Discussion Post: The Sign of the Four

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Welcome back to another Sunday at sherlock60 and this week's novel-length read: The Sign of the Four. Did you enjoy it? What did you think? As always, here are a few questions and thoughts of mine to get you started. Please add your own!

- I really enjoy these full novels. Getting in depth with the characters and the plot is very enjoyable. I gravitate usually toward short stories, but HOUN and SIGN have been great fun. Action! Supsense! Drama! Romance! Anything you're looking for, you can find in these novels.

- There are three relationships in conflict in SIGN: Mary and Watson, Watson and Holmes, and Holmes and cocaine. Each is passionate in its own way.

Mary is a fine wife for Watson, certainly. She is bright, clever, and brave like he is. But does their affection seem rushed to you? They are both in tumultuous emotional circumstances, with Watson stuck injured at home with a bored cocaine addict, and Mary in deep with the great mystery at the center of her life. Perhaps that heightens the feelings they develop for one another. However quick their courtship, they are a sweet couple together. Do you really think it would have been a problem for them to be together even if she had been a wealthy heiress? Social conventions would be a problem,

The bored cocaine addict, meanwhile, realizes too late he's pushing his only companion away. And push him away Holmes does, eagerly shooting himself up in front of the still-healing doctor, wasting his body and his gifts, and casually insulting Watson about his writing. Later, Holmes does what he can to stop the inevitable once he sees Watson and Mary gravitate toward each other. He plays his heart out to lull his exhausted friend to sleep only to lose him immediately to his dream lover. He takes him on another thrilling adventure, but Watson ends it by announcing it is his last. Holmes finishes the story where he begins, seeking his chosen companion, the needle.

Holmes' dedication to drugs is powerful and detailed here. Three times a day. Injection scars lining his arms. Holmes chooses his fleeting chemical pleasure over his friendship with Watson consistently until Watson gives up and leaves to join someone kind and happy to be with him, at which point Holmes chooses cocaine as his only solace remaining. But doesn't he deserve his fate? How much pity does he warrant for his choices and behavior?

- We've got some bizarre characters in this one, from Thaddeus Sholto the loquacious hypochondriac London sahib to crazy Mr. Sherman, the animal keeper to Tonga the loyal/vicious cannibal pygmy. I kind of love the strangeness.

- Small's story of rebellion in India: "the cruellest part of it was that these men that we fought against, foot, horse, and gunners, were our own picked troops, whom we had taught and trained, handling our own weapons and blowing our own bugle-calls." Wars of empire, the same now as they have ever been. *sigh*

The Sign of the Four: Formidable

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Sign of the Four
Title: Formidable
Author: spacemutineer
Rating: PG
Author's Note: Was I going to miss Holmes as a boxer? No way.

McMurdo was formidable in the first. His punches swung brick-heavy. Dangerous, if Holmes had allowed him to land any.

Fatigue set in by the second round. Holmes softened ribs and reddened cheeks.

The third involved a tactical choice, loss for gain. A fist connected, doubling Holmes over, but an uppercut square to a square jaw felled McMurdo like a pine.

The Sign of Four: Regret

[shadowycat.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Sign of Four
Title: Regret
Author: shadowycat
Character: Sherlock Holmes
Rating: G

As I noted Watson holding hands with our client, a shiver ran through me that had nothing to do with the cool night air. Never before had I regretted bringing him into a case, but as I realized that I would lose him over this one, I couldn’t help but wish that this time I hadn’t asked for his aid.

The Sign of Four: Observations

[methylviolet10b]

Author: methylviolet10b
Rating: PG
Character(s): Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, Miss Mary Morstan, Athelney Jones, Thaddeus Sholto
Summary: Holmes reflects on the events of SIGN.
Warnings: Spoilers for all of SIGN.
Word Count: 60, times 12 - one 60-word drabble for each chapter of SIGN.
Author's Notes: 60 words of my own inspired by one of the canon stories.
Disclaimer: I don't own them.

SIGN -- The Sign of the Four

1.

Watson is wrong about the cocaine. His brain is nothing like mine. How can he understand the good it does me, or the agonies I suffer from boredom without drugs?

But he is not entirely wrong to warn against it. Had I not dosed myself, I would have observed his manner and not just the pocketwatch, and avoided hurting him.

2.

Observing people is my stock in trade. I noted many things about Miss Mary Morstan, my latest client, when she entered the sitting room. Before she spoke a single word, I could have told you many things about her profession, social status, and the various habits of her dress- and boot-maker.

I noticed her beauty, but dismissed it as irrelevant.

3.

My afternoon’s researches proved enlightening, but not as much so as they might have been. Miss Morstan was in many aspects an admirable client, having the wit to lay before me all the facts and evidence in her possession about the coming meeting. However, she failed to share the strange paper her father so carefully kept until our second meeting.

4.

I have observed my Watson in many circumstances, but I had never yet seen him in attendance on a hypochondriac. A more perfect specimen of overindulged nerves than Thaddeus Sholto would be difficult to produce. The contrast between the two men was extreme: my friend, capable, self-sufficient, and brave despite his injuries, and Sholto, wealthy, healthy, and literally worried sick.

5.

Of all the surprising events in the case – and there were many – none were so random than the chance that saw an old boxing opponent of mine acting as gatekeeper to Bartholomew Sholto’s residence. McMurdo’s surprised reaction was hardly greater than my friend’s. Watson did not exclaim aloud, but his eyebrows rose nearly to his hairline, and his eyes twinkled.

6.

Thaddeus Sholto was right to be nervous about the police, at least in the case of Athelney Jones. I would have far preferred Lestrade’s presence, or Gregson’s. Althelney Jones has some powers of observation, but he has one great flaw: he attempts to fit all that he sees into a pre-formed theory, rather than allowing the evidence to guide him.

7.

It occurred to me, after I sent Watson off, that I might have miscalculated. Much depended upon his swift return. I needed Toby’s tracking abilities, and I counted on Watson’s sturdy presence beside me. But Miss Morstan was distraught, and Watson naturally compassionate. What if he delayed?

I knew my Watson well. He returned with the hound, ready for adventure.

8.

Watson’s preoccupied manner in the hansom on our return to Baker Street informed me that the case – or Miss Morstan – taxed his spirits just as much as the chase had taxed his body.

The first problem was beyond me. All I could do was ensure that Watson ate a good breakfast before I lulled him to sleep with my violin.

9.

Watson slept long and heavily. I was glad to see him rest. My own thoughts settled somewhat in his sleeping presence, despite the ongoing lack of news about the Aurora. I was even able to amuse myself with a book while my friend drowsed upon the settee.

All tranquility vanished when he woke, with his first thoughts of Miss Morstan.

10.

I spoke utter truth to Watson when I told him that I would prefer facing a bullet to one of those poisoned thorns. Finding the packet of them relieved some of my worry, but not all. I kept a sharp eye out through the entire boat-chase, as did Watson.

I still shudder to think how close a call we had.

11.

It was, perhaps, not kind of me. I took Jones aside and argued him into letting Watson take the treasure-chest directly to Miss Morstan.

I was nearly certain that there was no treasure to be found. I had, after all, been paying close watch to the activities on the Aurora. I had no desire to be present at the revelation.

12.

A strange, sad case of circumstances and personalities. One man, a murderer, yet astonishingly loyal to his friends, regardless of their color. Another man, weak and effete, yet driven by an inner spark of honor to try and right the wrong done to a stranger’s daughter. And a third man, a priceless treasure himself, lost by one, gained by another.

Sign of Four: Man's Best Friend

[sherlockholmes.livejournal.com]

Author sherlockholmes
Title Man's Best Friend
Rating G

A tug pulls the lead in my hand tight as the half-spaniel lowers its head to put its battered nose to the ground; the sent of creosote fresh in both our minds. He's an good old beast that Toby - impassioned by the chase, loyal to the cause, Queen and country.

And I look at Watson and can't help but smile.

The Sign of Four: Reflections of an Elderly Gentleman

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Sign of Four
Title: Reflections of an Elderly Gentleman
Author: thesmallhobbit
Rating: G

However my life may have progressed and whoever I have loved since, I will never regret marrying my Mary.  At a time when I believed I had little to offer she accepted me with an open heart, for she showed me I was more important to her than any jewels could be.  In truth, she reminded me how to love.

The Sign of the Four: Handball

[hisietari.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: The Sign of the Four
Title: Handball
Author: hisietari
Rating: G
Author's Note: I'd been going for seriousness this time, but the canon story's end was too depressing.


My dear doctor Watson, your assistance concerning the handling and consolation of my clients is most appreciated. When my mind is occupied with the complications of a case, you take care of what is sometimes of no small importance. I feel most obliged to you.

Could you explain to me, however, what you did with Miss Morstan's left hand there?

The Sign of Four: Since Men are in a Transitional Condition..., G

[tweedisgood.livejournal.com]

The Sign of Four

Author: tweedisgood
Title: Since Men are in a Transitional Condition...
Rated G
Notes: Victorian attitudes to sexuality

“since Nature ordains that the existence of the race can only be preserved by gross appetites inherited from our ancestors, the animals, it is obvious that men should refine them as far as they are able....passions are sanctified by marriage; blended with the pure affections, their coarseness disappears; their violence is appeased; they become the ministers of conjugal and parental love” William Winwood Reade: The Martyrdom of Man.



And for those of us who will never marry? Who can never marry, else we deny the deepest truths of body and soul? However pure our affections, nothing can sanctify what we desire. Nature's violence done on us, not by us, is not appeased. Perhaps in some far, fair, unshackled future. Until then, for me there remains the cocaine bottle.