Wednesday, April 26, 2017

"I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain" [3GAR]


In "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," we're treated to a range of emotions and reactions from Sherlock Holmes. The opening scene is one of those Canonical gems: Outside, there is a thick fog, while inside, we see a cheery fire, the gleaming breakfast table, and an eloquently irritable Holmes with his cherry-wood pipe, expounding upon art and detection just long enough to bring us up to the arrival of his attractive and interesting young client.

We have a plethora of information about Holmes's personality in not only this opening, but the story itself: his annoyance with Watson and the general public, his charming way with female clients, his thinking, and the age-old question of whether he was attracted to Violet Hunter.

Hop on board with us as we explore the glimpses we have of Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," the story that originally appeared in the Strand Magazine in June 1892 and was the final story in the Adventures.


Download | 8.2 MB 17:51



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Links



Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.


Transcript

Narrator: [00:00:02] Welcome to Trifles, a weekly podcast about the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Clive Merrison: [00:00:08] It is of course a trifle but there is nothing so important as trifles.

Narrator: [00:00:14] Yes the beeches were copper, of the pince-nez was golden, and the blaze was silver, but there were so many other details to pick apart in the stories.

Jeremy Brett: [00:00:23] Pray, be precise as to details.

Narrator: [00:00:25] You know the plots, but what about the minutiae? Have you ever stopped to wonder about the difference between Holmes's pipes? Or how often he smoked cigars versus cigarettes? Or what Egyptian cigarettes are like?

Denis Quilley: [00:00:38] You are very inquisitive Mr. Holmes.

Jeremy Brett: [00:00:41] It's my business to know what other people don't know.

Narrator: [00:00:45] Scott Monty and Bert Wolder will have the answers to these questions and more in Trifles.

Clive Merrison: [00:00:53] The game's afoot.

[00:00:58] Episode 17: Glimpses of Holmes in the Copper Beeches.

Scott Monty: [00:01:06] Hi and welcome to Trifles - that Sherlock Holmes podcast about all the little details and the Sherlock Holmes stories. I'm Scott Monty.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:17] I'm Burt Wolder.

Scott Monty: [00:01:18] And here we are at the end of April. Is it here already? It seems like we were just at the end of March.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:25] It seems like it just started, oh well.

Scott Monty: [00:01:27] My goodness, my goodness. Well, if you're binge-listening, God bless you. And it's not good for the ears to do that you really should wait at least a week in between episodes - doctors recommend.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:42] Yes. But binge listening qualifies you for a binge donations.

Scott Monty: [00:01:47] That is true. So get on over to SherlockHolmesPodcast.com and click on that Patreon button or the PayPal button, if you would care to support us. E-mails and advertising and sound file hosting and transcription services -- all of this goes into the cost of running this little show. So if you can do your part, that would be very helpful to us. And while you are there, while you are online, go to the listening platform of your choice whether it's Stitcher or Spreaker or iTunes or IHeartRadio or Google Play and leave us a rating or review to let other people know what you think of the show. And as always your comments here are welcome. You can reach us at: ihose.co/trifles17. That is the URL for the show notes for this episode.

Scott Monty: [00:02:49] And in this episode we are talking about the Copper Beeches. This is one of those wonderful iconic stories in the Canon. It originally appeared in The Strand Magazine in June of 1892. And it was the final story in the series that became The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. And chronologists have had a little bit of debate about this story. It's clearly in the spring they can all agree on that. Watson says early spring but we get anything from March through May and any years ranging from 1885 all the way up to 1891, really bumping up against Holmes and his run-in with Professor Moriarty which we just talked about in the previous episode.

Burt Wolder: [00:03:40] Well we prefer to think of it in April, which is one of the reasons why we're talking about it in April and Baring-Gould's chronology put it at April of 1889.

Scott Monty: [00:03:50] I like that. I think that works just fine. And again you know in I think it was Episode 14: The Speckled Band, we talked about that iconic opening. And again we have one of those here with the Copper Beeches we've got a thick fog happening outside. We've got a cheery fire. We've got the gleaming breakfast table which of course Watson is seated. And then you've got Holmes. Who is who is eloquent and irritable at the same time.

Burt Wolder: [00:04:35] But this is another wonderful moment. You know that you would call today the meta moment, where the characters in a particular tale comment about the way their adventure is portrayed with the public. And Holmes, as Watson says, "picked up the long cherrywood by which he was I wont to smoke when he was in a disputatious mood," begins by criticising or commenting anyway about Watson's portrayal of his cases "You have erred perhaps in attempting to put her in life to each of your statements, instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing." And they go and they go on for a considerable time to have a discussion about... Watson's reporting abilities.

Burt Wolder: [00:06:27] Now this is this is what we would call in modern terminology meta. This is a very meta kind of thing to do that you're referring to the physical publication the actual circulation that hits the streets within the confines of the story which also happens to peer inside that publications. And this is something that isn't unique to this particular tale you know. Conan Doyle use this technique again and again, which as we mentioned before, this added to the confusion of the general public. Is Sherlock Holmes real or fictional?

Burt Wolder: [00:07:06] Yeah but you know, we started the episode by asking for comments. And here's the case where Sherlock Holmes refers in this conversation to comments that were likely received about some of the original adventures because he says to Watson, "You can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself in, a fair proportion do not treat a crime in its legal sense at all. The small matter in which I endeavored to help the King of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, the incident of the noble bachelor. Well these were all matters which are outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational I fear you may have bordered the trivial." And that is just so remarkable. The details in that well constructed couple of sentences there what's packed in there now.

Scott Monty: [00:08:03] It really is. I mean there's just this one and these one or two pages the introduction of the Copper Beeches gives us so much information or just a just a window into Holmes's personality. And some of the things that they may have talked about on any given day. This happened to be upon the day that a client was visiting them. But it really gets you into some of the background of of this friendship.

Burt Wolder: [00:08:31] But also the the lovely thing is he goes on to criticize the readers.

Scott Monty: [00:08:36] Yes. Yeah.

Burt Wolder: [00:08:38] Watson says well you know I think you know these stories have been really novel and interesting and Holmes says, "Oh what do the public - the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the inner shades of analysis and deduction? But indeed..." And then of course we get to the story because he says well "if you're trivial, I cannot blame you, because...criminal man has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own practice has is probably degenerating into recovering lost lead and and giving advice to young ladies because I've touched bottom" and look at this letter that I have. And of course it's the note from Violet Hunter.

Scott Monty: [00:09:21] And if you've had the opportunity to watch the Granada version of this for Jeremy Brett, I think it's one of the better episodes in the series. This of course was the debut of Natasha Richardson in the role of Violet Hunter. And the derision with which Holmes greets her after having this morning spat with Watson -- and it was portrayed extraordinarily well between the two actors David Burke and Jeremy Brett. Miss Hunter is welcomed to the room. She's sitting by the table. Holmes and Watson are also seated nearby and Holmes is referencing the letter and as if to completely manifest the level of divisiveness that he has -- the derision that he has for her. He tosses the the paper, spinning it in the air toward the table as if to say 'I'm washing my hands of this' and then he turns his head and puts it in his hand. Just a marvelous representation of that prickliness by which Holmes was certainly affected in the opening of this story. And this disputation -- Watson mentions that Holmes always chooses his his cherrywood pipe when he was in a disputatious mood. Why? What about cherrywood would connect it with disputatious versus a clay pipe or say a churchwarden or something?

Burt Wolder: [00:10:57] Well it's a good question -- clearly it's a long pipe you know so I don't think there's anything in the actual smoking experience of a cherrywood that would push one's attitude this way or that way, but it's clearly a long pipe and unlike a churchwarden which can be clay or refers to a long briar pipe a cherrywood pipe would have a thicker stem and it also be probably far from cherry, so you're more free to wave it around like a baton or pointed at people. That's always what I thought.

Scott Monty: [00:11:35] Well that's a good point. That's a very good point now it would have nothing to do with the with the mouthpiece though.

Burt Wolder: [00:11:42] Right now at the end of the mouthpiece particularly in the 19th century it would have been horn or amber or I guess an early form of hard rubber bakelite. But no, it wouldn't have anything to do with the actual part you'd put in your lips.

Scott Monty: [00:11:56] But that that wild gesticulating would have been accommodated by a longer or thicker stemmed pipe.

Burt Wolder: [00:12:06] Yeah or would have had it would have had a stem of cherrywood probably and would end it at a different tip and you'd be more free to point it around and wave it around than you would with something that was more fragile.

Scott Monty: [00:12:16] That makes sense.

Burt Wolder: [00:12:20] The lovely thing about this you know is that unlike. Well first of all this is so archetypal in terms of the stories here is a woman alone in mysterious circumstances and another and one of the first of the many Violets we'll encounter in the stories. But she begins immediately by getting to the point: "You will excuse my troubling you, I'm sure," she says. "But I've had a strange experience. And as I have no parents or relatives from any sort from whom I could ask advice I thought perhaps you'd be kind enough to tell me what I should do." Well, Watson says, "I could see that Holmes was favorably impressed by the manner and speech of his new client." And he looks over in searching fashion proceeds to hear her story.

Scott Monty: [00:13:05] Now and in this case I think he had great respect for Violet Hunter -- this woman who was was on her own was carrying herself very well and simply came to him for some advice. He was a little confused as to why she should be consulting him, but she said she should go down to the Copper Beeches firmer in mind about things.

Burt Wolder: [00:13:35] Well, she you know she tells him the whole story and says you know it ends by saying basically what do you think. And he says, "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the question.

Scott Monty: [00:13:45] Right. And of course there came that key phrase. Watson notes, "As to Holmes, I observed that he sat frequently for a half hour on end with knitted brows and an abstracted air but he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand when I mentioned it. 'Data! data! data!' He cried impatiently. I can't make bricks without clay.

Burt Wolder: [00:14:11] Right. Well before that you know right at the end of that little interchange with Violet she says well you wouldn't advise me to use would you. And he says in another great telling remark, "Oh I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to see a sister of mine apply for.

Scott Monty: [00:14:29] That's right.

Burt Wolder: [00:14:30] And of course we know from Conan Doyle that he [Conan Doyle] had several sisters. I think all of which all of whom were with governesses at different times in different places.

Scott Monty: [00:14:42] And at the end of that data data data paragraph Watson said, "And yet he would always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted such situation." So great admiration for this woman and almost seeing her as a peer as as an extension of the family because he probably saw something of himself in her -- that independent streak. Holmes may well have may as well have been an orphan by virtue of the way he conducted his life. So would it have been that dissimilar from Violet Hunter.

Burt Wolder: [00:15:20] And the other the other lovely thing in this particular story is that eventually they go down to Hampshire. And previously we've seen interesting things happen in Holmes' train travels particularly in I believe "The Naval Treaty" when are you going back to London and Holmes remarks about "the schools -- the boarding schools, the beacons of hope the lighthouses." Well here, Watson is pretty happy to be out of the fog of London out in the countryside and he sees comments to Holmes about "the little red and gray roofs of the farmstead peeping out from the light green the new foliage." It's a beautiful description. "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" And Holmes says, oh Watson, "you look at these scattered houses and you were impressed by their beauty. I look at them and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation, and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there." "Good heavens!" "Oh they always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "You horrify me, Holmes.

Scott Monty: [00:16:32] Yeah, it is one of the curses of the criminal mind, or of the mind that thinks about crime -- that Holmes would naturally turn his thoughts to that - this isolation. We come across it -- oh where was it? The inn where Holmes and Watson stopped where Reuben Hayes and his wife tended the inn in "The Priory School." Of course we later find out that they were holding the kidnapped boy upstairs. You know these these areas of isolation allow people to get away with more when they're not under the eyes of the law. And just to conclude, returning to our friend Ms Hunter, we know that Holmes may have shown some sort of affection or may even have been smitten with regard to her. We have to wonder if she returned the feeling, if she reciprocated this romanticized feeling. And you know we mentioned Mrs. Hudson getting knocked up in "The Speckled Band," well we have another wonderful quote here in "The Copper Beeches" where she said, "I remember nothing until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I thought of you Mr. Holmes." [MUSIC] [Laughter]

Clive Merrison: [00:18:06] Is of course a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.

Narrator: [00:18:11] Please join us again next week for another installment of Trifles. Show notes are available on SherlockHolmesPodcast.com. Please subscribe to us on iTunes and be sure to check out our longer show. I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, where we interview notable Sherlockians, share news, and go into even more depth on certain topics.

Peter Barksworth: [00:18:33] You take my breath away, Mr. Holmes.

Colin Jeavons: [00:18:37] It's those busts again.

Jeremy Brett: [00:18:39] Correct, Lestrade.



--


Wednesday, April 19, 2017

"it is with a heavy heart" [FINA] 


"The Final Problem" is a shocking tale, both for contemporaries of the Strand Magazine as well as for first-time readers of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Christopher Morley wrote: "Devoted readers have rarely had such a shock as the opening words of this story when it first appeared in the Strand Magazine."

And so too did we. Some reflections on the drastic turn of events and of the reactions to readers around the world.


Download | 8.6 MB 18:56



Please leave us a rating and review on iTunes or Google Play, and consider supporting our efforts through Patreon or PayPal.


Links





Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0


Transcript


Narrator: [00:00:01] Welcome to Trifles - a weekly podcast about the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Clive Merrison: [00:00:06] "It is of course a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles."

Narrator: [00:00:11] Yes, the Problem was Final, the House was Empty and his Bow was Last, but there are so many other details to pick apart in the stories.

Jeremy Brett: [00:00:19] Pray, be precise as to details.

Narrator: [00:00:22] You know the plots,but what about the minutiae? Why would the Pope engage Sherlock Holmes's services? Why did he receive the Legion of Honor from France? And why would he refuse a knighthood?

Denis Quilley: [00:00:33] You are very inquisitive Mr. Holmes.

Jeremy Brett: [00:00:35] It's my business to know what other people don't know.

Narrator: [00:00:38] Scott Monty and Burt Wolder will have the answers to these questions and more in Trifles.

Clive Merrison: [00:00:45] The game's afoot.

Narrator: [00:00:48] Episode 16: The Surprise of a First Reading of the Final Problem.

Scott Monty: [00:00:55] Hi there and welcome to Trifles, the Sherlock Holmes podcast where we delve into some of the nitty gritty details of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I'm Scott Monty.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:07] I'm Burt Wolder.

Scott Monty: [00:01:09] And are you - are you ready for this? Have you recovered from the Easter episode yet?

Burt Wolder: [00:01:15] Oh there's just a few flakes of chocolate around my lips and we're just clearing up the eggshells. But other than that, it's all fine.

Scott Monty: [00:01:24] Well you'll have to speak louder because I still have jelly beans in my ears. I don't know how they got there but we are we are through with -- which is interesting. We talked about the resurrection of Holmes - the Return - and the Empty House in particular. And now we're going back to look at the final problem seems a little out of order. We let the calendar dictate what we do and allow us to dictate what you do. Before we get into this, please leave us a rating or a review on the platform of your choice wherever you happen to listen to us. It would be very helpful if you told other people what you think of the show. Share this update with them of course show notes are available at ihose.co/trifles16. Feel free to leave us a comment there and we do appreciate the comments that have been flowing in. And as always, your support with Patreon or even PayPal would be very helpful just to help keep the show going. Over on SherlockHolmesPodcast.com.

Scott Monty: [00:02:32] So let's talk a little bit about "The Final Problem." Do you remember the first time you read "The Final Problem," Burt?

Burt Wolder: [00:02:41] It's vaguely -- you know I first encountered the Sherlock Holmes stories in the fifth grade through a volume from my school library and I remember that it was a big heavy book. I remember the illustrations in the book and I remember that the book ended with The Final Problem. And I remember that it included that Paget illustration of Holmes and Moriarty entwined, hurtling over the falls. Yeah, I remember a keen disappointment for having just discovered this magnificent hero to - it seemed very rapidly to me - come to his demise.

Scott Monty: [00:03:25] Had you had you read through all of the Adventures and all of the Memoirs at this point in kind of the book form?

Burt Wolder: [00:03:34] Yes. Yeah. The book that I'd gotten from the school library included the Memoirs and I'm pretty sure included all-- I know The Final Problem was the last story -- so I'm pretty sure it included all the Adventures and Memoirs.

Scott Monty: [00:03:49] Usually you know when you come across them in a classroom setting, you'll read one or two stories out of order. The Red Headed League and the Speckled Band are usually the two most common stories that are used to introduce children around that time frame fifth sixth seventh grade.

Burt Wolder: [00:04:06] It could be too that my library had two separate volumes and they just got the first one I like it because they go on but I remember being one. One big book.

Scott Monty: [00:04:14] Yeah. Well I remember and I still have a version of it having a copy of The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, which was a reproduction of the pages of The Strand Magazine as they originally appeared with those Paget illustrations. And of course The Final Problem was published in The Strand Magazine in December 1893. And of course Sherlock Holmes and the Strand started their association in June of 1891. So this would have been over two years of uninterrupted Sherlock Holmes stories, and just about every month in The Strand Magazine. And all of a sudden we come upon this story -- which by the way is also one of these chronological amazing opportunities, or chronological instances where all of the chronologists agree: April 24th 1891 is the date of this story. And when when you're first reading it, the opening sentence may make grip you, but then you get into the adventure. Ah, that couldn't be. And it's not until you get to the end of the story that the full impact of it really begins to weigh upon you and the opening sentence or the opening phrase is: "it is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these, the last words and which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished." It's -- you know, Conan Doyle just had a way of gripping you of hooking you. And in our friend Christopher Morley remarked on this in his famous book Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: A Textbook of Friendship. You want to read his excerpt? Because you do a great Morley.

Burt Wolder: [00:06:24] Well it's easy to do a representation of someone who sadly passed away in 1957. There are a lot too many extant copies of his recorded voice bubbling around. But he writes in the textbook: "Devoted readers have rarely had such a shock as the opening words of this story when it first appeared in The Strand Magazine. The Adventures of Holmes and Watson had been running since July 1891 with only a few months vacation in the Summer of '92 for the author to think up new plots. Few characters of fiction have so immediately won readers' hearts and the sudden news of Holmes death caused consternation. A study of the files of the Strand shows the editor's attempts to console his readers by various substitutes and imitations. Doyle himself was bored with Holmes and did not relent until 1901 when the Hound began seriously serially in the same magazine.

Scott Monty: [00:07:31] There it is and then of course Watson concludes the story saying he "endeavored to clear his memory by attacks upon him whom I shall ever regard as the best and wisest man whom I have ever known.

Burt Wolder: [00:07:53] Yes.

Scott Monty: [00:07:54] Talk about finality.

Burt Wolder: [00:07:58] And as we find out nine years later, not really so. But one of the things you know we should point out that really adds to the verisimilitude - the reality - of this particular story is a technique that we observed back in our discussion of the Speckled Band. In Watson's opening you remember the Speckled Band Watson's openings he says, "well you know the lady in question sadly passed on and there's been some recent commentary about the supposed -- the circumstances of the death of Grimesby Roylott, so I really must set the record straight..." Well here, Watson says "my hand has been forced, however by the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his brother and I have no choice - no choice but to lay the facts before the public exactly as they occurred. I alone know the absolute truth of the matter and I'm satisfied that the time has come when no good purpose is to be served by its suppression." So you've got you know again this lovely additional -- this is really the truth is it wasn't my idea that this fellow's been writing these things now. Well now I'm going to set the record straight.

Scott Monty: [00:09:07] Well and to hammer things home even further, Watson continues to say "as far as I know there have only been three accounts in the public press that in the Journal de Geneve upon May 6th 1891, the Reuters dispatch in the English papers on May 7th, and finally the recent letters to which I have alluded."

Burt Wolder: [00:09:38] Now we've glossed over the fact that one of the great canonical conundrums occurs in the passages we just looked at. Which is the fact that there appear to be two brothers Moriarty both named John.

Scott Monty: [00:09:51] And then there's a third one which we find later in the Valley of Fear, is there not? It was a station master.

Burt Wolder: [00:10:00] Is there? I don't remember the station but I see one.

Scott Monty: [00:10:05] Well we're assuming a station master and a colonel wouldn't be the same thing, right?

Burt Wolder: [00:10:13] Right. Is there that specific a reference to Moriarty in The Valley of Fear? I don't remember that.

Scott Monty: [00:10:18] Let me see.

[00:10:23] I remember, you know the closing: "You must give me time, Watson" about addressing the evil of Moriarty But that places the case before The Final Problem, obviously.

Scott Monty: [00:10:39] No, I'm drawing a blank on that one. Maybe I made that up out of whole cloth.

Burt Wolder: [00:10:50] I like it. Sounds good.

Scott Monty: [00:10:53] Oh here it is. This is "you told me once Holmes that you had never met Professor Moriarty." "No I never have." "How do you know about his rooms.

Burt Wolder: [00:11:05] I've been there on three separate occasions.

Scott Monty: [00:11:08] "You found something compromising?" "Absolutely nothing. That's what amazed me. However, you have now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He's unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in the West of England."

Burt Wolder: [00:11:29] Oh right. OK. So there are three of them. Well wait a minute now. One was Curly, right? And then Curley died. And then it was Curly Joe. No then there was Shemp.

Scott Monty: [00:11:40] Hey, that HUUUURRRTS!

Burt Wolder: [00:11:43] This is the Shemp of the Moriarty clan.

Scott Monty: [00:11:48] I love it.

Larry Fine: [00:11:50] Hey Moe, mine hernia.

Burt Wolder: [00:11:56] Well if you're going to talk about Hernia, we're back in Shakespeare.

Scott Monty: [00:12:02] But let's think back let's get back on track here. The shock that a reader has when coming across this final story in the Sherlock Holmes stories you know whether it's in the Strand magazine and you were a contemporary of Conan Doyle reading this, and and reading that final line which seemed like it had a great deal of finality to it. Or whether you're -- you've got this collected edition and you come to the final story in it and you close the cover and that's it. Unless you have the complete Sherlock Holmes in which case you know there's about two thirds more of the book. You have to finish. Even so - even knowing that there are more stories to come for the modern day reader, it's still a great shock and a wave of emotion -- at least from my experience -- passed over me. How could this happen? Our hero was at the height of his powers -- was at the height of his career and now he's gone.

Burt Wolder: [00:13:11] Well, you know there are a lot of -- I mean I don't want to trivialize it -- but there are a lot of contemporary echoes of that: it's the great shock and disappointment and unhappiness people had when Star Trek was canceled after its first two seasons all those years ago and look what happens. I mean, you become deeply entwined and you deeply enjoy the adventures of this character and then for no apparent reason, you come to a stop sign. And it's hurtful, yeah.

Scott Monty: [00:13:49] And for the folks that lived through it the folks that didn't have a Sherlock Holmes story for what, seven years, until the Hound came out. And even then Watson was very clear that it was a retrospective not a resurrection. And then another nine years beyond that before the return came about I think is that right. Or no, another two years before the Return came out, that's a lifetime and the Strand magazine. You know this was its lifeline. This was the fuel that helped the magazine maintain its subscription numbers. Now we are told -- and there's never been any concrete evidence to prove this -- but the the urban legend is that when Sherlock Holmes was perceived to have died at the Reichenbach Falls, that Victorian gentleman began to wear mourning. They wore the black crepe around their arms and in a show of sadness and mourning obviously, and of solidarity. That's how much Sherlock Holmes crept into the public's imagination.

Burt Wolder: [00:15:08] But we've never found any any confirming support for that. That may be an urban legend. And I notice that in Morley's writings he says well, you know from the standpoint of the letters of the editors of the Strand, it was clear they were trying to respond to their readers and suggest imitations and other things, so there's clearly some sounds like there's some support for that. But for the crepe armbands, perhaps not.

Scott Monty: [00:15:36] Yeah.

Burt Wolder: [00:15:38] You know one thing that's never been remarked in all of the-- or maybe it has been, maybe I just don't remember it -- in the scholarship around the departure of Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenbach Falls is the the roots of that. You know, Conan Doyle, among many other things in his enthusiasms, popularized skiing as a sport and an activity and an exercise. And as we know Conan Doyle was also in later years more and more involved in psychical research and spiritualism. The society for Psychical Research that he was a part of included among its members Arthur Balfour and Balfour became prime minister. He was a conservative politician; he became prime minister of the UK in 1902. And there are a lot of parallels between Balfour's character - in particular his apparently, his desire not to physically exert himself that are reminiscent of Mycroft. But Balfa also had a younger brother -- Francis Maitland Balfour I think -- who died trying to scale Montblanc in Switzerland in the early 1880s. And so there's some thinking that says you know as Conan Doyle was in Switzerland and saw the Reichenbach and had the past experience of Balfour's brother dying sadly in that sort of mountain setting, he thought to himself what a great place to entomb this character.

Scott Monty: [00:17:20] And it also explains why Conan Doyle preferred Parker Pens over Montblanc.

Burt Wolder: [00:17:29] Yes - too deadly. Too dangerous.

Scott Monty: [00:17:33] You'll put your eye out!

Burt Wolder: [00:17:35] One slip and I'm gone. "Dear Lord Molesworth, Your No. 7 Broad is precisely what I've needed all my life. Arthur Conan Doyle."

Scott Monty: [00:17:48] I think that will wrap that one up nicely.

Clive Merrison: [00:17:51] It is of course a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.

Narrator: [00:17:56] Please join us again next week for another installment of Trifles. Show notes are available on SherlockHolmesPodcast.com. Subscribe to us on iTunes and be sure to check out our longer show I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere where we interview notable Sherlockians, share news, and go into even more depth on certain topics.

Peter Barksworth: [00:18:21] You take my breath away, Mr. Holmes.

David Burke: [00:18:25] It's with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these, the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. I shall ever regard him as the best and the wisest man I've ever known.

--

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

"tell me how you came alive" [EMPT] 


While there is no explicit mention of Easter in the Sherlock Holmes story, we do have a story arc that follows the Easter mystery.

While Holmes himself may not have been terribly religious (although he did express some acknowledgement of a higher power from time to time), he respected the tradition and the necessary belief in resurrection.



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Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra
Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band.
Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0


Transcript

Narrator: [00:00:01] Welcome to Trifles, a weekly podcast about the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Clive Merrison: [00:00:05] It is of course a trifle but there is nothing so important as trifles.

Narrator: [00:00:11] Yes the problem was final the house was empty and his bow was last, but there were so many other details to pick apart in the stories.

Jeremy Brett: [00:00:19] Pray, be precise as to details.

Narrator: [00:00:22] You know the plots but what about the minutiae? Why would the Pope engage Sherlock Holmes's services. Why did he receive the Legion of Honor from France? And why would he refuse a knighthood?

Denis Quilley: [00:00:33] You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes.

Jeremy Brett: [00:00:35] Is this my business to know what other people don't know.

[00:00:38] Scott Monty and Burt Wolder will have the answers to these questions and more in Trifles.

Clive Merrison: [00:00:45] The game's afoot.

Narrator: [00:00:48] Episode 15: Sherlock Holmes and Easter.

Scott Monty: [00:00:56] Welcome back to Trifles, the Sherlock Holmes podcast where we talk about the details in the Sherlock Holmes stories. I'm Scott Monty.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:05] And I'm Burt Wolder.

Scott Monty: [00:01:06] And have you got your Easter bonnet ready, Burt?

Burt Wolder: [00:01:09] Oh I do. I do. With all the frills upon it.

Scott Monty: [00:01:16] [Laughter] I don't know the rest of the song, so that's as far as I can go.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:19] You'll be the grandest lady in Easter Parade.

Scott Monty: [00:01:23] Look it's you.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:25] I'll be all in clover when they look you over. And it's got that wonderful rhyming lyric in there from Irving Berlin about rotogravure.

Scott Monty: [00:01:36] I love that. Is that from Easter Parade?

Burt Wolder: [00:01:43] Well yes I think it's one I think I think.

Scott Monty: [00:01:46] Fred Astaire, Judy Garland.

Burt Wolder: [00:01:47] Yeah. Well my memories grows sketchier - I'm about to say that I think Berlin you repurposed that tune from the prior show. But yes certainly features in Easter Parade.

Scott Monty: [00:01:59] "And your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it...

Burt Wolder: [00:02:01] And elsewhere, yeah.

Scott Monty: [00:02:05] They don't -- Oh here it is. Yeah. I'll be the proudest fellow in the parade. On the Avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us.

Burt Wolder: [00:02:15] And you'll find that you're in the rotogravure.

Scott Monty: [00:02:21] Oh I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet and of the girl I'm taking to the Easter Easter Parade. How about that? A little little Hollywood musical trivia here for you for the Easter season. Well again, if you are just joining us please leave us a rating or review on the platform of your choice wherever you happen to listen to us. Comment for this show are available at ihose.co/trifles15 - we'll have all the show notes there and the transcript of the show as well. And we do need funds to help with getting the transcripts done. So if you wouldn't be averse, head on over to SherlockHolmesPodcast.com and hit that orange Patreon on button to help support the show in any way you feel possible.

Scott Monty: [00:03:18] So we wanted to talk about the holiday. You know whenever the holidays come around we have a show that's dropping we try to tie it into those various there's various instances and in this case we have the Western Christian holiday of Easter, which this year happens on April the 16th. We're on the 12th at the 16th just coming up. And we wanted to talk about canonical references to Easter and it'll will be a short show. There were none.

Burt Wolder: [00:04:00] The game's afoot.

Scott Monty: [00:04:03] However, we found an article in Crisis Magazine which is a Catholic publication and it's titled "He is Risen: Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Easter." And we wanted to break it down a little bit. The article begins with "Eastertide 1894 marked the resurrection of a famous figure Besides Jesus Christ. Sherlock Holmes, supposed dead for three years following his agony with the Napoleon of crime, reappeared suddenly to his friends in London heralded not by an empty tomb but an empty house." The Adventure of the Empty House, where Sherlock Holmes finally made his reappearance after having experienced some time in the Strand Magazine in a retrospective fashion and the Hound of the Baskervilles which was serialized in 1901. So there are very few literary giants that can complete this kind of resurrection -- at least human ones. And Sherlock Holmes, the article says, "is the most recognizable and renowned protagonist of all time." And they also claim he's "a true and tremendous Easter icon as one who exemplifies the Christian paradigms of conquering the powers of evil through truth and resurrection.

Scott Monty: [00:05:34] So let's pause there for a moment. Well you know we're not trying to get all religious here but just drawing elements of the religion and comparing them with what Conan Doyle is given us. Now what do we know about Conan Doyle upbringing, Burt?

Burt Wolder: [00:05:51] Well he went to to a Jesuit school and that was a formative experience for him because it shaped his personal faith and his view of the world. And he found it impossible to reconcile all the teachings that he was confronted with which communicated to him that those outside the church were forever damned - at least that's how he reported it - with his personal experience and sense of God and sense of faith. He felt that this was inconceivable and therefore -- you know, and it's a mark of his attitude and confidence and a person force of his own personal the work force of some personality that he simply rejected it. Not the God I know not the characteristic of the loving world with which I'm surrounded."

Scott Monty: [00:06:51] And in the most recent episode of I hear of Sherlock everywhere of course we interviewed Michael Sims the author of Arthur and Sherlock and that book actually goes into some pretty heavy detail about. CONAN Doyle's perspective on this. So if you haven't had a chance to pick up a copy of Arthur and Sherlock and you're interested in learning about some of the formative years of Conan Doyle how he got to be where he where he ended up - we can't recommend this book highly enough by Michael Sims: Arthur and Sherlock.

Scott Monty: [00:07:29] So we've got Conan Doyle who as we know later in life just completely discarded with his Catholic upbringing and may have already at this point in his writing career. Certainly we're into the early 1900s at this point. And I believe his first wife would have passed on right around this time 1907 or so was that right?

Burt Wolder: [00:07:57] Touie?

Scott Monty: [00:07:58] I think it was around that time.

Burt Wolder: [00:08:01] Yeah. Well I think so. I'm bad on that and that particular chronology.

Scott Monty: [00:08:08] And it wasn't too long before he was embracing spiritualism so.

Burt Wolder: [00:08:13] Well that really picked up steam you know after World War One.

Scott Monty: [00:08:19] Yeah certainly with the death of his son and whatnot. But it's interesting even though even though Christianity and certainly Easter and the resurrection are not mentioned head on in the canon, I really have to wonder how much of these formative years and this this Jesuit education was simply in Conan Doyle subconscious and was expressed in various ways. Now, we can go back and interpret all of this stuff and apply the lens that we want to it. But it must have had some kind of formative capacity in what he was writing.

Scott Monty: [00:09:09] Well I expect so you know it pops up from time to time in different places.

Burt Wolder: [00:09:14] I think we've talked about this before in "The Naval Treaty," you know there's this remarkable scene where Holmes has now acquired a lot of the facts he's been on site and gotten a sense of what the case is and then that's a complete non-sequitur. He he moves to the window and just in the middle of a complete non-sequitur he says.

Jeremy Brett: [00:09:37] What a lovely thing a rose is."

Burt Wolder: [00:09:41] And then he has this particular reverie in which he says:

Jeremy Brett: [00:09:45] "There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. But our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. It is only goodness which gives extras. And so I say again, we have much to hope for from the flowers.

Burt Wolder: [00:10:19] And that's unique I think in the canon and it's the clearest statement I think we have from Holmes. And then we can infer from Conan Doyle about his own personal faith and the way he viewed the universe.

Scott Monty: [00:10:32] It's interesting though that he said Providence he didn't mention God by any specific name. You know Yehova or Buddha or Jesus or anything. And that may follow the influence of Freemasonry. You know, Conan Doyle was a Freemason and of course Freemasons don't refer to God. They refer to the Grand Architect of the universe. There's this broader Providence that allows for a broader interpretation of whatever religion you may bring to the table. So certainly if anything Holmes would have been an agnostic and probably not an atheist. And with this article that we found in Crisis magazine says "though Mr. Holmes was not a religious man he was nevertheless and upholder of religion. Though a man of terrestrial and mechanical logic, Holmes was not unconditionally dismissive of the spiritual dimension of God or of the fiend, making Sherlock Holmes a beacon of truth and a bearer of the Eternal Light that dispels darkness. A man of faith as well as a man of fact now that interesting dichotomy there and in "The Cardboard Box," Holmes in one of his concluding scenes laments:

Jeremy Brett: [00:11:58] "What is the meaning of it, Watson? What is the object of this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must have a purpose. Or our universe has no meaning and that is unthinkable."

Burt Wolder: [00:12:16] Mmm, yeah. That's true. Well you know also there's there's a good deal of precedent - I mean obviously Jesus - but a good deal of precedent and recurrence in resurrection and reappearance of characters. For example a scene that -- my Shakespeare thinking is a little bit faulty -- but I remember that Falstaff dies. There's this in Henry V, there's a line something like "Falstaff is dead and we must yearn therefore." And so Shakespeare polishes off Falstaff but he comes back and a lot of the legend is that it was at the command of Elisabeth I who liked the character and so he sort of reappears and the Merry Wives of Windsor. And then of course after Sherlock Holmes you have James Bond. I mean there's a point in You Only Live Twice where there's an obituary for old James Bond believed killed on an official mission to Japan. And his survival must now be abandoned. And you know that doesn't hold up either.

Scott Monty: [00:13:31] Yeah. It's a good point.

Burt Wolder: [00:13:35] And then there's Poirot. You know when Agatha Christie ended the Poirot sequence with that last book whose name a name of which...now wait a minute. Was it the last book? Somewhere in the Poirot series where Hastings writes very clearly that Poirot is dead and it turns out that Poirot is not really dead.

Scott Monty: [00:13:56] Well, what a relief. [Laughter] Well of course we all know that of course Holmes is a hero -- a hero of people. Christ in many ways kind of served a similar role -- a hero-type role. And we know that Easter is important in the Christian religion because it's the basis of the religion. This notion of dying to save others and Easter being the dawn of truth and a beginning. And when people comprehend a mystery they often say that knowledge dawns on them as the mind is drawn out of darkness and into light. And the article from Crisis magazine goes on to say, "The art of knowing the truth, which is the whole art of detection, unites the dawning of knowledge and the wisdom in the dawn of the resurrection, connecting the fullness of light and life to the illumination of mind and soul. Both the reality and mystery of Easter are central to any true vision and virtue and Sherlock Holmes participates in both as he tracks down the agents of darkness tirelessly like a bloodhound with a dedication and devotion emphasized by his miraculous return -- his resurrection from death to new life where the violin hums over the din of hansom cabs, tobacco smoke curls above the littered mantel piece, a pistol lies in every pocket and it is always 1895. He has risen indeed!" And we're lucky to have him. Now did you ever read Samuel Rosenberg's Naked Is the Best Disguise?

Burt Wolder: [00:15:57] I have it on my shelf. The answer is no.

Scott Monty: [00:16:02] The best place for it to remain, right?

Burt Wolder: [00:16:04] I have never read it.

Scott Monty: [00:16:06] You're one of the lucky few. Well this was a this was a book that came out in... was at the 70s? I have it here -- yes, '74. It kind of at that height of Sherlock-mania. The Seven Percent Solution was out around this time. Well, there's a whole section in this book from pages 186 to 196 that calls all sorts of specifics in the canon as irrefutable evidence that this was a resurrection story. Using references from the New Testament and then comparing them to instances in "The Empty House" and "The Final Problem." Here's one - this is a stretch: The New Testament - Jesus, the son of the Lord was murdered by Roman soldiers. And in "The Empty House" it begins with the murder of the Honorable Robert there who was killed by a colonel. Right? A soldier. And oh. While he may not have been a Roman soldier he was Colonel Sebastian Moran the son of Augustus Moran - you get the tie-in to the Romans there? This is how Ruth Rosenberg goes on drawing his "conclusions." Very tenuous. And you know, you can.

Burt Wolder: [00:17:47] No offense to ROSENBERG, but you know that's the kind of thing that gets us you know the pyramids were built by aliens.

Scott Monty: [00:17:54] They weren't? The next thing you know you're going to tell me they're not used for grain storage.

Burt Wolder: [00:18:02] I keep telling people that the ATM wasn't put there by the Egyptians, that it came a lot later. It's not proof you know that people with credit cards actually built these.

Scott Monty: [00:18:16] But you know I mean you can take any reference like that and try and extrapolate. I think the the broader strokes that Crisis Magazine took and looking at the overall purpose of Holmes and the way he stood up for things that that makes a lot more sense to me with regard to this Easter mystery.

Clive Merrison: [00:18:33] It is of course a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.

Scott Monty: [00:18:37] Please join us again next week for another installment of Trifles. Show notes are available on SherlockHolmesPodcast.com. Be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes and be sure to check out our longer show I Hear of Sherlock everywhere where we interview notable Sherlockians, share news, and go into even more depth on certain topics.

Peter Barksworth: [00:19:01] You take my breath away, Mr. Holmes.

Jeremy Brett: [00:19:05] What do you make of this Watson?

Edward Hardwicke: [00:19:07] It's an amazing coincidence.

Jeremy Brett: [00:19:08] The odds are enormously against it being a coincidence!

--


Our Team

Scott Monty and Burt Wolder are both members of the Baker Street Irregulars, the literary society dedicated to Sherlock Holmes. They have co-hosted the popular show I Hear of Everywhere since June 2007.

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