Sherlock extracts
The first of the following extracts shows Conan Doyle's use of a collection of objects introduced at the start of the story in order to mystify, puzzle and intrigue the reader.
The second and third extracts illustrate 'Holmes' deductive method'. There is a simplistic and absurd quality that makes them eminently suitable for imitation, subversion and parody.
1. from ‘The Adventures of the Musgrave Ritual’, pp235-6
(Sherlock Holmes) dived his arm down to the bottom of the chest, and brought up a small wooden box, with a sliding lid, such as children’s toys are kept in. From within he produced a crumpled piece of paper, and old-fashioned brass key, a peg of wood with a ball of string attached to it, and three old rusty discs of metal.
“Well, my boy, what do you make of this lot?” he asked, smiling at my expression.
“It is a curious collection.”
“Very curious, and the story that hangs round it will strike you as being more curious still.”
“These relics have a history, then?”
“So much so that they are history.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Sherlock Holmes picked them up one by one, and laid them along the edge of the table. Then he reseated himself in the chair, and looked over with a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes.
“These,” said he, “are all that I have left to remind me of ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual’.”
2. From ‘The Adventures of the Stockbroker’s Clerk’, pp212-213
“I perceive that you have been unwell lately. Summer colds are always a little trying.”
“I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last week. I thought, however, that I had cast off every trace of it.”
“So you have. You look remarkably robust.”
“How, then, did you know of it?”
“My dear fellow, you know my methods.”
“You deduced it, then?”
“Certainly.”
“And from what?”
“From your slippers.”
I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was wearing. “How on earth ...?” I began, but Holmes answered my question before it was asked.
“Your slippers are new,” he said. “You could not have had them more than a few weeks. The soles which you are at this moment presenting to me are slightly scorched. For a moment I thought they might have got wet and been burnt in the drying. But near the instep there is small circular wafer of paper with the shopman’s hieroglyphics upon it. Damp would of course have removed this. You had then been sitting with your feet outstretched to the fire, which a man would hardly do even in so wet a June as this if he were in full health.”
Like all of Holmes’s reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained.
3. from ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ p 99.
Holmes has woken Watson at 7:15 a.m. so that they can interview a young lady who has just arrived...
“You must not fear,” said he, soothingly, bending forward and patting her forearm. “We shall soon set matters right, I have no doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see.”
You know me, then?”
“No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached the station.”
The lady gave a violent start, and stared in bewilderment at my companion.
“There is no mystery, my dear madam,” said he, smiling. “The left arm of your jacket is splattered with mud in no less than seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a dog-cart which throw up mud in that way, and then only when you sit on the left hand side of the driver.”
“Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct,” said she.
The second and third extracts illustrate 'Holmes' deductive method'. There is a simplistic and absurd quality that makes them eminently suitable for imitation, subversion and parody.
1. from ‘The Adventures of the Musgrave Ritual’, pp235-6
(Sherlock Holmes) dived his arm down to the bottom of the chest, and brought up a small wooden box, with a sliding lid, such as children’s toys are kept in. From within he produced a crumpled piece of paper, and old-fashioned brass key, a peg of wood with a ball of string attached to it, and three old rusty discs of metal.
“Well, my boy, what do you make of this lot?” he asked, smiling at my expression.
“It is a curious collection.”
“Very curious, and the story that hangs round it will strike you as being more curious still.”
“These relics have a history, then?”
“So much so that they are history.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Sherlock Holmes picked them up one by one, and laid them along the edge of the table. Then he reseated himself in the chair, and looked over with a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes.
“These,” said he, “are all that I have left to remind me of ‘The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual’.”
2. From ‘The Adventures of the Stockbroker’s Clerk’, pp212-213
“I perceive that you have been unwell lately. Summer colds are always a little trying.”
“I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last week. I thought, however, that I had cast off every trace of it.”
“So you have. You look remarkably robust.”
“How, then, did you know of it?”
“My dear fellow, you know my methods.”
“You deduced it, then?”
“Certainly.”
“And from what?”
“From your slippers.”
I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was wearing. “How on earth ...?” I began, but Holmes answered my question before it was asked.
“Your slippers are new,” he said. “You could not have had them more than a few weeks. The soles which you are at this moment presenting to me are slightly scorched. For a moment I thought they might have got wet and been burnt in the drying. But near the instep there is small circular wafer of paper with the shopman’s hieroglyphics upon it. Damp would of course have removed this. You had then been sitting with your feet outstretched to the fire, which a man would hardly do even in so wet a June as this if he were in full health.”
Like all of Holmes’s reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained.
3. from ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’ p 99.
Holmes has woken Watson at 7:15 a.m. so that they can interview a young lady who has just arrived...
“You must not fear,” said he, soothingly, bending forward and patting her forearm. “We shall soon set matters right, I have no doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see.”
You know me, then?”
“No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached the station.”
The lady gave a violent start, and stared in bewilderment at my companion.
“There is no mystery, my dear madam,” said he, smiling. “The left arm of your jacket is splattered with mud in no less than seven places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a dog-cart which throw up mud in that way, and then only when you sit on the left hand side of the driver.”
“Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct,” said she.