Sleuth-Hound(侦探猎犬). By Lindsey Fitzharris. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 320 pages; $30. Allen Lane; £25
《侦探猎犬》。林赛·菲茨哈里斯著。法拉尔、斯特劳斯和吉鲁出版社；320页；30美元。艾伦·莱恩出版社；25英镑。
Sherlock Holmes was real—or so lots of people thought. Each month dozens wrote to Arthur Conan Doyle, imploring(恳求) him to forward their letters to the famous detective. (A few asked him to investigate their neighbours; some pleaded for help finding a missing person.) When news of Holmes’s death reached the public in December 1893, newspapers published obituaries.(1893年12月福尔摩斯死讯传开后，报纸刊登了讣告。) It was said that some Londoners wore mourning bands(哀悼臂章).
夏洛克·福尔摩斯是真实存在的——至少很多人这么认为。每个月都有几十人写信给阿瑟·柯南·道尔，恳求他把信件转交给这位著名侦探。（少数人请他调查自己的邻居；一些人恳求帮助寻找失踪者。）1893年12月福尔摩斯死讯传开后，报纸刊登了讣告。据说一些伦敦人还戴上了哀悼臂章。
Of course, Sherlock Holmes was not an actual person: he lived only on the page, in the minds of Doyle’s readers and, later, in films and TV shows. (No human literary character has been portrayed(被演绎) on screen more often—some 250 times—according to Guinness World Records(吉尼斯世界纪录).) But as a terrific new book points out, Holmes was based on a real person: Joseph Bell, a Scottish surgeon who had taught Doyle at the University of Edinburgh in 1878-81 and for whom the young medical student had worked as a clerk.(但正如一本精彩的新书所指出的，福尔摩斯是以真人为原型的：约瑟夫·贝尔，一位苏格兰外科医生，曾在爱丁堡大学教过道尔，年轻的医学生道尔还曾给他当过文书。) In “Sleuth-Hound” Lindsey Fitzharris, a medical historian, tells the forgotten story of an exceptional man known as “the demon of diagnosis(诊断恶魔)”.
当然，夏洛克·福尔摩斯并非真实人物：他只存在于书页上、道尔读者的脑海中，后来又出现在电影和电视节目里。（据吉尼斯世界纪录，没有哪个文学人物在银幕上被演绎的次数比他更多——大约250次。）但正如一本精彩的新书所指出的，福尔摩斯是以真人为原型的：约瑟夫·贝尔，一位苏格兰外科医生，1878至1881年间曾在爱丁堡大学教过道尔，年轻的医学生道尔还曾给他当过文书。在《侦探猎犬》中，医学史学家林赛·菲茨哈里斯讲述了这位被称为“诊断恶魔”的非凡人物被遗忘的故事。