Sherlock Holmes (novel)/YMMV


 * Acceptable Religious Targets: Mormons in "A Study in Scarlet". In Doyle's defense, though, only Brigham Young's original polygamist followers get this treatment, not every Average Joe on the street who follows the religion.
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Oh,  dear God!
 * Author's Saving Throw: Holmes' return in "The Empty House", and the revelation that he'd survived Moriarty's attack in "The Final Problem" and just gone into hiding for a while.
 * Awesome Ego: Sherlock himself.
 * Complete Monster: Holmes feels more revulsion towards the blackmailer Charles Augustus Milverton than to any of the fifty murderers he'd confronted in his career.
 * Downer Ending:
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Irene Adler, who only appeared in one story of the original tales, but is popular among those who wrote Holmes-based novels, TV and movies, especially for a Promotion To Love Interest.
 * Moriarty is another example, being a Breakout Villain.
 * There are many others. Some include Shinwell Johnson and Kitty Winters, the supporting characters from The Illustrious Client, or even Mr. Barker, Holmes's mysterious one-time rival from The Retired Colourman.
 * Fan Wank: One of the older, best-established, and most erudite examples, and still going strong. People have written dissertations that are, essentially, Holmes Fan Wank that's Shown Their Work.
 * Genius Bonus: Holmes calling Maths Professor Moriarty "The Napoleon of Crime" gets a whole new dimension when you know that the original Napoleon Bonaparte's second career choice was mathematician. So in a way, he was the Moriarty of world leaders as well.
 * Ho Yay: So much we had to give it its own page. Someone involved here knew which side their fandom is buttered on...
 * Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: Most of the novels did not have Sherlock Holmes in the title.
 * Memetic Badass: Irene Adler, the woman who went up against the best detective in London, if not the world, and managed to outsmart him.
 * Nightmare Fuel: Now with Its very own page, again!
 * The titular substance in The Devil's Foot is literally this. In a less literal sense, Holmes and Watson testing it on themselves.
 * The Adventure of the Copper Beeches is chock full of Nightmare Fuel. First, there's the poor governess, who is brought to a mysterious countryside manor, where she is subject to bizarre demands, discovers that her boss is a Complete Monster, and finds the child she is to care for takes a perverse delight in torturing animals. Likewise for This would be creepy enough, but the setting of the story means that  are entirely at the mercy of an unbalanced sociopath, and can draw on no one for aid. (Holmes even comments that the isolated country setting can elevate ordinary crimes to the level of Nightmare Fuel.) Also, depending on your feelings about dogs, the vicious, half-starved mastiff can count, too.
 * The Speckled Band, especially if you don't like snakes.
 * "The Creeping Man" is, well, super creepy.
 * The Jack the Ripper game, being based (naturally) on the Ripper killings has this in spades.
 * The titular hound in Hound of the Baskervilles. Even though it turns out not to be supernatural, it's still huge and vicious and glowing.
 * The hydraulic press in 'The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb', it being the reason the engineer of the title is missing said digit.
 * Paranoia Fuel:
 * The Mormons in A Study in Scarlet, able to make Unpeople at will, and get past every barrier you can put between them and you.
 * Likewise, the from The Five Orange Pips.
 * A less sinister example: Holmes' deductive abilities arguably go from "cool" to "creepy" in the first chapter of The Sign of Four (that is, the second novel) when he studies Watson's watch for a minute, then proceeds to give a summarized biography of Watson's elder brother, whom he hadn't known existed before he started.
 * Saved by the Fans: Doyle tried to kill of Holmes when he got tired of the character. People didn't take it well, so he was brought back.
 * Although it wasn't the complaints that led him to bring Holmes back...
 * Unfortunate Implications: While most examples here would be Fair for Its Day, some have objected to the thuggish potrayal of a black goon in "The Three Gables", considering that Doyle handled race much more maturely in "The Yellow Face".
 * Values Dissonance: Sir Arthur's depiction of the Mormons as a Religion of Evil was completely uncontroversial at the time (Jules Verne also did it in "Around the World in 80 days"), whereas his portrayal of the KKK as a murderous secret society was not. Nowadays, it's the opposite.
 * The Woobie: Holmes himself.