His resentment for his creation festered for a long while before he made his decision. At the time, there seemed to be only one way out: Sherlock Holmes had to die. But the sleuth had a stubborn habit of surviving assassination attempts, and a wiliness and ingenuity which bordered on superhuman. That is why Arthur Conan Doyle needed to create a criminal so fiendish, so diabolically clever, that even Holmes would succumb. The result was a villain like no other: Professor James Moriarty.
Professor Moriarty makes only one physical appearance in the entire Sherlock Holmes canon, and even then he is only a shadowy presence, scarcely tangible to the narrator, Watson. Moriarty is briefly described as a scientist and a theologian with “extraordinary mental powers” who lapsed into criminality on account of “a criminal strain” in his blood. But he is brought to life by the florid praise which Holmes lavishes on him: “He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city.”
この記事は Mystery Scene の Summer #168 2021 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Mystery Scene の Summer #168 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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