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But he quickly tired of the tales, complaining to his mother that Holmes 'takes my mind from better things.' So, in 1893, he sent the detective over the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland during a struggle with his underworld nemesis, Professor Moriarty. “Killed Holmes' was all Conan Doyle deigned to scribble in his notebook. The public was devastated, as was his mother, but it would take 10 years of pleading and pressure before he gave in and resurrected Holmes from his watery grave.
The later letters are those of an important public figure, dining with the King and earning a knighthood with an impassioned defense of Britain's role in the Boer War at a time when world opinion was against it, not least due to the British Army's use of scorched-earth tactics. His final years were marked by tragedy--he lost his brother Innes and his son Kingsley to World War Ⅰ--and by controversy, as he became Britain's most famous defender of spiritualism, convinced of our ability to communicate with the dead through a medium. (Among those he contacted: his son and Dr. Bell.) It brought personal solace and public ridicule. In one of his last letters to his mother, who never embraced these beliefs, he wrote: 'What does it matter what anyone says of me. I have a good hide by this time.' After his death in 1930, all of this would be forgotten and Conan Doyle would be immortalized as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. It was not the legacy he wanted--but in the end, it was not for him to decide.

A. 어휘
tire of 지겨워 지다. complain 불평하다. detective 탐정. fall 폭포.
underworld 암흑가, 범죄사회, 하층사회.
nemesis 보복자.[그리스 신화]네메시스[복수.응보의 여신], 應報(응보), 천벌.
deign ...하다, 下賜(하사)하다. scribble ...을 휘갈겨 쓰다. devastate 황폐시키다.
pleading 抗辯(항변), 간청. give in 굴복하다. resurrect 부활시키다. grave 무덤.
public figure 公的(공적)인 인물. knighthood 騎士(기사)의 爵位(작위).
impassioned 열렬한. defense 옹호. the Boer War. 영국과 보어사람들 간의 전쟁.
cf. Boer 네덜란드계의 남아프리카 이주민. not least 주로. due to 때문에.
scorch 태우다. tactics 전술. scorched-earth tactics 焦土化(초토화) 전술.
controversy 논쟁. defender 옹호자. spiritualism 심령론, 降神術(강신술).
medium 靈媒(영매), 무당, 중간, 매체. contact [죽은 사람의 혼과] 접촉하다.
personal solace 개인적인 위안. public ridicule 대중의 웃음거리.
embrace 신봉하다, 包容(포용)하다. have a good hide 신경을 쓰지 않다.
immortalize ...을 불멸하게 하다, 불후의 명성을 주다. legacy 遺産(유산).