Sherlock Holmes Short Stories Read Along!

[Bee]

(Re)Reading the Red-Headed League and I still love it, although it's an excellent case of Doyle not actually caring about consistency between stories.

Shan't say anything more until y'all have read it~

edit: ...wait a second. *frantically searches through my notes* WAIT a second! These got published in the wrong order!! I'd never noticed that before omg

What do you mean, wrong order? Non-chronological?

Technically non-chronological but not specifically because it's non-chronological? Okay so.

In the early Holmes stories, Doyle would do a thing to create a light sense of continuity where he'd throw in an off-hand mention to the previous episode in Holmes' dialogue at some point in the story. A sort of "previously, on Sherlock Holmes" kind of a thing, you know? Eventually he stopped doing that because he was playing more fast and loose with chronology and also didn't really care lol.

Anyway so in the Red-Headed League, I suddenly realized that the bit references the case of Miss Mary Sutherland. All the other times I'd read the story I'd just skimmed it assuming it was a throwback reference to the lady Watson marries, but this time I looked at the name and went "wait, that's not her name", and I checked and it's the client from the following story, A Case of Identity. And there's no reference to A Scandal in Bohemia.

So I scrolled down a bit (I was reading on the Gutenberg page for the Adventures collection) and sure enough, right in the beginning bit there's a throwaway reference to A Scandal in Bohemia. Which is extremely compelling evidence imo that the Strand decided to publish the two stories in reverse order for some reason.

Ohhhhh I see!! …I wonder when he delivered the stories…?

[InspectorCaracal]

In retrospect, the Red-Headed League reminds me of a lot of scam stories. People paying you money to do seemingly innocuous things and then you find out later it's all part of a scheme.

YES. This is one of my favorite things about it.

So first you get the pure absurdity of it. The absurd mysteries that are difficult not because they're important but because they're so atypical are some of my favorites, for the same reason I think that they're Holmes' favorites in-universe.

Second, it's a con and a heist, and those are my two favorite fictional crimes. You don't get to see them a whole lot from the crime-fighting side of things, so it's a nice change. And it's a cleverly-done con-heist scheme, too.

It's also imo a classic Holmes-style mystery - it even goes so far as to lampshade it, which is amusing what with being only a few stories in, but I expect that's because it's actually a light jab at the previously established French Rational mysteries that Holmes is supposed to be a subversion of. Watson goes on for an entire paragraph about how he was at a complete loss and how that could be when Holmes figured everything out after an investigation that Watson was there for all of - and the answer is, of course, "because Holmes didn't explain jack shit". But at the same time there's hints dropped throughout the story about when Holmes finds out something important (that he doesn't tell Watson).

[InspectorCaracal]

What do you mean, wrong order? Non-chronological?

Technically non-chronological but not specifically because it's non-chronological? Okay so.

In the early Holmes stories, Doyle would do a thing to create a light sense of continuity where he'd throw in an off-hand mention to the previous episode in Holmes' dialogue at some point in the story. A sort of "previously, on Sherlock Holmes" kind of a thing, you know? Eventually he stopped doing that because he was playing more fast and loose with chronology and also didn't really care lol.

Anyway so in the Red-Headed League, I suddenly realized that the bit references the case of Miss Mary Sutherland. All the other times I'd read the story I'd just skimmed it assuming it was a throwback reference to the lady Watson marries, but this time I looked at the name and went "wait, that's not her name", and I checked and it's the client from the following story, A Case of Identity. And there's no reference to A Scandal in Bohemia.

So I scrolled down a bit (I was reading on the Gutenberg page for the Adventures collection) and sure enough, right in the beginning bit there's a throwaway reference to A Scandal in Bohemia. Which is extremely compelling evidence imo that the Strand decided to publish the two stories in reverse order for some reason.

Ohhhhh I see!! …I wonder when he delivered the stories…?

Oh interesting question. If they had to be in well in advance my hypothesis makes sense, but if they were like the month before then maybe he couldn't find his manuscript for A Case of Identity lol

[InspectorCaracal]

Of course now I'm wondering if the mix-up with those two is part of why Doyle stopped doing the backreference thing.

[thiskurt]

I really liked this story too, it's a very nice murder-free mystery. We're basically on the other side of a heist movie. There's probably precedent for a heist story involving digging a tunnel from a nearby building. Or maybe not? It's a real staple now.

Anyway, yeah, RHL is a lot of fun, from the wildness of the concept to how they catch the bad guys. What makes it a favorite, though?

He doesn't go into too much detail all he says about it is this:

Next to that in popular favour and in my own esteem I would place "The Red-Headed League" and "The Dancing Men," on account in each case of the originality of the plot.

It comes from a contest in The Strand from 1927, so not every story is included yet, where people had to guess at least ten of AC🗲D's top 12 stories to win £100.

photocopies of the full article here:
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/inde ... ompetition.

[thiskurt]

In the early Holmes stories, Doyle would do a thing to create a light sense of continuity where he'd throw in an off-hand mention to the previous episode in Holmes' dialogue at some point in the story. A sort of "previously, on Sherlock Holmes" kind of a thing, you know? Eventually he stopped doing that because he was playing more fast and loose with chronology and also didn't really care lol.

Too bad he stopped doing that, I really like that kind of stuff, it's a very Doctor Who thing to do too. "This is like when I went surfing with Queen Victoria on Galapoga-7.

Also, apparently Holmes has written for a tattoo magazine. Well, ok, " [has] contributed to the literature of the subject," but that's a tattoo magazine ok. Writes about tattoos, plays music, does drugs, basically a rockstar.

[Bee]

Technically non-chronological but not specifically because it's non-chronological? Okay so.

In the early Holmes stories, Doyle would do a thing to create a light sense of continuity where he'd throw in an off-hand mention to the previous episode in Holmes' dialogue at some point in the story. A sort of "previously, on Sherlock Holmes" kind of a thing, you know? Eventually he stopped doing that because he was playing more fast and loose with chronology and also didn't really care lol.

Anyway so in the Red-Headed League, I suddenly realized that the bit references the case of Miss Mary Sutherland. All the other times I'd read the story I'd just skimmed it assuming it was a throwback reference to the lady Watson marries, but this time I looked at the name and went "wait, that's not her name", and I checked and it's the client from the following story, A Case of Identity. And there's no reference to A Scandal in Bohemia.

So I scrolled down a bit (I was reading on the Gutenberg page for the Adventures collection) and sure enough, right in the beginning bit there's a throwaway reference to A Scandal in Bohemia. Which is extremely compelling evidence imo that the Strand decided to publish the two stories in reverse order for some reason.

Ohhhhh I see!! …I wonder when he delivered the stories…?

Oh interesting question. If they had to be in well in advance my hypothesis makes sense, but if they were like the month before then maybe he couldn't find his manuscript for A Case of Identity lol

HE COULDN'T FIND HIS MANUSCRIPT that's my headcanon now

[InspectorCaracal]

In the early Holmes stories, Doyle would do a thing to create a light sense of continuity where he'd throw in an off-hand mention to the previous episode in Holmes' dialogue at some point in the story. A sort of "previously, on Sherlock Holmes" kind of a thing, you know? Eventually he stopped doing that because he was playing more fast and loose with chronology and also didn't really care lol.

Too bad he stopped doing that, I really like that kind of stuff, it's a very Doctor Who thing to do too. "This is like when I went surfing with Queen Victoria on Galapoga-7.

Also, apparently Holmes has written for a tattoo magazine. Well, ok, " [has] contributed to the literature of the subject," but that's a tattoo magazine ok. Writes about tattoos, plays music, does drugs, basically a rockstar.

LEGIT THO. Throw in the costuming for a bonus.

[InspectorCaracal]

In the early Holmes stories, Doyle would do a thing to create a light sense of continuity where he'd throw in an off-hand mention to the previous episode in Holmes' dialogue at some point in the story. A sort of "previously, on Sherlock Holmes" kind of a thing, you know? Eventually he stopped doing that because he was playing more fast and loose with chronology and also didn't really care lol.

Too bad he stopped doing that, I really like that kind of stuff, it's a very Doctor Who thing to do too. "This is like when I went surfing with Queen Victoria on Galapoga-7.

...You know, considering the fact that Holmes is one of the foundational inspirations for the Doctor, I wonder if that's where it came from? Because tbh even though Doyle stops doing the "previously on Sherlock Holmes" thing, he does keep throwing in offhand references to other cases. Most often ones he didn't actually write, which is more like how it gets played in Doctor Who. (The Giant Rat of Sumatra is the most famous of those.)

[thiskurt]

This weekend is A Case of Identity or rather A Case of Conan Doyle Rushing Through the Streets to The Strand, Tripping Over and Hastily Putting His Papers Back in the Wrong Order So That This Story and The Red-Headed League End Up Flipped.

But the strand went with the snappier title.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Case_of_Identity