#the red-headed league

[teaspoonnebula]

When Holmes and Watson go to a concert, this is what's happening in Watson's mind the whole time.

[allallestodo]

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

2.05 The Red-Headed League

[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."

[o-uncle-newt]

Considering either starting to Sherlock Holmespost on here or starting a sideblog...

I'd say a mix of canon, the Game, and mostly-Granada adaptation stuff- but I feel like I already have two main topics for this one and that's probably enough. Will think about this.

I will say that the fact that I don't already have a Holmes blog is crazy to me- I've been such a fan as long as I can remember, I did a tenth grade music class presentation on Sarasate because he was the one who played the concert that Holmes and Watson go to in The Red-Headed League. (It made it especially fun when Granada not only showed them going to that concert in the adaptation but literally cast someone as Sarasate!)

[friendly-neighbourhood-librarian]

So today is October 9, but two months ago was April 27?

[flammentanz]

Erich Schellow as Sherlock Holmes and Paul Edwin Roth as Dr. Watson in "Die Liga der Rothaarigen" ("The Red-Headed League")

[principiumindividuationis777]

[paradises-library]

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, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was possible to conceive.

-"The Red-Headed League," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[mariana-oconnor]

The Red-Headed League Pt 1

From the start I can say that I have read this one many, many times. Not my favourite, but it was in the book of Sherlock Holmes stories I had as a child. Although, once again I remember only the gist of the tale from the title, not the details. I may remember more as I go on.

found him in deep conversation with a very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair.

As someone from a family with many redheads, with several friends who are redheads, I can say that the idea of an 'elderly' person with red hair amuses me because without exception the more redheaded a person is in my experience, the sooner they go white. I had cousins who were significantly grey at 21. If this guy is considered elderly and still has his natural hair colour as a redhead, then he's got some impressive genes.

Also, I can already see the redheaded stereotypes circling.

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.

Watson: trying to be polite. Holmes: YOINK!

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

Watson really doesn't like flattering descriptions, does he? 'Fat encircled eyes'? You've mentioned he's stout twice already, do we really need the extra? After the last story where he was very clear about how he thought Miss Mary Sutherland was unattractive, he's really on a roll.

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.

Doyle making a callout post for his own unreliable narrator.

"You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland..."

Callback! Although I'm still a little angry at you about that one, Holmes. Not your finest hour.

As a rule, when I have heard some slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique.

Holmes is flummoxed. He is bamboozled. He is quite without context or precedent.

Our visitor bore every mark of being an average commonplace British tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow.

Watson, your classism, intellectualism, and fatphobia are showing. Wow, we're just getting back-to-back Watson being a judgy little bitch, aren't we? Once again I have to question what these people must have thought in-universe when reading his descriptions of them. I know, I know, they're not real, but it's a central conceit of the series that Watson is the author and publishes the tales, and looking at it from that perspective when he's so very disparaging of some of their clients.

"Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else."

OK, now Sherlock's talking about the guy like he's not there. They're quite a pair today.

But also, Sherlock showing off again, and this time the client takes the bait and asks about it. He must be so pleased.

"I have made a small study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter becomes even more simple."

I like how he starts with the more obscure one, then follows it up with the more obvious clue. Although he could have got the coin from somewhere else, so the tattoo colouring is confirmation that he actually went, and is not connected in another way.

Mr Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that there was nothing in it, after all."

I like Mr Jabez Wilson. Ha! (Maybe this is why Watson is so bitchy about him, because he does not appreciate the true glory of Holmes' art).

TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 Pope's Court, Fleet Street.

Based on the Bank of England inflation calculator, this comes to roughly £400 a week in modern money. And given that last story we were told that a woman could comfortably live on £60 a year, while this is ~£200 a year. I would take that in a heartbeat and ask no questions. I'd be thinking a lot of questions, but I would not be asking them. Two words: Plausible deniability.

~*Oh no. I am but an innocent pawn in this terrible scheme! I knew nothing.*~

If only I were a man with red hair of sound mind and body.

"What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated

Obligatory ejaculation note.

Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits.

Wiggly chair dance! I love it.

I would have a job to pay him but that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the business.

This guy is either the nicest guy in the world, or he has ulterior motives. Given the context, I'm going with door number 2.

I should not wish a smarter assistant, Mr Holmes; and I know very well that he could better himself and earn twice what I am able to give him.

Dooooooor number 2

There's no vice in him.

Mr Wilson, I know what I said before about plausible deniability, but you may in fact want to look that gift horse in the mouth and hire someone a little less qualified.

He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple cooking and keeps the place clean

Ah, Victorian labour laws.

"Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "'I wish to the Lord, Mr Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "'Why that?' I asks. "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what to do with the money. If my hair would only change color, here's a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.'

Victor Spaulding is not a very convincing con man - though, to be fair, I have the benefit of being genre savvy. But I can totally see Hardison playing this part in the Leverage version of this con and being over-the-top outraged about the injustice. (I think they did do a version of this con in Leverage at one time, but I can't remember when... or it might have been in Hustle. Or I might be imagining things.)

"Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an extra couple of hundred would have been very handy."

Almost like it was designed specifically for you! What a strange and fortuitous happenstance! What an utterly serendipitous and not at all suspicious coink-i-dink!

Vincent Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might prove useful

There is nothing to see here. Just an ordinary employee.

From north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court looked like a coster's orange barrow.

Why doesn't Watson know about this? You would have think it would have made the newspaper and we have established that Watson reads the news religiously.

I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which would disgust you with human nature.

Pretty sure I've read that one on AO3.

The fund was, of course, for the propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their maintenance.

Are they... plants? This reads more like gardening. Such weird word choice. Propagation and spread... so creeeeepy.

"'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a bachelor.'

Classic. The old 'take away the thing that you haven't given them yet to make them want it more'. This guy is more skilled than Spaulding, certainly. Make it seem like you're doing them a favour and they won't look into it too much.

'Oh, never mind about that, Mr Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. 'I should be able to look after that for you.'

Seriously, this guy needs to work on his technique. You can't be that eager, my friend. You've got to make them work with it. Make them think it's their idea, not yours. You should have been planting the seeds for this since before you even raised the idea of the League. You are a terrible grifter. Pah! I have 0 respect for you. You're getting by on luck, not skill.

Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole position forever.

Once again an extreme and unreasonable ultimatum, just like in the last story. This is a Bad Sign. No allowances for injury or emergency, just 'if you leave, that's it forever.' Bad sign.

OK, maybe I lied before. I would ask questions about this: 'But what if I fall over and bang my head? But what if the building is on fire? But what if I am kidnapped by enemies of the league?'

"'... copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica."

Just copy out Wikipedia, longhand. OK. The real question is: what happens when my hand seizes up from writing for so long? What then?

Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Yep, yep, yep. All very valid and good points. Good for you, Mr Jabez Wilson. I knew I liked you.

Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr Duncan Ross was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off upon the letter A

A is for Alarming, which this is.

It's also for Augur, as in 'This augurs poorly.'

You were so close, Mr Wilson. So very close. I believed in you - well, I didn't, because there wouldn't have been a story otherwise. But I still believe you can pull this off. You've come to Holmes for a reason. Will you realise before it's too-

He held up a piece of white card-board about the size of a sheet of note-paper. It read in this fashion: THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED October 9, 1890

Oh Mr Wilson. My belief was misplaced.

A is for Aim and A is for Accomplished and A is for Absconded. All very relevant words, one feels.

[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.

[litandlifequotes]

My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.

The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[allallestodo]

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

2.05 The Red-Headed League

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson: The Red-Headed League

Crimes in Context I don't have a lot to say about the actual bank heist. Mostly because digging into and out of secure locations is a known literary trope, and London has a history long enough that I'm willing to accept tunneling through cellars into other building vacuae towards a bank as plausible. London is, after all, mostly built on London. This is however a good time to talk about the types of cases Watson seems to prefer to record. We've covered half of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a quarter of Memoirs, and a smattering of the cases published post-1900 by now, and the majority of Watson's recollections seem to fall into a few distinct types: the rescue of a young woman in danger (usually with a side of her financial abuse: see The Speckled Band and The Sign of the Four), the unexplained disappearance of people or important documents (See The Noble Bachelor, The Second Stain), the client who seeks Holmes' help slightly too late to save the situation (The Resident Patient, The Five Orange Pips) and the weird or absurd coincidence that unravels into evidence of a crime: The Musgrave Ritual, The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Red-Headed League. The coincidences are usually the cases that involve the most deduction and the more systematic examination of the crime. Holmes examines the premises of the incident, reasons out potential motives (for example: that it is VERY WEIRD in this time period for a man in his thirties to take up a clerk position at half pay... and have such a comparatively expensive hobby as photography, so clearly he has something else going on) and often uses his background knowledge of the high profile criminals of London to draw conclusions. There are also some bonuses in this particular case that I'm not sure are intended.

Although "Spaulding" professes to be using Wilson's basement as a dark room, Wilson does not complain about the smell - and developing photographs is a smelly business, even though the chemicals used in modern film are different than the processes common in the 1890's.

Wilson works industriously to copy the Encyclopedia Brittanica, to the point that he buys his own ink and paper. Presumably if the aim of the Red-Headed League was to provide a living to red-headed men for the minimum of work, paper and ink would be provided (Although the extra money might be remuneration for the equipment.)

[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

[bloodurged]

“all the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, while his gently smiling face and his languid dreamy eyes were as unlike holmes, the sleuth-hound as it was possible to conceive. when I saw him so wrapped in music, I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set himself to hunt down.”

[bakerstreetbabble]

Granada TV Series Review: "The Red-Headed League" (S02, E05)

This week, I come to what is surely one of the most delightful episodes of the entire series of adaptations from Granada TV! "The Red-Headed League" has long been a favorite story of most Sherlockians, and was on a list of Arthur Conan Doyle's favorite Holmes stories as well. The Granada adaptation shows Jeremy Brett at the absolute top of his game, and is a real treat for any viewer. Fans of British comedy will certainly recognize the actors playing John Clay (Tim McInnerny from the popular Black Adder series), and Duncan Ross (Richard Wilson from One Foot in the Grave).

This episode really has it all: humor, adventure, and as always, the rapport between Holmes and Watson, played to such great effect by Jeremy Brett and David Burke. The episode give Sherlockians so much to enjoy, including Holmes's reference to the famous "three pipe problem" and the great shot of Jeremy Brett, knees up and smoking, a picture perfect reference to a Sidney Paget illustration from the original story.

There are so many entertaining moments from this episode, but a couple stood out for me, one of which was Jeremy Brett's leap over the settee as Watson enters towards the beginning of the episode, accompanied by a shout of "You couldn't have come at a better time!" (Fans of the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere podcast will recognize the clip immediately from their intro sequence.) And then there's the reaction from Holmes and Watson as Mr. Jabez Wilson concludes his tale. Brett and Burke burst into laughter, which can hardly be helped, as Mr. Wilson tells them all the words he learned, transcribing the first volume of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Little moments of humor, some from the original story and others not, make the episode tremendously entertaining.

The episode also serves as a setup for the next week's conclusion to the first series, "The Final Problem." We get several scenes with Professor Moriarty, as well as fairly lengthy sequence in the bank vault, wherein Holmes and Inspector Jones discuss Moriarty's role in London crime. All this material, of course, is not from the source material, as "The Red-Headed League" was only the second Holmes adventure published in The Strand magazine, and "The Final Problem" came much later. But in the continuity of this first series from Granada, it works quite well to prepare the viewer for the big series finale.

As I prepare myself to watch "The Final Problem" next week, it's a bit of a bittersweet moment, as I know that episode also represents the final episode for David Burke as Dr. Watson. I enjoy Burke's Watson portrayal immensely. I don't know that Edward Hardwicke, who ended up playing the good doctor for much longer than Burke did, ever quite matched up to Burke's version. Harwicke was no slouch, of course, and he brought plenty of good moments to the role himself, but I suspect Burke will always occupy a special place in my heart.

As I continue this project of watching and reviewing all of the Granada Sherlock Holmes adaptations, I know that the quality of the series will have its ups and downs. As Jeremy Brett's health grew worse and worse over time, the overall quality tends to decline...or so I've always read. (And, having seen some of the later episodes, particularly the adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, I'm inclined to agree with that appraisal.) Meanwhile, it's a marvelous experience to watch all of the episodes in order, and to be able to enjoy the performances when they were at the excellent level of "The Red-Headed League." It was truly a real gift to legions of Holmes fans. Please enjoy watching the episode below...