Book - Sherlock Holmes (4) - The memoirs of

Book –  The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Score: 10/10 

Year: 1894 (original publication). 

Publisher: Wordsworth editions

ISBN 978-1-85326-033-9

Pages 503 (this entry 273-503, for 11 stories)


Each of the stories presented in this blog entry have been published under the title The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Fourth in publication order, the memoirs, published as a collection in 1894 after the individual stories had been published between December 1892 & November 1893, this book includes stories set in the 1880's & 1890, and not in chronological order. The case of Silver blaze has no date, not in-story, nor in official Holmes' pages that I checked. 

Doyle uses Watson's recollections of events and cases that his friend Holmes had solved (or wasn't able to). 

Doyle also keeps alternating between periods and narratives, to keep each story fresh and unique, but rooted in the consulting detective's cases, both with similarities and new elements to showcase his intelligence and deductive skills.

Sidney Paget's original illustrations from the Strand magazine, in which these stories were first published, are included. 

In Silver Blaze, colonel Ross' horse has disappeared and his jockey found dead. In this story from late 1892, the consulting detecting and the doctor set on a case after reading in the newspapers, and it is Sherlock himself who explains the case to Watson, on their way to Dartmoor. There is no indication as to set-date for this story, and though some details may be difficult to animal lovers to read, no animals have been hurt, aside for words to that effect.

 The Granada tv show's 23rd episode (Season 2 ep 2) is a fairly good adaptation, though it expands a few scenes. It was first aired 13/04/1988.  

In The Yellow face - first published 1983 - Grant Munro ask Sherlock's help in uncovering what horrible secret his wife of 3 years may hide from him, and recounts the events that led him to consult the detective. Though un-dated within the text, it seems this story's set in 1888, and that Doyle offers a social commentary through the intrigue and its solution. 

It wasn't adapted by Granada. 

The Stockbroker's clerk is another story with a man who asks Sherlock's aid in unravelling a mysterious and alluring job offer that he had been hired into in odd circumstances. It was also published in 1893 and set in June 1889, some short time after Watson's marriage, as stated in the first lines. This story starts when Sherlock walks into the Doctor's home,  inviting him to come to Birmingham, with his client, Hall Pycroft. In the train, Mr Pycroft recounts Watson all that led him to enlist Holmes' help, and off they go to investigate together.  

This story wasn't adapted by Granada either. 

It's easy to understand why Granada didn't adapt the next story, the Gloria Scott, which is set in Holmes' college days in 1875, though not dated in the text. This is a massive prequel, as Sherlock Holmes recounts to Doctor Watson his very first case, which led him to change his hobby into his career of a consulting detective. It's a bit of a brain-exercise to read, as Doyle alternates narrators constantly, from Holmes ; to his college friend, ; himself and his friend, and also a letter that his college friend's father had written to his son, and read by Sherlock to Watson, before concluding the story.

Next story, published 1893, is The Musgrave Ritual. In-text, it isn't dated. The Doctor remarks how his friend Holmes is messy at home, and so he asks him to arrange them. Instead, Sherlock tells another of his early cases to Watson. In this case, one of his university acquaintances, Reginald Musgrave, had asked his advice in understanding not one but 3 separate and mysterious events (Musgrave's maid and butler disappearing, after the latter had been caught prying into the Musgrave family papers). 

According to research, this story is set in 1879, and is easier to follow than the Gloria Scott, as narrator's are more prominently mentioned at each change. 

Granada's season 3 episode 3 (aired 30/07/1986) extends the story, and instead of Sherlock recounting it to Watson, they both visit Sherlock's friend Musgrave at his estate. Dialogues from the short story are spread to different moments than their original forms, but retain their nature. Thus Holmes and Watson are part of the story, which is an odd choice, but which works ok, albeit in a non-literal manner. Sherlock therefore solves the case much later than his "real fictional timeline". 

In Reigate Squaires, published June 1893 and set in April 1887, Doctor Watson takes Holmes, exhausted after 2 months of hard work in a case that isn't ready to be discussed, to visit Colonel Hayter, so the detective could rest after his illness. however, a new murder mystery forces itself upon them during their visit. The question to Holmes' ability to solve a crime while still recovering is raised in this short story, where Doyle introduces for the first time - through Watson's account of the case - handwritten notes reproduced within the book. 

It wasn't adapted into Granada's tv show.

Shortly before midnight in summer 1888 - a few months after Watson's marriage - Holmes visits his friend's home and tells him of the case upon which Major Murphy has set him upon. Next morning, Watson accompanies Holmes to Aldershot, Hampshire, in search of the Crooked man. This story was published in June 1893, just like the Reigate, discussed above.

It was Granada's 1st season, 5th episode. It was aired 22/05/1984. In this episode, the case is shown with both Watson and Holmes going to each location, to interview witnesses, and to make up the case - which might work on screen better than the novel version, where Holmes summarizes the case's features to the doctor on the night of his visit, but apart for this, the dialogues and scenes are further extended to fill its format and duration, occasionally straying away, but retaining nonetheless the majority of this investigation. 

Next memoir is The resident Patient, in which Dr Trevelyan requests Holmes' help - on behalf of Mr Blessington, who is both his resident patient and benefactor. Indeed, Blessington had set Trevelyan on a prestigious medical practice, for a percentage of his income, and has been displaying peculiar behaviors ever since their arrangement was settled. 
The doctor lays their history, and the events which precipitated Blessington's agitation and request of detective's aid. 
Through text, this memoir is set some time after Sherlock and Watson started living together at Baker Street, but before the latter resumed his own medical practice and before his marriage. Elsewhere, I found that this case in set in October 1881. 
Doyle had seldom used the more modern "he said" in his texts ; in this short story, he mixed it a lot with his usual "said he" format, which I found interesting to note. 
I especially loved the flow, and the physical description of Dr Trevelyan as follows 
" A pale, taper-faced man with sandy whiskers rose up from a chair by the fire as we entered. His age may not have been more than three or four and thirty, but his haggard expression and unhealthy hue told of a life which has sapped his strength and robbed him of his youth". 

The resident patient was first published in August 1893 and adapted into Granada's 11th episode (first season), aired 15/09/1985, preserving most of the case to a decent adaptation, though adding a scene at the barber's which isn't in the original story, and seem to have change the period in which the case takes place from October to the summer. 

Moving on to September 1893, the next short story is that of the Greek Interpreter, in which Doyle introduces Mycroft Holmes,  Sherlock's brother, for the first time. This story starts with Watson's remarking how his friend had never spoken about any of his relatives, and that he thought that Sherlock was an orphan ; the Doctor also repeats other information about Sherlock's unemotional and logical personality traits, and then, Sherlock's answer is that the two of them walk to the Diogense club, where he'd introduce Mycroft, whom, he insists, is more gifted in powers of observation. 
Once there, Mycroft presents them with Mr Melas, a Greek Interpreter, who'd been kidnapped in an extraordinary fashion, and the case begins. 

I found that this story is set in 1888, and adapted as Granada's tv show 9th episode, aired 1/09/1985. The main plot is kept, but I'm afraid that the ending deviates drastically from the original. 

The following story is longer (35pages long). In it, Watson announces that in the July following his marriage, he had participated in 3 cases of his friend, listing them as the adventures of "the second stain", "the naval treaty" and "the tired captain". 

He explains that the first case cannot be told at least until the turn of the century, and so he would now recount that which pertains the the naval treaty, which had involved Mr Percy Phelps, whom he had known back in school. They are of the same age, but Mr Phelps who was brilliant had already gone to fifth form, whilst he, Watson, was in third. His friend and classmate recently sent him a letter, asking him to bring Sherlock over to investigate the case of the naval treaty, which he was supposed to copy but which disappeared some weeks ago - and which had caused him great anxiety. But, during these weeks, he had been bedridden, with a brain fever. So, Sherlock and Watson take off for Woking, an hour's train ride away from Waterloo, to discuss and investigate the case, presenting far too many clues.

The naval treaty, first published in serialized form in October-November 1893, became Granada's 3rd episode (first season), aired 8 May 1984, and is really well adapted, keeping many dialogues verbatim, changing very few phrases to slightly more modern English and alters so few details that it remains one of the best adapted stories of the series. 

In December 1893, Doyle published Sherlock's Final Problem, set in late April 1891. In this story, the author introduces Professor Moriarty, the biggest criminal mind of the century, locking Holmes in unavoidable events. Characterisation gives Sherlock even higher noble nature than all previous stories, and brings the chief criminal mind to a genius use of malevolence, offering a background in mathematics, and presenting a mind equal to that of the detective. Watson's introducing and ending lines are chilling, and Doyle's, style is as ever, fluent, to the point. 

Granada ended it's first season with its 13th episode, adapting this story. (sometimes this season is divided into 2). 

The episode is a mixed adaptation, sometimes verbatim, adds about 10 minutes in which the untold case is actually shown as that of a theft in Paris Louvre. This isn't even mentioned in the original, but, seen most people associate France and Paris, and seldom anyone would know of Narbonne & Nïmes (which are both mentioned), it is an understandable deviation from the story. 
Since the show had decided not to deal at all with Watson's marriage, the story starts at Baker Street, instead of at the Doctor's home. It's at least a consistent change. 
Another resides in the show's decision to have had shown Moriarty in the Red-Headed league in the previous episode, and tie the two together - although in-novel there is no such connection, and that the case isn't set in 1891 like The Final problem, but the previous year.  

Overall, from start to about 8 minutes, and then 18 to the end, the episode adapts really well this final problem ; the dialogues are sharp and faithful to the story ; Moriarty is portrayed by Eric Porter, who, in this episode, looks very much like Sidney Paget's illustration. 
The deviations during that timeframe are small and 'work'. The 10 extra minutes with the Louvre part is realistic to an extent and also work, though absent in the original story.