In 2026 I plan to read all the Conan Doyle “Sherlock Holmes” works – 56 short stories and 4 novels (here’s why and how). If you haven’t already read it, Michael Green’s “undiscovered letter” from John Watson is fricking hilarious.
I may also read various Holmes homages/pastiches etc. Who knows? (btw I’d recommend the Seven Per Cent Solution, by Nicholas Meyer where Watson has to trick Holmes into going to Vienna to be treated by Sigmund Freud).
Published: April 1892
Wikipedia here
Online here
Review: I would recommend this. The colonial anxieties thing – “can you trust ‘em?” (no)
Important that the Noble Bachelor was an “Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration”. It’s also classic soap opera plot!
First mention of Inspector Lestrade [Update – in the short stories – he was there in A Study in Scarlet, which I have not read (or if I have, not in forty years].
Sherlock Holmes is so damn condescending!
“Do not dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, if only as a check to my own memory.””
The gender aspect too –
“She is what we call in England a tomboy, with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of traditions. She is impetuous—volcanic, I was about to say.”
Best sentence(s):
“I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his case”
“Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau’s example.”
XXX
“But I have heard all that you have heard.”
“Without, however, the knowledge.”
XX
“ ‘Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.’ I see nothing in that.”
“Very likely not. It is most important, all the same….” (emphasis added)
XX
“Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your company,” said Sherlock Holmes. “It is always a joy to meet an American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes.”
Words I didn’t know:
| Jezail Bullet | The jezail[1][2][3] (or jezzail),[4] also spelled juzail (or juzzail),[3] is a long-barrelled weapon used in Central Asia, British India, and parts of Middle East.[4][5] A person operating it is called jazailchi.[6][2][7]Jezails were used by the elite jazayerchi troops of Safavid and Afsharid Iran, notably during the Naderian Wars. It was the main weapon used by the various ethnic tribesmen of Afghanistan in the 19th-century,[8] who deposed Shah Shuja[9] and fought in the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars. |
| Tide Waiter | Tidewaiter /ˈtʌɪdˌweɪtə/Noun historical a customs officer who boarded ships on their arrival to enforce the customs regulations. |
| Caltrop | A caltrop (/ˈkæl.tɹəp, ˈkal.-, ˈkɔːl.-/; also known as caltrap, galtrop, cheval trap, galthrap,[1] galtrap, calthrop, jackrock or crow’s foot[2][3]) is an area denial weapon made up of usually four, but possibly more, sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base (for example, a tetrahedron). Historically, caltrops were part of defences that served to slow the advance of troops, especially horses, chariots, and war elephants, and were particularly effective against the soft feet of camels.[4] In modern times, caltrops are effective when used against wheeled vehicles with pneumatic tires.[5] |
Allusions I had to look up:
The phrase a trout in the milk denotes highly convincing circumstantial evidence, especially of a hypothesis otherwise difficult to prove.
See also:
Isokoski, M. (2008). The Victorian Middle Class, imperialist attitude and women in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures. Tampere: School of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, University of Tampere.
marchudson.net 
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