Discussion Post: The Three Gables
Jun. 24th, 2012 01:18 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60Happy Sunday, everyone. Let's have a chat about The Three Gables, shall we? As always, I've written up a few of my random thoughts and questions. Please add your own!
- *sigh* More Victorian racism. The Victorian attitudes toward virtually anyone who was not a white man evident in some of these stories makes the reading rather painful on occasion, at least to this modern reader. This is definitely one of those times. As I said, *sigh*
- Very curious about Mr. Langdale Pike, professional gossip monger. He sounds fascinating on his own, but mixed up with Holmes? Ah, there are good tales in there to be told. How'd they meet?
- Any guesses about Holmes' relationship to Douglas Maberley? "I have never known anyone so vitally alive. He lived intensely - every fibre of him!" Doesn't that sound like a desciption of Holmes himself? And to call him "one of the most striking men in London"... Well, it leads one to some rather unusual possible conclusions. This does not seem at all like the way he would talk about a random casual acquaintance. Holmes says, "I knew him slightly," but can we take his word on that? He was talking to Douglas' grieving mother at the time, after all.
- Why doesn't Holmes look through the suitcase himself? I know it's a bit intimate - the belongings of a lost son - but the danger was obvious. And why didn't he leave Watson with Mrs. Maberley for the night? Propriety again? Would Watson have been able to protect her?
- One more thing: Mrs. Maberley is one tough lady!
- *sigh* More Victorian racism. The Victorian attitudes toward virtually anyone who was not a white man evident in some of these stories makes the reading rather painful on occasion, at least to this modern reader. This is definitely one of those times. As I said, *sigh*
- Very curious about Mr. Langdale Pike, professional gossip monger. He sounds fascinating on his own, but mixed up with Holmes? Ah, there are good tales in there to be told. How'd they meet?
- Any guesses about Holmes' relationship to Douglas Maberley? "I have never known anyone so vitally alive. He lived intensely - every fibre of him!" Doesn't that sound like a desciption of Holmes himself? And to call him "one of the most striking men in London"... Well, it leads one to some rather unusual possible conclusions. This does not seem at all like the way he would talk about a random casual acquaintance. Holmes says, "I knew him slightly," but can we take his word on that? He was talking to Douglas' grieving mother at the time, after all.
- Why doesn't Holmes look through the suitcase himself? I know it's a bit intimate - the belongings of a lost son - but the danger was obvious. And why didn't he leave Watson with Mrs. Maberley for the night? Propriety again? Would Watson have been able to protect her?
- One more thing: Mrs. Maberley is one tough lady!
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