All Things Conan Doyle & Holmes

[Steven Russell]

"Sherlock" (new BBC production)

Just watched the first instalment of "Sherlock" - a new BBC production setting adventures of our heroes in the present day. Despite severe misgivings beforehand, I found the programme highly entertaining and will be an avid viewer of future episodes.

Sir Arthur died eighty years ago this month but his most famous characters will live forever if productions of this quality continue to be made. (What am I talking about? Their immortality is already guaranteed). The programme makers clearly have a great regard and affection for the original stories and, for me at least, managed to preserve much of their flavour despite transplanting the dynamic duo into this century. There were many references, large and small, to keep dyed-in-the-wool Holmes fans like me happy and the whole thing rattled along beautifully.

Of course, the Holmes stories as written by Doyle can never be equalled let alone bettered but I thought this latest effort was expertly done and great fun to boot.

I would love to hear the opinions of fellow H&W addicts.

Best wishes,

Steve.

[Celesta]

Thanks, Steven, but it was no brilliance on my part. I read it in the biography I posted earlier. Sherlock Holmes: The Man and His World by H.R.F Keating. It's quite an interesting book and gives a nice overview of the Victorian period and how Sherlock fit into it.

[Steven Russell]

Good spot, Celesta! The dates do not necessarily rule out your theory as Watson is well known to have monkeyed around with dates in order to obscure the identities of his characters.

Regards,

Steve.

[Celesta]

When I read that Doyle---er, better make that Watson---addressed Mrs. Hudson as "Mrs. Turner", in A Scandal in Bohemia, I knew it was because he had Martha Tabram on his mind.

The dates are all wrong, of course. The story is set in March 1888, but it was released in 1891.

[Steven Russell]

Not "show". I should have said, "suggest".

[Steven Russell]

Barnaby and Burgho

Surely, Doyle's (sorry- Holmes's) use of Toby in "The Sign of Four" owed its conception to the ill-fated experiment of Sir Charles Warren with Barnaby and Burgho. The creosote was a lucky break, admittedly, but this does show that Doyle was interested in the case of JTR.

Regards,

Steve.

[Celesta]

Thanks, Archie, it's all in the book. The native Amazonians had reason to be touchy. Their numbers were vastly decimated by disease, slavery, and other ills inflicted upon them by the coming of Europeans. Disease was a huge factor. Fawcett's approach to the native people, if this author can be believed, was advanced for his time, in that he abhorred the use of violence against them. In the early 1900s, the native people were being kidnapped by the rubber industry, loggers, and other industries exploiting the forest, and used as slaves and subjected to deplorable living conditions. Fawcett witnessed this and was totally against it. Only towards the end of the book do we get an idea, a hint, of the scale of life lost by native Amazonians, since the arrival of Europeans. The concept of the "counterfeit paradise" is discussed here. In short, the notion that the rain forest is an easy place to attain a livable food supply is incorrect. It is quite possible to starve to death in the rain forest, and this was the fate of some expeditions. In fact, starvation was a prevalent condition among the members of such expeditions. With the "counterfeit paradise" model, it was thought that no civilization of any respectable size could exist in Amazonia, due to poor conditions. Recent discoveries now challenge that concept. Fawcett , in his search for Z, is, to my mind, vindicated, but I didn't want to give away too much for anyone who might like to read the book.

BTW, the slavery continues to this day.

[Archaic]

Disappearance of Percy Fawcett Expedition

Hi, Cel; I was curious about Fawcett's expedition and could only remember bits and pieces so I looked it up. I found that his disappearance is a fascinating story in itself. Although Fawcett stipulated that no search parties were to come after him, because he was aware of the risks they would be exposed to, many tried to find him or some trace of his fate. Apparently over 100 people have disappeared trying to find out what happened to Fawcett's 3-man expedition- some in this century! The indigenous tribes in that region sound like tough customers.

Here's a link to a goodWkikipedia article about Fawcett: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Fawcett

Best regards,
Archaic

[Celesta]

City of Z addendum

Many people will know that Fawcett, his son, and a family friend disappeared into the jungle in 1925. This last expedition was heavily hyped, and there was quite a stir when the expedition didn't turn up. The Lost City of Z explores this mystery and reports, briefly, on the numerous 'search parties', both official and unofficial, that tried to solve the mystery. It was well-known that Fawcett was as skilled and intrepid as an explorer could be, in his time. He led several expeditions through Amazonia. When he disappeared, many people simply couldn't believe that he had perished and, of course, all sorts of stories came out of the jungle to feed speculation about his fate.

Fawcett and Doyle were friends and correspondents, and were also connected through an early interest in spiritualism. Madame Blavatsky, who seems to pop up almost everywhere, is mentioned here, as well.

[Celesta]

The Lost World and the Lost City of Z

Doyle also wrote The Lost World and The Land of Mist, based on the explorations of famous explorers of his day. One of these explorers was Percy Harrison Fawcett, known as 'the David Livingstone of the Amazon.' Fawcett was a Royal Geographic Society medal winner, who led several expeditions into the Amazon basin of Bolivia and Brazil and mapped large areas of it. Doyle based his character of Lord John Roxton, in part on Fawcett.

By coincidence, there's a book out now, The Lost City of Z, by David Grann, which is the story of Fawcett's expeditions in Bolivia and Brazil. It's a fascinating story for those whose who enjoy mystery and adventure combined. My only criticism of the book, at this time, is that Grann doesn't go into much detail about how Fawcett managed to map these territories, under the adverse---sometimes very gross---conditions in which he and his expedition members had to work, but I understand that not everyone would be interested in those details. I recommend the book highly. It's also a poignant reminder of why I feel that the Amazon is one of the last places that I would want to be hacking my way through.

[Celesta]

I'm glad to hear that about Dust and Shadows. I started it recently but had to put it down. This is a good time to pick it up again.

There was a 1965 movie called A Study in Terror, which, of course, pits Holmes against JtR. Then there was a book, Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds, based on H. G. Well's martian invasion. The book wasn't half bad, really.



I came across a site that has references to Holmes stories but also a collection of Holmes novels by other authors and Holmes related books.

http://www.mysterylist.com/holmes.htm

[belinda]

Peter Cushing, was it?

Graham

No I wasn't thinking of him. I'd forgotten he was Doctor Who too

This could be a three pipe problem!

[DVV]

A French anonymous short story in which Sherlock catches the Ripper :

"Jack l'Eventreur" in Les Dossiers secrets du roi des détectives, fascicule 16, 6 février 1908.

[DVV]

Any fan of Wilder's "Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" ?

Like it so much.

[Graham]

Hi Archaic,

Particularly memorable is a creepy 1945 murder of a man who, as a youth, had had an encounter with a spectral dog reminiscent of the hound of the Baskervilles.

That's a reference to the Lower Quinton Murder, when an old man called Charles Walton was bumped off in what was thought by many to be a ritualistic killing connected with witchcraft. The black dog has reportedly been seen many times before and since the murder, on Meon Hill were Walton's body was found. More in line I think with the ancient tradition of the Black Shuck apparition than a family curse such as the Hound of The Baskervilles which, incidentally, was inspired by a Norfolk legend and transposed to Devon by Conan Doyle.

Cheers,

Graham