In 1891 and ’92 Arthur Conan Doyle wrote twelve short
stories for The Strand Magazine published in London. The stories all use the
voice of Dr. Watson. His stories are about the exploits of the genius, Sherlock
Holmes. A righter of wrongs, Holmes helps people to find justice, especially if
the problems are difficult to almost impossible to solve. The stories boosted
the sales of the magazine so high, that Doyle asked for more money on
subsequent stories.
The format of the stories is much the same as the novels.
The ones in this volume are not told in chronological order: some occured while
Watson still lived with Homes, others occured after Watson married. At the
beginning of many of them Watson explained why he chose to chronicle that
particular case out of the many Holmes had solved. Though there are similar
characteristics in each story, Doyle did an excellent job in keeping them from
becoming formulaic and predictable. Some involve the police, some don’t. In a
few Holmes let the perpetrator go for various reasons (in one, the man did not
have long to live; another involved a young man whom Holmes thought would go
right after the scare of almost getting into big trouble). Some involved a
crime that had already been done, some involved a crime that had yet to be
committed, some involved other mysteries.
A great book if you love reading thrillers, adventure-fiction,
detective fiction and solving mysteries. Engaging plots with bizarre characters.
Plots:
A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA
The King of Bohemia asks Sherlock Holmes to
retrieve an incriminating photo where he appears with his former
mistress, Irene Adler. The release of the photo could irreparably ruin the
King's marriage. Holmes (disguised as a groom) spies and tracks Irene, and
finds himself as the best man of the marriage between Miss Irene Adler and
Mr. Godfrey Norton. The same evening, Holmes (disguised as a clergyman)
feigns to be wounded in a street battle in front of Briony Lodge and
succeeds to enter in Irene's house. With the complicity of Watson and
a smart stratagem of false fire alarm, he makes Irene Adler betray
herself. Because of the smoke, she rushed to a secret panel which was hiding
the photograph. Holmes can't take the photo because the coachman was in the
same room, so he decides to come back the next day with the King.
Unfortunately, when they came back to Briony Lodge on the next
morning, they learn that Irene, who understood the stratagem of Sherlock
Holmes, has left the country a few hours before with her husband. However, she
addressed a letter to the detective, explaining that she will use the photo
only for defensive purpose. She attached a photo of herself for the King as a
souvenir. Holmes refused the royal reward from the King but asked him a more
valuable present: the photo of Irene Adler.
The Red-Headed League
Mr. Jabez Wilson, a red-headed pawnbroker near The
City, is informed by his new employee Vincent Spaulding that The
Red-Headed League is proposing an easy and well-paid job only for red
haired persons. Mr. Wilson applies and get the job. He is asked to copy
the Encyclopaedia Britannica 4 hours a day in a small office at Pope's
Court. After two months, suddenly he office is closed, the Red-Headed League is
dissolved and his providential job stops with no news from the managers. He
decides then to consult Sherlock Holmes. After some investigations, the
detective discovers that the League was a pretext intended to take Mr. Wilson
away from his shop, so Spaulding (aka the criminal John Clay) could dig a
tunnel from the shop to the bank on the other side of the street...
A Case Of Identity
Miss Mary Sutherland consults Sherlock Holmes because her
fiancé Mr Hosmer Angel disappeared just before their wedding. After hearing her
story, Sherlock Holmes thinks this case is quite simple as he knows some
similar cases. By a simple exchange of letters with Mr Windibank, Mary's
step-father, he manages to confound him. The latter confess that to avoid the
loss of his stepdaughter fortune, he disguised himself and pretended to be Mr
Angel to seduce her. The girl fell into the trap. He made her promise to remain
faithful to him (Angel) whatever life events may occur. His idea was to eliminate
Angel so that Mary remains forever single and that he could enjoy the rent of
his stepdaughter. Unfortunately, Holmes can not do much because Windibank done
nothing actionable. He decides not to tell anything to Mary as she would not
believe him.
The Boscombe Valley Mystery
Holmes and Watson go to Boscombe to help Lestrade on the
murder of the old McCarthy. All testimonials criminalize the son, James
McCarthy, but his fiancée, Miss Turner is convinced of his innocence. By
carefully observing the crime scene, Holmes finds different footprints and a
stone he claims to be the murder weapon and he gives a very accurate
description of the murderer. He also visited the young McCarthy in prison to
hear his version. With all these elements Holmes concludes that the murderer is
the old Turner, the father of Miss Turner. He sent him a convocation note.
Turner tells his story. In Australia, it was known as Black Jack of Ballarat
and he was attacking convoys. One day he attacked the convoy of McCarthy but
let him alive. Back in England, rich and decided to pull over and do good, he
married and gave birth to a daughter. But he met McCarthy who recognized him
and began blackmail. Gradually, he had to give all his fortune, but when
McCarthy insisted that his son marries his daughter, it was too much and he
killed him. Having Turner's confession written, Holmes decides not to report it
because the old man is dying. The young James McCarthy was acquitted thanks to
Sherlock Holmes objections and the confession wasn't needed. The old Turner
died seven months later and the two young ignored all of the past of their
parents.
The Five Orange Pips
A young man, John Openshaw asked Sherlock
Holmes for help. He told the story of his uncle which after participating to
the Civil War in the Confederates army went to settle in England. One day, he
received a letter with five orange pips and only signature the initials K.K.K..
He died soon after. A few times later, John's father died all the same after a
similar letter. Two years has passed since, and now John received the dreadful
letter with instructions to deliver some documents. Holmes advise him to obey.
Unfortunately, John is killed on his way home. Sherlock Holmes promised to
avenge his later client. He succeed to identify the Ku Klux Klan members
but too late, they all fled by sea. He later learnt that the criminals perished
on sea with the boat.
The Man With The Twisted Lip
Upon her request, Watson went to find Mrs Whitney's
husband in an opium den. There, he stumbled upon a dressed up Holmes, looking
for a man called Neville Saint-Clair, who'd been missing for a few days.
After sending Mr. Whitney back at his home, Holmes and Watson went to
the Saint-Clairs' house to question Neville's wife – as she also happened to be
one of Holmes’ clients. She told the two men that a few days before, as she was
walking on Upper Swandam Lane, she saw her husband waving at a window of
the second floor of the Bar of Gold, an opium den. As nobody would allow
the poor lady to reach the second floor, she decided to call the police. The
policemen searched the room, but the only person in there was a disfigured
beggar named Hugh Boone. The police also found a few blood marks near
another window overlooking the Thames, and a moment later, fished
Saint-Clair's jacket, heavy with coins, out of the river. Holmes reckoned
Neville was dead, but Mrs. Saint-Clair received a pretty reassuring letter from
her husband himself. After a night of deep reflection, Holmes went to Bow
Street Police Department to pay Hugh Boone a visit. He cleaned
the man's face, and discovered that Saint-Clair and Boone were actually one and
the same. For several years, the poor lad had been earning more money as a
beggar than as an clerk. And, when his wife had seen him, he hadn't been able
to tell her about his real source of income.
The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle
While going home, Peterson, the commissionaire, is
witnessing a fight between a man and thugs. In the fight, the man looses his
hat and a goose. At the sight of the uniform of Peterson, everyone flee,
leaving the hat and goose on the floor. Holmes advises him to eat the goose and
give him the hat, from which he deduces that he belongs to a Mr. Henry
Baker. While cooking the goose, Peterson's wife discovers a priceless gem in
the crop of the bird. The very stone stolen from the Countess of Morcar a
few days ago at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. John Horner, a plumber who
was working at the hotel, was accused of the theft and arrested on the
testimony of James Ryder, the chief of staff. Holmes publishes an ad in
the newspapers to find Mr. Henry Baker. He successes to trace back the history
of the goose until the provider and finds James Ryder, the real thief of the
stone. He lets Ryder leave the country but Horner could be released because the
lack of evidence. The carbuncle is returned to the Countess and Peterson
receives a reward of £1,000.
The Adventure Of The Speckled Band
Helen Stoner, a terrified young lady, comes and asks
Holmes for help. A short time before the planned marriage of her sister Julia,
the latter died without identifiable cause after uttering these mysterious last
words: "The Speckled Band." Some days before her demise, she had
complained about being disturbed, during the nights, by a strange hissing. Now,
it is Helen's turn to get married and her step-father Doctor Roylott, an
unsociable and violent man, has forced her to move into Julia's bedroom under
false pretences. Holmes, worried, decides to go with Watson to Stock Moran the
very same day. During the travel, he explains to his friend that, in accordance
to his wife's will, Roylott can dispose of his stepdaughters' income, until
they get married. While looking over Julia's bedroom, Holmes notices that its
ventilator opens onto Roylott's bedroom and that the bell rope is a dummy. So,
he lies in ambush with Watson in the garden pavilion. When Roylott has retired
to his room, Helen warns our heroes by means of a light signal and leaves
Julia's bedroom, where they take up position. After a long and agonizing wait,
they hear something hissing: a snake. Holmes strikes it with a rod and the
angry reptile returns to his owner and bites him. Roylott, who refused to lose
his stepdaughters' income because of their marriage, had trained the snake to
slip, through the ventilator and along the bell rope, to the bed of its victims
and to come back when he whistled for it. But Roylott's living weapon turned
against the villain and killed him!
The Adventure Of The Engineer’s Thumb
Victor Hatherley meets Watson to heal his cut thumb.
Watson treat the wounded part and lead Hatherley to Baker Street because the
circumstances of the accident are curious. Hired by Colonel Lysander Stark to
repair his hydraulic press at Eyford, Hatherley went there in the utmost
discretion. There he has been urged to be cautious by a woman, Elise, and he
realized that the press was not intended to be used for honest purposes. Thanks
to Elise, Victor Hatherley narrowly escaped death, but his thumb was cut by
Stark who pursued him. Holmes goes to the Eyford house but he discovers it
burning and its occupants, counterfeiters, on the run.
The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor
Lord Robert St Simon visits Sherlock Holmes because his
fiancée, Miss Hatty Doran, disappeared on the day of her wedding. After the
Lord's narrative, Holmes thinks he has already solved the case. He goes out for
a few hours and then ask Lord St Simon to come at Baker Street. He also invited
Miss Doran that he found. She is accompanied by Francis Hay Moulton, an
American. When they are all gathered, Miss Doran explains what happened. She
was married in the USA, but Francis, her husband, had been attacked by Apaches
and it was reported that there was no survivors. A few months later she met
Lord St Simon and the new marriage was planned in London. But the day of the
ceremony, Francis reappeared and she decided to go with him and hid in London.
Sherlock Holmes had deduced the presence of a former husband, American, and the
place where she was hiding thanks to a note found by Lestrade. Lord St Simon
leaves Baker Street upset and bachelor again.
The Adventure Of The Beryl Coronet
The banker Alexander Holder goes to Baker Street to tell
Holmes his story: he lent £50,000 to a client who gave him as collateral the
famous beryl coronet. He carried it in Streatham, where he lives with his son,
Arthur, and his niece, Mary. Arthur, under the influence of Sir George Burnwell
asked in vain his father a large sum of money to pay off some gambling debts.
Woke up in the middle of the night by strange noises, Mr. Holder finds his son
in his desk, holding the coronet which is twisted and three beryl are missing.
Arthur is arrested immediately. Holmes inspects the Holder's house and deduces
that the coronet has been twisted out of the house. Holmes asks £4,000 to Mr.
Holder and successes to find the three missing stones. According to footprints
in the garden, Holmes deduces that Mary met Sir George Burnwell and she gave
him the coronet while Arthur has surprised them and tried to get the coronet
back by pulling it from the hands of Sir George. To avoid trouble for Mary,
Arthur accepted to be accused of stealing. Holmes had found the three stones in
a pawnbroker and bought them £3,000 plus £1,000 as a reward.
The Adventure Of The Copper Beeches
Miss Violet Hunter seeks advice from Holmes about his
commitment as governess at The Copper Beeches, a house near Winchester.
His employer Jephro Rucastle, offered her very high wages but ask strange
requirements: having her hair cut and wearing a specific dress. She refused at
first but Mr. Rucastle offered even more money. Holmes promises to help if the
need arises and Violet accepts the job. A few days later, Holmes receives a
telegram from Miss Hunter who asks him to come quickly to Winchester. She says
the Rucastle's elder daughter, Alice, is said to have travelled to Philadelphia
because of a dislike of her stepmother, Mrs. Rucastle. Violet cut her hair and
was invited to sit, wearing an electric blue dress in front of a window. When
she saw a man watching from afar through the window, the order was given to her
to make him a sign to leave out. On another day, she realized with horror that
a person was kidnapped in a secret room. Holmes concluded that Violet is used
to play the role of Alice Rucastle and the man who observe from outside is
Alice's fiancé, Mr. Fowler. Holmes, Watson enter the house, taking advantage of
the absence of Mr. Rucastle and find the secret room empty. But Mr. Rucastle
arrives and launch his hungry dog at their heels. Unfortunately, the dog
turns against him and seriously injured his master. Watson kills the dog in
time to prevent the death of Rucastle. They then learn that Mr. Fowler had just
liberate Alice from her parents. The latter locked up her to have Fowler
believe she was gone and for he stops to woo her.
Character Analysis
A variety of characters are presented in the stories. In
some cases, Holmes works with nobles and royalty, and in others, with bank
clerks and vagabonds. The settings range from the English countryside to the
wharves on the Thames to extravagant manors. In all, the reader gains an
appreciation for the scenes of the time.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson make a great crime-solving
team. Holmes is a character whom readers will enjoy reading about, as his often
casual demeanor is contrasted by his intensity when he is hot on the trail of a
case. Watson also is interesting because he is good-natured and supportive to
his friend.
Sherlock
Holmes – the most famous detective in literature. Sherlock
Holmes is a man of indeterminate age, somewhere in his 40’s, slim with sharp
eyes. He began as a detective while in school and continued through adulthood.
He is an eccentric with a far reaching education. He is a master at chemistry,
cryptography, philosophy, astronomy, law, politics, geology, etc. Sherlock is
also a champion boxer and swordsmen. His use of firearms is astounding. His
analytical reasoning solves cases, but his disregard of the accepted laws means
the authorities don’t always know he’s solved them.
Dr.
John Watson – a medical doctor and friend of
Sherlock Holmes. He served in the Anglo-Afghan War where he was wounded. When
he first arrived in London, he took a room with Sherlock at 221 B Baker St.,
but during these stories he is married and just assists Sherlock on his cases.
He writes Sherlock’s stories and publishes them, which has boosted Sherlock’s
fame. Watson is continually amazed by Sherlock’s skills of deduction. He is
often called upon by Sherlock for his medical skills and to bring his gun
along. Watson is a crack shot. His character is the one that moves the story
along by asking the right questions.
Inspector
Lestrade – A detective with Scotland Yard. They think he is
the best detective at Scotland Yard because Sherlock allows him to take credit
for his discoveries. He is a regular visitor to Baker St. and often shares
stories of his cases with Sherlock. Although, Sherlock has little regard for
policemen, he does think Lestrade is the best. Although, at times, his speech
is a bit rustic, he his well educated and dresses impeccably. As a character
his job is to make Sherlock seem even smarter. Representing the above average
detectives of Scotland Yard, he still falls grossly short of Sherlock. But, he
looks at Sherlock like he’s a resource and Lestrade is not afraid to use him.
Irene
Adler – although used quite often in movies, television,
and so forth, as a love interest of Sherlock Holmes. She really wasn’t. She
only appears in ‘Scandal in Bohemia’, and gets married the first time he sees
her. But, she is exceptionally beautiful and outwits Sherlock, which few can
do. She sees through his best disguises. Irene was a opera singer who had had
an affair with the King of Bohemia. The king hires Sherlock to retrieve a
picture from her. But, Sherlock not only doesn’t get the picture, he gets a
note from her instead and she sails away. From then on, Sherlock only refers to
her as “The Woman”. Not a love interest, but a worthy adversary.
Violet
Hunter – the one woman Watson thought might be a romantic
relationship for Sherlock. She was a pretty girl. A governess. When she comes
to him for advice, Sherlock is kind and tells her to let him know if she needs
him. Later he runs to her rescue, bringing Watson along. Sherlock seems to find
her competent, but, mostly falls in love with her case. Once it is solved, his
interest in her wanes. She goes on to be a successful principal in a girl’s
school.
Lessons
from the novel:
- Train yourself to see what others don’t.
- The little things are often the most important.
- Do not rely on general impressions, also concentrate on the details.
- Practice shifting your point of view, you may be surprised that it’s pointing you in an entirely new direction.
- Before making a decision, look at all the facts that present themselves.
- After you have gathered the information needed to solve a problem or make a decision, rearrange the facts and information. Look at it from many different perspectives. If you find that you have insufficient facts and information, it’s time to gather more — or perhaps make some assumptions.
- It’s better to acquire wisdom late, than never to acquire it at all.
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