Six Napoleons is a detective story written by a famous English writer. The approximate date for the release of the text is the end of the 19th century. In the story, the main role is assigned to the great detective Sherlock Holmes. The plot is connected with a mysterious investigation, which revolves around the search for a maniac who smashes the plaster busts of the emperor Napoleon. Read more about the main character, the content of the detective story, its advantages and disadvantages that appear in the work (according to readers), as well as about the outstanding author, we will tell in our article.
Sherlock Information
Sherlock Holmes is a literary character created by renowned writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The works written by the famous author about the activities of a London private detective belong to the classics of the detective genre. The prototype of the detective is Dr. Joseph Bell, who served with the great writer and became famous for his ability to guess the character and past of a person using the smallest details.
The first work was written by Arthur Conan Doyle at the end of the 19th century. The story was called "Study in crimson tones." The latest collection was released in 1927 and had the name “Sherlock Holmes Archive”.
Characteristic literary hero
The author himself never wrote down the date of birth of the great detective. However, fans of his work more than once made attempts to calculate the exact date of birth of Sherlock Holmes. As a result, they agreed that this is January 6th.
As for the year of birth of the London detective, most Holmes researchers converged on the date of 1854. This conclusion came to my mind after reading the story “His farewell bow”, which describes the actions of 1914. The story says that at that time Sherlock was 60 years old.
By education, a private detective, apparently a biochemist. At the time of meeting with his friend and assistant Dr. Watson, he served as a laboratory assistant in a clinic in London. Sherlock Holmes is a multi-faceted person with diverse talents. He is not mercantile, the most important thing for him is work, and not a monetary reward for it.
The detective is a convinced bachelor who has never experienced any romantic feelings for the representative of the opposite sex. On the contrary, he repeatedly assured that he did not like ladies, although he was always polite to them and, if necessary, was ready to help. The great detective prefers to smoke strong tobacco. Especially in cases of high mental stress.
You can read in more detail and make the most of the character, habits, and also the worldview of a London private detective by reading one of the author’s works. In our article, we will talk about a small detective story with the participation of Sherlock Holmes called “Six Napoleons”. Let's get acquainted.
The Six Napoleons: Summary
The narrative of the story begins with the conversation of the protagonist with Inspector Lestrade, who went to visit Sherlock Holmes. Reporting the news taking place in Scotland Yard, the inspector casually talks about a mysterious case, which most likely relates more to Dr. Watson than to the famous London private detective.
A robbery was committed in a small shop, but the stolen item, namely an inexpensive cast of a bust of the French emperor Napoleon, was smashed immediately on the territory of the trading shop. A little later, another similar case occurs in which the same bust is involved, the only difference is that the offender commits a robbery with burglary.
Sherlock Holmes is beginning to be interested in such coincidences, especially since soon the mysterious robberies begin to turn into murders. So, in the story “Six Napoleons”, the criminal commits the murder of an unknown man in the house of a journalist who kept the next bust of the emperor.
The main character in the course of the investigation calculates the criminal, who turns out to be an Italian named Beppo. Before the incident, the criminal was a famous sculptor. However, not so long ago, he steals the pearl of Borgia and hides it in one of Napoleon's busts. After that, for a while, the man goes to prison, ceases to do what he loves and becomes a real criminal. In order to somehow find the hidden pearl, he breaks one by one bust after bust.
Advantages of the work
The advantages of the Six Napoleons story include the presence of a certain intrigue in the plot, the presence of detective meaning and the complexity of the investigation. The work is written with a share of humor inherent in the narratives of the author, and with the difficulty of understanding the motive for the crime, especially at the beginning of the story.
The negative sides of the story
There are no obvious flaws in the work written by the English writer Conan Doyle. The only negative can be considered that the story is small in volume.
In general, the work “Six Napoleons” is a funny adventure, which is written with a detective meaning.
Screen adaptation of the work
This story is part of the series "The Return of Sherlock Holmes." Six Napoleons was filmed at the beginning of the 20th century by film director George Ridgewell in the UK. Based on the wartime plot, directors from the United States of America shot a picture called The Pearl of Death. The main roles were played by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
In addition, a mysterious story formed the basis of one of the episodes of the British television series Sherlock, which began to appear on BBC One and PBS, starting in January 2017.
Weapons and martial arts
Various works of Arthur Conan Doyle on the activities of Sherlock Holmes indicate that the London detective owns various types of weapons and hand-to-hand combat. In the course of the narrative, you can find lines where the whip is indicated as the favorite weapon of the famous detective.
Directly in the story Six Napoleons, the author emphasized that Sherlock Holmes repeatedly appears with an armed whip. And it is mentioned that it was additionally weighted with lead, which is poured into the handle. At the end of the story, Sherlock smashes the last plaster bust of the French emperor with a whip and finds a hidden pearl in it.
Six Napoleons: reviews
Readers who read the story agree that at the beginning the plot seems quite primitive. One gets the impression that The Six Napoleons is more of a humorous story, in which we will talk about some kind of crazy person who has mania and hatred for Napoleon. Therefore, when it becomes clear that the story is not as primitive as it seemed at first glance, the story begins to interest even more.
In this work, the writer Conan Doyle surprised readers with his narrative style. Here, a subtle mixture of humor, detective story and intrigue is collected, which indicates the manifestation of a new facet of the author's talent.
In addition, the book describes an interesting approach to business, characteristic of the famous London private detective. Sherlock uses all his strength and skills to figure out exactly where the gypsum busts are made, and find out what happened to each of them. And he, no doubt, succeeds. The insidious criminal is exposed and punished according to his deserts, and all this thanks to the subtle mind, intelligence and decisive character that is inherent in the experienced detective Sherlock Holmes.