Sherlock Holmes Short Stories Read Along!

[InspectorCaracal]

okay okay I got a bunch written today I'll do the thing after dinner

[Bee]

/crickets

[thiskurt]

Aah, this is the story where the quote "the curious case of the incident of the dog in the night time" comes from. I've never read the book and I didn't remember the origin of that quote, but yes the dog didn't bark so he must have known the thief, that's some classic mystery clue there.

And so it happened that an hour or so later I found myself in the corner of a first-class carriage flying along en route for Exeter, while Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp, eager face framed in his ear-flapped travelling-cap

Wait a minute, is that the famous Sherlock Holmes hat people always say he never wears in the stories only in the movies?

"Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson—which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than any one would think who only knew me through your memoirs. The fact is that I could not believe it possible that the most remarkable horse in England could long remain concealed, especially in so sparsely inhabited a place as the north of Dartmoor.

Yes, I agree with Holmes it would be much easier to hide a horse on the busy streets of London, just put him in a mask and coat and no one would be asking any questions. But, see, Holmes is far from arrogant about his skills unlike *cough* some adaptations suggest, he calls out his errors and faults all the time.

Now granted, he is also dismissive of his skills as being remarkable to the degree that he will also end up chastising others for not keeping up with him which ends up being arrogant, but you know, that's called characterisation.

I lay back against the cushions, puffing at my cigar, while Holmes, leaning forward, with his long, thin forefinger checking off the points upon the palm of his left hand, gave me a sketch of the events which had led to our journey.

It's interesting that this story kind of starts In Medias Res, but without the action, if that even makes sense. I mean that the story starts with the theft of the horse already being the talk of England and Holmes has to basically fill us in on what happened before.

It's another way of starting the story than having the characters contact him and to have them tell it or to have the events unfold during the story. It's like 'ok, you're here for a mystery, so let me just lay out the mystery so we can get started.'

I'm almost reminded of how Columbo episodes always start with showing the murder, minus the revealing bit of course, Holmes' description is almost like that kind of opening scene, with the same level of detail as an omniscient narrator almost. Except of course due to [[Watson as the observer|Watson being our narrator]] he can't really do the thing where we see the scene in the prologue and then the detectives get introduced.

I do like this way of getting around not being able to just show the scene more than having another character just tell the story later on, it allows Holmes and Watson to interject and speculate much easier.

There was a gleam in his eyes and a suppressed excitement in his manner which convinced me, used as I was to his ways, that his hand was upon a clue

Holmes is giddy and his best bud can tell.

"Colonel Ross did not impress me as a man who would be likely to show much mercy in any case."

"The matter does not rest with Colonel Ross. I follow my own methods, and tell as much or as little as I choose. That is the advantage of being unofficial."

Another example of Holmes' innate sense of justice, this guy isn't evil just opportunistic so he doesn't feel he deserves what they might do to him. Semi-related it's worth noting that historically at least, until recently maybe, mystery protagonists tended not to be actual detectives.

I don't know whether you observed it, Watson, but the Colonel's manner has been just a trifle cavalier to me. I am inclined now to have a little amusement at his expense. Say nothing to him about the horse."

Holmes the prankster strikes again. He does the "I'm not going to reveal things straight away, I'm going to have a bit of fun instead" thing from time to time.

Lovely, fun story indeed. The pacing is very good, no lulls, it moves along quite quickly. It's not the most character or social matter heavy story, but it's a fun little adventure.

Arthur Conan Doyle disqualified this story as one of his favourites because the racing detail was faulty, not sure what he means by that, but I don't know much about horse racing.

The racing detail in "Silver Blaze" is very faulty, so we must disqualify him.
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/inde ... ompetition

[thiskurt]

For real, though, it was a lot of fun! And again, no murders! \0/ (I may or may not be a bit tired of murders, I've pretty much only read Christie this year...)

It was a murder mystery where the murder wasn't the mystery, everyone seemed to care more about the horse, and then in the end there wasn't even a murder, just an accident.

"It was a poor weapon, but perhaps the best that he could lay his hands on at the moment."

imagine not even wondering WHY a house trainer would have such a knife, or why he would even have it by his bed???

Self-defence, innit? This is the English countryside. It's every man's right to protect himself with a strange surgical knife! Nothing strange about it.

Anyway, yes, this is a lovely story, a great way to start my day

I feel like this is a very streamlined story, like there's no fat to cut, it's all mystery, clues and deduction and straight to it.

[InspectorCaracal]

SILVER BLAZE! okay so yeah it's not wrong, a lot of why I love this one is because it's about a horse, lol.

This one is interesting on a number of points, though, one of which being that it's one of only a few that Holmes takes on of his own initiative instead of as a client's case, and another of which is that everyone thinks it's a murder, but then it isn't, which is great. And they also all think the horse was stolen, but it wasn't, it just up and ran off and then got subject to a clever bit of opportunism and it's just such a delightful bit of criminal endeavours all going sideways in weird directions.

Anyway! Some favorite/notable bits I noticed when rereading it.

Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson—which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than any one would think who only knew me through your memoirs.

I love this, especially in light of the Popular Conception of Sherlock Holmes we have today of him being always right and being super awful at handling having made a mistake. (He makes mistakes all the time C'MON)

“One moment,” I asked. “Did the stable-boy, when he ran out with the dog, leave the door unlocked behind him?”

“Excellent, Watson, excellent!”

Holmes appreciating Watson catching things always makes me happy

We all sprang out with the exception of Holmes, who continued to lean back with his eyes fixed upon the sky in front of him, entirely absorbed in his own thoughts. It was only when I touched his arm that he roused himself with a violent start and stepped out of the carriage.

“Excuse me,” said he, turning to Colonel Ross, who had looked at him in some surprise. “I was day-dreaming.” There was a gleam in his eyes and a suppressed excitement in his manner which convinced me, used as I was to his ways, that his hand was upon a clue, though I could not imagine where he had found it.

aaaa I love the bits of characterization in these early stories. This one here is great, and the one with the laughing about baiting the goosemonger in the Blue Carbuncle in particular is a favorite. They really give such a great image of Holmes as like, an actual person.

"It was a poor weapon, but perhaps the best that he could lay his hands on at the moment."

imagine not even wondering WHY a house trainer would have such a knife, or why he would even have it by his bed???

RIGHT BUT IT'S REALLY GOOD, because like, Holmes' description of Inspector Gregory was that he's a fantastic investigator but completely lacks imagination, so like, he doesn't stop to imagine why this knife might have been there, but at the same time, there's the bit where Insp. Gregory demonstrates that he went to great lengths to preserve all the footprints and even brought along the shoes for identification, showing how thorough he is about his forensics.

"What's this?" It was a wax vesta half burned, which was so coated with mud that it looked at first like a little chip of wood.

I learned a new thing! Man, sometimes I wish I had a fully annotated edition of these stories, would save me a lot of time looking things up.

You know, I'd never even stopped and wondered what it was, I just was like "ah yes it's a thing" and moved on

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

"The dog did nothing in the night-time."

"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Oh so that's where that book's title came from? Interesting
Also lol I love how this little dialogue reads like a parody but it's not.

lmao right, this part ALWAYS makes me think of my other favorite Holmes quote (which we haven't gotten close to yet):

"How do you know that?"

"I followed you."

"I saw no one."

"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."

I also absolutely love when he corners the competing horse trainer with the truth (unbeknownst, at that point, to the reader) about the disguised horse, and then it's like

“Should I change it first or not?”

Holmes thought a little and then burst out laughing. “No, don’t,”

“The matter does not rest with Colonel Ross. I follow my own methods, and tell as much or as little as I choose. That is the advantage of being unofficial. I don’t know whether you observed it, Watson, but the Colonel’s manner has been just a trifle cavalier to me. I am inclined now to have a little amusement at his expense. Say nothing to him about the horse.”

and then the part where he deliberately makes it sound like the Colonel is being accused of murderer when he's talking about the horse he's SUCH a troll, I love him

“Have you noticed anything amiss with them of late?”

“Well, sir, not of much account; but three of them have gone lame, sir.”

I still distinctly remember when I was first reading the story, this is where I figured it out. I read so much James Herriot when I was a kid, and it was so clear that the surgical knife was important, I immediately put the pieces together.

This is another big reason why this story is one of my favorites. >.>

(WHOOPS, Kurt beat me. it's funny, we made a lot of similar comments!)

[InspectorCaracal]

Arthur Conan Doyle disqualified this story as one of his favourites because the racing detail was faulty, not sure what he means by that, but I don't know much about horse racing.

The racing detail in "Silver Blaze" is very faulty, so we must disqualify him.
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/inde ... ompetition

I'm not 100% sure but I think it's because he considered the whole sequence with the race entry and race itself to be too unrealistic without adding much to the story.

[thiskurt]

SILVER BLAZE! okay so yeah it's not wrong, a lot of why I love this one is because it's about a horse, lol.

This one is interesting on a number of points, though, one of which being that it's one of only a few that Holmes takes on of his own initiative instead of as a client's case, and another of which is that everyone thinks it's a murder, but then it isn't, which is great. And they also all think the horse was stolen, but it wasn't, it just up and ran off and then got subject to a clever bit of opportunism and it's just such a delightful bit of criminal endeavours all going sideways in weird directions.

True it starts of about a murder during a horse theft and then it's none of those things.

"It was a poor weapon, but perhaps the best that he could lay his hands on at the moment."

imagine not even wondering WHY a house trainer would have such a knife, or why he would even have it by his bed???

RIGHT BUT IT'S REALLY GOOD, because like, Holmes' description of Inspector Gregory was that he's a fantastic investigator but completely lacks imagination, so like, he doesn't stop to imagine why this knife might have been there, but at the same time, there's the bit where Insp. Gregory demonstrates that he went to great lengths to preserve all the footprints and even brought along the shoes for identification, showing how thorough he is about his forensics.

Ooh, good point, it also contrasts well with Holmes himself to show that his skill isn't just about the forensics, his observations require a lot of insight outside of that too.

I also absolutely love when he corners the competing horse trainer with the truth (unbeknownst, at that point, to the reader) about the disguised horse, and then it's like

“Should I change it first or not?”

Holmes thought a little and then burst out laughing. “No, don’t,”

I love trolling Holmes so much.

(WHOOPS, Kurt beat me. it's funny, we made a lot of similar comments!)

Indeed.

[thiskurt]

Arthur Conan Doyle disqualified this story as one of his favourites because the racing detail was faulty, not sure what he means by that, but I don't know much about horse racing.

The racing detail in "Silver Blaze" is very faulty, so we must disqualify him.
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/inde ... ompetition

I'm not 100% sure but I think it's because he considered the whole sequence with the race entry and race itself to be too unrealistic without adding much to the story.

I guess it's a bit unrealistic but it's worth it for the trolling of Colonel Ross.

[InspectorCaracal]

And so it happened that an hour or so later I found myself in the corner of a first-class carriage flying along en route for Exeter, while Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp, eager face framed in his ear-flapped travelling-cap

Wait a minute, is that the famous Sherlock Holmes hat people always say he never wears in the stories only in the movies?

It is, indeed, that hat!

This is the only official rendition of him in his now-famous costume, which was later popularized through the stage depiction of Holmes by William Gillette. It's unclear if the hat envisioned by Doyle himself which he described there would have actually been the hunting cap which Paget chose to portray - personally I think it unlikely - but the illustrations are otherwise generally on point and I'm not a frequent traveller on the late 19th century English rail lines, so it's hard to argue it.

*clears throat*

To go into it a bit more: I suspect the cap Doyle had in mind would've been something more like this:

ear flaps cap.jpg (188.82 KiB) Viewed 1079 times

Two reasons!

One, it's described as a travelling-cap, and a deerstalker is a hunting cap that was more common in rural areas and which Watson would almost definitely not have called a travelling-cap.
And two, Holmes' face is said to be framed by the cap, which means it should be going down on both sides, that is, the ear flaps were actually down. Even if it was a deerstalker, the ear flaps shouldn't have been pinned up at the time, severely damaging the credibility of the picture's accuracy to what was described.

To wit: while the hat is portrayed alongside the stories in their official illustrations and could arguably fit the description of what Holmes was wearing, there are too many inaccuracies for it to be the actual original intended cap.

Of course, none of that actually matters, any more than it matters that the curved pipe Holmes' is always portrayed with is even more of an artistic fabrication.

[thiskurt]

*clears throat*

To go into it a bit more: I suspect the cap Doyle had in mind would've been something more like this:
ear flaps cap.jpg

Two reasons!

One, it's described as a travelling-cap, and a deerstalker is a hunting cap that was more common in rural areas and which Watson would almost definitely not have called a travelling-cap.
And two, Holmes' face is said to be framed by the cap, which means it should be going down on both sides, that is, the ear flaps were actually down. Even if it was a deerstalker, the ear flaps shouldn't have been pinned up at the time, severely damaging the credibility of the picture's accuracy to what was described.

To wit: while the hat is portrayed alongside the stories in their official illustrations and could arguably fit the description of what Holmes was wearing, there are too many inaccuracies for it to be the actual original intended cap.

Of course, none of that actually matters, any more than it matters that the curved pipe Holmes' is always portrayed with is even more of an artistic fabrication.

You're probably right, I didn't know there was any precedent for the choice of hat in the adaptations at all though. Everyone just kept saying it didn't appear in the stories, but it's pretty clear how it got telephoned from this hat to the deerstalker.