Sherlock Holmes reread: The Empty House
Aug. 1st, 2025 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanStarting my reread of The Return of Sherlock Holmes with this story.
This story follows closely on from the previous one, albeit written and published a decade later. Holmes is back, now facing the immediate threat from Moriarty's deputy Sebastian Moran. The story is quite a tightly written thriller, and, of course, reunites Holmes with Watson. Who has recently lost his wife Mary.
I find this story to be better written and more compelling than its predecessor. Yes it builds on the context established in that earlier story. But I also find the pacing and development better overall.
It's a relatively simple story. Watson is reunited with Holmes, almost by chance, in one of the latter's superb disguises. And then drawn into the plot to draw out Moran. This involves a fake model of Holmes being placed in profile in the lit windows of Baker Street. And then there's the remarkable mental image for the reader of Mrs Hudson crawling around the floor there to reposition/reorient the fake figure at various times.
I'd forgotten that Sebastian Moran was so elderly. In some TV depictions he's much younger, including Vinnie Jones in Elementary. Though in the Jeremy Brett TV version Moran is played by the older Patrick Allen, truer in age to the original story.
So yes, a return. Though that was originally only meant to be for a few stories more ...
This story follows closely on from the previous one, albeit written and published a decade later. Holmes is back, now facing the immediate threat from Moriarty's deputy Sebastian Moran. The story is quite a tightly written thriller, and, of course, reunites Holmes with Watson. Who has recently lost his wife Mary.
I find this story to be better written and more compelling than its predecessor. Yes it builds on the context established in that earlier story. But I also find the pacing and development better overall.
It's a relatively simple story. Watson is reunited with Holmes, almost by chance, in one of the latter's superb disguises. And then drawn into the plot to draw out Moran. This involves a fake model of Holmes being placed in profile in the lit windows of Baker Street. And then there's the remarkable mental image for the reader of Mrs Hudson crawling around the floor there to reposition/reorient the fake figure at various times.
I'd forgotten that Sebastian Moran was so elderly. In some TV depictions he's much younger, including Vinnie Jones in Elementary. Though in the Jeremy Brett TV version Moran is played by the older Patrick Allen, truer in age to the original story.
So yes, a return. Though that was originally only meant to be for a few stories more ...