Sherlock Holmes reread: The Beryl Coronet
Nov. 18th, 2024 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanOn to another one that I can barely remember, and this discussion is going to be full of spoilers, so let's go into a big
As with so many of the stories in this first Sherlock Holmes collection there is a marvellous description of weather at the start.
And the heavy snow is also relevant to plot, because later in the same story Holmes carefully traces footprints in the snow, helping to solve the case and identify the criminals.
It's one of the Sherlock Holmes stories with one of the most moving depictions of emotional grief, in the form of client Alexander Holder. Which is not restricted to the opening sections either.
The story again involves royalty, this time implied to be a son of Queen Victoria, who borrowed a large sum of money from banker Holder, providing as security an ornate beryl coronet owned by the Crown. And this then leads to a complicated tale of theft, deception, and family loyalty.
The cast of possible culprits is large, as Holder describes the members of his household. It almost feels like an Agatha Christie story at this point. We have the disreputable son, a saintly niece, a suspiciously recently employed lady's maid, and a rakish friend of the son's. Unsurprisingly the son is accused of the theft, though finding him holding the remains of the damaged coronet in his hands hardly helps his appeals of innocence.
In the end Holmes solves the case, using a mix of psychological analysis, careful inspection of the evidence on the spot, and his quintessential disguises. Along the way he deploys one of his moment famous expressions:
Though it's hard to regard the ending as a happy one. The "saintly" niece, who took part in the theft, is now in a very dangerous situation. As Holmes says in the closing words:
As with so many of the stories in this first Sherlock Holmes collection there is a marvellous description of weather at the start.
It was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as when it fell.
And the heavy snow is also relevant to plot, because later in the same story Holmes carefully traces footprints in the snow, helping to solve the case and identify the criminals.
It's one of the Sherlock Holmes stories with one of the most moving depictions of emotional grief, in the form of client Alexander Holder. Which is not restricted to the opening sections either.
The story again involves royalty, this time implied to be a son of Queen Victoria, who borrowed a large sum of money from banker Holder, providing as security an ornate beryl coronet owned by the Crown. And this then leads to a complicated tale of theft, deception, and family loyalty.
The cast of possible culprits is large, as Holder describes the members of his household. It almost feels like an Agatha Christie story at this point. We have the disreputable son, a saintly niece, a suspiciously recently employed lady's maid, and a rakish friend of the son's. Unsurprisingly the son is accused of the theft, though finding him holding the remains of the damaged coronet in his hands hardly helps his appeals of innocence.
In the end Holmes solves the case, using a mix of psychological analysis, careful inspection of the evidence on the spot, and his quintessential disguises. Along the way he deploys one of his moment famous expressions:
"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
Though it's hard to regard the ending as a happy one. The "saintly" niece, who took part in the theft, is now in a very dangerous situation. As Holmes says in the closing words:
"I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than sufficient punishment."