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Jan-Maat's Reviews > The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
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Jan-Maat's review
bookshelves: british-and-irish-isles, crime, 19th-century, short-stories
Jun 15, 2011
bookshelves: british-and-irish-isles, crime, 19th-century, short-stories
Fun. The crimes in this book are more along the lines of puzzles to work out rather than realistic depictions of crime in late Victorian- early Edwardian England. Contrived, but enjoyable.
My favourite moment, I am not positive it is in this collection, is when Holmes and Watson are on a train steaming through the countryside and Watson makes an observation about the peaceful looking pretty cottages for which Holmes rebukes him 'no one knows what dark crimes are committed behind those doors' - reversing a view of the country as peace and the city as locus of iniquit,y instead the countryside is the place of dark Hardian misery (where engineers' thumbs may be cut off with impunity, and daughters forever imprisoned(view spoiler)) while in the busy teeming city every crime will be found out and the brutal, or dishonest (view spoiler) perpetrator brought to justice. Enjoyably I love in the story of "The man with a twisted lip" the ever green urban legend that beggars are secretly rich men - hamming up their incapacity for work while earning piles of money by sitting on a street corner.
My favourite moment, I am not positive it is in this collection, is when Holmes and Watson are on a train steaming through the countryside and Watson makes an observation about the peaceful looking pretty cottages for which Holmes rebukes him 'no one knows what dark crimes are committed behind those doors' - reversing a view of the country as peace and the city as locus of iniquit,y instead the countryside is the place of dark Hardian misery (where engineers' thumbs may be cut off with impunity, and daughters forever imprisoned(view spoiler)) while in the busy teeming city every crime will be found out and the brutal, or dishonest (view spoiler) perpetrator brought to justice. Enjoyably I love in the story of "The man with a twisted lip" the ever green urban legend that beggars are secretly rich men - hamming up their incapacity for work while earning piles of money by sitting on a street corner.
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June 15, 2011
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Tanvika
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Sep 11, 2016 04:21AM
Jan-maat: any other crime fiction you enjoyed?
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"crime and punishment"and the maigret novel I read
The man with a twisted lip brings to mind the episode of Ripping Yarns when one of the characters is obsessed by his false lip. Endless scope for bad jokes ever after, never as good as Michael Palin's.
Yes, "The man with a twisted lip" sounds a great story. Not least because of the title!
Caroline wrote: "Yes, "The man with a twisted lip" sounds a great story. Not least because of the title!"I think A C-D's titles for these stories are pretty good and in ironic commentary to the actual story ie the man with the twisted lip suggests an evil twisted villain, but in fact there is nothing of the sort, while the dull sounding the Engineer's thumb is pretty horrific, ditto the Copper Beeches.
Ah, interesting....subverting the obvious. I definitely had villain lined up for the twisted lip!
Caroline wrote: "Ah, interesting....subverting the obvious. I definitely had villain lined up for the twisted lip!"well kind of, but not really, but I'm giving the story away!
