The name of Professor Moriarty's main achievement in science. Jim Moriarty is the perfect antagonist

Professor James Moriarty is the sworn enemy of Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant criminal element whom the London detective calls the “Napoleon of the criminal world.” Arthur Conan Doyle himself uses this expression, referring to the real-life evil genius Adam Worth, who served as one of the prototypes for Moriarty.

In the original Holmesian, in the story "Holmes's Last Case" (" The Adventure of the Final Problem"), Professor Moriarty, a villain of the late Victorian era, the head of one of the most influential networks of criminals in all of Europe (Europe), falls along with the detective from a cliff. Sherlock believed that the crown of his work should have been the elimination of Moriarty, whose atrocities poison society.However, readers, including Queen Victoria herself, were simply outraged that Moriarty dragged Sherlock with him to the grave. Doyle had no choice but to “resurrect” his beloved detective.

Moriarty is a vengeful, independent, charismatic and confident man who reveals the ruthless side of his personality whenever something sets him off. He respects Holmes's intelligence and says that for him it is a real intellectual pleasure to engage in battle with people of this level.

Characterizing your worst enemy, Sherlock calls James Moriarty a man of noble birth, with an excellent education and phenomenal mathematical abilities. It turns out that at the age of 21, Moriarty wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which made him famous throughout Europe. He then received a chair in mathematics at a provincial university and, as the detective believes, could have reached even greater heights. However, the genius, in whose veins the blood of a criminal flows, due to his sick mind and hereditary tendency to cruelty, soon became the subject of dark rumors - and was forced to resign and move to London.

In the story "The Valley of Fear", Moriarty is called the intriguer of all times, the organizer of all devilry and the brain criminal world, darkening the fate of nations. And at the same time, Sherlock himself is amazed at how brilliant his tactics are. fierce enemy, who wrote “The Dynamics of an Asteroid,” an amazing book that no scientist dared criticize, despite the tarnished reputation of the author himself. A defiled doctor and a slandered professor is Moriarty's guise, and Sherlock calls it a stroke of genius.

Wanting to reveal some details of the appearance of the “Napoleon of the criminal world,” Conan Doyle describes a man with a thin face, gray hair and stilted speech. The criminal is more like a Presbyterian priest, ready to give a blessing to any sinner, than one who lightly sends people he dislikes to their forefathers. Moriarty is the owner of untold wealth, carefully hiding his real financial position. Sherlock believes that the professor's money is scattered across at least twenty bank accounts, and the main capital is hidden somewhere in France or Germany.

In the story "The Empty House", Holmes claims that Moriarty acquired a powerful pneumatic gun from a blind German master, a certain Mr. von Herder. Resembling a simple cane in appearance, this weapon fired revolver rounds over long distances and made almost no noise, making it ideal for taking sniper positions. When carrying out his dirty deeds, the villainous professor preferred to cause "accidents", be it the incident when Sherlock was almost killed by falling masonry or by a horse-drawn carriage rushing at breakneck speed.

Fans of the adventures of the London private investigation genius suggested that not only Adam Worth could serve as the prototype for Moriarty. Someone saw American astronomer Simon Newcomb in the fictional villain. This talented Harvard graduate, with a special knowledge of mathematics, became famous throughout the world even before Conan Doyle began to write his stories. Comparisons were also prompted by the fact that Newcombe had developed a reputation as an angry snob who tried to destroy the careers and reputations of his rivals in the scientific world.

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$1 million received as a result of a bank robbery was enough to promote an underground casino in Paris, and then create the largest criminal network of its time, entangled in London. All these criminal exploits were carried out by a man named Adam Worth (pictured below).

His contemporaries called him the Napoleon of the underworld, and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle I copied my professor Moriarty from it.

Profession - deserter

In 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conceived an unheard of crime. He decided to get rid of Sherlock Holmes, who was boring him, but he was going to do it in such a way that the brilliant detective would die after performing some great feat. The writer needed a character equal to Holmes in mental abilities, but at the same time embodying absolute evil, so that the brilliant detective would die before destroying it. Conan Doyle overheard a senior Scotland Yard officer, Sir Robert Anderson, calling one of the criminals the Napoleon of the underworld. This criminal's name was Adam Worth. Soon Conan Doyle published a story in which Sherlock Holmes died, dragging the sinister Professor Moriarty to the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls.

Adam Worth was born in 1844 into a poor Jewish family, either Werth or Wirtz, who lived somewhere within Prussia. When the family moved to the United States in 1849, it was decided to change the surname to the English style, and from then on the family was called Worth. Adam's father opened a small sewing shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The family had three children: the eldest John, the middle Adam and the youngest Harriet. It was not easy to feed them all, so every cent counted. Little Adam did not immediately understand the value of money. One day, a school friend showed him a shiny new coin and offered to exchange it for two old, worn-out coins of the same denomination. Adam happily agreed and went home to brag about his successful deal. The father was furious and roughly punished his son. Worth subsequently stated: “After that incident, I never allowed myself to be fooled by anyone again.” It would be more accurate to say that from now on he himself acted as the deceiver.

The famous Harvard University was located in Cambridge, so one could constantly see cheerful and well-dressed young people in the city, often throwing money around. Adam Worth looked at them with a mixture of envy and admiration. Many of his peers dreamed of money and luxury, but this was not enough for Worth. He longed to be a gentleman with graceful manners and refined taste. He wanted to dress in the latest fashion, lead a social life and shine in high society. However, the tailor's son was destined for a completely different fate. Unwilling to accept his lot, 14-year-old Adam ran away from home and moved to neighboring Boston, where, apparently, he led the life of a street vagabond and survived by odd jobs and thefts. At the age of 16, he moved to New York and soon got a job as a salesman in a store. This was the first and last time that Adam Worth earned an honest living. On April 12, 1861, the United States began Civil War, and young Worth preferred life to boring work in a dusty shop, full of dangers and adventures.

At first, the army of the northerners was recruited from volunteers, and each recruit was entitled to a monetary reward. Worth lied about his age, telling recruiters that he was already 21 years old, received his money and enlisted in the 34th New York Light Artillery. In the regiment, he showed courage, responsibility and soldier's ingenuity, so that a few months after enlistment he already wore corporal and then sergeant stripes. Soon Worth was in command of the battery.

On August 28, 1862, Worth's regiment took part in major battle at Bull Run. Victory went to the Confederates, but the Northerners suffered heavy losses. Worth was hospitalized with a wound, and soon found himself on the list of dead. The brave sergeant did not think long about what to do: remain an honest soldier and return to his comrades in arms, or try to earn money from his “death.” Worth chose the latter. He re-enlisted in the army under a different name and again received the coveted award. Then he repeated the same trick several more times - he deserted, and then again pretended to be a volunteer and received a reward. There were quite a lot of professional deserters like him in those days. They were called jumpers, and when caught, they would face a tribunal. The search for the “jumpers” was carried out by Pinkerton agents, famous for their professionalism in detective work, so Worth’s job was very dangerous. At the end of the war, he decided to desert completely and, in Once again Having escaped from the unit, he returned to New York. Here I was waiting for him new life, for which he was already quite ready.

New York in 1865 was perhaps the most corrupt and criminal city in the United States. The population of the city was about 800 thousand people, of which, according to the authorities, 30 thousand were engaged in theft, and 20 thousand were involved in prostitution. In New York there were about 3 thousand drinking establishments, 2 thousand gambling houses and countless brothels and dens of thieves. Power in the metropolis was concentrated in the hands of the Irish mafia, which arbitrarily removed and appointed officials, judges and deputies. Meanwhile, the criminal world was ruled by colorful authorities with eloquent nicknames Pig Donovan, Gip Krovishcha, Eddie Plague, Jack Eat Them All and other similar figures. The city was divided between gangs with at least bright names: “Cockroach Guard”, “Forty Thieves”, “Slaughtermen”.

Young Worth felt like a duck to water in this world. He was already very good at stealing, lying and, on occasion, evading pursuit. Moreover, in the army he was taught to command people, so he could count on a successful criminal career. Soon Worth formed a gang and began organizing small thefts. His gang operated primarily in the Manhattan area and eventually achieved some notoriety in the underworld. Luck was not with him for long. One day, Worth was caught red-handed while trying to steal money from a mail car. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but a few weeks later he escaped from prison by climbing over a fence and swimming to a barge on the Hudson River.
Worth realized that if he continued to work without the protection of one of the criminal kings of New York, he would soon get caught again and would not get off so easily. Soon he found himself a patron who could appreciate all his talents.

Steal a million

Frederica Mandelbaum, like Worth, was of Prussian Jewish descent. Arriving in the United States in 1848, she and her husband opened a grocery store, which in reality was just a front for a completely different kind of business. Her real income came from buying up stolen goods. In 1866, Mother Mandelbaum was one of the largest buyers in New York. This plump 48-year-old woman not only ensured the sale of stolen items, but also organized crimes herself, distributing orders to thieves. Moreover, Mom was a real shady socialite. She ran a salon where she received the cream of the criminal world. The most skilled thieves, swindlers and robbers gathered in her luxurious mansion. The diamond thief Black Lena Kleinschmidt shone here, the burglar Max Shinbrun, nicknamed the Baron, known for his aristocratic manners and incredible aplomb, visited here, and Charles Bullard, known as Charlie Piano, also visited here. Bullard was a good pianist, although a drunk, but he used his ear for music by selecting codes for safes. During lavish receptions at Mother Mandelbaum's house, Charlie Piano sat at the piano and inspiredly performed etudes by Chopin. Among the visitors to the salon were also corrupt judges, lawyers, politicians and policemen, so Savor was in full swing.

Worth once managed to get invited to Mother Mandelbaum's house. He made a good impression on the owner and began to work for her. Mother's patronage provided tangible benefits. Firstly, the problem of selling the loot was solved, secondly, it was possible to make useful contacts in her salon, and thirdly, Mandelbaum always tried to help her people who got into trouble. She paid for the services of the most clever lawyers, distributed bribes and even organized prisoner escapes. Worth did not disappoint his patroness's hopes. He pulled off several daring thefts, one of which was particularly successful. One day he managed to steal bonds worth $20 thousand from the office of an insurance company.

In 1869, Charlie Piano was caught, and Mother decided to get him out of his cell, no matter the cost. Communication was established with the prisoners, and soon construction of a tunnel began under the walls of the White Plains prison. Bullard was digging from his cell, and Worth and Max Shinbrun were moving towards him outside. The escape was a success, and the grateful Charlie Bullard forever became Adam Worth's loyal friend. Shinbrun, on the contrary, could not stand Worth and until the end of his days envied his success as a thief.

After the escape story, Worth and Bullard became partners. Worth's ingenuity and Bullard's skill with safes produced excellent results. In the fall of 1869, friends decided on a big deal. The target was Boylston Bank in Boston. The partners rented a building adjacent to the wall of the bank. Here they opened a fake office that allegedly sold tonic drinks. In fact, Worth and Bullard were gradually dismantling the wall that separated them from the bank vault. On November 20, 1869, the work was completed. After the bank closed, the robbers drilled several holes in the wall of the safe and cut a passage large enough for Worth to get inside. That night, $1 million in cash and securities were stolen from the Boylston Bank vault.
Worth and Bullard hastily left Boston and returned to New York, but it was now unsafe for them to remain in the United States. The robbed bankers hired Pinkerton agents, and if these detectives wanted to find someone, sooner or later they found them. The companions decided to flee the country and soon sailed to Europe on the Indiana steamer.

Paris is always Paris

At the beginning of 1870, newly-made millionaires arrived in Liverpool. Here Worth identified himself as a financier named Henry Judson Raymond, and Bullard became an oil industrialist named Charles Wells. They lived in grand style, indulging in all possible entertainment. Here they met the love of their lives. 17-year-old Kitty Flynn worked as a waitress in a bar. Despite his young age, she was already quite an experienced thief and was hungry for money and beautiful life. Worth and Bullard confessed their love for her, and she reciprocated their love for both of them. The friends decided not to quarrel over Kitty, leaving her to make the final choice herself. In the meantime, the girl lived with one of them, then with the other. In the end, Kitty chose Bullard and married him. Worth was not offended and even gave the newlyweds a luxurious wedding gift. He stole £25,000 from a large Liverpool store and gave it to the newlyweds.

Worth and Bullard were rich, but they knew full well that without smart investments the money would sooner or later run out. In 1871 they decided to act. At that time, France had just lost the Franco-Prussian War, and in Paris the bloody epic of the Paris Commune was coming to an end. The authorities had not yet managed to shoot all the Communards when a strange trio appeared on the streets of Paris, speaking English. Worth, Bullard and Kitty arrived in the devastated French capital to fish in troubled waters.
Soon, not far from the still unfinished Grand Opera building, a luxurious restaurant called the American Bar appeared. On the first and second floors, guests could enjoy gourmet dishes and American cocktails, still unknown in Europe, and on the third floor there was an illegal gambling house. When the police appeared at the door of the establishment, the gambling tables moved into hiding places located behind the walls and under the floor.

Kitty played the role of hostess, and Charlie Piano entertained the guests with piano concerts. Adam Worth could boast of a respectable appearance and wore a luxurious mustache that turned into lush sideburns, so it was he who got the role of head waiter. He walked decorously through the sparkling halls of his establishment, exchanged pleasantries with guests and at the same time made useful acquaintances. The American Bar has become a very popular place among international criminals of the highest category. Here were the Dutchman Charles Becker, nicknamed Scratch, who forged documents so skillfully that he himself could not later distinguish them from the originals, the famous bank robber Joseph Chapman, the swindler Karlo Sisikovich, whom everyone considered Russian, the burglar Joe Eliot, nicknamed the Kid, and many others. Subsequently, all these people agreed to work for Worth, but in those cheerful days in devastated Paris, none of them had ever thought about it.

In 1873, an unexpected guest appeared at the American Bar. It was William Pinkerton - the son of Allan Pinkerton himself, the founder of the famous detective agency. Worth and Pinkerton recognized each other immediately. American detectives could not arrest criminals on French territory, but nothing prevented Pinkerton from reporting Worth to the French authorities. The detective and the thief sat down at the same table and had a nice conversation over a glass of the best French wine. Pinkerton made it clear that he knew everything about Worth - from his first desertion to the bank robbery in Boston. The detective took his leave, and Worth realized that Paris was becoming unsafe.

It was decided to close the American Bar, but Worth could not leave France without doing one last thing. On the eve of his departure, he robbed a diamond merchant, who had the temerity to place a suitcase containing it on the floor while playing roulette. precious stones. While Worth was talking to him, Joe Eliot switched the suitcase. The value of the stolen diamonds was £30,000.

Kidnapping of the "Duchess"

In the story “The Last Case of Sherlock Holmes,” the brilliant detective said about Moriarty: “He is the Napoleon of the underworld, Watson. He is the organizer of half of all atrocities and almost all unsolved crimes in our city... He has a first-class mind. He sits motionless, like a spider in the center of his web, but this web has thousands of threads, and he picks up the vibration of each of them. He rarely acts on his own. He's just making a plan. But his agents are numerous and superbly organized." This description of the criminal community fits perfectly with what Worth intended to create when he moved to London with Bullard and Kitty.

Heart British Empire It was little like gangster New York, and yet there were a great many thieves and swindlers here. Worth was going to become something like Mother Mandelbaum for them, or even something more. Soon he began to act.

To begin with, Worth bought a mansion south of the city. Here was everything that a true gentleman should have: expensive furniture, a rich library, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a target shooting gallery, a stable with ten horses intended for racing, and other signs of wealth and high social status. He then rented an apartment in central London, where it was convenient to do business, and set about building his criminal empire.

Worth formed a gang of criminals around himself upper class. His inner circle included Charlie Piano, Scratch, The Kid, Karlo Sisikovich and Joseph Chapman. Worth planned thefts, scams and robberies, and then instructed his assistants to find suitable performers. The Napoleon of the underworld demanded that his men refrain from violence. Worth instructed: “A man with brains has no right to bear arms. Exercise your brain!” However, Worth did not need a weapon, because he was accompanied everywhere by a valet - a former wrestler named Junk Jack. This thug, who earned his nickname by constantly carrying all sorts of rubbish in his pockets, was not very smart, but he could beat anyone.

Sherlock Holmes said about Moriarty: “Brilliant and incomprehensible. The man entangled the whole of London with his networks, and no one even heard of him. This is what raises him to unattainable heights in the criminal world.” Worth was equally omnipresent and elusive, but while his literary counterpart hid somewhere “in the center of his web,” he himself attended concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Ascot races and enjoyed all the joys of life that Victorian London had to offer a wealthy gentleman with refined taste.

The Pinkerton Agency report stated that Worth "practices all forms of crime: bad checks, fraud, forgery, safe-cracking, road robberies, bank robberies... all with complete impunity." Of course, William Pinkerton informed Scotland Yard of who Worth really was, but it was absolutely impossible to prove his involvement in the crimes. Scotland Yard Inspector John Shore vowed to catch Worth and put him in prison, but he acted with the clumsiness of a literary Lestrade. In addition, Worth had a network of informants: two Scotland Yard detectives and one lawyer regularly reported to him about the hapless inspector’s every move.

Worth came dangerously close to failure a couple of times. He first tried to employ his older brother John. He instructed his brother to go to Paris and cash the counterfeit check made by Scratch. Adam forbade John from entering the Meyer & Company bank because this institution had recently been defrauded in a similar manner. It was to this bank that John Worth went, where, of course, he was caught red-handed. Adam spent a lot of money on lawyers to get his brother out of prison, and then he was put on a ship and sent home to America. Another time, almost the entire asset of Worth's organization fell into trouble. Eliot, Becker, Chapman and Sisikovich caught with fake securities in Turkey and ended up in an Ottoman prison. Inspector Shore was already rubbing his hands and intending to achieve the extradition of the criminals, but Worth was faster. He gave away most of his fortune as bribes to Turkish officials, but ransomed his people.

From time to time, Worth committed thefts himself. He did this partly out of sporting interest, partly out of a desire to confirm his reputation as a skilled thief. In 1876, he committed the real theft of the century. A year earlier, all of London was excited by the news that a painting by Gainsborough, long considered lost, would be sold at Christie's. The painting was painted in 1787 and was titled “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.” Lady Georgiana herself was a very dissolute lady, and now, 70 years after her death, all the newspapers again wrote about her scandalous adventures. The pre-sale PR campaign was so powerful that only the lazy did not talk about the film. As a result, Gainsborough’s work was bought by art dealer William Agnew, paying 10 thousand guineas for it, which corresponds to today’s $600 thousand. Now, when paintings are sold for tens of millions, such a deal does not seem too large, but at that time the amount looked simply fantastic. Agnew intended to resell the painting to the Morgan clan, which was distantly related to the unlucky duchess, but his plans were not destined to come true.

On the night of May 27, 1876, Worth stole the painting. Fleabag Jack and Baby were involved in the case, but their work was limited to standing on guard. Worth personally sneaked into the room where the masterpiece was kept and stole it.

It was completely impossible to sell a painting of such value, and therefore Worth only hid it from one place to another. The accomplices were tired of waiting for their share, and Fleabag Jack even tried to hand Worth over to the police, but Napoleon of the underworld easily exposed his simple plan. So Adam Worth became the secret owner of Gainsborough's masterpiece. Many years later, the kidnapped “Duchess” will save him from poverty and lonely old age.

Reichenbach Falls

Worth's criminal career continued. Once, for example, he and two other accomplices cleaned out a mail car containing Spanish and Egyptian bonds worth 700 thousand francs. Another time, Worth decided to take a closer look at the diamond fields of South Africa and went to Cape Town. Here the intellectual thief decided to retrain as a robber and tried to rob a stagecoach with diamonds. The Boers guarding the cart almost shot him, and the would-be robber forcibly carried away his legs. Worth decided to return to the principles of nonviolence, and this time everything worked out. He learned that from time to time diamonds are left in a safe located at the postal station. Worth befriended the elderly postmaster, entertaining him with a game of chess, and quietly took casts of the keys to the vault. The rest was a matter of technique. Worth returned to Europe with suitcases full of diamonds.

In the 1880s, Worth was quite happy and pleased with himself. He was rich, he was accepted in polite society, and Inspector Shore still could not find a single piece of evidence against him. He married a poor girl named Louise Bolyan, who bore him a son, Henry, and a daughter, Beatrice. “The Duchess of Devonshire” no longer burned his hands: he found a way to take the painting to the USA and hide it there in a safe place. He, however, was worried about the fate of his friend. Kitty left Bullard and went to America, where she married a millionaire. Charlie Piano had drank from the bottle before, but now he had started to become an alcoholic. It was simply dangerous to leave him in business. As a result, Bullard also left for the United States, where he again contacted Baron.

Even a new meeting with William Pinkerton did not darken the overall picture of happiness. The two respectable gentlemen bowed and bought each other a drink. Worth and Pinkerton chatted in the bar like old comrades and, in a sense, colleagues, deeply respecting each other's professionalism. As he said goodbye, Worth said with feeling: “Sir, I believe that Inspector Shore is a helpless idiot. I deeply respect you and your people. I just want you to know this."

Napoleon's collapse came completely unexpectedly. In 1892, Baron and Charlie Piano showed up in Belgium. They tried to rob a bank, but got caught and went to prison. Worth went to Liege, hoping to ransom his friend, but was too late. Charles Bullard died in his cell. This death deeply affected Worth. What he did next was completely out of character. Worth planned to steal a box of money from a moving mail carriage, and he prepared for the crime extremely carelessly, and found his accomplices to be inexperienced and unreliable. It seems he was simply trying to get revenge on Belgium for Bullard's death. At the appointed hour, he jumped into the mail carriage, but was caught red-handed, because his accomplices, seeing the police, simply ran away without giving him a signal.
Worth was put in the dock. Inspector Shore gleefully sent his dossier on the criminal king of London to Belgium, but this had little effect on the court's decision, since he still had no real evidence of Worth's guilt. William Pinkerton had them, but he remained deathly silent. Kitty Flynn, who by that time had become a very rich widow, extended a helping hand. She helped find good lawyers and organize protection.

In 1893, Adam Worth was sentenced to seven years for the only proven episode of robbing a carriage. But the worst was just beginning. Worth entrusted the care of his family to one of his henchmen, who simply robbed and raped his wife. The unfortunate woman went crazy and was placed in a mental hospital. The children were taken to America by his brother John.
Worth was released from prison in 1897 for good behavior. He no longer had any friends or family. But he had a plan. Returning to London, he robbed a jewelry store of £4 thousand and immediately went to the USA. He visited his brother and children, and then left them, saying that he had two friends left in America. He was referring to William Pinkerton and "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire."
Pinkerton was quite surprised when the man he had been trying to catch for so long came to see him. Adam Worth had a business proposal. He promised to return the Georgiana to its rightful owners on the condition that Pinkerton would help him obtain a ransom. In fact, Worth offered the chief detective of the United States to help him realize the stolen goods. William Pinkerton thought and agreed.

William Agnew received his Gainsborough by paying $25 thousand. The amount was much less than Worth usually received for his frauds, but he was happy about it. Taking the children, he left for his beloved London, where he lived out his days, leading a life worthy of a poor elderly gentleman who had retired from business.

On January 8, 1902, Adam Worth died. Now in effect last promise, given to him by William Pinkerton. Worth's son Henry was hired by the Pinkerton detective agency and made a good career there.

Let me remind you one more thing on the topic: do you know or, for example, what it was. And of course everyone already knows that The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

Professor James Moriarty(English) Professor James Moriarty) - a character in the series of works by Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes, the antagonist of the main character, the head of a powerful criminal organization, a genius of the criminal world.

Here's how Sherlock Holmes describes him:

He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical abilities. When he was 21, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After this, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and it is likely that a bright future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a hereditary tendency towards cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not restrain, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him on the university campus where he taught, and in the end he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began preparing young people for the officer exam...

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Excerpt characterizing Professor James Moriarty

I decided to try to “melt the ice” and asked as gently as possible:
- Tell me, can I help you with something?
The woman looked at me sadly and finally said:
– Can anyone help me? I killed my daughter!..
This confession gave me goosebumps. But this apparently did not bother the girl at all and she calmly said:
- That's not true, mom.
– What was it really like? – I asked carefully.
“A terribly large car ran into us, and my mother was driving.” She thinks it's her fault that she couldn't save me. “The girl patiently explained in the tone of a little professor. “And now my mother doesn’t even want to live here, and I can’t prove to her how much I need her.”
– And what would you like me to do? – I asked her.
“Please, could you ask my dad to stop blaming mom for everything?” – the girl suddenly asked very sadly. “I’m very happy here with her, and when we go to see dad, she then becomes like she is now for a long time...
And then I realized that the father apparently loved this little girl very much and, having no other opportunity to pour out his pain somewhere, blamed her mother for everything that happened.
– Do you want this too? – I asked the woman softly.
She just nodded sadly and again closed herself tightly in her sorrowful world, not letting anyone in, including her little daughter, who was already worried about her.
– Dad is good, he just doesn’t know that we are still alive. – The girl said quietly. - Please tell him...
There is probably nothing worse in the world than feeling the guilt that she felt... Her name was Christina. During her life she was cheerful and very happy woman, who, at the time of her death, was only twenty-six years old. Her husband adored her...
Her little daughter's name was Vesta, and she was the first in this happy family a child whom everyone adored, but her father simply doted on her...
The head of the family himself was named Arthur, and he was the same cheerful, cheerful person as his wife was before her death. And now no one and nothing could help him find at least some peace in his pain-torn soul. And he grew in himself hatred for his loved one, his wife, trying to protect his heart from complete collapse.
– Please, if you go to dad, don’t be scared of him... He can be strange sometimes, but that’s when he’s “not real.” – The girl whispered. And it was felt that she was unpleasant to talk about it.
I didn’t want to ask and upset her even more, so I decided that I would figure it out myself.
I asked Vesta which of them wants to show me where they lived before their death, and whether her father still lives there? The place they named upset me a little, since it was quite far from my home, and it took a lot of time to get there. That’s why I couldn’t think of anything right away and asked my new acquaintances if they could appear again at least in a few days? And having received an affirmative answer, I “iron” promised them that I would definitely meet with their husband and father during this time.
Vesta looked at me slyly and said:
– If dad doesn’t want to listen to you right away, you tell him that his “little fox” misses him very much. That's what dad called me only when we were alone, and no one else knows this except him...
Her sly little face suddenly became very sad, apparently remembering something very dear to her, and she really became somewhat like a little fox...
- Well, if he doesn’t believe me, I’ll tell him so. - I promised.
The figures, flickering softly, disappeared. And I kept sitting on my chair, tensely trying to figure out how I could win at least two or three free hours from my family in order to be able to restrain given word and visit his father who is disappointed with his life...
At that time, “two or three hours” outside the house was a rather long period of time for me, for which I would absolutely have to report to my grandmother or mother. And, since I have never been able to lie, I urgently had to come up with some real reason for leaving home for such a long time.
There was no way I could let my new guests down...
The next day was Friday, and my grandmother, as usual, was going to the market, which she did almost every week, although, to be honest, there was no great need for this, since many fruits and vegetables grew in our garden, and the rest of the products Usually all the nearby grocery stores were packed. Therefore, such a weekly “trip” to the market was probably simply symbolic - grandmother sometimes liked to just “get some air” by meeting with her friends and acquaintances, and also bring us all something “especially tasty” from the market for the weekend.
I circled around her for a long time, unable to come up with anything, when my grandmother suddenly calmly asked:
- Well, why aren’t you sitting, or are you impatient for something?..
- I need to leave! – I blurted out, delighted at the unexpected help. - For a long time.
– For others or for yourself? – the grandmother asked, narrowing her eyes.
– For others, and I really need it, I gave my word!
Grandma, as always, looked at me searchingly (few people liked that look of hers - it seemed like she was looking straight into your soul) and finally said:
- To be home by lunchtime, no later. It's enough?
I just nodded, almost jumping for joy. I didn't think everything would be so easy. Grandma often truly surprised me - she always seemed to know when things were serious and when it was just a whim, and usually, whenever possible, she always helped me. I was very grateful to her for her faith in me and my strange actions. Sometimes I was even almost sure that she knew exactly what I was doing and where I was going... Although, maybe she really knew, but I never asked her about it?.. June 24, 2017, 18:56

Every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain.

Sir A. Conan Doyle portrayed Professor Moriarty as the perfect villain. He is smart, talented and incredibly cruel. Oddly enough, Moriarty personally appears on the pages of the original Holmes stories only once; in the remaining stories one can only occasionally hear references to the “Napoleon of the Underworld.” The villain was described so vividly that subsequently almost all authors who decided to write a continuation of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes turned to this character.

Implacable rivals: Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Illustration by Sidney Paget

“He comes from a good family, received an excellent education and is naturally endowed with phenomenal mathematical abilities. When he was twenty-one, he wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which won him European fame. After this, he received a chair in mathematics at one of our provincial universities, and, in all likelihood, a brilliant future awaited him. But the blood of a criminal flows in his veins. He has a hereditary tendency towards cruelty. And his extraordinary mind not only does not moderate, but even strengthens this tendency and makes it even more dangerous. Dark rumors spread about him in the university town where he taught, and, in the end, he was forced to leave the department and move to London, where he began to prepare young people for the officer exam ... "

A. Conan Doyle "Holmes' Last Case"

“This man looks amazingly like a Presbyterian preacher, he has such a thin face, and gray hair, and stilted speech. Saying goodbye, he put his hand on my shoulder - like a father, blessing his son to meet the cruel, cold world. The most brilliant mind in Europe, who also leads all the forces of hell.”

A. Conan Doyle "Valley of Terror"

“The problem with Doyle's Moriarty was that the character was too successful. Almost every supervillain that came after him even spoke almost exactly like him. They are elegant, outwardly polite, courteous, and kind. If we were to repeat all this again, it would look like a cliché. So Mark and I decided to create a truly insane, terrifying, unpredictable psycho Moriarty..."

Steven Moffat

“Doyle was the first, he created a supervillain. All great heroes had their Moriarty. And you need to try very hard to make the villain worthy of such a strong positive hero, or you will get a pale copy of the arch-villain. Basically, the point is to tell stories differently."

Mark Gatiss

“Bad people don’t know that they are bad. They think they are right!” (Mark Gatiss)

Jim Moriarty turned out to be a real, 100% crazy person, whose intelligence, if not higher, then at least in no way inferior to Sherlock Holmes. The viewer sees him for the first time only in the third episode of the first season. The man who sponsors serial murders at the hands of a taxi driver leads the forces Chinese mafia, makes living bombs out of people... Invincible and terrifying After all, Moriarty turns out to be the boyfriend of hospital employee Molly Hooper. Sherlock initially mistakes Jim for a homosexual.

“When we were filming the pilot, we all just fell in love with Molly Hooper and her hopeless love for Sherlock. And I had the idea that we should give her a prize - a boyfriend whom Sherlock would immediately identify as gay! It was an impromptu joke, but it was what ultimately led to the fact that we meet Moriarty for the first time in this form, as a person whom, literally, you would suspect last.”

Mark Gatiss

Jim:

“If you don’t stop meddling, I’ll burn you.” I'll burn your heart out.

Sherlock:

– From trusted sources it is known that I do not have one.

Jim:

“But we both know that’s not entirely true.”

To be honest, at first no one bet on Moriarty. Moffat and Gatiss simply wanted to create a non-classic Moriarty. He had to be younger than all the actors who had played Moriarty before him, he had to be strange, reminiscent of a loser crazy. All. Nobody planned to make Moriarty one of the main characters of the series, but the appearance of Andrew Scott changed everything.

“The problem is that we had to choose the actor to play Moriarty based on the image of gay Jim, but knowing that he would be our Moriarty. I wrote the most idiotic, stupidest scene anyone has ever written, the confrontation between Sherlock and Moriarty, just for the audition. It was full of the craziest dialogue. “I’ll burn your heart out!” and similar nonsense, just to see if anyone could say all this nonsense. And then Andrew came along and did the scene and he was great. I told Mark, “Well, not only are we casting him, but now we're going to have to rewrite this scene.” So we changed the entire ending of the episode to include the pool confrontation - it never had special meaning, let's be honest. For what? Why did he do this? Why now? What is he even doing? But you don't mind because Andrew Scott is making his first appearance and he's incredible. If you want a little entertainment, watch this final scene, and then the very beginning of A Scandal in Belgravia. These few minutes are the most stupid sequence of events you have ever witnessed in your life. If you show someone these two scenes in a row and say: “This is a great series,” they will ask you: “What? What nonsense is this? What are you all using?

Steven Moffat

During the auditions, Andrew suddenly began to manipulate the pitch of his voice, making it frighteningly high, then lowering it back to normal. Gatiss liked this feature so much that he asked Andrew to pronounce all his lines this way. Moffat subsequently decided to add an Irish accent to Moriarty, since "Moriarty" was originally a surname of Irish origin. Subsequently, it was precisely because of the Irish accent that fans of the series disliked Moriarty.

“From the start I told Andrew to keep his cute Irish accent for Moriarty, it is an Irish name after all, I thought it would be cute. And, as a nod to the original, I asked him to add a head shake, distinctive feature, which was described by Conan Doyle. It turned out to be a literal nod.”

Steven Moffat

“Privacy no longer exists. She belongs to me." (Jim Moriarty)

With the appearance of Andrew Scott on film set it became clear that Moriarty was a much more complex character than initially thought. A person who is capable of doing anything, but who is unable to come to terms with his own head. He is bored, and only the mind of Sherlock Holmes brings him into childish delight. Mark Gatiss, creating the image of Jim Moriarty, remembered the recently read biography of Isaac Newton and tried to convey all the complexity of the great scientist in the hero of Andrew Scott.

“It is worth saying that there were several things that had a serious influence on the creation of Moriarty. One of them (it equally applies to Sherlock) was the story of Isaac Newton. He was so smart and so full of ideas that every morning when he woke up, he had to sit for a while at the foot of his own bed, holding his head in his hands, in order to “debug” his own brain. I thought it was a very exciting idea and we wanted to do something similar with Moriarty. The second thing was my memory of watching an interview with Peter Sellers as a child, and he said something that was both wonderful and scary. He was such a chameleon, such a container for other characters and their traits, that he told a journalist: “I think this is my voice.” It was as if he was a lost soul who didn't know who he really was. And just like that empty man filled with darkness and horror, Andrew was able to embody like no one else."

Mark Gatiss

Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat based the character of Moriarty on Isaac Newton. “He was so smart and so full of ideas that every morning when he woke up, he had to sit for a while at the foot of his own bed, holding his head in his hands, to “debug” his own brain.” (Mark Gatiss)

On set, Andrew Scott was completely immersed in his role. He was wildly worried about the fate of Moriarty and practically did not communicate with anyone. After a couple of days of work, Martin Freeman approached him and began asking him about the role. Andrew was so surprised by this that at first he didn’t even find what to say, but within a minute he was excitedly talking about how he sees his hero. Subsequently, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott became real friends.

“He is up against the dapper Sherlock, and since he is vain, he could hardly ignore this moment. The fact that Moriarty doesn't worry about looking terrifying is ultimately what's most terrifying. He starts a game against Sherlock Holmes and seems bored with worrying about the outcome of the game, making jokes in his face - that's what unsettles him. He does not care. I'm repeating myself. He plays because he's bored - cruel child no brakes. A psycho who fell into euphoria from eating sweets"

Steven Moffat

“Bad people don’t know that they are bad. They think they are right! And he's just having fun. He rejoices at everything that can distract him from the dreary monotony of life. If you're so damn smart, what else can you do? Andrew filled his hero with an eerie feeling of emptiness and melancholy. As if this world was too small, too ordinary, too boring for him. And he is looking for something to amuse himself. Sherlock is the only one who is close to his level of genius, and therefore he can at least briefly enjoy playing with him."

Mark Gatiss

“It's all about confidence in your strength. Moriarty is absolutely confident that he can pull off any task without the slightest effort. Logic is for those who are careful. People who are generally devoid of caution are always the most frightening. Moriarty is the man who forces Sherlock to become a hero. In our series, as in the original, Sherlock initially appears to us as a cold, amoral reasoner, captivated by the game for its own sake, indifferent to good and evil. It is necessary for Moriarty to appear, who will bring him to a state in which he is ready to sacrifice himself for the love of his friends and what he considers right."

Steven Moffat

“It sounds like a cliché: “they are two sides of the same coin,” but it’s true. Sherlock chooses the other side in the game because it's harder to be good! Although Sherlock eventually realizes that he is different from Moriarty. He cares about people, even though he would never want to be like most of us."

Mark Gatiss

Andrew Scott on Moriarty

You need me, without me you are nothing. We are the same - you and me. Only you are boring. You're on the side of the angels.

Since Moriarty is very smart and goofy, I had to rely on the goofy part of me. I had a lot of ideas, I read the script hundreds of times, and then I just waited and watched what would happen, what Benedict would do. I had to be a little unpredictable, I tried different techniques that sometimes worked and sometimes were confusing. So sometimes we had reasons to laugh together.

“Sherlock and Moriarty are similar in many ways. They have the same style of thinking. They need each other." (Andrew Scott)

Sherlock and Moriarty are similar in many ways. They have the same style of thinking. They need each other. Moriarty and Sherlock simply went down different paths. One found himself a true friend, but Moriarty does not have a single person who would take care of him. In the love between Sherlock and Moriarty... There is more than hatred. This is respect.

From the book by Elizabeth Buta

"Sherlock. One step ahead of the audience"

Moriarty - the villain of the late Victorian era, the head of one of the most influential criminal networks in all of Europe - is more like a Presbyterian minister, ready to give a blessing to any sinner, rather than someone who lightly sends people he dislikes to their forefathers.

In the original Holmesian story "The Adventure of the Final Problem", Professor Moriarty, a villain of the late Victorian era, the head of one of the most powerful networks of criminals in all of Europe, falls along with the detective from a cliff . Sherlock believed that the crown of his work should have been the elimination of Moriarty, whose atrocities were poisoning society. However, readers, including Queen Victoria herself, were simply outraged that Moriarty dragged Sherlock to his grave. Doyle had no choice but to “resurrect” his beloved detective.

Characterizing his worst enemy, Sherlock calls James Moriarty a man of noble birth, with an excellent education and phenomenal mathematical abilities. It turns out that at the age of 21, Moriarty wrote a treatise on Newton's binomial, which made him famous throughout Europe. He then received a chair in mathematics at a provincial university and, as the detective believes, could have reached even greater heights. However, the genius, in whose veins the blood of a criminal flows, due to his sick mind and hereditary tendency to cruelty, soon became the subject of dark rumors - and was forced to resign and move to London.

In the story “The Valley of Fear,” Moriarty is called the intriguer of all times, the organizer of all devilry and the brains of the criminal world, darkening the destinies of nations. And at the same time, Sherlock himself is amazed at how brilliant the tactics of his fierce enemy, who wrote “The Dynamics of an Asteroid,” an amazing book that not a single scientist dared to criticize, despite the tarnished reputation of the author himself. A defiled doctor and a slandered professor is Moriarty's guise, and Sherlock calls it a stroke of genius.

Wanting to reveal some details of the appearance of the “Napoleon of the criminal world,” Conan Doyle describes a man with a thin face, gray hair and stilted speech. The criminal is more like a Presbyterian priest, ready to give a blessing to any sinner, than one who lightly sends people he dislikes to their forefathers. Moriarty is the owner of untold wealth, carefully concealing his real financial situation. Sherlock believes that the professor's money is scattered across at least twenty bank accounts, and the main capital is hidden somewhere in France or Germany.

Also under suspicion were the Reverend Thomas Kay, the mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss, and the Fenian John O'Connor Power. Finally, Conan Doyle is known to have used his former Stonyhurst College as inspiration when working out the details of Holmesian. Among the writer's peers in this educational institution there were two boys named Moriarty.