The Count of Monte Cristo
We were watching the Olympic windsurfing off Marseille in the Mediterranean.
It was impressive and the commentary was informative. Barry was talking me through race tactics, none of which were sticking, while I was wondering what horse racing had to do with it. Then I realised it was course racing - or coarse racing? No, course racing.
One of the commentators said something about where the Count of Monte Cristo had lived. It almost sounded as though he thought Le Comte de Monte-Cristo had been an actual person rather than a figment of Alexandre Dumas’ imagination, who was helped to realisation by his collaborating writer, August Maquet.
It’s akin to people believing that Sherlock Holmes was a real person living at 221B Baker Street.
Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired to create the great detective by Doctor Joseph Bell, whom he met in 1877 and worked for as a clerk. Joseph Bell (1837-1911), was a Scottish surgeon and a lecturer in medicine at Edinburgh University. He emphasised the importance of careful observation when diagnosing ailments and was often able to determine a patient’s employment by so doing. He became a forerunner in forensic science, especially pathology, at a time when such methods were in their infancy in criminal investigations. He wrote several medical textbooks and was also Queen Victoria’s personal physician when she was in Scotland.
The fantasy of Sherlock Holmes being a real person is further encouraged by the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street, which is actually at 239 Baker Street. The museum opened in 1990 and even has a blue plaque. A blue plaque is a marker to commemorate famous people or notable events.
As an insight into the Victorian London of an iconic detective, it is unparalleled and entirely fictitious. The accoutrements of Victorian life are there in abundance and visitors may be forgiven for feeling slightly confused by this elaborate acknowledgement of a literary fabricated phenomenon.
