Canon Discussion: His Last Bow

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week, we’re having a look at His Last Bow. As always, I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion started.

This story is told in third person. Any thoughts on who the author is? Watson? Holmes? An unknown author employed by Watson’s publishers? This previous 60 gives a touching possibility.

Here’s a link to a site that gives some useful notes for LAST. Must admit I had been completely bewildered by “through the little door on the Duke of York's steps” but apparently it’s simply a reference to the German Embassy.

"That is Martha, the only servant I have left." Any thoughts on who Martha is? I know there’s a theory she’s Mrs. Hudson but I really can’t subscribe to that. Holmes refers to her as “old Martha” to Watson, and actually addresses her as “Martha”. This would be oddly overfamiliar (and downright impolite) if he were talking to his former landlady—Mrs. Hudson was always deferential but she was Holmes’ landlady, not his servant. And what is Martha’s profession, strictly speaking? Is she truly a housekeeper, who is doing her bit for Britain? Or is she a government agent? Her age and sex might count against her there perhaps. I suppose it doesn’t really matter though what her official position is—she is acting as a secret agent for Holmes. She’s obviously brave and intelligent.

…the chauffeur, a heavily built, elderly man with a gray moustache, settled down like one who resigns himself to a long vigil. It strikes me that Holmes didn’t absolutely need Watson to be there. He overpowers Von Bork on his own. I suppose he does need another man’s help to get Von Bork into the car, and maybe Holmes can’t drive… But I wonder if it was just an excuse to get together with Watson for one last adventure before all hell breaks loose.

He was a tall, gaunt man of sixty… A minor point that was brought up in the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: is Holmes actually sixty, or is that part of his Altamont disguise? In SCAN he refers to Irene Adler as a “young person”—a woman who is apparently only four years younger than himself, if he was born in 1854.

“But you, Watson"—he stopped his work and took his old friend by the shoulders—"I've hardly seen you in the light yet. How have the years used you? You look the same blithe boy as ever. " Holmes and Watson definitely haven’t seen each other for the past two years, as Holmes has been undercover. But here there seems to be the implication they haven’t seen each other for many years. Yet the affection between them is as strong as ever. Any thoughts as to why they’ve drifted apart? Was it just the geographical distance between them? Incidentally, I wonder at what point Watson learned to drive. Holmes obviously must have known that the doctor could drive a car when he wired him.

“And yet I live and keep bees upon the South Downs." Though he hasn’t been doing that for the past two years. I wonder who’s been looking after his property. Has Mycroft once again been supervising from a distance, while Holmes’ housekeeper sees to things?

“As to you, Watson, you are joining us with your old service, as I understand…” Really? An elderly man is going back into the Army? This 60 gives a convincing solution: Watson will be working in an army convalescence home in England.

“…so London won't be out of your way.” This does rather imply that Watson hasn’t been living in London. Any thoughts on where he has been living and what he’s been doing in his retirement? Has he married again?

“Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have." I think Holmes is being realistic, rather than pessimistic, here. But what do you think happens after the war? Do they keep in touch? Do they perhaps spend the rest of their retirement together? (Or, for the benefit of any hobbits in the audience, each with the Scotland Yard Inspector of their choice?) Does Holmes go back to his home in Sussex? He’s spent quite a time away from there—perhaps he sells his property and moves once again. Tries something new. Though there’s a terrible war coming, I like to think that this isn’t the end of the adventures for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Next Sunday, 9th November, we’ll be having a look at The Illustrious Client. Hope you can join us then.

Comments

[winryweiss.livejournal.com]

You know, I do not like the retirement timeline. Actually I used to downright hate it at first. The sole purpose for it is that it seems that Holmes and Watson drifted apart and somehow I never thought that could be. (Praise God for the fandom and it's various interpretations of ACD stories!) It took me years to overcome this dislike and read Lion's Mane again.

Yet, His Last Bow is ... I don't know, I'd probably say creepy, but that's not right. Given the time and situation of it's origin this must be considered pure gold. I mean, Doyle's decision to write such story, situating his heroes on the verge of the war which will shock the world (not that he knew back then how horrible it would be), made Holmes and Watson so very real.
This particular "adventure", so different from the typical style of other Holmes' adventures, had the most prominent impact upon me when I read the Canon for the first time. It made me contemplate and wonder and realise that characters can be ALIVE, given the right motive and circumstances.

So, “Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have." is the sentence which carries the most important significance from whole of the Canon for me.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too - I didn't like the retirement timeline either initially. I always want Holmes and Watson to be together solving mysteries ^^

I absolutely know what you mean about LAST. I suppose I do like a bit of escapism in my Holmes adventures but here you can't ignore real life. But as you say, it brings Holmes and Watson firmly into our world.

That line is so poignant because from our point of view it is their last talk together. ACD may have written more stories but that's the end of their timeline. For me, reading LAST does always feel like saying goodbye to them.

[winryweiss.livejournal.com]

I think that the like/dislike of retirement timeline has something to do with reader's actual age. I'm slowly [as in really, really slooowly] becoming more and more fond of it as I grow older. And that statement sounds rather odd as I'm only 24, but I've been reading Holmes' stories for years now, so I'm sure you understand. Yet still, I do so love them when they are young and full of life, in that dreamy gaslight epoch. Before Reichenbach and Mary's death and all those nasty strokes of fate which later came upon them. (And yet, most of the stories I write are set after Hiatus. I'm sort of contradicting myself, aren't I?)

His Last Bow somehow manage to chill me every time. In a certain way, it is very depressive story. And as you point out, it's their last canonical interaction, and we all are well aware now how horrid the war was.
I would not hesitate to say I love and hate His Last Bow at the same time. It is simply way too powerful story.

[vaysh]

Thank you, again, for writing up these thoughtful notes and searching for links to elucidate the story.

I admit, I am quite blown by this story. It is brilliant, ACD at his very best. The opening paragraph alone:

It was nine o'clock at night upon the second of August—the most terrible August in the history of the world. One might have thought already that God's curse hung heavy over a degenerate world, for there was an awesome hush and a feeling of vague expectancy in the sultry and stagnant air. The sun had long set, but one blood-red gash like an open wound lay low in the distant west.

The imagery, the way Doyle sets the scene here for what is to come – it's done masterfully. I doubt he could have written this story with a first person narrator Watson (it would have ruined the suspense plot), and I find Doyle's omniscient narrator a great choice.

The structure of the story works perfectly. It is much closer to the way how today mysteries and crime stories are told - with a much more deliberate information management than Doyle (through Watson) ever uses. In this story the reader is "forced" to read through the first part of the story without knowing what is going on. The reader him- or herself has to look for clues of what the crime is, and where - possibly - Sherlock Holmes could come in.

Language-wise, too, Doyle shines - the American English he gives to Altamont is just so slightly exaggerated that an attentive reader may be able to realise the disguise, and yet Altamont could be a real American.

The theme of the story is so very late 19th century, so very ACD - he discusses the qualities of nations, the British and the German. This is something that we today can only see as stereotyping and of course it was. But it meant something to the late Victorians, it was one way for them to explain the world. That Van Bork is "a good sport" enables him to be a good spy - but not as good as the real thing, which is the epitome of Britishness that is embodied in Sherlock Holmes: rational, cool, not ruled by emotions like other nations (the overemotional Italians, the blundering Germans ...). Doyle says here, in a short story, why he thinks - culturally, emotionally - the British will win the war.

Of course, the world was irrevocably changed after WW1. That line of Holmes - "it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have" - is like a prophecy of the times to come. I cannot help but think of Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and what different kind of quiet this is than the quiet of Holmes' talks with his Boswell.

Wintryweis called the story "pure gold", and OMG, yes, it is. :)

(Sorry for gushing out everything that went through my mind when reading the story but it is just so good. :))

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I sometimes find it difficult to come up with questions and points of discussion for the stories but definitely not with this one.

The structure of the story is excellent - I absolutely agree with you that the story has to be in the third person to work. (I think when I first read it I was completely fooled by Altamont. I did wonder if Von Bork were Holmes and there was a double bluff going on ^^") And that first paragraph is a brilliant opening.

To me, the story has a definite propaganda feel to it, though there's more to it than that or it would be unreadable now. But those last moments between Holmes and Watson... It's almost painfully poignant - we know exactly what's coming but Holmes doesn't appear to realise exactly how devastating the war is going to be.

And thank you so much for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment. We're lucky to have you as a member of the comm ^^

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

A few years ago I was on a walk that showed us the actual door on the Duke of York's steps.

Martha's back story has got me thinking - I may have to write this in greater detail.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I've just finally thought to look for pictures of the door ^^

And Martha is an intriguing character. As well as her back story, you do have to wonder what happens next after she reports to Holmes. Another mission? Or does she go back to really being a housekeeper?

[jcporter1.livejournal.com]

This story always troubled me. So much so that I wrote a short piece called "Dying Light" that explored Watson's hurt at being neglected by his old friend. I imagined that Watson wrote this in third person because it was too painful to try and write it in first person.

http://jcporter1.livejournal.com/8089.html