Canon Discussion: The Red Circle

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week we’re having a look at The Red Circle. As always, I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the ball rolling.

But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex. This description perhaps gives us an intriguing insight into Watson’s view of women. “Cunning” immediately seems like a negative word to me but I suppose it needn’t be. In SIGN, Watson talks about “the angelic fashion of women”, which doesn’t really seem to fit well with being pertinacious and cunning. But then he was thinking specifically about Miss Morstan in SIGN.

"You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year," she said — "Mr. Fairdale Hobbs." Any thoughts on this case?

[Holmes] had an almost hypnotic power of soothing when he wished. I think this has come up before in discussions. It isn’t just with women—Holmes seems very adept in general at calming anxious clients. (“The unhappy John Hector McFarlane” comes to mind.) Is this something Holmes has learned to do, or is it something that comes naturally to him? Holmes isn’t sociable and seems to have little need to make friends, and can be frankly irritated by other people, but he does seem to be good with clients whenever he sets his mind to it.

“Here are the Daily Gazette extracts of the last fortnight. 'Lady with a black boa at Prince's Skating Club' — that we may pass. 'Surely Jimmy will not break his mother's heart' — that appears to be irrelevant. 'If the lady who fainted in the Brixton bus' — she does not interest me. 'Every day my heart longs —'” Any thoughts on the stories behind these personal messages?

“What do you suggest, Mr. Holmes?" "That we go up at once and see for ourselves." Isn’t it perhaps odd that Holmes doesn’t make it clear that there is a strong probability Gorgiano wasn’t the one sending the signals, but rather the man that Mrs. Warren described? (Holmes has heard of Gorgiano, which does suggest he’d have some idea of what he looked like and would know the two men were different people.) It would have better prepared Gregson and Leverton for all eventualities. It is possible they could have gone up to find Lucca a hostage, or if Lucca were Gorgiano’s accomplice, rather than someone running away from him, they would have had two men to deal with. (Holmes doesn’t know until they find the body that Lucca has left the building. And though he knew the Luccas had enemies, he couldn’t be sure at that point whether Gorgiano was their enemy or not.)

She spoke in rapid and fluent but very unconventional English… I think this was brought up in the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Isn’t it strange that Mrs. Lucca speaks English, and reads English well (her husband appears confident that she’ll understand “patience and prudence”) but she’s so unfamiliar with the everyday word “match” that she has to look it up in a dictionary and doesn’t know the plural?

"If what she says is corroborated, I do not think she or her husband has much to fear.” Any thoughts on what happens to the Luccas?

“By the way, it is not eight o'clock, and a Wagner night at Covent Garden! If we hurry, we might be in time for the second act." You do have to admire in a way how calm and detached Holmes can be about violent death. He solves the case and immediately puts all unpleasantness out of his head.

Next Sunday, 26th October, we’ll be having a look at The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax. Hope you can join us then.

Comments

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

I think the three separate detectives - plus the not inconsiderable Watson - went out of their way to make sure the Luccas made out okay.

In fact, I think the Lucca's actions were in reality, much more legally dubious. Watson's account of the face off in the dark room, with the signalling three times with that clumsy device to tell Mrs Lucca what she already knew, Lucca's vanishing rather than telling her what had happened, strikes me as pretty fictitious. As Watson hadn't much experience of writing fiction, he laid things on too thick.

It's possible that the Luccas were actually doing something about Gorgiano, other than lurking in various lodgings and deserted houses. That would pall quickly. They could have lured Gorgiano to where they killed him.

Of your last paragraph; I always rather thought Holmes, and perhaps Watson, found music steadying after violence.

edit: sorry about the editing

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

(I don't mind about the editing - though I did briefly get excited about how many new messages I had ^_^)

I like your idea that the Luccas actually arranged to kill Gorgiano. Watson's account does seem puzzling in places - as you say, Lucca's signal to his wife doesn't really tell her anything new. Though I suppose it's always possible that Lucca didn't go straight to his wife after the killing because he was worried that if anyone had noticed him, he might lead danger to her.

And I also like the idea that Holmes is using music to sooth himself. It's not that he's already feeling calm and detached.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I do wonder how pleased Watson was at the thought of being in time for the second act of a Wagner opera.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

There may have been a fair amount of laughter after reading this comment ^_^ "Do you know, Holmes, I'm feeling rather tired. And I think my war wound may be playing up. And I must trim my moustache... But you go!"

[vaysh]

This story is certainly not one of the finest pieces by Arthur Conan Doyle. You pointed out a few of the sloppy mistakes - Mrs Lucca's odd grasp of the English language chief among them.

Any thoughts on the stories behind these personal messages? *grins* I just posted my own take on one of them. :)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

REDC is a cracking adventure though, despite its deficiencies ^_^

And I did enjoy your 60 ^^ It's so charming and such a perfect idea.