The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

Want to read this along with me? This essay is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1892. I used the epub version found on Feedbooks.com.

The story opens with Holmes and Watson arguing about sensationalism and how it relates to Holmes’ cases. Holmes congratulates Watson on focusing not on sensational trials or popular cases, but rather the smaller ones in which deduction and logical synthesis are showcased – or, more accurately, in which Holmes’ powers are showcased. And yet Watson can’t help poking Holmes a bit, noting that he isn’t completely absolved of being sensationalist, and reflects on Holmes’ egotism and how it frustrates him. Holmes defends his egotism by being more egotistical:

“If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing–a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.”

He then goes on to chastise not only Watson, but the general public and the criminal class as a whole for their lack of ingenuity.

This, to me, is one of the reasons why the relationship between Holmes and Watson has endured over the years: because it feels very real. These two men are the best of friends, but they still have moments in which they get on each other’s nerves and frustrate one another. They have fights and personal squabbles, and Doyle puts these right at the front of this story, correctly deducing that the audience would find this an engaging part of the story, rather than a distraction from the mystery. At this point, we’re starting to see that Doyle realizes his audience is reading the stories just as much for more insights into Holmes and Watson as they are for the details of the extraordinary cases Holmes is involved in.

An interesting point in this opening scene is when Watson notices Holmes “answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words,” something that Holmes disparaged as a “trick” back in A Study in Scarlet when it was done by C. Auguste Dupin. And thus do we see Watson’s frustration with Holmes’ egotism validated.

As for the timing of this case, it at first appears to be before Watson’s marriage, but during the course of the story there are references to “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “A Case of Identity,” “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” “The Noble Bachelor,” and “The Blue Carbuncle.” And yet, there isn’t a single reference to Watson’s wife in the story. What does this say about Watson’s married life by this point?

Another one of my favorite Holmes axioms is in this story:

“Data! data! data!” he cried impatiently. “I can’t make bricks without clay.”

During the case itself, Holmes makes an interesting deduction about how the disposition of children can reflect the disposition of the parents, even though formal scientific study of developmental psychology didn’t start until the early 20th century. Again, Doyle’s medical background and his own keen sense of observation lend a level of scientific authenticity to his stories even before there were words or a rigorous understanding of such concepts.

Another interesting point from the viewpoint of story structure is that we actually learn the answer to the mystery long before the end – it’s confirmation and some of the details of the story that are left for the end.

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

Want to read this along with me? This essay is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1892. I used the epub version found on Feedbooks.com.

Here we have another story about a jewel theft, and the story launches right into things as Doyle becomes increasingly comfortable with focusing on only the details that matter in this stories.

In this story, you see the use of an interesting plot device which would later be called a “McGuffin” – i.e., a plot device that is introduced and drives the characters involved to extremes, and therefore drives the plot. While a device that drives the plot is hardly new (indeed, that’s the central formula in most jewel heist stories, established in Wilkie Collins’ highly-successful novel The Moonstone 24 years previously), what likens it to the much latter McGuffin concept is that the nature of the central object isn’t explored all that thoroughly.¹ In this case, we are told that the Beryl Coronet is owned by someone who is “a name which is a household word all over the earth – one of the highest, noblest, most exalted names in England,” and that it’s “[o]ne of the most precious public possessions of the empire,” but that’s about it. And yet, it doesn’t really matter, because the story isn’t really about the coronet – it’s about the people around it and what they do to each other to get it. In that respect, this is one of the most “noirish” stories in the Holmes canon.

As for timing, the story predates Sign of the Four only because Watson says that he is looking out of “our bow-window” in Baker Street. As the stories fill out the book, you notice that Doyle is putting out less and less specific details, in order to avoid introducing new continuity errors.² On the other hand, the last story in the book is allegedly the first time that Doyle decided that he was done with writing Sherlock Holmes, so it may have been more a case of writer fatigue than any interest in continuity.

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

Want to read this along with me? This essay is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1892. I used the epub version found on Feedbooks.com.

In this adventure, Holmes is involved with another member of the nobility – this time, one from home. Strangely, Holmes is quite dismissive of the attention of the aristocracy:

“This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.”

Perhaps, though, we can somewhat understand why Holmes might be bored with the aristocracy at this point. When researching Lord St. Simon, Holmes finds out that he was born in 1846 and that he is forty-one years of age. This dates this case either in 1887 or 1888 and thus at least several years after the start of Holmes’s career as a consulting detective. However, we also learn that it’s a few weeks before Watson’s marriage, so it’s after The Sign of the Four and before “A Scandal in Bohemia,” where Holmes meets the king of Bohemia. There’s also a reference to another apocryphal case involving the son of the king of Scandinavia (as well as “the little problem of the Grosvenor Square furniture van”), so it certainly seems that Holmes is flush with cases involving the nobility during this phase of his career.

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The Engineer's Thumb

Want to read this along with me? This essay is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1892. I used the epub version found on Feedbooks.com.

This is the only case that Watson brings to Holmes’ attention, although Watson mentions a second, apocryphal case. The story (or at least, the false story given to the client) revolves around fuller’s earth. For years I always wondered why this was so valuable, so I decided to look it up. In general, fuller’s earth is used to absorb oils and grease in a number of areas, including cloth production, and in the Victorian era it was used for “industrial and medical purposes,” according to The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. It’s still mined and used today. There – now you learned something unrelated to Holmes trivia.

With this story, I’m finding Doyle is continuing to switch up the formula of the Holmes stories, but within methods that he’s known for and good at. Although much of the story is a secondary character’s testimony acting as a framing device, it’s just as entertaining to read as it was in previous stories like The Sign of the Four. We also see yet another reference to Inspector Bradstreet, whom it looks like Doyle is positioning to act as Holmes’ Scotland Yard contact in the after-marriage phase of the partnership between Holmes and Watson.

There are evil Germans (yes, even in the 1890s) and fiendish counterfeiters, but Holmes doesn’t actually do much, and the criminals are never found – another one of Holmes’ rare defeats (although these “rare defeats” seem to happen more often in this book). There are also internal inconsistencies, such as why the house is still burning hours later or how Hatherley manages to not bleed to death while unconscious, but it’s still a fun story for all that.

The Speckled Band

Want to read this along with me? This essay is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1892. I used the epub version found on Feedbooks.com.

Although the image of Watson and Holmes rooming together as bachelors is prominent in our minds, this is only the second story thus far (out of ten) in the period between the two moving into 221B and Watson’s marriage. We also learn that this case is set in April 1883, so there’s at least a five year gap between A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four. Even more interesting, Holmes makes a reference to a case before Watson boarded with him – a rare peek into Holmes’ pre-Watson career.

As an earlier case, we see some of Watson and Holmes still learning the boundaries in their friendship. At one point, Holmes mentions a reluctance to include Watson due to the danger, and Watson very casually blows it off. Holmes doesn’t think twice about endangering Watson in later (chronologically) cases, but that’s likely because the two of them have had conversations like this many times by that point.

We get to see some of Holmes’ dry wit in the confrontation between him and Roylott (which is a long quote, but a great passage):

“I know you, you scoundrel! I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler.”

My friend smiled.

“Holmes, the busybody!”

His smile broadened.

“Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!”

Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is most entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught.”

A few bits of lore-watching appear in this story. We get another indication of Holmes’ strength, aside from the revelation of his boxing career early; here, we watch Holmes unbend an iron poker with his bare hands. Holmes also makes a reference to Watson’s pistol as “Eley’s No. 2,” although I’ve always understood it to be a Webley. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that in future stories. We also have another long vigil in darkness.

In the end, this is an interesting case because the criminal is pretty obvious from the start – it’s only the the method of the murder that’s in question. The revelation of the snake has caused a lot of controversy (since such a snake just doesn’t exist in nature, period), and there’s a lot of speculation as to whether Holmes enacts his own justice again or is just the victim of an unfortunate accident. Still, it’s one of Conan Doyle’s favorite stories, and it’s a great look into a period of time that is, at this point in the canon, still largely untouched.