Just finished listening to a dozen Holmes stories on audiobook. He also remarks on the structure of every shady character’s face. Must have been more “common knowledge” that cruel cheekbones lead to (or are caused by) a cruel temperament.
The Valley of Fear is stated to have taken place in 1888 and The Adventure of the Final Problem in 1891 (source). Professor Moriarty was discussed in Valley of Fear (in fact, Holmes stated “You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?”) but in Final Problem, Watson had never heard of the man.
Or at least, Watson didn’t remember having heard of the man. I mean, really, could you keep straight all of the details about the various criminals that Holmes is always prattering on about?
That was a widely held belief, and in fact, considered to be a bit of cutting edge science.
Uh, he was portrayed as super ignorant of many topics. As a fully blown…sociopath, he only seems intelligent on topics that relate to criminal investigations. And some music and fighting.
Fighting is needed for criminal investigations (and so is disguise-wearing, something else Holmes is really good at).
Music keeps Holmes’ mind occupied when there’s no good crime to fight (which happens from time to time).
After this post, I’m going have to go back through all the Holmes books again.
As a side note for anyone who doesn’t have the time to read a physical book. Almost all the books are considered public domain now. I was able to download them (and many other classic authors) as free audio books from Librivox. I listen when I drive or cycle.
I rarely hear professional-quality narration on libravox. The free audiobooks from the library (using Overdrive software) have the Dr. Watson from the Jeremy Brett Sherlock series reading them. Or you can get Simon Prebble (the quintessential old-school Brit narrator).
How are the books being read by Stephen Fry? He reads all of them. One of my students joined Audible and chose that for her free book… 65 hours’ worth!
@digs - I agree 100%, some of the readers are embarrassingly bad. The good news is that pretty much every book (Holmes or otherwise) has multiple readers. I do a preview to see if I like the reader before I download.
For Sherlock I found a reader “David Clarke”, a deep voiced Brit. Very professional sounding, I believe he’s a church minister. Best reader I’ve found on Libravox. If you select the readers name, it will show you all the books they’ve read.
It’s been years since I’ve read these, so I don’t remember which story is which… But…
I’ve seen it mentioned that the stories vary as to where Watson took that Jezail bullet. Early in the series (specifically, in Watson’s narration of his own backstory), he was shot in his shoulder. Later in the series, it’s mentioned somewhere that it was in his leg.
Possibly a nitpick, but “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” has a small problem in that the sole defining characteristic of a carbuncle is that it is red.
Also (spoiler alert), the gem is found in the crop of a goose…but geese don’t have crops.
Not one of Sir Arthur’s finest stories.
Is that really the sole defining characteristic of a carbuncle? Any red stone is a carbuncle, and no stone of any other color is?
Yes. It usually refers to a garnet, but not exclusively; one quickly-found definition reads: “a bright red gem, in particular a garnet cut en cabochon”. The Wikipedia definition, taken from the Dictionary of Gems and Gemology, is “any red gemstone, most often a red garnet”.
If it ain’t red, it ain’t a carbuncle.
I read an article or something somewhere once that hypothesized that Watson was actually shot in the ass but due to it being the Victorian era he had to make up a different place where he was shot, and just forgot where he wrote the wound was located from story to story.
Doyle seems to have been vaguely aware of that. From the story itself, from Holmes’s own mouth: “[the stone] is remarkable in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red.”
Yes, I know, this amounts to saying that it’s just like a carbuncle, except for the only way that matters. But what are you gonna do?
Gripe about it on the internet, like I do about everything else.
It’s a bit like talking about a red sapphire. Sapphires can be any color, except that the red variety is called a ruby.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band struck me as being weirdly contrived, even by Doyle standards. And not just the usual mumbo jumbo like the snake, a “swamp adder”, being known to Holmes as the deadliest snake in India when no snake by that name exists there.
So this snake, goes thru a ventilator. Skinnies down a fake bell cord. Goes right to the intended victim. Attacks and kills the victim*. And then suitably retreats.
The magically venomous snake, of course, being successfully brought back from India and kept alive for at least 8 years.
Right.
Plus all the other plot magic about who is where at the right time which the Big Bad should know and yet doesn’t alter his planning.
- Succeeded once. Would have succeeded a 2nd time if Holmes hadn’t been there. And went right back to the ventilator and killed the Big Bad.
Being kept in a safe, no less. No wonder it was pissed off.
Regarding simple inconsistencies, of which there are many, one glaring one is in The Man with the Twisted Lip, in which Watson’s wife calls him “James”. The “Haimish” explanation is ingenious but it’s certainly not what Doyle had in mind; it was just a mistake.