Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the best-known of all fictional characters. From the first appearance of the short stories in the Strand Magazine chronicling his extraordinary deductive powers, Holmes became a larger-than-life figure whose devotees were stricken when it seemed that the great detective had perished at the Reichenbach Falls in The Adventure of the Final Problem. Young men put mourning crepe in their hats, and the author was forced by public demand to resurrect his hero.