Sherlock Holmes vs. Hercule Poirot:\\The Comparison Between A. C. Doyles and A. Christies Great Detectives

Mgr. Kristýna Onderková

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The prime concern of this thesis is to examine the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. It employs a comparative approach; i.e. there are explored the similarities and differences between the two Great Detectives. The first chapter is introductory and describes the development of detective fiction from its prehistory to its Golden Age, focusing mainly on British, eventually French authors. The second part of the first chapter deals with the development of the figure of the Great Detective from its ancestors appearing in the eighteenth century crime novels to Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. This chapter is mainly based on Jan Cigáneks Umění detektivky, Pavel Gryms Sherlock Holmes a ti druzí, and Julian Symons Bloody Murder. I also used essays by Richard Alewyn, Michael Holquist, and Stephen Knight collected in the volume Poetics of Murder, and Karel Čapeks Holmesiáda čili o detektivkách. For Christies and Doyles biographies I mostly exploited electronic sources, which are listed in the Works Cited. The second chapter focuses on the figures of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. In each part of this chapter, I try to examine one aspect of these characters: their entrance into the fictional world, their physical appearance, their mental traits, their methods of investigation, and the figures of their companions, Dr Watson and Captain Hasting. Each part of the chapter starts with Sherlock Holmes and proceeds to Hercule Poirot. For the examination of Holmes I have primarily used Doyles works collected in the volume The Complete Sherlock Holmes: a novel The Study in Scarlet and short stories: The Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, The Five Orange Pips, The Musgrave Ritual, The Engineers Thumb, and The Final Problem. To analyse Poirot, I have mainly used Christies novels The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain, and short stories collected in Poirot Investigates, namely The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor, The Mystery of Hunters Lodge, The Adventure of the Cheap Flat, The Adventure of the Western Star, The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb, and The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman. The observations in this chapter are furthermore supported by quotations and thoughts from secondary sources, such as the works by Cigánek and Grym, Julian Symons The Great Detectives, and many others, listed in the Works Cited.

Keywords

Sherlock, Holmes, Arthur, Conan, Doyle, Hercule, Poirot, Agatha, Christie, comparison, detective, story, mystery, novel

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 31. 5. 2006

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 23. 1. 2006
• Supervisor: PhDr. Lidia Kyzlinková, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Bachelor programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature