Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 1 There is no more Sherlock Holmes in the world
(On behalf of the foreword)

Sherlock Holmes, an original fictional character, has almost fascinated all beings for a hundred years, and even the British royal family awarded the hero in the novel the harsh and serious knighthood for the first time.

Who is Sherlock Holmes?It is said that the prototype of this character is a teacher of the author Arthur Conan Doyle when he was studying at the University of Edinburgh, and may add a part of himself.As eccentric as it may be, there is no doubt that Holmes is not a god.He travels in the familiar coach or train, haunts the London fog in November; he lives in the well-known hotels, and reads the Daily Telegraph and other popular papers.... He is a wise man, because Too smart to trust people, let alone women; he's a pompous guy, and that pompous pomp has become his way of talking socially, but people are used to it and think he's perfectly worthy. He is worthy of this kind of virtue; he often lives in his own world, always does some inexplicable and surprising things or actions, and even offends many "serious people"; he is a famous detective, because of his appearance, people From then on, I believe that justice is really not far from the world; his wisdom is soft like water, but firm like steel; he is famous because the world has never doubted his real existence.

In 1894, Arthur Conan Doyle was determined at one point to stop writing such detective stories, so he arranged for Holmes to drown in the abyss at a dramatic moment, and Watson ended The Death of Sherlock Holmes.Unexpectedly, the obsessed British readers could not accept the bad news anyway. Thousands of London policemen, workers, and citizens took to the streets emotionally to gather, and the mighty people carried the coffin in front of the gate of No. 221 Baker Street. , Shouting the slogan "Sherlock Holmes, resurrection" over and over again.This situation moved Arthur Conan Doyle to tears, so he had to let Holmes "return to life" in the next story.Since then, Holmes has lived forever.

So far, the so-called residence of Sherlock Holmes in the novel - 221 Baker Street, London, still receives many letters from "Mr. The whereabouts of Professor Artie and other seemingly absurd content.

Behind the absurdity is the call of warmth - Sherlock Holmes not only belongs to Britain in the 21th century, but also belongs to all mankind in the [-]st century.Many, many years ago, Sherlock Holmes said casually: "The air in London is freshened by my presence." In fact, not only London, the air cleaned by his name must have been to countless corners that we cannot imagine. It's just that we never deliberately collect...

Undoubtedly, "The Complete Works of Detective Sherlock Holmes" can be said to have opened up the "golden age" of detective novels in the world, and it can be called an immortal classic.It has been translated into 57 languages, and has become popular all over the world and highly praised by readers. It is known as "a detective novel that must not be missed".The famous British novelist Somerset Maugham once said: "Compared with "The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes" written by Arthur Conan Doyle, no detective novel has ever enjoyed such a great reputation."

As a great writer who abandoned medicine for literature, at first Arthur Conan Doyle did not expect that Holmes would have such a huge influence on his predecessors and later, and finally bring him such a long-lasting great honor .This image first appeared in his works "The Tracking of Blood Letters" and "The Secret of the Four Signatures". Those two small collections were published successively from 1887 to 1890. Many publishing houses rejected manuscripts, but unexpectedly, once the work came out, there were countless followers, and a religious fanaticism for Sherlock Holmes was once formed.So Arthur Conan Doyle has been out of control since then, and has written 39 detective stories of Sherlock Holmes intermittently in 56 years.These stories were later collected together to form The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes.Subsequently, all countries began to publish it one after another, including Eskimo and Esperanto translations, so far the total number of copies in the world has reached tens of millions.

Sherlock Holmes is also well-known in China, and its earliest entry into China can even be traced back to 1896, when it was serialized in "Current Affairs" under the name "The Case of Yingbao Exploration and Pirates", and signed "This book is written by Huazhen" .Hua Zhen is Watson. The reason why the name of the author Arthur Conan Doyle does not appear may be that most of the novel is narrated from Watson's perspective, which caused the translator's misunderstanding.

In the following century, there have been no fewer than twenty or thirty Chinese translations of "The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes" in the past century.

May 2009, 5 is the 22th anniversary of the birth of "Father of Sherlock Holmes" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and "Fortune fans" around the world have launched various commemorative activities for this.As one of the senior "Fu fans", I think that the best commemorative way I can dedicate myself is to translate Sherlock Holmes after intensively reading the book countless times in the past 150 years.In fact, in the minds of thorough "Fufu fans", Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle and even Watson have already overlapped deeply. It is not clear whether they appreciate Watson because they are obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, or because they miss Holmes. And I miss Arthur Conan Doyle even more.Out of the pure obsession and love for these three, this translation is fully faithful to the original work and fully draws on the styles and techniques of the predecessors. It also pays more attention to using this book to seek the true expression closer to their souls, to seek Beyond the story, it is closer to the profound connotation of that era.

At the same time, this translation hopes to be more in line with the reading experience of contemporary readers.Of course, due to the limitation of ability and level, the translator knows that there will inevitably be mistakes and omissions and unsatisfactory parts, so experts and readers are kindly requested to correct me.

After all, there is no more Sherlock Holmes in the world.

Fu Yi in Beijing in the early spring of 2010
(End of this chapter)