#the adventure of the red headed league

[holmesoldfellow]

Sherlock Holmes "Three Pipe Problem" linoprint by BakerStreetPrints

[somethingintheforest]

[fogdraws]

"unfeigned admiration" just kiss already. Making out would be less romantic than whatever this is. Keep doing it tho, it's great.

[green-ocean]

'I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizzare and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.' - from The Red-Headed League, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

[what-thisiscrazzzy]

“Holmes chuckled and wiggled in his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits”

“He curled himself in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put his pipe down upon the mantelpiece”

“My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes, the sleuth-hound, Holmes the relentless…”

“Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit streets until we emerged into Farringdon Street.”

- John Watson on Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Red-headed League’ Arthur Conan Doyle

[anneangel]

The way Watson in Victorian-era canon says "oh, god, yes! Take me to one of your dangerous cases!" goes like this:

“Well, I don’t like it, but I suppose it must be,” said I. “When do we start?”

“You are not coming.” (Said Sherlock).

“Then you are not going,” said I. “I give you my word of honour, and I never broke it in my life, that I will take a cab straight to the police-station and give you away, unless you let me share this adventure with you".

The way Sherlock in Victorian era canon says "I need a partner!" and like this:

"I think that I had better go, Holmes." Said Watson.

"Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to miss it."

"But your client --"

"Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best attention." (...)

"If not, I should much prefer to communicate with you alone." Said the client.

I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me."

And other:

With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door behind me.

"You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Watson," he said cordially.

"I was afraid that you were busy."

"So I am. Very much so."

"Then I can wait in the next room."

"Not at all. This gentleman has been my partner and helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." [explains Holmes to the client].

The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his eyes.

"Try the settee," said Holmes to Watson, relapsing into his armchair and putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own little adventures."

[rbluepie]

Reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and drawing little sketches

(From A Scandal in Bohemia)

(From The Red-Headed League)

[tenth-sentence]

"And how could you tell that they would make their attempt to-night?" I asked.

"The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury" - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[whats-in-a-sentence]

"It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird.

"The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury" - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

The Red-Headed League: Holmes is contacted by a pawn shop owner who worked a mundane clerical job for eight weeks before finding his workplace mysteriously dissolved. Holmes deduces that his assistant at the pawn shop wanted him out of the shop for several hours a day so that he could dig a tunnel into a nearby bank in order to rob it.

The Adventure of Black Peter: Holmes is contacted by Hopkins about a harpoon murder. Holmes later catches a would-be robber who explains that he suspects his father was killed by "Black" Peter, the victim. Holmes deduces that Black Peter's murderer must have been a seaman and places an advertisement to catch him. The murderer explains that he blackmailed Black Peter by threatening to expose Peter's murder, then killed Peter after Peter threatened him during a meeting.

[holmesoldfellow]

Sherlockian Relics Vol. 1, including "The Musgrave Ritual, Blue Carbuncle, Devil’s Foot poison, Red Headed League contract and dissolve notice, Sign of Four card, and Falls of Reichenbach poster"

[somethingintheforest]

[ineffabletwaddle13]

Holmes pours tea for Watson, Watson pours tea for Holmes

I couldn’t find any reference to Holmes pouring tea for Watson in the ACD books, only pouring tea for himself: Holmes “helped himself to a cup of tea.” in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet. But I like to think he would sometimes pour tea for Watson like 1954 Holmes does when Watson needs cheering up.

Watson pours tea for Holmes in The Sign of the Four: “There is no great mystery in this matter,” he [Holmes] said, taking the cup of tea which I [Watson] had poured out for him. “The facts appear to admit of only one explanation.”

[writer-at-the-table]

"...for strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination."

I love when fictional characters in constructed fictional narratives say shit like this

[principiumindividuationis777]

The Thief of the Blue Carbuncle

One of several cases in which Sherlock Holmes (in his original character, as written by Doyle, distinctly "neutral good", in D&D terms) let a criminal go without turning him over to the Yard (spoiler alert for The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle) is the thief of the blue carbuncle, the one found inside a goose.

Well, had I been Sherlock Holmes, I might have let the fellow go also, but on one condition: That he stop cringing. I would have said to him something like "Be a man, stand up, look me in the eye, stop pleading and cringing, and I might let you go."

The fictional criminals who rub me the wrong way most are the ones who, while lacking mercy for others, obviously, beg for it when their turn comes. Fellows like (spoiler alert for The Red-Headed League) the mastermind of the clever attempt at a bank robbery, John Clay, who took his arrest with a suave coolness and a touch of humor, would actually earn my respect. I might have said to Clay, "No ill will, just my trade, same as yours." It would have helped my regard for Clay also that I have a rather low regard for the banking sector, given the behemoth it became in the twentieth century- had he been non-violent and not pulled a weapon, and had it been only me, as a private detective, and an unofficial assistant such as Watson (no Scotland Yard present, as there were), I probably would have let him go outright, given the Yard a telegram and let them try to chase him, be the winner whom it might.

Rather like Nero Wolfe, I live by a strict code and routine, and while it often overlaps with the laws of society, as statutes, the two are not identical, so I might let a criminal go in extenuating circumstances, if I felt he or she would be treated too harshly by the courts. I would, however, insist that they demonstrate courage (e.g. The Adventure of the Abbey Grange), so the fate of one Mr. James Ryder would have depended on whether he overcame his timidity- no, it's not an easy task, but I have had three-hour panic attacks at work with none of my coworkers noticing, and since Ryder brought it all on himself, it would be the least I could ask.

[tthel]

The Adventure of the Red-Headed League