The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes infused with Moriarty's elusive genius
The genius of Sherlock Holmes' most famous adversary, Professor James Moriarty, can be defined in many ways but in the detective's most famous case, The Final Problem, it is his elusiveness.
by Arthur Conan Doyle
George Newnes
"Aye, there's the genius and the wonder of the thing," Sherlock Holmes exclaims in arguably his most famous case, The Final Problem, about certainly his most famous adversary, Professor James Moriarty. Only one man could drive Holmes to such outraged exclamations, and the "Napoleon of crime" was that person.
Moriarty's genius can be defined in many ways - mathematical and murderous are two - but here it is his elusiveness: "The man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That's what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime."
A comparable complaint rings out in Moriarty's other major appearance, in the novel The Valley of Fear: "Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticising it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor - such would be your respective roles! That's genius, Watson."
But here, Moriarty's genius is legal. Dr Watson has just described him as the "famous scientific criminal", to which Holmes responds: "But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law - and there lie the glory and the wonder of it!"
Genius is a consistent feature of Moriarty's real-life models. Holmes experts are divided on a single inspiration for the bad professor, but besides the actual "Napoleon of crime", Adam Worth, there was Simon Newcomb, an eccentric genius in several fields and a first-class rotter.