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Comments
http://www.fredlaw.com/news__media/2013/09/17/426/the_soul_of_sherlock_holmes/ (from Sept 2013)
http://www.authorsalliance.org/2014/06/17/its-elementary-my-dear-watson-the-public-domain-can-benefit-authors/ (June 2014)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sherlock-holmes-now-officially-copyright-and-open-business-180951794/?no-ist (June 2014)
http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/its-elementary-book-does-not-infringe-sherlock-holmes-works-suit-says/
Also, I briefly looked at this Reuters article (I think it is 2013) and it mentions this:
According to the complaint, Klinger, along with Laurie R. King, edited a book titled “A Study in Sherlock,” published by Random House in 2011. The book is a collection of new and original stories by contemporary authors, inspired by the Holmes canon and featuring characters and story elements that Klinger says are now in the public domain.
He and King have been working on a sequel, titled “In the Company of Sherlock Holmes,” that was being prepared for publication by Pegasus Books, according to the complaint.
I want to read those two books! :)
From Wikipedia:
Doyle offered the role first to Beerbohm Tree and then to Henry Irving. But Irving turned it down and Tree demanded that Doyle readapt Holmes to his peculiar acting profile; he also wanted to play both Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Doyle turned down the deal, considering that this would debase the character. Noting that the play needed a lot of work, literary agent A. P. Watt sent the script to Charles Frohman who traveled to London to meet Doyle. There, Frohman suggested the prospect of an adaptation by Gillette. Doyle endorsed this and Frohman obtained the staging-copyright. Doyle insisted on only one thing: there was to be no love interest in Sherlock Holmes. Frohman uttered a Victorian rendition of "Trust me!" Gillette, who then read the entire collection for the first time, started outlining the piece in San Francisco while still touring in Secret Service. On one occasion, after they had exchanged numerous telegrams about the play, Gillette telegraphed Conan Doyle: "May I marry Holmes?" Doyle responded: "You may marry him, or murder or do what you like with him."
A summary of the plot:
Sherlock Holmes is consulted by a man who is connected with the British royal family, to retrieve letters he wrote to Alice Faulkner's sister. Alice intends to use the letters to blackmail him, and Alice is being held captive by a couple in the power of Professor Moriarty.
And a sad fact:
Gillette performed Holmes 1,300 times on stage, and was responsible for much of the costume still associated with the character. Sherlock Holmes is believed to be the only filmed record of his iconic portrayal.
Gillette is one of the principal and most influential actors to really take Holmes beyond the written word, and we can't even see him perform his magnificent work. Now that, my dear Bibliophiles, is a crime worthy of the Holmes catalogue.
This is a review of the Sherlock Chronicles book just released. I wasn't thinking of buying but now... I'm curious.
Hullo! Hope you have been keeping warm. As I sip my morning tea, I think that I would really like to own this teapot:
On to our Holmes business! I'm happy to return now to share some more wonderful Holmes and Doyle trivia with you. And what a splendid time of year! Now we drift towards the end of November - for me, it is the finishing touch of a lovely season, one of change and hints of upcoming festivities. A stronger, colder wind, the glorious leaves fading and trees becoming bare again, perhaps the first snow of the year (depending upon your location, of course) - a time to bring out heavier blankets, warmer coats and mufflers, drink plenty of hot cider or hot chocolate, and holiday plans being formed.
It is timely that I am picking up our thread now, and with two distinct plans. First up this week, I shall be looking at something I find intriguing and definitely a part of Sherlock Holmes' world: Trains of the Victorian Era. Holmes and trains go hand in hand, just like the hansom cabs. Trains lend a wonderful, romantic, and exiting atmosphere to the stories. I have always loved the old fashioned looking trains, and I will be sharing tidbits of information on trains during the era of the Holmes stories.
After our look at trains during this period, we (all of us BakerStreetBibliophiles) shall revert to reading and discussing another Holmes story. Do join us! This one has perfect timing, and will take us through all of December to enjoy thoroughly. It is the one Holmes story set right in the heart of Christmastime. Would anyone care to guess the title? (I'm sure several of you are familiar with this one!)
For today, please join me as I delve into the world at the turn of the century, back in Victorian England:
Trains in Sherlock Holmes's World
I found an informative website, an article by William A. Barton, which I will simply quote from a bit next. Here is the site: http://surrey-shore.freeservers.com/VicRail.htm (bolding or underlining is mine, not the article's - and photos are from the internet, not the article quoted)
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Readers of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories needn’t be told the significance of the Victorian railway in the saga of the Master Sleuth of Baker Street. Trains are at least mentioned or alluded to in no less than 39 of the original Holmes stories — 41 if you count the terms “railway” and “special” (meaning a special train) — and Victorian England’s railways play a significant role in a number of those tales as well, if for no other reason than transporting Holmes and Watson from their usual confines of West London not only to its far-flung suburbs, but to such destinations as Dartmoor, Cornwall, Oxford, Sussex, and many others.
Think how different would have been the flavor of some of Holmes’ tales had the railway not have criss-crossed England by the late Victorian period. Only 50 years earlier, a British traveler’s main means of traversing the English countryside was via a network of stage coaches, which put the peripatetic soul at the mercy of rutted dirt roads, horses that needed to rest or be changed frequently, much longer journeys at far slower speeds, and, even in the Victorian age, the threat of the occasional highwayman. Consider: Could Holmes have ever made his narrow escape from Professor Moriarty in “The Final Problem” if he’d been forced to rely on coach and horses rather than the tireless iron horse of the British railway? Could he have arrived on the scene of many a crime in time to nab the culprit had he needed to make frequent stops to pay the toll on pre-Victorian England’s toll roads? Would the very atmosphere of the Holmes stories be quite the same without the white columns of steam, clouds of blackened cinders, and piercing whistle-cry of the sturdy British locomotive forming an integral part of their backgrounds? I think not.
...
The birth of the Victorian era coincided almost directly with the rise of the railroad. The first rail line between major cities had already opened in 1830, between Liverpool and Manchester, and other fledgling railways were built within the decade preceding Victoria’s ascension to the throne in 1837. But many of Britain’s major rail lines were, in fact, built during the first decade of Victoria’s reign: for example, London-Birmingham, in 1838; London-Southampton, in 1840; London-Bristol, in 1841; and London-Glasgow, in 1848. Britain’s first railway boom was firmly underway by the 1840s, and the 1860s saw a second and even greater boom.
The railway system of Great Britain grew immensely over the entire century, eventually connecting almost every major and minor city in the country. By the 1850s, for example, most major cities and industrial areas were connected by rail. By 1900, more than 18,500 miles of railroads covered Britain. Railway engineers became folk heroes during the period, idolized for their ingenuity and imaginative — yet eminently practical — designs. (Among the most famous of these early railroad engineers were Richard Trevithick, William Hedley, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and George and Robert Stephens.) And many towns throughout the country grew in size and importance primarily because of their ties with the railroads – among them Darlington, Crewe, and Swindon, where locomotives were built.
The railroads brought many improvements to the lives of Victorians. Fresh food, for example, including fish and vegetables, could now be sent to distant markets and still arrive in edible condition. The railroads also heralded the rise of the holiday towns such as Brighton, Blackpool, and Margate, as more people gained cheap and easy access to these resort locations by rail. Letters and parcels could also be sent cross-country more quickly, and newspapers and magazines could now reach towns across the countryside while their news was still recent.
...
The earliest train cars were designed along the lines of stagecoaches; some were, in fact, simply stagecoach bodies on which train wheels were mounted. Passenger cars varied in comfort on the early railroads in Britain. First-class coaches were fitted with black-leather cushions and rugs for use in the cold. Second-class coaches offered only stark wooden benches and a jarring ride, and third-class cars gave passengers an even worse way to travel. The earliest third-class cars had no roof overhead nor any seats. Third-class passengers stood the entire trip, holding onto a handrail. They were subject not only to the elements, but also to the smoke and cinders blowing from the engine. A traveler’s handbook of the period further spelled out the plight of third-class train travelers in advising men to hold onto their wallets during tunnel passages – and it also suggested that women hold pins in their mouths during such darkened transits to discourage male passengers from sneaking kisses. (Probably not the origin of the term “pinhead,” however.)
Trains were continuously improved throughout the century, however, and many of the longer routes, particularly in Europe but also in England, attained reputations for luxury and service that were normally associated with those of the great steam-powered ocean liners. The well-known Orient Express, for example, which traveled from Vienna to Istanbul, was one such Continental train of renown toward the end of the period. By the 1870s, elegant Pullman carriages were in use throughout both Britain and the Continent, and most trains were also equipped with buffet cars and sleepers for their first-class passengers.
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More to come later today ... cheers!
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As today, rail travel in Victorian England was not, however, without its hazards. All switching and signaling, for example, were performed manually, and even with the telegraph, miscommunications sometimes led to spectacular accidents. Charles Dickens once recounted his own experience in such an accident. Misreading a timetable, workers erroneously removed a section of track to make repairs on a bridge. Unfortunately, the train on which Dickens rode was scheduled to cross that bridge before the workers could complete their repairs. The train derailed, and all but the last of the first-class cars, where Dickens was riding, fell into a chasm. Dickens’ car was left hanging off the bridge until rescuers arrived. (I wonder how great his expectations of rail travel were following that nearly ill-fated trip . . .) In addition to potential accidents, train robbers weren't at all exclusive to the American West during the 19th century, but were an ever-present threat wherever trains ran.
In addition to their growth in the British Isles, railroads eventually opened up all of Europe, Asia, India, and even Siberia throughout the Victorian years (one holdout being Afghanistan, as those of you who’ve read my article on that country in the Victorian era may recall). The Victorian railroad became the focal point of numerous adventures, both fictional and factual. A moving train supplied an exotic locale that was frequently used by the short-story and novel writers of the day, primarily because it was so well-suited as a backdrop for tales of mystery, intrigue, and romance — as we readers of Doyle’s Holmes stories can readily attest.
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You can read more about the train crash Dickens was involved with here: http://www.mytimemachine.co.uk/dickens.htm
He had a narrow escape indeed!
I have copied quite a bit of that particular article, but not all of it. I found this to be particularly helpful as a Holmes aficionado:
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Kings Cross Station, 1910
London’s Rail Depots
A growing number of major railway stations and railways served London throughout Victoria’s reign. All of London’s depots were easily accessible by cab or omnibus, the latter being the Victorian equivalent of today’s double-decker motor buses. (After 1863, many of the city’s stations were also accessible via London’s underground railroad system.) To aid the Victorian train traveler in planning and completing his journey, Bradshaw’s Railway Guide published train routes and schedules monthly, as did several rival guides (although the savvy Victorian traveler — Sherlock Holmes, for example — knew Bradshaw’s to be the most thorough).
1891 Bradshaw
By the end of the Victorian era, London had more than a dozen railway depots within its borders. Among these were, in alphabetical order:
Cannon Street Station, which opened in 1866, was located on the Thames in the City of London (the Square Mile area that consisted of the medieval city and which was the heart of London’s financial district). Cannon Street Station was the London terminus of the South-Eastern Railway (a status that it shared with Charing Cross Station). In the Holmes saga, Cannon Street Station was mentioned in “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” you may recall, as the station from which Neville St. Clair caught the train home from his begging activities as Hugh Boone.
Charing Cross Station, completed in 1864, was London’s other terminus of the South-Eastern Railway. It lay in Westminster, in London’s West End, between the Strand, which, as it remains today, was one of London’s major thoroughfares in the Victorian era, and the Thames Embankment — the built-up area of parks and walkways along the Thames. The station sat just southeast of Charing Cross Hotel and a block east of London’s ritzy Grand Hotel, where well-to-do train passengers often stayed while doing business in the capital. Charing Cross Station is mentioned in no less than six Holmes stories: “Abbey Grange,” “The Empty House,” “The Golden Pinz-Nez,” “The Illustrious Client,” “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and “The Second Stain” — perhaps due to its West End location and relative nearness to Baker Street.
Euston Station was completed in 1837 in the north-central borough of St. Pancras. It became the London terminus for the London and North-Western Railway. It lay east of Regent’s Park (which itself was due north of Baker Street) and northwest of the British Museum. Oddly, in spite of its own relative nearness to Baker Street, Euston Station is one of only two of the capital’s major stations that are never mentioned in the Canon.
Kings Cross Station served as the London terminus for the Great Northern Railway from 1852. It lay east of Euston Station in King’s Cross, an open area of central London at the north end of Gray’s Inn Road, which ran northward from one of London’s four Inns of Court (where English barristers studied for their profession). King’s Cross Station is mentioned only in “The Missing Three-Quarter” as Holmes’ and Watson’s departure point for Cambridge.
Liverpool Street Station, which lay just north of the City (capital C), became the London terminus for the Great Eastern Railway on its completion in 1874. Right next door, to the west, lay Broad Street Station, opened in 1875 to link London with its northern suburbs. Liverpool Street Station is mentioned in “The Dancing Men” and — a story near to the hearts of all Hated Rivals on the Surrey Shore — “The Retired Colourman.”
London Bridge Station was built in 1836 in Bermondsey, south of the Thames and due south of London Bridge itself. (Bermondsey, by the way, was the center of the tanning industry in London, so any ill odors arising from the terminal itself probably smelled sweet in comparison to those of the surrounding areas.) This station served as the main London terminus for the London, Brighton, and South-Coast Railway. The South-Eastern and Chatham Railway also used the station. London Bridge Station figures in “The Bruce-Partington Plans” (although it’s the station’s underground terminal in that story), in “The Norwood Builder,” and in, again, “The Retired Colourman.”
Paddington Station became the London terminus of the Great Western Railway. This station was constructed in 1838 and lay in the West End borough of Paddington. It’s mentioned in “The Boscome Valley Mystery,” “The Engineer’s Thumb,” “Silver Blaze,” and The Hound of the Baskervilles, where it’s the station from which Watson and Sir Henry Baskerville took the 10:30 train to Dartmoor.
St. Pancras Station was completed in 1868 and also lay in the northern borough of St. Pancras. It was the London terminus of the Midland Railway. It lay just west of King’s Cross Station and east of Euston Station. The station incorporated as part of its structure the St Pancras Hotel, which was owned by the Midland Railway. Along with its eastward neighbor, St. Pancras is the only other major London terminal that’s absent in the Canon.
Victoria Station, which opened in Westminster in 1860, was the great West End terminus of the South-Eastern and Chatham Railway. It lay just south of St. James Park. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, as well as four suburban lines, also operated from Victoria Station. The Grosvenor Hotel was located at the station and was owned by the railways serving it. Victoria Station is mentioned in “The Final Problem,” “The Greek Interpreter,” “Silver Blaze,” and “The Sussex Vampire.”
Waterloo Station, in Lambeth, south of the Thames, served as the London terminus for the South-Western Railway. It was first constructed in 1848 and rebuilt in 1900. Waterloo was the departure and arrival point for trains to and from points to the south and southwest, such as Horsham, Southampton, and Woking (the first and third of which, incidentally, played significant roles in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds). Waterloo Station shares status with Charing Cross as the one most named in the Canon, in six stories: “The Crooked Man,” “The Five Orange Pips,” “The Naval Treaty,” “The Solitary Cyclist,” “The Speckled Band,” and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Other railway stations dotted London, among them Blackfriars Station, built in 1864 in South London and closed in 1886, after being replaced by St. Paul’s Station, in Central London, north of the Thames; Fenchurch Street Station, constructed in 1841, in East-Central London, north of the Thames; and Bricklayers Arms Station, completed in 1844, also in East-Central London, but south of the Thames. Numerous other smaller depots existed throughout London’s suburbs and outskirts — far too many to mention here, although quite a few receive credit in the Holmes Canon.
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I will be adding a bit more on trains during the era of Sherlock Holmes later today or perhaps tomorrow. However, for now I would like to include the above website's article's list for additional reading, along with the acknowledgement from that article's author, William A. Barton. I feel this would be a good courtesy, as the material I have posted is not mine, and also owes acknowledgement to Mr. Barton's sources. I have discovered that this website of from a Sherlock Holmes society in Illinois, USA.
Cheers! And here is that info:
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For Further Reading
Following are a few of the books consulted for information in this article that can provide additional information to those interested in the topic:
Baedeker’s London and its Environs, 1900, by Karl Baedeker (Old House Books, 2002). Reprint of the excellent period guidebook to London, including transportation within the capital, at the end of the Victorian Era.
The Canonical Compendium, by Stephen Clarkson (and the late Bill Fleischauer), (Calabash Press, 1999). A good reference for running down all the references to trains and depots — as well as countless other items — in the Holmes Canon.
Dickens’s Dictionary of London, 1888: An Unconventional Handbook, by Charles Dickens (Old House Books, 1995). Reprint of the quirky but quite useful handbook of England’s capital by the son of the great author, full of period detail.
Encyclopedia Sherlockiana, by Jack Tracy (Doubleday & Co., 1977). This seminal Sherlockian work provides entries for all parts of London and elsewhere mentioned in the Canon, shedding a great deal of light on the Victorian background of the Holmes stories. Maps show the layout of London’s underground lines and locations of its major rail depots.
A History of London Transport, Volume 1: The Nineteenth Century, by T.C. Barker and Michael Robbins (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1963). This comprehensive survey covers not only the development of rail travel in London during the Victorian Era, but all types of transport in the capital.
No Need to Ask: Early Maps of London’s Underground Railways, by David Leboff and Tim Demuth (Capital Transport Publishing, 1999). A plethora of maps and info about London’s underground system.
The Victorian Railway, by Jack Simmons (Thames & Hudson, 1991). A good historical overview of Victorian England’s railways, with period photos.
Acknowledgements: In addition to the preceding resources, thanks go to James Skipper, of the Victorian Gamer Web site (www.victoriangamer.com), for supplying some of the information contained in this article. Parts of this article also originally appeared, in slightly different form, in this author’s role-playing game sourcebook, Cthulhu By Gaslight, by Chaosium, Inc., and some of it may also appear in some form in the forthcoming GURPS Gaslight Victorian-era gaming sourcebook, from Steve Jackson Games.
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More about our upcoming story to review later this week. Cheers!
Harken! I have made an interesting discovery while looking for the Sidney Paget drawing of Holmes and Watson on a train (which I just added to one of my recent posts above). Interesting trivia about Doyle's original manuscripts.
The following info is from http://www.bestofsherlock.com/sherlock-manuscripts.htm
and details the sale of a Holmes short story, The Adventure of Black Peter, this past June. This website gives lots of information regarding sales of Doyle's original works, Paget's also. I do recommend you checking out this website yourself. (bolding and underlining below are mine, not the article's)
You may find this as fascinating as I did. And apparently we have specifically Peter Collier or his son, Robert Collier, as Collier's Weekly to thank for nudging Doyle to bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead. :-bd
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Conan Doyle wrote 60 Sherlock Holmes stories. He sold or gave away many of these manuscripts during his lifetime. He passed on others through his children. They eventually sold most of them, but his last surviving child, Dame Jean Conan Doyle (1912-1997), bequeathed three Holmes manuscripts to British institutions. Her gifts included The Retired Colourman, The Illustrious Client, and The Creeping Man.
Approximately two-thirds of the manuscripts are known to exist, although some of these include only fragments. It's possible that a few more still survive. Indeed, a previously-unrecorded Holmes manuscript showed up in 2004, so one can hope that new discoveries will be made.
Almost all of the Holmes manuscripts written after 1902 still exist, in part because Conan Doyle started submitting typed copies to his publishers and retaining the original for himself. Only 4 of the 27 manuscripts written before 1902 are known to survive, although a few leaves remain from three other tales. Private collectors hold about half of the known existing manuscripts.
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Written in dark ink on 23 sheets (rectos only) of good quality 12 5/8 x 8 inches ruled paper. Not bound, but fastened at top left with a brass clip. Headed on first page as "The Return of Sherlock Holmes | VI | The Adventure of Black Peter." Signed and dated at end as "A. Conan Doyle | Undershaw | July 26, 1903." See below for a photo of the manuscript of "Black Peter."
Held in a brown buckram case with gilt-lettered upper cover as "The original manuscript of 'The Adventure of Black Peter' [by] Arthur Conan Doyle, Ex Libris Robert J. Collier."
Conan Doyle 1908 letter to Mr. CollierAccompanied by an Autograph Letter Signed from Doyle on his Crowborough letterhead to "Mr. Collier" at Christmas in 1908. It reads in full: "To Mr. Collier with best Xmas wishes Dec. 1908 from Arthur Conan Doyle." The recipient was either Peter Fenelon Collier, founder and publisher of Collier's Weekly, or his son Robert J. Collier, who later took over as publisher.
In 1903, Collier's Weekly approached Conan Doyle with a lucrative offer to bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead. The author agreed to write a series which became The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle completed the sixth tale in the series, "The Adventure of Black Peter," in July 1903 and it appeared in the February 27, 1904 issue of Collier's Weekly and the March 1904 Strand Magazine.
The series eventually ran to 13 tales and was collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. George Newnes published the British first edition on March 7, 1905 and McClure, Phillips, & Co. released the American edition in February 1905.
Of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories, only 32 complete manuscripts are known to still exist and only 16 of those are privately held. This manuscript is particularly notable for its association with the Collier family. Collier received it before Conan Doyle had his Holmes manuscripts bound, and it remains one of the few in its original unbound form. Unlike most Holmes manuscripts, it includes a date along with Conan Doyle's signature.
Sale Results
With a pre-sale estimate of $250,000–$350,000, the bidding opened at $200,000. The manuscript sold to a bidder in the room at the hammer price of $260,000 plus the buyer's premium for a total of $317,000.
Provenance: Probably Peter F. Collier (from letter); Robert J. Collier (from case); Norman S. Nolan, M.D., BSI, bought at auction 1972 with El Dieff as agent; Diane Nolan.
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Happy to share with you today. A few more slices of hot buttered toast and milk tea are in order. More to come ...
For the rest of this jolly month of December we shall delve into a wonderful Holmes short story - the only one that is set completely during Christmas.
With that single big clue, would anyone care to guess the title of this story? I will be following up with my detailed review in about 2 days.
Dear Sherlockian comrades, what is the title of this wonderful, festive short story?
Congratulations! A very fat unplucked white goose is heading your way, Mrcoggins ... unless you would prefer a purple dressing gown or just a lovely new set of Persian slippers as a storage bin for tobacco (or anything else that would be more appropriate for you). Good show! :-bd
This wonderful seasonal short story is replete with fat goose that has gone missing, a stunning gem named the Blue Carbuncle, a tale of theft and possible redemption, chats with bartenders and all the wonderful festive atmosphere of a crisp wintry Christmas time in Victorian England as only Arthur Conan Doyle can write it. A real gem of a short story, to use the most obvious and apt phrase. ;)
I shall try to get my review posted this Sunday (in two days' time) ... but also please keep in mind you are all welcome to write your own reviews of these stories that we examine. You do not have to use our categories, but simply any comments, summary, opinions, or reviews of any length are welcome.
Ta for now, and we shall return with a fun look at this holiday treat, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. Cheers!
The stories after this one will be much more deviously riddled for our readers and Sherlockian comrades.
Does it by any chance look like either of these?
This story was published in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and occurs before his "death" and is well known for being the only Christmas story in the Canon. Dr Watson visits his friend Holmes at Christmas to give him the season's greetings. He finds Holmes in the living room of 221B sitting by the fire wearing his purple dressing gown and a curious object sitting on a chair close by, a hideous old hat. The scene is one of the most famous ones in the Canon, just by analysing the hat Holmes is able to infer a great deal if information concerning its owner.
He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective fashion which was characteristic of him. “It is perhaps less suggestive than it might have been,” he remarked, “and yet there are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that his wife has ceased to love him.”
“My dear Holmes!”
“He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect,” he continued, disregarding my remonstrance. “He is a man who leads a sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid on in his house.”
The hat had been collected along with a fat goose by Mr Peterson following a curious scene. As Holmes was speaking with Watson, however, Peterson is back, flabbergasted, after his wife had discovered a beautiful gem in the bird's crop. Holmes immediately recognized the gem as the blue carbuncle, which had been stolen just a few days previously from a hotel in London. A man had been arrested for the crime but was he really guilty? Holmes asks Peterson to put adds in the newspapers to find a Mr Henry Baker (the owner of the hat and bird) and Mr Baker does indeed show up. The great detective soon understands he is completely innocent as to the theft of the gem. What follows are a series of diligences in which Holmes and the good.doctor follow the root of bird to try and shed some light onto the criminal matters at stand. They eventually find Mr John Robinson, chief attendant at the hotel where the theft had been committed and witness against the supposed thief. It turns out the jailed man was innocent and Mr Robinson had been tempted into a life of crime by easy fortune only to lose it again. But all’s well that ends well, the bard would say. This Christmas no one is going to jail...
There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes’ finger-tips upon the edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. “Get out!” said he. “What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!” “No more words. Get out!”
The spirit of the season certainly took hold of Holmes, for the story ends with this delicious paragraph:
“After all, Watson,” said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his clay pipe, “I am not retained by the police to supply their deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief feature.”
Now onto the review proper.
Holmes - in excellent form and excellent humour. The range of human emotions of which he is capable of are in full display in this tale. His deductive powers are as sharp as they will ever be.
Watson - he hasn't much to do besides telling the story and accompanying Holmes. In fact, he seems rather slow in this one.
Villain – despite the fact that he was letting an innocent man go to jail we (as Holmes) eventually feel sorry for the man. In terms of villainess, the one scores rather low.
Supporting characters – charming! It’s in my opinion one of the strong point in this story, all these small characters that come and go are interesting and important.
Atmosphere – typical Victorian London, from Baker Street to a pub, to a bird seller, to a bird breeder, and back again we are treated to a tour of London this time.
Suspense – not much to say here. It all moves very fast and it’s more fun than thrill.
Violence - besides the killing of several geese which might have an effect on animal lovers there is not much violence here.
Humour – in generous dosage but without being silly, top marks for the conversation with the bird seller.
Cleverness – oh, Holmes is clever as a mice in this one I tell you! The hat deduction and (again) the conversation with the bird seller show just how smart (and manipulative) the man is.
Case – interesting and perfect to show Holmes’ powers of deduction.
Doyle - in great shape, his style is superb and there are several moments in this short story which are beloved in the Canon. Top marks!
Final verdict - this is an iconic short story with good reason. It's the only one set in Christmas and, for such a short tale, has numerous amazing moments. The deduction with the hat is one of those and is one of Holmes' finest moments. Also, it has a happy (ish) ending, with Holmes letting the culprit go in the name of kindness perhaps. This was a man who had never done anything wrong in his life until that moment and, considering the state of his nerves, who is likely never to delve into the criminal world. An innocent man was bound to be released, the jewel was found and a marriage, one hopes, might have been saved. Again, top marks! I hope this review will inspire others to pick up this delightful short story to read. Who knows, it might be the knowledge of this particular tale might come in handy to BBC Sherlock viewers next Christmas ;)
I'll try to get my take on it in this week. But you certainly have done justice to The Blue Carbuncle.
Cheers!
I just found this might prove interesting .
And I am so excited about the upcoming Christmas time Sherlock special. I do love this BBC series. It is one of my all-time favorites. Thanks for the link, @Mrcoggins. I wish I lived in England for many reasons, including because I'd love to go watch Sherlock being filmed. Of course I would not be intrusive at all. I think some fans can get in the way a bit. Or perhaps the shear number of fans hanging about is too great these days ... so maybe I would restrain myself. I do think they should all be allowed to act without great crowds of fans watching. That has to be disconcerting.