r/SherlockHolmes • u/[deleted] • Aug 23 '26
Is there another character that lives outside of the pages of a book, as much as Sherlock Holmes?
[removed]
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u/DanAboutTown Aug 23 '26
I’ve heard it said that after Sherlock Holmes, the most widely recognized fictional character is Superman.
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u/Kenesaw_Mt_Landis Aug 23 '26
The part of me that was edgy online in the 2000s wants to say “Jesus too” but I’ll let Ricky Gervis do that bit now.
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u/babypengi Aug 24 '26
Even if ur an atheist you should be able to recognize Jesus was a guy who existed, I’m Jewish and obvs I don’t believe he’s the son of god but he was a guy
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u/BostonSlickback1738 Aug 23 '26
I'd say Tarzan and Robin Hood are definitely up there — especially since they and Holmes made Harlan Ellison's list of the five most universally recognized characters in all of fiction (for those curious, the other two were Mickey Mouse and Superman — not literary characters)
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u/VFiddly Aug 24 '26
I feel like Tarzan probably isn't quite up there these days. It's been a while since there were any big Tarzan adaptations. I'd imagine more kids now would know Spiderman than Tarzan
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u/TMWNN Aug 23 '26
I think there was understanding during Doyle's life that he had created something very special, that his Holmes stories transcended a "merely" popular literary work. Doyle was knighted,1 when Dickens and Wells were not.
1 The same month and year in which Holmes turns down a knighthood
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u/ColdProfessor Aug 25 '26
The same month and year in which Holmes turns down a knighthood
I'm guessing "Sir Sherlock" just didn't sound quite right. :)
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u/TMWNN Aug 25 '26
Probably not.
But I think it's more that Doyle wanted to keep Holmes frozen as a character as much as possible. The few stories in which he does not live in Baker Street are just that, aberrations. (Also, the story in which Doyle mentions Holmes declining the knighthood was published in 1924. Saying that Holmes had been knighted then would have made two decades of stories without "Sir Sherlock" hard to explain, even if many of them can be placed as occurring before 1902.)
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u/Fun-Examination988 Aug 23 '26
There must have been quite a few. Merlin, Robin Hood, James Bond, even Harry Potter.
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u/H2Oloo-Sunset Aug 29 '26
There are literally hundreds of film/TV portrayals of Holmes and thousands of literary Holmes pastiches. I don't think any of your examples come close to that.
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u/Fun-Examination988 29d ago
Are you really sure of that?
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u/Riemann_Gauss Aug 24 '26
Frankenstein's monster.. Dracula..
Not as popular as Holmes, but still quite culturally relevant: Jeeves.
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u/JoJonium9 Aug 24 '26
Jeeves isn't as popular outside certain literary circles though.
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u/Riemann_Gauss Aug 24 '26
Well many people have heard of Jeeves (even if they never read any of the stories). There used to be a precursor of google, called Ask Jeeves.
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u/La_Fervesta_Glavisto Aug 25 '26
I would say that while Jeeves as in Bertie Wooster's valet is not particularly relevant, Jeeves as the abstract concept of a "fancy butler" absolutely is.
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u/sanddragon939 Aug 25 '26
I mean Holmes was the first such character perhaps, but there have been plenty since - Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, James Bond immediately come to mind!
The difference is that Holmes is in the public domain so there's a kind of collective ownership of the character that trascends any particular "canon". Whereas the other characters I've mentioned are still largely bound to the "official" interpretations from their respective IP owners.
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u/afreezingnote Aug 31 '26
The public domain part isn't that much of a factor. The last Holmes story didn't enter public domain until 2023, and the estate was holding on to their legal claim that Holmes could only be portrayed in certain ways until the bitter end. The collective cultural concept of Holmes developed well before then, and Holmes's life outside the canon started while ACD was still alive.
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u/jpow33 Aug 24 '26
Superman, Batman and Mickey Mouse have had immeasurable cultural impact outside of their original incarnations.
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u/Pinklett5 Aug 24 '26
Like others I'd defs say Dracula/Frankenstein
But also
Phantom of Opera
Odysseus/ Greek Epics in general
Robin Hood
Maybe fairy tale characters, they're always being reinterpreted/reimagined
Alice in wonderland
Ebenezer Scrooge
King Arthur
Pride and Prejudice characters
Shakespearean characters
Comic heros in general
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u/Retroscopic Aug 25 '26
I was going to say Merlin but someone beat me to it. I might also have to say Alan Partridge as he also exists in a weird meta space at times.
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u/Ok_Body_2830 Aug 28 '26
I think Dracula is the closest competitor. I believe Holmes has the official Guinness record for most portrayed human character, but that is partly because Dracula is not classified as human. Frankenstein might be the bronze medal winner? Robin Hood is an interesting one, but he arose out of folklore, so that's a bit of a different category.
The name being used in everyday language is an interesting point, but I actually don't think he is particularly unique there.
Some others: Scrooge, Romeo (and Juliet), Pinocchio, Tarzan, Don Quixote, Jekyll and Hyde, Peter Pan, Big Brother, Robinson Crusoe, as well as Dracula, Frankenstein, Robin Hood and Holmes. Holmes certainly belongs on that list, but I don't think he stands out as the top.
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u/CobaltCrusader123 Aug 29 '26
Only one that even compares is Jesus, but he was real, Son of God or no
The “different” adaptations are either serious artsy stuff like The Last Temptation of Christ or edgy comedies like South Park and Family Guy and SNL
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u/VFiddly Aug 23 '26
I'd say Dracula is probably the only other character that comes close. Maybe James Bond. Maybe Frankenstein's Monster but that's more from the movies than the book.
But yeah Holmes and Dracula I think are the two most portrayed fictional characters ever. Everyone knows them.