"My name is Sherlock Holmes.

It is my business to know what other

people don't know."

―"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

Little is known of Holmes' early life or his family background, save that
he is the grand nephew of the French artist Emile Jean Horace
Vernet.[citation needed] An estimate of Holmes's age in "His Last Bow"
places his year of birth at 1854; the story, set in August 1914, describes
him as 60 years of age. It is also known that in his younger years,
Holmes attended at least one of the country's leading universities ...
though it cannot be ascertained whether he was an alumnus of Oxford,
Cambridge, or both. Sherlock has an older brother, Mycroft, whom the
younger Holmes considered to be more intellectually gifted than himself.
Mycroft spent much of his life in Her Majesty's Secret Service. In "The
Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Sherlock refers to Mycroft as being
"[s]even years [his] senior". If Sherlock date of birth of 1854 is correct,
that places Mycroft's date of birth as 1847.

At the age of 20, Holmes was to find his life's calling. For it was in that
year that he began his illustrious career as the world's first consulting
detective, taking his first case...which his future friend and companion
Dr John Watson would come to title, in his chronicles of Holmes'
endeavours, "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott". His study of science at
university having informed his already keen mind and powers of
observation, Holmes employed a process of deductive reasoning in his
work, with great success.

In early 1881 he is presented as an independent student of chemistry

with a variety of very curious side-interests, almost all of which turn out
to be single-mindedly bent towards making him superior at solving
crimes. In another early story, "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott", more
background on what caused Holmes to become a detective is presented:
a college friend's father complimented him very highly on his deductive
skills.
In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", Holmes states that his
grandmother was the sister of the French painter "Vernet" (presumably
Horace Vernet).

In A Study in Scarlet, Dr Watson makes an evaluation of Sherlock's

skills:

Knowledge of Literature – Nil.

Knowledge of Astronomy – Nil.

Knowledge of Politics – Feeble.

Knowledge of Botany – Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and

poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.

Knowledge of Geology – Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different

soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his
trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of
London he had received them.

Knowledge of Chemistry – Profound.

Knowledge of Anatomy – Accurate, but unsystematic.

Knowledge of Sensationalism – Immense. He appears to know every

detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.

Plays the violin well.

Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman

Has a good practical knowledge of British law

Later stories make clear, however, that the above list is misleading, and
that Holmes, who has just met Watson, is pulling Watson's leg. Two
examples: despite Holmes' supposed ignorance of politics, in "A
Scandal in Bohemia" he immediately recognises the true identity of the
supposed Count von Kramm as Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von
Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Feldstein and hereditary King of
Bohemia. Regarding non-sensational literature, his speech is replete
with references to the Bible, Shakespeare, and even Goethe. This is
somewhat inconsistent with his scolding Watson for telling him about
how the Earth revolved around the Sun, instead of the other way around,
given that Holmes tried to avoid having his memory cluttered with
information that is of no use to him in detective work.

Holmes is also a competent cryptanalyst. He relates to Watson, "I am

fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author
of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred
and sixty separate ciphers". One such scheme is solved in "The
Adventure of the Dancing Men", which uses a series of stick figures.

In A Study in Scarlet, Conan Doyle presents a comparison between his

sleuth and two earlier, more established fictional detectives: Edgar Allan
Poe's C. Auguste Dupin and Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq. The
former had first appeared in The Murders in the Rue Morgue, first
published in 1841, and the latter in L'Affaire Lerouge (The Lerouge
Affair) in 1866. The brief discussion between Watson and Holmes about
the two characters begins with a comment by Watson:

You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such
individuals did exist outside of stories."

Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. "No doubt you think that you are
complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin," he observed. "Now, in my
opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in
on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an
hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some
analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a
phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine."

Beryl Coronet". At the end of "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", he

is touched by Lestrade's deep gratitude for assisting Scotland Yard.
Watson says, "he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions
than I had ever seen him". And, in "The Adventure of the Three
Garridebs", Watson is wounded by a forger he and Holmes are pursuing.
While the bullet wound proved to be "quite superficial", Watson is
moved by Holmes' reaction:
"It was worth a wound – it was worth many wounds – to know the depth
of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes
were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one
and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great
brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in
that moment of revelation."