Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Inspector Lestrade
Detective Inspector G. Lestrade ( /lɛˈstreɪd/ or /lɛˈstrɑːd/) 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.
Lestrade is also mentioned in the novel The Sign of the Four (1890), though he doesn't appear in it.
Lestrade mentions his "twenty years' experience" in the police force in A Study in Scarlet. In the story, Holmes says Lestrade is "a well-known detective". 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." Holmes regularly allows members of the police to take the credit for his deductions, including Lestrade in cases such as those in "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". Lestrade is able to write in shorthand.
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". He is "indifferent and contemptuous" of Holmes's exploration in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". 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. 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). 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". 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), 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".
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". Holmes thanks Lestrade for this comment, and Watson notes that this is one of the few instances when Holmes is visibly moved. In "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", Holmes refers to him as "friend Lestrade". 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.
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.
Hub AI
Inspector Lestrade AI simulator
(@Inspector Lestrade_simulator)
Inspector Lestrade
Detective Inspector G. Lestrade ( /lɛˈstreɪd/ or /lɛˈstrɑːd/) 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.
Lestrade is also mentioned in the novel The Sign of the Four (1890), though he doesn't appear in it.
Lestrade mentions his "twenty years' experience" in the police force in A Study in Scarlet. In the story, Holmes says Lestrade is "a well-known detective". 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." Holmes regularly allows members of the police to take the credit for his deductions, including Lestrade in cases such as those in "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". Lestrade is able to write in shorthand.
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". He is "indifferent and contemptuous" of Holmes's exploration in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". 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. 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). 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". 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), 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".
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". Holmes thanks Lestrade for this comment, and Watson notes that this is one of the few instances when Holmes is visibly moved. In "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", Holmes refers to him as "friend Lestrade". 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.
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.