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vivdunstanContinuing the short story reread, and onto one of the most gruesome stories in the canon. Going to discuss this with big spoilers from the start, so here's a
This is in some respects a somewhat simple tale, revolving around a gang of coin counterfeiters in the rural England, who lure a young hydraulics engineer for help, with rather a bad outcome for him. As Watson says there are none of Holmes's lengthy deductions here. And the story itself is primarily the engineer recounting his tale, with very little action for Holmes and Watson even after then. But it's still thoroughly gripping.
I had to look up "fuller's earth", which the story refers to, without any further explanation. Amusingly the Wikipedia page for it mentions this story specifically, and the assumption that Conan Doyle must have regarded it as a well known term in Victorian Britain at this stage, or at least understood well enough not to need to explain more.
Travelling by train is nothing new for a Sherlock Holmes story, but this time it isn't initially Holmes and Watson on a train, but their client, making an increasingly alarming late night journey. Only to find himself in a strange house, full of mysteries, and people with German accents. Also curious names. The Colonel Lysander Stark is, perhaps, more reminiscent to readers now of a possible character from George R R Martin's Game of Thrones. It is clearly a fake name.
The German woman who tries to help the engineer is repeatedly and - for me anyway - frustratingly described as "beautiful", as if that's her only attribute. To this female reader this was annoying. She is remarkably reminiscent of Beryl Stapleton in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Who is also often regarded as little more than an alluring woman.
The reveal of the giant hydraulic machine which starts to crush down on the engineer is terrifying. Worthy of an Edgar Allan Poe story, or a Roger Corman / Vincent Price film of one. Think of The Pit and the Pendulum. And though this isn't the direct cause of the engineer losing his thumb, it's the precursor to the ultimate fall of the cleaver. Which is a phenomenally tense sequence to read. Not least because we know he's going to lose his thumb, and that it will be a loss caused by a cleaver. Which appears soon ...
The ending, as Holmes and Watson, the engineer and some police travel by train to the location, is a nice wrap up. But very short. I was amused at the chief policeman's strategy:
Of course on totally the wrong track, as Holmes reveals.
One slight frustration for me was when two of the coiners - seemingly both German, or at least native German-speaking - spoke urgently to each other, not in German, but in English. This seemed unrealistic, more for the convenience of the doomed British hydraulics engineer listening to them. Could we not have had him understand a smattering of German?
But overall fun, albeit a rather unusually structured Sherlock Holmes tale. Which is no bad thing.
This is in some respects a somewhat simple tale, revolving around a gang of coin counterfeiters in the rural England, who lure a young hydraulics engineer for help, with rather a bad outcome for him. As Watson says there are none of Holmes's lengthy deductions here. And the story itself is primarily the engineer recounting his tale, with very little action for Holmes and Watson even after then. But it's still thoroughly gripping.
I had to look up "fuller's earth", which the story refers to, without any further explanation. Amusingly the Wikipedia page for it mentions this story specifically, and the assumption that Conan Doyle must have regarded it as a well known term in Victorian Britain at this stage, or at least understood well enough not to need to explain more.
Travelling by train is nothing new for a Sherlock Holmes story, but this time it isn't initially Holmes and Watson on a train, but their client, making an increasingly alarming late night journey. Only to find himself in a strange house, full of mysteries, and people with German accents. Also curious names. The Colonel Lysander Stark is, perhaps, more reminiscent to readers now of a possible character from George R R Martin's Game of Thrones. It is clearly a fake name.
The German woman who tries to help the engineer is repeatedly and - for me anyway - frustratingly described as "beautiful", as if that's her only attribute. To this female reader this was annoying. She is remarkably reminiscent of Beryl Stapleton in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Who is also often regarded as little more than an alluring woman.
The reveal of the giant hydraulic machine which starts to crush down on the engineer is terrifying. Worthy of an Edgar Allan Poe story, or a Roger Corman / Vincent Price film of one. Think of The Pit and the Pendulum. And though this isn't the direct cause of the engineer losing his thumb, it's the precursor to the ultimate fall of the cleaver. Which is a phenomenally tense sequence to read. Not least because we know he's going to lose his thumb, and that it will be a loss caused by a cleaver. Which appears soon ...
The ending, as Holmes and Watson, the engineer and some police travel by train to the location, is a nice wrap up. But very short. I was amused at the chief policeman's strategy:
Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the seat, and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford for its centre.
"There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir."
Of course on totally the wrong track, as Holmes reveals.
One slight frustration for me was when two of the coiners - seemingly both German, or at least native German-speaking - spoke urgently to each other, not in German, but in English. This seemed unrealistic, more for the convenience of the doomed British hydraulics engineer listening to them. Could we not have had him understand a smattering of German?
But overall fun, albeit a rather unusually structured Sherlock Holmes tale. Which is no bad thing.
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Date: 2024-11-09 09:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-11 01:33 pm (UTC)