(in connection with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson)

First, I want to pick out some detective elements of the ealiest times of literature. From the time people started to write literary works, mystery and the solution of mystery can be traced in the history of literature. In the Bible the story of Cain and Able is the first, where the reader can observe a crime, a murderer, a motive for the murder. The only necessary characteristic missing is the detective. God solves the enigma and of course God doesn't need any deductive method to do this. Another mystery might be the story of Susana in the Bible (Daniel 13). Here the detective can be Daniel, though God helps him to resolve the enigma. Of course it lacks the strict regulations of a detective fiction, but the mystery and the solution can be observed clearly.

From the middle of the 19th century till recent years, detective fiction has developed to be a widely accepted and popular literary genre. Though some literary theorists claim that it should not be taken so seriously. Edgar Allan Poe was the first writer, who introduced the basics of detective fiction, though mainly in the United States.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote those kind of detective stories, whose main hero is a civilian detective, whose talent of using his brain is above the average and also has special fields of interest, such as chemistry, studying cigar ashes, or smoking opium. In Doyle's detective stories the investigator is not a police officer, moreover he despises and often abashes the inspector of the police. The first detective story, in which a civilian man compete his mind with a police officer is the book of William Goodwin, the Caleb Williams: or Things as They Are (1794). The style of Dexter's stories is much more different than that of Doyle's. Colin Dexter's investigator, Chief Inspector Morse is a police officer, though his talent for deduction and logic is also above the average. Morse is a fallible person, just like anybody, just like the reader. Morse differs in lifestyle from his colleagues and of course in the number of resolved mysteries. He also has an assistant, Sergeant Lewis, who acts the role of the less intelligent police officer, asking the questions the reader would also ask. Even Lewis calls himself several times a second-minded person, for example in The Inside Story "...I've got a second-class mind...",on page 217. There are basic differences how Lewis and Watson are treated by their admired investigator. Dr. Watson had been the friend of Sherlock Holmes for a long time, when Watson began to be interested in mysteries and to put down the stories of Holmes. The relationship between Holmes and Watson had always been a friendly one. Holmes always thought os Watson as a friend, who was interested in Holmes's investigative work, but rarely took into the process of investigation. The role of Watson was to admire the brightness of Holmes and he constituted the person whom Holmes could explain his way of thinkikng. While the friendship of Morse and Lewis developed in a longer process. Morse and Lewis had been colleagues at the Thames Valley Police Department and they first met in the story of Last Bus to Woodstock on page 13. Morse decided to have Lewis at his side during the investigation, when Lewis honestly told Morse his opinion about learning Latin and dealing with crosswords . Then Morse thought that they would get on well together. They worked together on several mysteries till the last one, which was in The Remorseful Day. We hardly know anything about the private life of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Doyle put the stress on the mystery and the solution rather than on the characters. In Dexter's novels and short stories we can learn the details of the heroes. Holmes a bit looked down on his assistant, and when Watson did not understand something, Holmes did not simply explain it, he edified his friend often in a satiric mood. Lewis and Watson are similar to each other in that they felt themselves very important when they got a simple task to carry out. The difference between them is that while Watson sometimes wanted to strike back for Holmes' ironic manner, Lewis was always loyal to his boss and colleague. Of course, Watson could never confuse Holmes. For example, in Doyle's Sign of the Four Watson gave Holmes a watch and asked Holmes to tell him about the owner of it as much as he could. Then Holmes found out that Watson had inherited the watch from his brother and explained Watson his way of thinking.

Dexter, Colin. The Carpet-Bagger. In. Morse's Greatest Mystery Pan Books, 1995

Tibor, Keszthelyi. A detektivtortenet anatomiaja. Magvetõ, 1979

In the early years of their relationship, Lewis had his companion among the sergeants, Dixon and Kershaw. They usually met in the canteen of the police department and talked with each other about actual events, but as years went by and Lewis began to reach a certain level of deductive thinking, he felt that he had been worth a bit more and he had been a bit more important than Dixon and Kershaw. Maybe it should not be contributed to the increasing level of Lewis's

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3317
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)