vivdunstan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vivdunstan) wrote2025-03-20 01:43 pm
vivdunstan) wrote2025-03-20 01:43 pm
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Sherlock Holmes reread: The Musgrave Ritual
Onto another story, and unashamed disclaimer up front: this is one of my all-time favourite Holmes stories.
There's something quite magical about a treasure hunt. And this is a fantastic one for Sherlock Holmes, with a mysterious old riddle from the past combined with a criminal investigation into missing people. I do think this story works better visually than in print. Watching Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke follow clues physically around an old estate and house is gripping, more so than pure words alone can summon up. But even on paper it's an amazing tale. Conjured up not least in words from the past that seem initially just to be a series of questions and answers repeated by succeeding members of a family, but actually lead to something much more.
The crime side of the story is arguably less interesting. Holmes is brought in as two servants have vanished in mysterious circumstances. One of whom had been looking into the history of the house. And, as we find out, uncovered the secrets behind the old riddle, only to die brutally at a spurned lover's hands. Again here the TV visuals are if anything more compelling, with the discovery of the butler's body more effective on screen than in print. But it's not the end of the tale, with the mysterious treasure arguably being far more interesting.
Rereading the story this time I was also surprised by the opening, which I had totally forgotten. Watson is extremely frustrated with the mess in their Baker Street flat, especially loose papers waiting to be filed properly, and urges Holmes to tidy it up. Only for Holmes to end up dragging a big tin box from his bedroom, which he opens, to find loads of notes from his early cases. And a mysterious box inside it, containing various items relating to the Musgrave Ritual case ...
I just adore this story. A potent mix of an intriguing treasure hunt, history from the past (from the Civil War era in the seventeenth century), and a crime to untangle.
I will rewatch the Jeremy Brett TV version very soon. And I should also try to see the 1943 Basil Rathbone movie version Sherlock Holmes Faces Death.
There's something quite magical about a treasure hunt. And this is a fantastic one for Sherlock Holmes, with a mysterious old riddle from the past combined with a criminal investigation into missing people. I do think this story works better visually than in print. Watching Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke follow clues physically around an old estate and house is gripping, more so than pure words alone can summon up. But even on paper it's an amazing tale. Conjured up not least in words from the past that seem initially just to be a series of questions and answers repeated by succeeding members of a family, but actually lead to something much more.
The crime side of the story is arguably less interesting. Holmes is brought in as two servants have vanished in mysterious circumstances. One of whom had been looking into the history of the house. And, as we find out, uncovered the secrets behind the old riddle, only to die brutally at a spurned lover's hands. Again here the TV visuals are if anything more compelling, with the discovery of the butler's body more effective on screen than in print. But it's not the end of the tale, with the mysterious treasure arguably being far more interesting.
Rereading the story this time I was also surprised by the opening, which I had totally forgotten. Watson is extremely frustrated with the mess in their Baker Street flat, especially loose papers waiting to be filed properly, and urges Holmes to tidy it up. Only for Holmes to end up dragging a big tin box from his bedroom, which he opens, to find loads of notes from his early cases. And a mysterious box inside it, containing various items relating to the Musgrave Ritual case ...
I just adore this story. A potent mix of an intriguing treasure hunt, history from the past (from the Civil War era in the seventeenth century), and a crime to untangle.
I will rewatch the Jeremy Brett TV version very soon. And I should also try to see the 1943 Basil Rathbone movie version Sherlock Holmes Faces Death.