Canon Discussion: The Crooked Man
Jun. 21st, 2015 08:15 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60This week we’re having a look at The Crooked Man. I’ve typed up a few thoughts to get the discussion going—please leave your own ideas in the comments!
...and nodding over a novel… Any suggestions about what novel Watson might be reading, in this story set somewhere around 1889?
To my astonishment it was Sherlock Holmes who stood upon my step. Why does Holmes come round so late and ask to stay over? Watson doesn’t live that far away from Baker Street, and they don’t have to leave early in the morning. Holmes could have gone straight home from Aldershot and then called for Watson first thing. But I suppose the obvious answer is simply that Holmes misses Watson.
“Not the drains, I hope?" On a more lighthearted note—Holmes isn’t deducing here that there was something the matter with Watson’s drains; it appears to be just the first thing that comes to mind. I wonder if perhaps 221 Baker Street is having some problems in that direction and that’s why Holmes didn’t want to stay there.
"I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. One of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spacemutineer’s previous discussion posts directed me to The View Halloa, where Rosemary Michaud makes many excellent points. One of these: Watson doesn’t have a practice until he gets married. So how does Holmes know about his professional habits? (I would add that Holmes appears to have had no contact with Watson since he got married, as he apparently hasn’t seen him smoke recently. You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days then!)
"I have no doubt Jackson would take my practice." What has become of Anstruther..? Or rather I suppose (flaming timeline), what becomes of Jackson?
“She then called for Miss Morrison, a young lady who lives in the next villa…” Any thoughts on Miss Morrison’s situation? I assume she isn’t living there on her own.
“Barclay's remarks were subdued and abrupt, so that none of them were audible to the listeners.” Another of Rosemary Michaud’s points: Wood wasn’t a fluent speaker of the language his captors used (“...and listened to as much as I could understand of their talk…”). Could he have misunderstood? Was perhaps Barclay only unintentionally responsible for his capture—he’d accidentally given something away to the servant, and the servant was the sole person to betray Wood?
...while with his feet tilted over the side of an arm-chair, and his head upon the ground near the corner of the fender…” Yet another excellent point from Michaud—isn’t this a bizarre position for the Colonel to be found in? How did he get his feet over the armchair?
“...my comrade, the very man who had arranged the way that I was to take, had betrayed me…” The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes points out that this seems an incredibly stupid thing for Barclay to do, betraying the man who was going to bring help to everyone—including himself and the woman he purported to love. Any thoughts on what was going on in Barclay’s head?
“...had betrayed me by means of a native servant into the hands of the enemy.” There’s surely quite a complicated situation behind this apparently straightforward statement. What exactly were the servant’s motivations for helping Barclay? I can understand the servant being on the side of the rebels but why then would he trust and do the bidding of a British soldier? And how did Barclay know he could ask the servant to go and talk to the rebels? A servant might have been reluctant to go to someone higher in authority and give Barclay away (because it might be assumed he was lying) but that’s still a huge risk for Barclay to take.
“Bhurtee was relieved by Neill next day…” How did Neill know to come to their rescue?
“...the rebels took me away with them in their retreat…” Why? Why didn’t they just kill him when they first caught him?
“I heard that Barclay had married Nancy, and that he was rising rapidly in the regiment, but even that did not make me speak.” Was Wood selfish not to go back and tell what he knew? After all, Barclay was a traitor. And did Wood really want to leave the woman he loved living with the man who had wanted him dead?
Next Sunday, 28th June, we’ll be having a look at The Resident Patient. Hope you can join us then.
...and nodding over a novel… Any suggestions about what novel Watson might be reading, in this story set somewhere around 1889?
To my astonishment it was Sherlock Holmes who stood upon my step. Why does Holmes come round so late and ask to stay over? Watson doesn’t live that far away from Baker Street, and they don’t have to leave early in the morning. Holmes could have gone straight home from Aldershot and then called for Watson first thing. But I suppose the obvious answer is simply that Holmes misses Watson.
“Not the drains, I hope?" On a more lighthearted note—Holmes isn’t deducing here that there was something the matter with Watson’s drains; it appears to be just the first thing that comes to mind. I wonder if perhaps 221 Baker Street is having some problems in that direction and that’s why Holmes didn’t want to stay there.
"I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. One of
spacemutineer’s previous discussion posts directed me to The View Halloa, where Rosemary Michaud makes many excellent points. One of these: Watson doesn’t have a practice until he gets married. So how does Holmes know about his professional habits? (I would add that Holmes appears to have had no contact with Watson since he got married, as he apparently hasn’t seen him smoke recently. You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days then!)"I have no doubt Jackson would take my practice." What has become of Anstruther..? Or rather I suppose (flaming timeline), what becomes of Jackson?
“She then called for Miss Morrison, a young lady who lives in the next villa…” Any thoughts on Miss Morrison’s situation? I assume she isn’t living there on her own.
“Barclay's remarks were subdued and abrupt, so that none of them were audible to the listeners.” Another of Rosemary Michaud’s points: Wood wasn’t a fluent speaker of the language his captors used (“...and listened to as much as I could understand of their talk…”). Could he have misunderstood? Was perhaps Barclay only unintentionally responsible for his capture—he’d accidentally given something away to the servant, and the servant was the sole person to betray Wood?
...while with his feet tilted over the side of an arm-chair, and his head upon the ground near the corner of the fender…” Yet another excellent point from Michaud—isn’t this a bizarre position for the Colonel to be found in? How did he get his feet over the armchair?
“...my comrade, the very man who had arranged the way that I was to take, had betrayed me…” The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes points out that this seems an incredibly stupid thing for Barclay to do, betraying the man who was going to bring help to everyone—including himself and the woman he purported to love. Any thoughts on what was going on in Barclay’s head?
“...had betrayed me by means of a native servant into the hands of the enemy.” There’s surely quite a complicated situation behind this apparently straightforward statement. What exactly were the servant’s motivations for helping Barclay? I can understand the servant being on the side of the rebels but why then would he trust and do the bidding of a British soldier? And how did Barclay know he could ask the servant to go and talk to the rebels? A servant might have been reluctant to go to someone higher in authority and give Barclay away (because it might be assumed he was lying) but that’s still a huge risk for Barclay to take.
“Bhurtee was relieved by Neill next day…” How did Neill know to come to their rescue?
“...the rebels took me away with them in their retreat…” Why? Why didn’t they just kill him when they first caught him?
“I heard that Barclay had married Nancy, and that he was rising rapidly in the regiment, but even that did not make me speak.” Was Wood selfish not to go back and tell what he knew? After all, Barclay was a traitor. And did Wood really want to leave the woman he loved living with the man who had wanted him dead?
Next Sunday, 28th June, we’ll be having a look at The Resident Patient. Hope you can join us then.
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Date: 2015-06-21 09:02 am (UTC)I suppose Barclay could have reasoned if Wood achieved the rescue Nancy would be totally smitten with him. Also, I imagine Wood couldn't go back, since it would be his word against Barclay's, who had now achieved higher rank.
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Date: 2015-06-21 04:48 pm (UTC)I can see why Barclay wanted Wood out of the picture - but he was putting everybody's life at risk. Did he understand this? Did he just not care? Or did he have another plan for getting the word out to General Neill - after all, the regiment was relieved even though Wood was captured.
I suppose you're right - it would be Wood's word against Barclay's. Though Wood doesn't seem to have considered that - he just didn't want to make himself known to his old comrades because of the damage to his body. I do wonder though if he didn't have a duty to try and report what had happened.