Sherlock Holmes was popular from his first appearance in 1887, in the novelette "A Study in Scarlet." He was so popular that soon Conan Doyle began to ＿＿（41）＿＿ having created him, since Holmes stories so completely overshadowed what Conan Doyle considered his serious work, such as his historical novel. Readers lined up at newsstands for The Strand on publication day ＿＿（42）＿＿ a new Holmes story was to appear inside. Because of Holmes, Conan Doyle was, one historian wrote, "as well-known as Queen Victoria." Holmes fans were truly the ＿＿（43）＿＿ middle-class, the exact sort of group whose tastes would be denigrated by snooty critics as populist for more than a century to come. The ＿＿（44）＿＿ for Holmes stories seemed endless. The Strand would pay Conan Doyle nicely for whatever he could give them. But he hadn't meant to spend the rest of his life inventing and solving fiction crimes. By 1893, Conan Doyle had had enough. So he had the evil professor Moriarty push Holmes down the falls. But by 1901, however, public pressure grew so great that Conan Doyle wrote a new story featuring Holmes before his fall. In 1903, in "The Adventure of the Empty House," he went one step further, resurrecting Holmes with the explanation that only Moriarty had died in the fall, while Holmes had ＿＿（45）＿＿ his own death. Fans rejoiced.