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sherlock602014-10-19 07:47 am
scfrankles.livejournal.com) wrote in sherlock602014-10-19 07:47 am
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Canon Discussion: The Red Circle
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.
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.