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The Best of Sherlock Holmes

Quotations by
Conan Doyle & Contemporaries

(sorted by growth rate since 12th edition)

1891

1914

1937

1948

1955

1968

1980

1992

since 12

since 12

since 11

B

D

Contributor

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

Avg

growth

growth

1832

1898

Carroll, Lewis

0

8

27

27

79

75

76

76

67

181%

181%

1835

1910

Twain, Mark

0

10

40

40

116

113

119

82

94

105%

105%

1859

1930

Doyle, A.C. (1)

0

0

4

10

10

12

13

18

13

80%

350%

1812

1870

Dickens, Charles

11

21

104

104

117

110

134

129

119

24%

24%

1854

1900

Wilde, Oscar

0

8

52

52

58

57

54

48

54

-8%

-8%

1856

1950

Shaw, George B.

0

6

48

48

59

52

52

44

51

-8%

-8%

1863

1952

Santayana, George

0

0

25

25

23

20

29

23

24

-8%

-8%

1850

1894

Stevenson, Robert L.

0

12

65

65

76

57

55

47

60

-28%

-28%

1866

1946

Wells, H.G.

0

0

8

17

15

15

15

12

15

-29%

50%

1857

1924

Conrad, Joseph

0

0

41

41

41

29

29

23

33

-44%

-44%

1865

1936

Kipling, Rudyard

0

24

211

211

180

123

97

80

138

-62%

-62%

1874

1936

Chesterton, G.K.

0

0

37

41

31

24

16

13

25

-68%

-65%

1862

1910

Henry, O.

0

0

13

45

42

19

13

11

26

-76%

-15%

1893

1957

Sayers, Dorothy

0

0

2

15

2

0

1

1

4

-93%

-50%

1856

1919

Baum, L. Frank

0

0

0

0

0

1

3

3

1

nm

nm

1865

1947

Orczy, Baroness

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

nm

nm

1888

1959

Chandler, Raymond

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

3

1

nm

nm

1890

1976

Christie, Agatha

0

0

0

1

1

1

7

5

3

nm

nm

TOTALS

11

89

677

742

850

709

714

619

727

-17%

-9%

1859

1930

Doyle, A.C. (2)

0

0

6

12

12

13

14

18

14

50%

200%

1859

1930

Doyle, A.C. (3)

0

0

13

19

17

15

16

18

17

-5%

38%

 

Notes:
Table is based on citations in Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett for the 9th - 16th editions (1891 - 1992). Bartlett ascribes all passages from the Sherlock Holmes stories to Conan Doyle. The tallies in the main table reflect primary references and do not include items that appear in footnotes to quotations by other people.

(1) ACD note: Counts quotations from Sherlock Holmes stories (no footnote references).

(2) ACD note: Counts quotations from Sherlock Holmes stories, including footnote references.

(3) ACD note: Counts all quotations ascribed to Conan Doyle, including footnote references.

Additional details are provided in the monograph "Quoting Sherlock Holmes: Some Observations on the Most Popular Passages" by Randall Stock.

To print all columns, you may need to change your printer or page setup to use Landscape mode instead of Portrait.

Definitions
Avg since 12: the arithmetic mean from tallies for the 12th - 16th editions

Growth since 12: the percentage change between the 12th and 16th editions

Growth since 11: the percentage change between the 11th and 16th editions

nm: not meaningful, zero or one as basis

 


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Vers. 1.1x Original work
Copyright © 1999 Randall Stock. All Rights Reserved.