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Quiz about The Life of Sherlock HolmesPart I

The Life of Sherlock Holmes--Part I Quiz

Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels and stories contain clues to Holmes's personal history; have you spotted them? Entertaining for Sherlockians, harder if you haven't read all the stories. No theories, just what's in the canon.

A multiple-choice quiz by pmcbee. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
pmcbee

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
359,583

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
322

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

Last 3 plays: Guest 195 (8/10), Guest 146 (9/10), Guest 93 (5/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Although Holmes almost never mentions "his own people" to Watson, he does let a few clues fall. Which of the following does Holmes say of his family? Hint

All of these

"My great-grandfather was reputedly a favourite of Queen ______, but I've always put that down to swank."

"My ancestors were country squires... ."

"... [A] curious piece, it dates back to old Gwillim Holmmes, Esquire of Suffolk."

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. After coming up to London from university, where did Sherlock Holmes study medicine? Hint

Lourdes

"Barts" (St. Bartholomew's Hospital)

Holmes did not study medicine.

Charing Cross Hospital

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Question 3 of 10

3. Sherlock Holmes claims that his prodigious powers of observation and analysis are hereditary, attributing the inheritance to his grandmother. Who was this grandmother's brother? Hint

The French philosopher Manout

The Prussian forensic archeologist von Altbeiner

The Belgian scientist Platout

The French artist Vernet

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Question 4 of 10

4. Where did Holmes take rooms when he first came up to London after leaving university? Hint

At 221B Baker Street, of course

In Montague Street, just around the corner from the British Museum

In Great Orme Street, a narrow thoroughfare at the northeast side of the British Museum

In Baker Street, hard by the murderers' gallery of the wax museum

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Question 5 of 10

5. Although Sherlock Holmes states that "women have seldom been an attraction to me", he nevertheless has shown himself susceptible, and was even once engaged. Who was Holmes's fianc�? Hint

Irene, an opera singer and adventuress from New Jersey

Mary, a housekeeper from Suffolk

Enola, the tomboy daughter of a neighboring squire in Hartfordshire

Agatha, a young person from Hampstead

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. The usually solitary Sherlock Holmes had at least one fast friend while at university. Which event launched Holmes's friendship with Victor Trevor? Hint

Trevor gave Holmes a rare drubbing at single-stick

Trevor knocked Holmes downstairs one morning on his way to chapel

Trevor was a 'ferocious Blue' in fencing, yet Holmes won their first match

Trevor's dog bit Holmes so badly that Holmes was laid up for over a week

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Question 7 of 10

7. Holmes had a "hated rival" for a woman's affections. He also describes someone as "my hated rival upon the Surrey shore." Who was this? Hint

Clay, the man in the bank vault

Moriarty, who would have made a "grand meenister"

Barker, the man with sunglasses and a Masonic tie-pin

Lestrade, the rat-faced fellow

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. In addition to his digs at 221B Baker Street, Holmes has "at least five small refuges" that he uses for a specific purpose. Where are these, and what does he use them for? Hint

In Surrey, Exeter and France, for a change of scenery

In London, to change his personality

In several coastal towns, to spy on the Germans

In the attic of his mind, for storing lumber

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. Assuming that he was indeed the age he appeared to be to the narrator of "His Last Bow", how old was Sherlock Holmes at the beginning of World War I? Hint

Ageless: he was a ghost

In his 50s

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Question 10 of 10

10. With whose monogram does Sherlock Holmes deface the walls of the sitting room at 221B Baker Street, and with what does he do it? Hint

The Queen's, with bullets

I.A.N. (for Irene Adler Norton), with the jack-knife from the mantlepiece

His own, with vitriolic acid

Black Peter's, with a harpoon

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Although Holmes almost never mentions "his own people" to Watson, he does let a few clues fall. Which of the following does Holmes say of his family?

Answer: "My ancestors were country squires... ."

Holmes drops this tidbit and some other interesting family history in "The Greek Interpreter". The others are figments of my imagination, but I completely believe that Great-Grandpa was a player.

2. After coming up to London from university, where did Sherlock Holmes study medicine?

Answer: Holmes did not study medicine.

Although Holmes apparently used the laboratories and took some classes at a teaching hospital (most likely St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College), he did not study medicine. Stamford infers, and Holmes confirms, that Holmes is not studying medicine in "A Study in Scarlet". Stamford, who introduced Watson to Holmes, was Watson's dresser at Bart's, and Charing Cross Hospital is mentioned notably in "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

3. Sherlock Holmes claims that his prodigious powers of observation and analysis are hereditary, attributing the inheritance to his grandmother. Who was this grandmother's brother?

Answer: The French artist Vernet

Holmes reveals this branch of his family tree in "The Greek Interpreter". Interestingly, Holmes seems to feel that his facility for observation and deduction is an expression of an artistic heritage, attributable to his grandmother's brother being an artist: "Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms." The very real French artist Emile Jean Horace Vernet (1789-1863) was of the right era to be Holmes's great-uncle.

4. Where did Holmes take rooms when he first came up to London after leaving university?

Answer: In Montague Street, just around the corner from the British Museum

Holmes mentions his post-university residence in "The Musgrave Ritual", a case brought to him by a former fellow student. Holmes did not move to 221B Baker Street until after his first meeting with Watson in "A Study in Scarlet". The reference to Great Orme Street appears in "The Red Circle". I can't recall a reference to Madame Toussaud's wax works in Holmes, but am well-prepared to be corrected: it was established in Baker Street in 1835; surely Holmes would have studied the criminal figures in it!

5. Although Sherlock Holmes states that "women have seldom been an attraction to me", he nevertheless has shown himself susceptible, and was even once engaged. Who was Holmes's fianc�?

Answer: Agatha, a young person from Hampstead

Agatha was housemaid to the title character in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton". Holmes is remorseless about romancing Milverton's maid to get information about the blackmailer's Hampstead household but, he says, "I rejoice to say I have a hated rival, who will certainly cut me out the instant that my back is turned." Although "Irene" was THE woman, they were never engaged. Enola Holmes (neither a fianc� nor a country neighbor) is a marvelous literary creation of Nancy Springer's and does not appear in the Conan Doyle stories, while Holmes's unnamed "old housekeeper" in Suffolk definitely is not an object of his amour.

6. The usually solitary Sherlock Holmes had at least one fast friend while at university. Which event launched Holmes's friendship with Victor Trevor?

Answer: Trevor's dog bit Holmes so badly that Holmes was laid up for over a week

Trevor's bull terrier "froze onto" Holmes's ankle one morning as Holmes went down to chapel, and Trevor came to visit Holmes during the ten days that the latter was "laid by the heels." Holmes says that, other than fencing and boxing, he didn't go in for sport at university.

There is no indication that he ever fenced or engaged in single-stick combat with Trevor. Trevor later brought Holmes his first case while the young men were still at university. Both case and friendship are described in "The Gloria Scott".

7. Holmes had a "hated rival" for a woman's affections. He also describes someone as "my hated rival upon the Surrey shore." Who was this?

Answer: Barker, the man with sunglasses and a Masonic tie-pin

The shadowy Mr. Barker appears in "The Adventure of the Retired Colourman". Holmes appears to be speaking hyperbolically: Barker is a "rival" private detective (although presumably not a consulting detective), but Holmes appears to look upon him as a colleague and to some extent a friend. Moriarty and Lestrade need no introduction, and the intriguing Hon. Mr. John Clay appears in "The Red-Headed League". Holmes says of Clay, "I have one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. John Clay." A smorgasboard for thought for pastiche writers!

8. In addition to his digs at 221B Baker Street, Holmes has "at least five small refuges" that he uses for a specific purpose. Where are these, and what does he use them for?

Answer: In London, to change his personality

In "The Adventure of Black Peter", Watson notes that Holmes frequently uses disguises, and that he has at least five small refuges in different parts of London in which he is "able to change his personality." This wonderfully quirky phrase seems so much more evocative and precise a description for Holmes's vaunted acting gifts than being merely "able to change into a disguise." Conan Doyle doesn't elaborate on these refuges, but in her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes stories, Laurie R. King describes a number of them in rich detail.

9. Assuming that he was indeed the age he appeared to be to the narrator of "His Last Bow", how old was Sherlock Holmes at the beginning of World War I?

Answer: 60

"His Last Bow" is set in August 1914, on the eve of World War I. In it Holmes is described as "a tall, gaunt man of sixty." This leads most "Sherlockians" (or "Holmesians," in the UK) confidently to place Holmes's birth year as 1854. However, at the time he is being described--not by Watson but by an omniscient third person narrator--Holmes is in disguise as the purported Irish-American spy, Altamont. So just possibly it was only his incognito that was sixty?

10. With whose monogram does Sherlock Holmes deface the walls of the sitting room at 221B Baker Street, and with what does he do it?

Answer: The Queen's, with bullets

In the opening pages of "The Musgrave Ritual", Watson gives vent to some of his peeves about Holmes's shortcomings as a housekeeper and roommate. Being something of a stodgy conventionalist about such things, Watson notes his opinion that target practice is an outdoor activity, but that "Holmes, in one of his queer humors, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet pocks... . " ("V.R." stands for "Victoria Regina.")

Source: Author pmcbee

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