# Why didn't Doyle allow supernatual elements in Sherlock Holmes stories? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024 "2019-03-12T20:32:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/1 "2019-03-12T20:32:14Z")
[In this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=872272), **CalMeacham** notes, > [@](#): > > Doyle was very good at separating his fictional detective (and some other creations) from his own beliefs. Holmes very notably dismissed supernatural explanations in The Case of the Sussex Vampire and in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. That got me to wondering, if Doyle did believe so strongly in faeries and the supernatural, why didn’t it appear as a given in his Sherlock Holmes stories? Why no lines such as, “You see, Watson, the fact that Mr. Hennimore was strangled in a locked room with no other way in is a clear sign that out killer must have the ability to materialize through a solid wall!” Doyle was so into the supernatural he was convinced Houdini did his tricks by paranormal means. So why did that all give way to evidence and logic when it came time for his fiction? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/2 "2019-03-12T20:46:02Z")
Not a definitive answer, but my own hypothesis, based on what I know of the man… The stuff Doyle believed in - primarily fairies and spiritualism - would have been either outside the scope of what Holmes dealt with, or short circuit the story, by letting the victim explain what happened instead of letting Holmes solve it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/3 "2019-03-12T20:49:00Z")
Didn’t Doyle really only get into the supernatural relatively late in his lifetime, long after he had created Sherlock Holmes and established the “rules” for the stories about him? ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/4 "2019-03-12T20:49:33Z")
The whole premise behind the Sherlock Holmes stories was that Holmes was a man of logic and science. Conan Doyle was smart enough not to let his personal beliefs wreck the universe that Holmes occupied. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/5 "2019-03-12T20:58:42Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Didn’t Doyle really only get into the supernatural relatively late in his lifetime, long after he had created Sherlock Holmes and established the “rules” for the stories about him? According to his wiki bio: “Doyle struggled to find a publisher for his work. His first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, A Study in Scarlet, was written in 3 weeks when he was 27 and taken by Ward Lock & Co on **20 November 1886** , giving Doyle £25 (£2700 today) for all rights to the story. The piece appeared one year later in the Beeton’s Christmas Annual and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald.[8]” and “ **Also in Southsea in 1887** , influenced by a member of the Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society, Major-General Alfred Wilks Drayson, he began a series of psychic investigations. These included attending around 20 seances, experiments in telepathy and sittings with mediums. Writing to Spiritualist journal Light, that year, he declared himself to be a Spiritualist and spoke of one particular psychic event that had convinced him” {Bolding mine} So it seems that the writing and the interest in the supernatural both started at about the same time. j ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/6 "2019-03-12T21:07:00Z")
> [@Rough\_Draft](#): > > The whole premise behind the Sherlock Holmes stories was that Holmes was a man of logic and science. Conan Doyle was smart enough not to let his personal beliefs wreck the universe that Holmes occupied. But he truly believed that supernatural stuff existed, not just ‘yeah, I think this is true.’ So why not let it be part of Holmes’ world? He believed that Houdini did his escapes by materializing out of his bonds, despite Houdini’s insistence it was all trickery. With that mindset it seems odd that Holmes is so opposite how Doyle thinks the world works. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/7 "2019-03-12T21:14:44Z")
If literally anything is possible, how could anything be deduced? What could be ever be eliminated leaving that which–however improbable–must be the truth. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/8 "2019-03-12T22:13:00Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > If literally anything is possible, how could anything be deduced? What could be ever be eliminated leaving that which–however improbable–must be the truth. That’s the answer, right there. He had to keep it somewhat based in reality, so that readers following along with the mystery might be able to solve it with Holmes. He was a mystery writer, not a science fiction writer. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/9 "2019-03-12T22:15:20Z")
Fool as he was in regard to the supernatural he was an good writer and I’m sure he knew that it was something Sherlock would have no truck with. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/10 "2019-03-12T22:18:19Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > He was a mystery writer, not a science fiction writer. Well, [he was a science fiction writer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Challenger), just not when he wrote the Holmes stories. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/11 "2019-03-12T22:31:47Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Didn’t Doyle really only get into the supernatural relatively late in his lifetime, long after he had created Sherlock Holmes and established the “rules” for the stories about him? Yes, the majority of his stories were written before 1910. I think he didn’t get into spiritualism until late in his life. Of course, Holmes did seed to believe in God. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/12 "2019-03-12T22:33:32Z")
NM. I see by Treppenwitz’s post that I’m wrong. You learn something every day. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/13 "2019-03-12T22:38:12Z")
At about the same time, William Hope Hodgson wrote a series of stories about a detective named Carnacki, who investigated ghosts and other psychic phenomena. The stories are a bit odd to read, because you’re not sure whether they’re going to end with logical explanations or pure handwavium. Carnacki uses an Electric Pentacle in some of his investigations, which I’ve always thought would make a good subject for a diorama. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/14 "2019-03-12T22:38:37Z")
> [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](#): > > Of course, Holmes did seed to believe in God. So did [Father Brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Brown), but that never prevented him from finding natural explanations for things. > [@](#): > > He always emphasises rationality; some stories… poke fun at initially sceptical characters who become convinced of a supernatural explanation for some strange occurrence, but Father Brown easily sees the perfectly ordinary, natural explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/15 "2019-03-12T22:43:48Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > At about the same time, William Hope Hodgson wrote a series of stories about a detective named Carnacki, who investigated ghosts and other psychic phenomena. Yes, I thought of Carnacki in connection with this thread. Those stories are set in a world in which ghosts and such really do exist, but some hauntings are faked, so you don’t know ahead of time whether the phenomena Carnacki is investigating are going to turn out to have natural or supernatural explanations. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/16 "2019-03-12T22:48:45Z")
For that matter, Holmes didn’t entirely reject the possibility of the supernatural. He view was just that, if it did exist, it wasn’t his concern. For a real barghest, if such exists, you’d want a priest. Since he’s not a priest, he couldn’t do anything about a real barghest, so if he’s to do anything, it can only be by proceeding on the assumption that it’s a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/17 "2019-03-13T03:43:10Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yes, I thought of Carnacki in connection with this thread. Those stories are set in a world in which ghosts and such really do exist, but some hauntings are faked, so you don’t know ahead of time whether the phenomena Carnacki is investigating are going to turn out to have natural or supernatural explanations. Is Carnacki the namesake for Carnac The Magnificent? ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/18 "2019-03-13T03:53:24Z")
It can be justified as a commercial decision. Why alienate readers if you needn’t? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/19 "2019-03-13T08:25:35Z")
I don’t know exactly how much Doyle was inspired by Poe, but maybe he thought the parameters were already set when he began writing Holmes. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024/20 "2019-03-13T13:18:29Z")
One thing to note is that many people who believe in spiritualism et al. think it _is_ all very scientific and logical. From that point of view there would be no reason to exclude it from a Holmes story. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-doyle-allow-supernatual-elements-in-sherlock-holmes-stories/831024.md?page=2)