Sherlock Holmes stories

[KGeo777]

I have a book of the Strand stories---I had heard Doyle preferred writing nonfiction about American history so it is funny how Sherlock Holmes was introduced and ended up being his central character (whether he wanted him to be or not).
I agree the stories are very modern-sounding.
And I listened to a Rathbone-Bruce radio program recently and Watson sounds much better when he isn't depicted as a buffoon.
I also hated the 1940s setting in the majority of movies.
Driving in the car, advising people to buy war bonds...

 

[Artoriarius]

I recently read a volume of Conan Doyle's twelve favourite Sherlock Holmes stories (you can see the list here). While I agree with most of his choices, I feel that "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House" do not exhibit Holmes' talents to their fullest extent - they're mostly there to get rid of Holmes and bring him back, respectively, rather than to solve any particular mystery; and I feel that both "The Bruce-Partington Plans" and "The Naval Treaty" are rather superior to "The Second Stain".

 

[Randy M.]

I also hated the 1940s setting in the majority of movies.
Driving in the car, advising people to buy war bonds...

Perhaps oddly, I recall those fondly. By the time I saw them they were aging rapidly -- in black & white, after all. And the war years, for all the horrors we learned of afterward, had a romantic aspect for a kid in the '60s; and even for some who went through it but weren't close to those horrors.

I think of this kind of writing as something given to us by some late Victorian and Edwardian authors, and authors in their tradition (such as John Buchan, to name someone I haven't mentioned in this posting). I wouldn't be surprised if back of them all is Robert Louis Stevenson. Lovecraft picked up something of this style for a few paragraphs here and there, probably derived especially from Machen.

I don't know if we will get this kind of writing any more, since so many of us grow up indoors and in cities, and if we visit such locales we do so with other trippers around us, etc. There is a lot of new nature writing out there, but I wonder if a lot of it doesn't aspire, rather, more to a kind of chiseled poetic style, rather more self-conscious than the Doyle passage.

Interesting, and I think you're right. Note that this is the sort of writing not so much emulated by later fantasy writers, at least that I've seen. And yet a great deal of the effect of LOTR, for me, was wound up in that appreciation of landscape and the grandeur it lent many of the most important scenes. It was also a part of what made the movies work for me, that sense of the enormity of the world and all the great things it held, many by the hand of previous generations of humans, elves and trolls, often lost to sight, but imposing and even awe-inspiring when seen.

I'd also note about Doyle that while stories of the supernatural weren't his forte, he was capable of producing good ones and seemed to have a knack for Gothic scene setting. There's a scene in one of his short stories of a man being chased by ... something that I would put on par with effects produced by M. R. James. (Unfortunately, can't find the passage in either of the stories I thought it might come from. On the other hand, it gives me reason for some rereading when I can get to it.)

Randy M.

 

[Vladd67]

In the Final Problem Holmes closes a blind telling Watson he was worried about air rifles. In the Empty House there is of course an air rifle used. Was Doyle planning ahead to bring back Holmes even when writing The Final Problem?

 

[Vince W]

I don't think Doyle was planning ahead but rather was using and building on notes he may have had made before Holmes' death. When public outcry forced him to return to Holmes he probably needed something to use quickly.

 

[Extollager]

I'd also note about Doyle that while stories of the supernatural weren't his forte, he was capable of producing good ones and seemed to have a knack for Gothic scene setting. There's a scene in one of his short stories of a man being chased by ... something that I would put on par with effects produced by M. R. James.

I wonder if that wasn't the excellent story "The Captain of the Pole Star."

 

[KGeo777]

I am still waiting for Watson's account of the Giant Rat of Sumatra.

 

[Extollager]

Apropos of my comment (#60 above), I just remembered that, in C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, an indication of one character's moral progress (after he has been a functionary in a corrupt social engineering organization) is an unexpected taste for the Sherlock Holmes stories.

I've just begun rereading Doyle's Professor Challenger story The Poison Belt. It is delectable.

 

[Extollager]

I am still waiting for Watson's account of the Giant Rat of Sumatra.

Ah yes, isn't that the one "for which the world is not yet ready"? Maybe it still isn't ready.

 

[Extollager]

This is the Chrons place for discussions of the Sherlock Holmes stories (not for movies, television programs, etc.). I'm awakening it in case anyone (Danny?) would like to post comments. Myself, I think I'm going to go with the idea I mentioned elsewhere recently, of getting into the stories again but this time reading them in reverse order, that is, starting with the last book, the Case-Book, and presumably ending up with A Study in Scarlet -- although I might not reread the ones I've already rattled on about here: stories from the first collection, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. By the way, my wife is from the part of Pennsylvania where the Molly Maguires were active (cf. The Valley of Fear).

 

[Extollager]

"The Mazarin Stone" leads off The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, and it's an amusing story, almost as if it had a wee dash of P. G. Wodehouse at the expense of detection and atmosphere. All or nearly all of the Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated by Watson except one written by Holmes and this one, written with an omniscient narrator. Doyle was right to contrive the story as he did.

 

[Extollager]

All or nearly all of the Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated by Watson except one written by Holmes and this one, written with an omniscient narrator.

To be more precise, "The Lion's Mane" and "The Blanched Soldier" are narrated by Holmes.

"The Mazarin Stone" and "His Last Bow" are told as third-person narrations.

 

[Extollager]

“Thor Bridge” — well, but I hope Miss Dunbar does not marry or cohabit with the millionaire. Redeeming a guy through romance doesn’t usually work out.

 

[Artoriarius]

“Thor Bridge” — well, but I hope Miss Dunbar does not marry or cohabit with the millionaire. Redeeming a guy through romance doesn’t usually work out.

I figured she’d probably leave to find a new job—it seemed to me that she wasn’t in love with him; she was just trying to convince him to be a better person so he’d leave her alone and not betray the woman he actually married. I don’t think she was even having much success, at that—his employee certainly didn’t think he was a good person.

Conan Doyle did write one story where the woman redeemed a guy through romance—“The Story of the Japanned Box”—but it’s pretty clear both that if the wife hadn’t left a recording of her dying words to constantly remind him, the husband probably would’ve fallen back into his old ways; and that he’s not entirely nice even so (he’ſ absolutely brutal when he fires a maid for touching the titular box), he just does a better job of controlling himself. It’s not a healthy relationship by any means—she was terrified that he would revert without her, and he’s obsessed with her recording.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's interesting to consider that much about many of us think we know about Sherlock Holmes was never in the original text. I don't think there was any mention of wearing a deer stalker or the 'elementary' (which I think was in a play that Doyle had a hand in writing). It's also interesting how the character of Moriarty who gets so little book time (although his significance is huge) has stuck in the public conscience as one of the great villains.

Admittedly I haven't read the books (I actually once bought a book that had all his stories in , but the text was so small it was painful to read) but I have listened to audio readings of them (which pretty much equates to the same thing). Knowing the solutions to many of his stories via tv/film, it is difficult to know in retrospect whether Doyle leaves enough clues in the text for the reader to come to the solution before Holmes does. There do seem to be some tales where the story is more of an adventure, with events leading to the natural conclusion of the outcome rather than Holme's detecting skills, but those tales add a little diversion from the ones where Sherlock has to use his deductive skills and encylopedic knowledge to their utmost in order to crack a case.

 

[Vince W]

The images of Sidney Paget helped to solidify what we think we know about Sherlock Holmes, including the deerstalker cap and Inverness cape.

 

[Vladd67]

The images of Sidney Paget helped to solidify what we think we know about Sherlock Holmes, including the deerstalker cap and Inverness cape.

But only when in the country, in town Sherlock went for a top hat, dark suit, and coat.

 

[paranoid marvin]

But only when in the country, in town Sherlock went for a top hat, dark suit, and coat.

Which makes absolute sense if he wanted to blend in with your surroundings (or wanted to be allowed into the more fashionable establishments). Contrary to some depictions, Sherlock and John were fashionable young gentlemen who enjoyed the London lifestyle, which required being dressed for the occasion. And when in the country they would wear suitable country attire.

 

[Vladd67]

Which makes absolute sense if he wanted to blend in with your surroundings (or wanted to be allowed into the more fashionable establishments). Contrary to some depictions, Sherlock and John were fashionable young gentlemen who enjoyed the London lifestyle, which required being dressed for the occasion. And when in the country they would wear suitable country attire.

It tends to be overlooked that when Holmes and Watson first met they were about 27, not a couple of middle-aged men as usually portrayed in films.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Btw I think my favourite story is The Red Headed League. It's a marvellously entertaining story and an ingeniously villainous scheme. Also one which allows the reader the opportunity to deduce the solution before it is revealed.