| Inspector Lestrade | |
|---|---|
| Sherlock Holmes character | |
Inspector Lestrade arresting a suspect, by Sidney Paget. |
|
| First appearance | A Study in Scarlet |
| Last appearance | The Adventure of the Three Garridebs |
| Created by | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Police Officer |
| Title | Inspector |
| Nationality | English |
Inspector G. Lestrade or Mr. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade. In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", Lestrade's first initial is revealed to be G. Lestrade is described as "a lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking," in A Study in Scarlet and "a little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow" in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". He was summarised by H. Paul Jeffers in the following words:
"He is the most famous detective ever to walk the corridors of Scotland Yard, yet he existed only in the fertile imagination of a writer. He was Inspector Lestrade. We do not know his first name, only his initial: G. Although he appears thirteen times in the immortal adventures of Sherlock Holmes, nothing is known of the life outside the Yard of the detective whom Dr. Watson described unflatteringly as sallow, rat-faced, and dark-eyed and whom Holmes saw as quick and energetic but wholly conventional, lacking in imagination, and normally out of his depth—the best of a bad lot who had reached the top in the CID by bulldog tenacity."[1]
Contents |
| Case | Case Date | Publishing Date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Study in Scarlet | 1881 | 1887 | London, England |
| "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" | 1888 | 1893 | London Borough of Croydon |
| "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" | 1888 | 1892 | London |
| "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" | 1889 | 1891 | Herefordshire |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | 1889 | 1901 | Devon |
| "The Adventure of the Empty House" | 1894 | 1903 | London, England |
| "The Adventure of the Second Stain" | 1888 | 1905 | London, England |
| "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" | 1894 | 1903 | South Norwood |
| "The Bruce-Partington Plans" | 1895 | 1908 | Woolwich |
| "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" | 1899 | 1904 | Hampstead, now London Borough of Camden. |
| "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" | 1900 | 1904 | London, England |
| "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" | 1901 | 1911 | Lausanne |
| "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" | 1902 | 1924 | Middlesex, by Tyburn Tree |
In the popular London media, Lestrade is depicted as one of the best detectives at Scotland Yard, chiefly because Holmes regularly allows him to take the credit for his deductions in cases such as "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". In truth, he was already well-established as a respected policeman with 20 years in the Force before A Study in Scarlet. It is observed by Holmes that Lestrade and another detective, Tobias Gregson, have an ongoing rivalry, and he identifies the two as "the best of a bad lot ... both quick and energetic, but conventional — shockingly so." Holmes once remarked in "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" that, although Lestrade had almost no skill at actual crime-solving, his tenacity and determination are what brought him to the highest ranks in the official police force. His conventional nature leads him to grow frustrated at Holmes' methods, becoming "indifferent and contemptuous" to his exploration in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". In both "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" and "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", he states that he is "a practical man" in dismissal of Holmes' apparently trifling actions. Nevertheless, Lestrade's appreciation of Holmes' methods grows — likely aided by being credited with Holmes' successes — and by the time of The Hound of the Baskervilles Watson observes "from the reverential way in which Lestrade gazed at my companion that he had learned a good deal since the days when they had first worked together."
Additionally, despite a disregard for Lestrade's single-mindedness, Holmes appears to have an affection for the detective. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes comments to Dr. Watson that Lestrade "is the best of the professionals, I think," meaning the professional detectives employed by Scotland Yard as opposed to himself, and it is Lestrade more than any other official that Holmes works with. In "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" it is revealed that Lestrade regularly drops in on Holmes and Watson at 221B Baker Street, sharing the news of Scotland Yard and discussing his current cases with Holmes. For his part, Lestrade gradually develops an appreciation of the detective's methods, going so far as to say at the end of the story "We're not jealous of you down at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand." Watson notes in passing that this little comment is one of the few instances where Holmes is visibly moved.
Lestrade is somewhat difficult to pin down as a character. His impatience with Holmes clashes with his kindness to clients, and his level of education appears diffident. Despite being described uncharitably by Dr. Watson, Lestrade is pleasant to him, even implying to Watson in a comic way that he doubts Holmes' sanity in "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor". He uses basic working-class language without embellishments and occasionally archaic words such as "shivered" for "smashed" ("The Adventure of the Six Napoleons") and described his reaction to a nauseating act of murder as "sickish" (A Study in Scarlet). His greatest compliment to Holmes' methods was to describe them as "workmanlike".
Despite a French surname (Lestrade is the name of a village in the Midi-Pyrénées and "l'estrade" means "the raised platform"), he fails to respond when Holmes uses French quotations. Conan Doyle wrote him as a very particular dresser, who nevertheless will get muddy in the line of work. He prefers to get out and find his evidence in person rather than solve them in his head. In this case he closely resembles another Yarder, Athelney Jones, whom Holmes describes as "tenacious as a lobster" in "The Red-Headed League". His appearance and style very much contrast with Tobias Gregson which visually increases their rivalry. The two were never paired together after A Study in Scarlet.
Uncommonly for the time, Lestrade keeps a handgun, as demonstrated in The Hound of the Baskervilles. As this was almost unheard of for an English policeman, Conan Doyle may have meant for Lestrade to be on a privately contracted job for Sherlock Holmes. Lestrade is also unusual in that he has an in-turned left foot, as Holmes noted his ease in tracking him in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery": "That left foot of yours with its inward twist is all over the place." Physical examinations for a police officer must have made allowance for the twist, or it happened after he joined the Force. Dr. Watson consistently describes him as being little, but there was a minimum height requirement for a policeman (5'7"). By 1870, the standard height had risen to 5'8", so he must have been acceptable when he first joined.
The author M. J. Trow wrote a series of sixteen books using Lestrade as the central character, beginning with The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade in 1985. In these stories, Trow shows Lestrade to be a more than capable detective. He is given a first name, "Sholto", a young daughter whom he seldom sees, and a series of adventures set against a historical backdrop. In one book Lestrade meets G. K. Chesterton and in another he suffers a broken leg in a fall from the gangplank of the RMS Titanic.
Lestrade's lack of ability is frequently exaggerated in adaptations, which often characterise him as a bumbling idiot. Notably, Dennis Hoey played Lestrade in most of the Sherlock Holmes films from Universal Pictures starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes. This version had the Yard man as a well-meaning fool patronised by the detective, whose help he greatly appreciated, rather in the manner of that series' version of Doctor Watson (Nigel Bruce). Lestrade is nonetheless a capable officer, and Holmes never questions his honesty or his willingness to solve a case. In the book Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World by H.R.F. Keating, Keating notes that despite Holmes' accusations of his lack of observational skills, he knows Holmes craves the outré and uses this to collect his interest in the case of "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons".[2]
Colin Jeavons played Lestrade throughout the Granada Television adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories, starting with "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The character was portrayed faithfully as a capable, if slightly vain, career policeman with a prickly but ultimately affectionate relationship with Holmes – as evidenced in the dramatisation of the aforementioned "We're proud of you" scene. So familiar did the actor become in the part that when he was unavailable for "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", Lestrade was replaced by another of ACD's Yarders, Inspector Bradstreet. Lestrade's absence was explained as having gone to the Leamington Baths on vacation, and Holmes fumes that he hopes his wife was with him. This is an embellishment on canon, as Lestrade was never shown to be married or attached. In other episodes, Jeavons was given parts originally belonging to other detectives, such as "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" and extra scenes in "The Master Blackmailer" (their version of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"). Lestrade was even mentioned off-screen in the scripts, emphasising his close relationship with 221B Baker Street. Jeavons' portrayal is considered the most faithful to the Canon. In Starring Sherlock Holmes (page 155), David Stuart Davies wrote, "Lestrade was played with great panache throughout the Granada series by Colin Jeavons, who humanised and enhanced Doyle's sketchy portrait of the Inspector."
|
||||||||||||||||