Incubator escapee wiki

Inspector Lestrade

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox character Detective Inspector G. Lestrade (Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en)<ref name=Jones>Template:Cite book</ref> is a fictional character appearing in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet. His last appearance is in the 1924 short story "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs", which is included in the collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

Lestrade is a determined but conventional Scotland Yard detective who consults Holmes on many cases, and is the most prominent police character in the series. Lestrade has been played by many actors in adaptations based on the Sherlock Holmes stories in film, television, and other media.

Appearances in canonEdit

Template:Further

Case Date of
publication 		Location
A Study in Scarlet 1887 London
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery" 1891 Herefordshire
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" 1892 London
"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" 1893 Croydon
The Hound of the Baskervilles 1901 Devon
"The Adventure of the Empty House" 1903 London
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" 1903 South Norwood
"The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" 1904 Hampstead, London
"The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" 1904 London
"The Adventure of the Second Stain" 1904 London
"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" 1908 Woolwich
"The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" 1911 Lausanne
"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" 1924 Edgware Road, London

Lestrade is also mentioned in the novel The Sign of the Four (1890), though he doesn't appear in it.

Fictional character biographyEdit

History and personalityEdit

Lestrade mentions his "twenty years' experience" in the police force in A Study in Scarlet.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the story, Holmes says Lestrade is "a well-known detective".<ref name="Study"/> It is observed by Holmes that Lestrade and another detective, Tobias Gregson, have an ongoing rivalry, and he identifies the two as "the pick of a bad lot. They are both quick and energetic, but conventional – shockingly so."<ref name="Study"/> Holmes regularly allows members of the police to take the credit for his deductions,<ref name="Smith 72"/> including Lestrade in cases such as those in "The Adventure of the Empty House"<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lestrade is able to write in shorthand.<ref name="Study"/>

Lestrade is initially doubtful about Holmes's methods, and he suggests that Holmes is "too much inclined to be cocksure" in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder".<ref name="Smith 72"/> He is "indifferent and contemptuous" of Holmes's exploration in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery".<ref name="Adventures">Template:Cite book</ref> Holmes is openly rude about Lestrade at times, such as in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" when he tells Lestrade "demurely" that he is unskilled at handling facts, and refers to Lestrade as an imbecile.<ref name="Smith 72"/> In The Sign of the Four, Holmes says that being out of his depth is Lestrade's normal state (along with Inspectors Gregson and Athelney Jones).<ref name="Cawthorne 250">Template:Cite book</ref> However, Holmes is generally more positive about Lestrade in later stories. In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", Holmes remarks that Lestrade's tenacity "has brought him to the top at Scotland Yard".<ref name="Smith 72">Template:Cite book</ref> In The Hound of the Baskervilles, he says that Lestrade is "the best of the professionals" (meaning the professionals employed by Scotland Yard as opposed to himself),<ref name="Smith 72"/> and in the same story, 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."<ref name="Hound">Template:Cite book</ref>

By the time of the story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", Lestrade is a regular evening visitor at 221B Baker Street, and "his visits were welcome to Sherlock Holmes" according to Watson. In the same story, Lestrade reveals the high regard in which Holmes is now held by Scotland Yard: "We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very 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".<ref name="Smith 72"/> Holmes thanks Lestrade for this comment, and Watson notes that this is one of the few instances when Holmes is visibly moved.<ref name="Return">Template:Cite book</ref> In "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", Holmes refers to him as "friend Lestrade".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Lestrade's involvement in the investigation in "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" suggests he has become one of Scotland Yard's most trusted detectives.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

He was described 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.<ref>Jeffers, H.P. (1992) Bloody Business: An anecdotal history of Scotland Yard, p. 95. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble.</ref>

Appearance and ageEdit

Inspector Lestrade is described as "a little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow" in A Study in Scarlet.<ref name="Study">Template:Cite book</ref> In "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", Watson describes Lestrade as "a lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking", and also says, "In spite of the light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Scotland Yard."<ref name="Cawthorne 250"/> Watson states that Lestrade is "as wiry, as dapper, and as ferret-like as ever" in "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box".<ref name="Memoirs">Template:Cite book</ref> He is described as "a small, wiry bulldog of a man" in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and there is a description of him as having "bulldog features" in "The Adventure of the Second Stain".<ref name="Return"/> According to Holmes in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", Lestrade's tracks can be identified due to the "inward twist" of his left foot.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

His age is not given in the stories. Lestrade works with Holmes as early as A Study in Scarlet (which according to Leslie S. Klinger takes place in 1881<ref name="Klinger, Leslie 2005 p. 760">Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume I (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005). p. 760. Template:ISBN)</ref>) and continues to do so as late as "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" (which is set in 1902). According to Klinger, L. S. Holstein used this information to conclude that Lestrade is ten to twelve years older than Holmes.<ref name="Klinger 38"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Klinger estimated that Holmes was born in 1854;<ref name="Klinger, Leslie 2005 p. 760"/> together with Holstein's theory, this would suggest that Lestrade may have been born between 1842 and 1844.

Name origins and pronunciationEdit

Doyle seems to have acquired Lestrade's name from a fellow student at the University of Edinburgh, Joseph Alexandre Lestrade,<ref name=DK>Template:Cite book</ref> who was a Saint Lucian medical student.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", Lestrade's first initial is revealed to be G.<ref name="Klinger 38"/> This initial may have been inspired by the Prefect of Police known only as "G—" in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Purloined Letter" (1845).<ref name=DK/> Despite having an apparently French surname (there is a village named Lestrade-et-Thouels in France and "l'estrade" means "the raised platform" in French), Inspector Lestrade shows no overt French ties.

According to Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary, the name Lestrade can be pronounced either "Le'strayed" (rhyming with "trade") or "Le'strahd" Template:Ipa .<ref name=Jones/> In The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S. Klinger writes that there is no consensus among scholars on the pronunciation of "Lestrade".<ref name="Klinger 38">Klinger, Leslie (ed.). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume III (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006). pp. 38–39. Template:ISBN</ref> The original French pronunciation of the name would have been close to "Le'strahd". However, according to the book The Sherlock Holmes Miscellany by Roger Johnson and Jean Upton (Holmesian scholars and members of The Baker Street Irregulars), Arthur Conan Doyle's daughter Dame Jean Conan Doyle stated that her father pronounced the name with a long a sound (as "Le'strayed").<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The pronunciation of Lestrade as "Le'strahd" has been used in multiple adaptations such as the 1939–1946 film series,<ref>For example, at 22:40 in: Template:Cite AV media</ref> the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes,<ref>For example, at approximately 5:43 in the film. Template:Cite AV media</ref> and the television series Sherlock (2010–2017).<ref>For example, at approximately 5:25 in the first episode: Template:Cite episode</ref> The pronunciation of the name as "Le'strayed" has also been used in multiple canonical adaptations, including the 1931–1937 film series,<ref>For example, at 20:11 in the first film: Template:Cite AV media</ref> the Granada television series (1984–1994),<ref>For example, at approximately 7:36 in: Template:Cite episode</ref> and the BBC radio series (1989–1998),<ref>For example, at approximately 22:44 in the first episode: Template:Cite episode</ref> as well as in some non-canonical works, including the 2020 film Enola Holmes.

Depiction in derivatives and adaptationsEdit

Template:Further

FilmEdit

Television filmsEdit

Television seriesEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> where his first name is given as Gareth.<ref name="slayton"/> His character recurs later in the season, as well.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Mikhail Boyarsky played the role of Inspector Lestrade in the Russian TV adaptation, Sherlock Holmes (2013).
  • In the 2014 NHK puppetry television series Sherlock Holmes, Lestrade is a tall, slender, and earnest blond schoolboy with the atmosphere of mod who lives in Cooper house of Beeton School. He often solves a trouble with Holmes for he is a member of life guidance committee. Though he and Holmes trust each other, Grimesby Roylott, who is in charge of the committee hates Holmes. In some cases, he requests Holmes to solve troubles. He is voiced by Daisuke Kishio.<ref>Shinjiro Okazaki and Kenichi Fujita (ed.), "シャーロックホームズ冒険ファンブック Shārokku Hōmuzu Bōken Fan Bukku", Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2014,
    p. 11, p. 32 and p. 53.</ref> In the episode 6 of the series, he tells Holmes and Watson that his given name is Gordon.
  • Rachel Hayward plays a gender swapped version of Lestrade in the CBS series Watson, appearing in the tenth episode of the first season in 2025. Introduced as a veteran Pittsburgh police homicide detective, Lestrade is initially sceptical of Watson and his crime solving abilities. By the end of the episode, she gives him her direct phone number should he need to speak to the police. He in turn suggests she call him first for any police related medical opinions.

StageEdit

RadioEdit

Video gamesEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a logic puzzle game online through Everett Kaser Software.

  • Inspector Lestrade was featured as a character skin for First Officer for a Sherlock Crossover in the asymmetrical horror game called Identity V

PrintEdit

  • In the 1979 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".<ref>P. 112, Keating, H. R. F. Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World; Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, (c)1979 Template:ISBN</ref>
  • The author M. J. Trow wrote a series of seventeen 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.
  • In the novel The Canary Trainer (1993), Sherlock Holmes uses "Inspector Lestrade" as an alias while investigating the phantom of the Paris Opera while incognito.
  • Lestrade is a recurring character in the Moonstone Books versions of Sherlock Holmes adventures. His "We're proud of you" speech is adapted for a scene in Holmes' birthday in "Return of the Devil" (2004).
  • He appears in the book series The Boy Sherlock Holmes (2007–2012) as the son of a ferret-faced inspector by the same name who dislikes Sherlock greatly.
  • Holmes also used the alias Inspector Lestrade in the pastiche, The Counterfeit Detective (2016) by Stuart Douglas.
  • Lestrade is briefly mentioned in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I.
  • In the blaxploitation comic book series Watson and Holmes, Lestrade is re-imagined as Detective Leslie Straude, one of the series' few white recurring characters. Other than the gender swap and name change, she is very similar to the original character.

In popular cultureEdit

Agatha Christie modelled her police detective character Inspector Japp, who appears in the stories featuring private detective Hercule Poirot, after Inspector Lestrade.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Similar to Lestrade, Japp is described as "a little, sharp, dark, ferret-faced man" in Christie's 1920 novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In her autobiography, Christie stated that she wrote her early Poirot stories "in the Sherlock Holmes tradition—eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A search engine, the Inspector Lestrade, is used by MacIntosh, a "fast, lightweight meta searcher."<ref>Welcome to Northern Softworks Template:Webarchive</ref>

"The Inspector Lestrade Award" is a rising term among message boards for a person who is "almost correct." It has shown up on zdnet and "Bad Astronomy and the Universe Today" forum.<ref>Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum – View Single Post – Alert! Zetatalk gives exact date of pole shift!</ref>

The Peterson Pipes company has a Sherlock Holmes (Return) Series of handmade pipes with silverwork. Two Lestrade pipes are in the collection.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

  • "Starring Sherlock Holmes" David Stuart Davies; Titan Books, 2001

Template:HolmesNovels

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Inspector_Lestrade&oldid=718530"