim.

The 62 "official" stories of Sherlock Holmes written by Arthur Conan Doyle can be found here.



Unofficial Sherlock Holmes stories

Uncle Jeremy's Household is considered as a prototype for the Sherlock Holmes stories. Written by Arthur Conan Doyle 10 months before his first Sherlock Holmes story: A Study in Scarlet. The main character of the story is Hugh Lawrence (who resides in Baker Street like the future Sherlock Holmes). He is invited to the house of his friend John H. Thurston (Watson is also John H.). Hugh is a doctor (like Watson) and Thurston is a chemist (like Holmes). The story tells how Hugh act as an amateur detective to solve the strange behaviours of two guests of the house.


The Story of the Man with the Watches is a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle with a reference to a "well-known criminal investigator", which speaks with the same words as Sherlock Holmes : "Whatever may be the truth, it must depend upon some bizarre and rare combination of events, so we need have no hesitation in postulating such events in our explanation. In the absence of data we must abandon the analytic or scientific method of investigation, and must approach it in the synthetic fashion. In a word, instead of taking known events and deducing from them what has occurred, we must build up a fanciful explanation if it will only be consistent with known events."


The Story of the Lost Special is a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle with a reference to an "amateur reasoner" of some celebrity at that date who wrote: "It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning, that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum, however improbable, must contain the truth.", which is a wellknown maxim of Sherlock Holmes (SIGN 113 & 935, BLAN 475).


A Sherlock Holmes play written by Arthur Conan Doyle mainly based on his short story : The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone.


See also