Quote Originally Posted by Chives View Post
Assumed. Holmes was a bit of a rover who had organized bands of information trawlers, (the baker street irregulars) a decent relationship with the police department, (to the point where he's okay with them taking credit for his cases) and friends who thought of him memorably and positively after their first meetings. (Watson is recommended to Holmes by a third party) In addition, Doyle was very precise and would have said so directly if his character had poor social skills.

Holmes is as much a victim of being rewritten by the public as Batman.
The recent series that place Holmes in the 21st Century (as well as the movies that don't) are explicit in revisioning the detective. However, they attach to an under appreciated part of Holmes' character that prior adaptions often downplayed.

Here is a full length treatment of Holmes' poor social skills. By the way, I cite that article only for the support it brings from the text that his social skills were rather poor, not to make the case that he was intended to have Aspergers or some form of autism.