Sherlock Holmes Short Stories Read Along!

[Bee]

Yeah it's not great. There isn't even a mystery, really, it's just a lady terrified of her second husband being racist and doing stupid things.

I'm discovering that most of the stories I forgot most of really deserved to be forgotten

She made her child wear a MASK

AND after leaving her behind for three years!!!!!!!!!

It's not just horrifying, nothing makes much sense in this story

[thiskurt]

I remembered liking this one much more than I did this time. Perhaps it was just the racism and everyone's relative tolerance for the era?

I do remember the image of the face in the window quite well, though, I found that a very striking and haunting image at the time and still do.

I feel like for all people like to imagine Holmes solves every case and the way Watson describes it as a rarity, we get quite a few of them, don't we. Although I can't remember any off the top off my head, well, besides the one with Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre? No, I mean Irene Adler. Weird brain fart.

Ooh, and the Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual, which I don't remember and first assumed was another case reference we never actually got to read about.

I think I still like it, even if there isn't much too it, and there are major issues with it, I just liked that everyone in the story is pretty nice*, it's not about murder and it all ends well, but that's not very unique and there are stories that suit it better.

* well, at least the way I remembered it, we'll get to that later

But, yeah, a lot of the behaviour doesn't make any sense, it's trying a bit too hard to force a mystery where there isn't one. Like Doyle really wanted to have the image of the strange face in the window, but then it's just a girl in a mask.

Even if she was worried about what people would think about her daughter in the, having her wear a weird mask is the worst way to deal with that. And it's all so dramatic, matter of life and death when you hear them talk about it.

The whole conclusion is like 'see your husband is no racist' and everyone's all cool about it, which, ok, Edwardian era, fair enough to be worried I suppose, , but hold up, she left her daughter alone in America for three years, then locked her in the house and made her wear a mask? What was her plan anyway? To leave her there for the rest of her marriage?

Never for an instant did I dream of disowning her as my child. But when chance threw you in my way, Jack, and I learned to love you, I feared to tell you about my child. God forgive me, I feared that I should lose you, and I had not the courage to tell you. I had to choose between you, and in my weakness I turned away from my own little girl. For three years I have kept her existence a secret from you, but I heard from the nurse, and I knew that all was well with her. At last, however, there came an overwhelming desire to see the child once more. I struggled against it, but in vain. Though I knew the danger, I determined to have the child over, if it were but for a few weeks.

Jeez, this lady. This bit was more unpleasant that I remember it being.

It's certainly trying to say something, but it stumbles around a bit while doing so.

I think the fact that Holmes didn't solve a case that makes little logical sense is hardly a blemish on his record.

---

Save for the occasional use of cocaine, he had no vices, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence

All my vices too are just protests against the monotony of existence. I'm stealing that excuse.

'Is that man never goin' to come?' Those were his very words, sir. 'You'll only need to wait a little longer,' says I. 'Then I'll wait in the open air, for I feel half choked,'

That's what she said.

---

[thiskurt]

Yeah it's not great. There isn't even a mystery, really, it's just a lady terrified of her second husband being racist and doing stupid things.

I'm discovering that most of the stories I forgot most of really deserved to be forgotten

She made her child wear a MASK

AND after leaving her behind for three years!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, even given the era that was *rough*.

[Bee]

She made her child wear a MASK

AND after leaving her behind for three years!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, even given the era that was *rough*.

Right?? I can't get over it

[InspectorCaracal]

I remembered liking this one much more than I did this time. Perhaps it was just the racism and everyone's relative tolerance for the era?

Funny enough, when I read it in my impressionable youth, I think I liked it more, because the ~drama~ aspects appealed to me. But reading it now, it just felt too much like Doyle soapboxing about American racism. And if there is one thing I am very tired of, it is Doyle writing about racism. I have been thoroughly burnt out on it, forever, by reading the Lost World.

I feel like for all people like to imagine Holmes solves every case and the way Watson describes it as a rarity, we get quite a few of them, don't we. Although I can't remember any off the top off my head, well, besides the one with Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre? No, I mean Irene Adler. Weird brain fart.

He mentions the Second Stain, which we haven't got to yet, and then there's the Engineer's Thumb where the only thing he solves is "the house wasn't very far actually" and all the baddies escape, and I think there's a couple more but I'm blanking at the moment.

Also, now I'm imagining Sherlock Holmes in Jane Eyre lol. He figures out that Rochester's wife is locked in the attic about 1/5 of the way into the second act and the entire rest of the book falls apart.

Save for the occasional use of cocaine, he had no vices, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence

All my vices too are just protests against the monotony of existence. I'm stealing that excuse.

it's too real tho lol

[thiskurt]

I remembered liking this one much more than I did this time. Perhaps it was just the racism and everyone's relative tolerance for the era?

Funny enough, when I read it in my impressionable youth, I think I liked it more, because the ~drama~ aspects appealed to me.

I found some of the dialogue between the couple to be too melodramatic, but that's mainly because the payoff doesn't feel like it warrants it. Same with the spooky elements of the masked figure. I very distinctly remember the visual I imagined of that scene where the husband sees the creepy yellow face in the window I conjured up the first time I read it, I didn't even remember what story it was from, it just stuck with me. But then... this time around it was just annoying because it just doesn't fit the resolution.

[Bee]

This is the next one, right? https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Memoir ... %27s_Clerk

[InspectorCaracal]

This is the next one, right? https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Memoir ... %27s_Clerk

That's what I've got!

[Bee]

This is the next one, right? https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Memoir ... %27s_Clerk

That's what I've got!

you know the drill 8o

@thiskurt you too!!

[InspectorCaracal]

Most of what I remember about this case - I mean, story - is how it ends, but in rereading it I was reminded that it has one of the moments which most strongly influenced my impression of Holmes' character

Like all Holmes’s reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained. He read the thought upon my features, and his smile had a tinge of bitterness.

“I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain,” said he. “Results without causes are much more impressive.”

The initial set-up of the situation is a lot like The Red-Headed League, which I don't remember appreciating but it seems super unlikely I wouldn't have noticed. But now that I'm rereading it, and the way it starts off with a reference all the way back to the very beginning of the canon, I wonder if it's maybe based on an early draft of the idea? It's certainly not as good of a story, although it's infinitely more melodramatic.

It sort of reminds me a bit of the Engineer's Thumb - Holmes figures out what's going on, but it ultimately doesn't matter that he did and everything ends tragically. Unlike that story, though, they have the criminal in hand.