Character guide
Who's who in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892): meet the 14 main characters, see how they connect, and open a detailed profile for each.
14 illustrated profiles
Also known as Holmes, Mr. Holmes
The world's foremost consulting detective, whose extraordinary powers of observation and deduction unravel every mystery in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Bonds:JohnOld friendsHelenCase consultationJabezCase partnersVioletCase consultation
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Also known as Watson, Dr. Watson
Holmes's loyal friend, flat-mate and biographer, a retired army doctor whose steady common sense and warm narration frame every one of the Adventures.
Bonds:HolmesOld friendsLestradeCase colleaguesHelenCase associatesJabezNew acquaintances
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Also known as the woman, Miss Adler, Irene Norton
The clever and daring American adventuress and retired opera singer who outwits Holmes in A Scandal in Bohemia; ever afterward 'the woman' in his memory.
Bonds:KingFormer acquaintancesGodfreyClose associatesJohnWedding witness
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Also known as the landlady
The patient, motherly landlady of 221B Baker Street who keeps house for Holmes and Watson and shows in their many visitors throughout the Adventures.
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Also known as Lestrade, the inspector
A dogged, energetic professional detective of Scotland Yard who crosses paths with Holmes among the official police of the Adventures, more persistent than gifted.
Bonds:JohnCase colleagues
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Also known as the King, Wilhelm von Ormstein, Count Von Kramm
Wilhelm von Ormstein, hereditary King of Bohemia, who calls on Holmes in disguise to recover a compromising photograph held by Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia.
Bonds:IreneFormer acquaintances
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Also known as Mr. Norton, Norton
A handsome young lawyer of the Inner Temple who courts and secretly marries the opera singer Irene Adler, upsetting Holmes's plans in A Scandal in Bohemia.
Bonds:IreneClose associatesJohnWedding witness
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Also known as Dr. Roylott, Grimesby Roylott, Roylott
The violent, impoverished last heir of Stoke Moran, a former doctor in India with a murderous temper, who is the sinister villain of The Adventure of the Speckled Band.
Bonds:HelenStepfather and stepdaughter
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Also known as Miss Stoner, Helen
The terrified young stepdaughter of Dr. Grimesby Roylott who begs Holmes to investigate her twin sister's mysterious death before her own wedding, in The Adventure of the Speckled Band.
Bonds:HolmesCase consultationRoylottStepfather and stepdaughterJohnCase associates
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Also known as Mr. Wilson, Wilson
The gullible red-headed London pawnbroker lured into a bogus salaried job copying the encyclopaedia, which leaves his shop free for a bank robbery, in The Red-Headed League.
Bonds:HolmesCase partnersJohnNew acquaintances
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Also known as Vincent Spaulding, Clay
A brilliant, cold-blooded criminal of royal descent, murderer, thief and forger, who poses as the pawnbroker's assistant 'Vincent Spaulding' to tunnel from a cellar into a bank vault in The Red-Headed League.
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Also known as Miss Hunter, Violet
The plucky, level-headed governess whose uneasy new post and its strange demands draw Holmes into The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.
Bonds:HolmesCase consultationJohnCase companions
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Also known as Miss Sutherland, Mary
The trusting, short-sighted typist jilted at the altar by the mysterious 'Hosmer Angel,' whose disappearance Holmes quietly explains in A Case of Identity.
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Also known as Hugh Boone, St. Clair
A respectable suburban gentleman secretly leading a far more lucrative life as the disfigured professional beggar Hugh Boone, in The Man with the Twisted Lip.
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Storieta keeps this cast at your side while you read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, portraits, names, and an ask-anything assistant that only knows what you've read so far. No spoilers, ever.
Read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as a graphic novel
Explore the book page for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and read the opening free, with no account needed.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of English detective and mystery stories centered on Sherlock Holmes, a private investigator whose cases draw him into matters of crime, secrecy, scandal, and high social consequence. Holmes works from rooms in Baker Street, aided and observed by Dr. Watson, who records his methods and exploits. The book invites you into a world where a muddy shoe, a chemical stain, a scrap of paper, or an unusual sentence may carry more weight than an obvious clue. Holmes’s investigations range beyond the official police, and even a visitor in disguise with a dangerous secret can become the subject of his exacting attention.
The prose has the crisp, attentive character of late-nineteenth-century storytelling, combining formal narration with lively conversation and richly observed London interiors, clothing, manners, and social rank. Watson provides warmth, curiosity, and occasional bewilderment, while Holmes answers confusion with cool logic, theatrical confidence, and a sharp distinction between seeing and observing. Readers drawn to methodical puzzles, atmospheric period settings, memorable detective personalities, and mysteries solved through close attention will find an engaging sequence of cases.
Every cast illustrated from the original text.
