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Quiz about Sherlock Holmes versus Hercule Poirot
Quiz about Sherlock Holmes versus Hercule Poirot

Sherlock Holmes versus Hercule Poirot Quiz


This quiz was inspired by the thread in the Book Corner forum and compares Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.

A multiple-choice quiz by MotherGoose. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
MotherGoose
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
177,995
Updated
Mar 19 24
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
5005
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: PhNurse (9/10), pfryguy (4/10), Simoneeee (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" in a magazine, Beeton's Christmas Annual, in 1887. Hercule Poirot featured in Agatha Christie's first novel in 1920. What was its title? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. All detectives need a sidekick. Sherlock Holmes had Dr Watson. Who was Hercule Poirot's sidekick? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. All detectives also need a policeman that they can outwit. Sherlock Holmes had Inspector Lestrade. Who did Poirot have? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Sherlock Holmes had an older brother, Mycroft, whom Sherlock acknowledges as smarter but lazier. Hercule Poirot also has a brother, a twin no less. What was his name? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Another interesting parallel is that both Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot only ever had strong feelings for one woman. For Poirot, it was the Countess Vera Rossakoff. Who was the only woman for whom Holmes had an attachment? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Just as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tired of Sherlock Holmes, so did Agatha Christie tire of Hercule Poirot. Doyle killed Holmes off in "The Final Solution". In which book did Christie kill off Poirot? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Both Holmes and Poirot chose rather unusual occupations in their retirement. Holmes took up beekeeping. What did Poirot choose? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Holmes and Poirot do differ, however, in their method of solving crimes. Which of the following does Poirot regard as the key to problem-solving? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Another difference between Poirot and Holmes is that Poirot does not have any particular adversary whereas Holmes has an arch-enemy who appears or is mentioned in a number of stories. Who is this master criminal? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. And finally, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his detective on a real person, whereas Hercule Poirot was pure invention. Upon whom did Doyle base Sherlock Holmes? Hint



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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" in a magazine, Beeton's Christmas Annual, in 1887. Hercule Poirot featured in Agatha Christie's first novel in 1920. What was its title?

Answer: The Mysterious Affair At Styles

When Agatha Christie created her detective, Hercule Poirot, she made no secret of the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective, Sherlock Holmes, was a major influence on her own work.

In her autobiography, Christie says: "At that date, I was well steeped in the Sherlock Holmes tradition so I considered detectives. Not like Sherlock Holmes, of course: I must invent one of my own...I reviewed such detectives as I had met and admired in books. There was Sherlock Holmes, the one and only - I should never be able to emulate him."
2. All detectives need a sidekick. Sherlock Holmes had Dr Watson. Who was Hercule Poirot's sidekick?

Answer: Captain Arthur Hastings

Agatha Christie stated her detective "would also have a friend as a kind of butt or stooge - that would not be too difficult ...Hercule Poirot and his Watson, Captain Hastings. I quite enjoyed Captain Hastings. He was a stereotyped creation, but he and Poirot represented my idea of a detective team".

Just as Watson chronicled most (but not all) of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, so too did Hastings chronicle some of Hercule Poirot's cases.
3. All detectives also need a policeman that they can outwit. Sherlock Holmes had Inspector Lestrade. Who did Poirot have?

Answer: Inspector Japp

In her autobiography, Christie stated "I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition - eccentric detective, stooge assistant with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp."
4. Sherlock Holmes had an older brother, Mycroft, whom Sherlock acknowledges as smarter but lazier. Hercule Poirot also has a brother, a twin no less. What was his name?

Answer: Achille

Whether Achille Poirot was a real person or an invention of Hercule Poirot's is not clear.

Achille is first mentioned by Hercule in "The Big Four". Hastings says "Your brother? I never knew you had a brother." To which Poirot replies "You surprise me Hastings. Do you not know that all celebrated detectives have brothers who would be even more celebrated than they are, were it not for constitutional indolence?" (clearly a reference to Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes).

However, further on in the story, Poirot tells Hastings that "Achille" was really Hercule in disguise. "Brother Achille has gone home again - to the land of myths. It was I all the time."

And in "The Labours of Hercules", Dr Burton asks Poirot "You had a brother called Achille, did you not?" and Poirot replies "Only for a short space of time".
5. Another interesting parallel is that both Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot only ever had strong feelings for one woman. For Poirot, it was the Countess Vera Rossakoff. Who was the only woman for whom Holmes had an attachment?

Answer: Irene Adler

The opening lines of "A Scandal in Bohemia" explain Holmes' relationship with Irene Adler: "To Sherlock Holmes she is always 'The Woman'. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex". For both Holmes and Poirot, these attachments do not go anywhere and the two ladies do not feature in more than one or two stories.
6. Just as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tired of Sherlock Holmes, so did Agatha Christie tire of Hercule Poirot. Doyle killed Holmes off in "The Final Solution". In which book did Christie kill off Poirot?

Answer: Curtain

Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls but was forced to resurrect him due to an outcry from his reading public. Christie would have liked to kill off Poirot but acknowledged that "Poirot is rather insufferable. Most public men are who have lived too long. But none of them like retiring. So I am afraid Poirot won't either - certainly not while he is my chief source of income."

When Agatha Christie wrote "Curtain" she intended it to be published after her death. However, it was published in 1975, the year before she died.
7. Both Holmes and Poirot chose rather unusual occupations in their retirement. Holmes took up beekeeping. What did Poirot choose?

Answer: the cultivation of vegetable marrows

Don't those two occupations seem incongruous, given the personalities of the two detectives? This is especially true in the case of Hercule Poirot, who is so meticulous in his personal hygiene, who frets over a speck of lint on his clothes and grooms his moustache to perfection. Can you really see him getting dirty, digging in a garden and putting fertilizer on his marrows?
8. Holmes and Poirot do differ, however, in their method of solving crimes. Which of the following does Poirot regard as the key to problem-solving?

Answer: intellectual evaluation of the evidence ("the little grey cells")

Hercule Poirot believed primarily in order and method and use of one's brain. Poirot claimed that anyone can solve a crime by simply thinking about it. He shunned physical evidence on the grounds that, taken by themselves, such clues could never lead to the solution of a crime. "...the true work, it is always done from within. The little grey cells, remember always the little grey cells, mon ami".

Sherlock Holmes was the detective who relied on physical evidence, such as footprints and cigar ash. Miss Marple's methods were psychological - she typically recognised criminals because of a "village parallel".
9. Another difference between Poirot and Holmes is that Poirot does not have any particular adversary whereas Holmes has an arch-enemy who appears or is mentioned in a number of stories. Who is this master criminal?

Answer: Professor James Moriarty

In "The Final Problem", it is Moriarty with whom Holmes struggles before he falls to his apparent death at Reichenbach Falls. Holmes refers to Moriarty as "one of the great brains of the century", a "Napoleon of crime" and "the most dangerous man in London".
10. And finally, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his detective on a real person, whereas Hercule Poirot was pure invention. Upon whom did Doyle base Sherlock Holmes?

Answer: Joseph Bell

Dr Joseph Bell was one of Arthur Conan Doyle's professors at the University of Edinburgh when Doyle was undertaking his medical studies. Bell used his powers of observation of small details to make shrewd deductions about his patients.

Hercule Poirot was not based on a real person although Agatha Christie acknowledges that she decided to make him Belgian because "we had quite a colony of Belgian refugees living in the parish...Why not make my detective a Belgian? I thought".
Source: Author MotherGoose

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