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.
In January I am reading the 12 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection.
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).
Title: Review of Sherlock Holmes Short Story x/56: “ “
Published: May 1892
Wikipedia here
Online here
Review: I would recommend this, especially if you want to think about class, love, money, femininity etc as the late Victorians wanted to believe it.
Best sentence(s):
“He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got beyond words.”
Xxx
Watson wanting to pump Holmes, who does his chameleon thing…
“It was obvious to me that my companion’s mind was now made up about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he was a perfect sample of the class”
Xx
“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Words I didn’t know:
| Chaffer | Chaffer – haggle about the terms of an agreement or price of something. “I chaffered in the bazaars for objects I wanted” |
Allusions I had to look up: none
See also:
marchudson.net 
Leave a comment