Canon Discussion: Wisteria Lodge

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

This week we’re having a look at The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge. I’ve typed up a few thoughts and questions to get the discussion going—please leave your own ideas in the comments!

I find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy day towards the end of March in the year 1892. 1892? When Holmes was “dead”? Any thoughts?

"My dear Watson, you know how bored I have been since we locked up Colonel Carruthers.” Any ideas about Carruthers and his crime?

“...but the address is either done with another pen or by someone else. It is thicker and bolder, as you see." Why doesn’t Garcia notice this and become suspicious? “Miss Burnet” wouldn’t have asked anyone else in her household to address the note. But Garcia was greatly distracted because of what he was about to do, so he may have simply assumed that a different pen was used for the address.

...a huge and hideous mulatto, with yellowish features of a pronounced negroid type. ACD seems to be indulging in a bit of racism but also playing about with his (original) readers’ prejudices. They would perhaps have been more prone to assuming the cook must have been the murderer. Then it would have been a bigger twist when it was revealed Baynes had deliberately arrested the wrong man. It’s maybe worth noting that Baynes is presented to us as a highly intelligent man who is physically unattractive. (Bit like Mycroft perhaps?) Is this ACD giving us a clue—you shouldn’t judge someone by their appearance?

"But tell me, Baynes, who is this man Henderson?" "Henderson," the inspector answered, "is Don Murillo, once called the Tiger of San Pedro." Last time we looked at WIST, vaysh pointed me towards this article, which cleverly connects up several works of literature in an attempt to try and explain who Murillo was and where he actually came from.

“With a premonition of his fate he had refused to take me with him.” But why go back if he could guess what was going to happen? Why not ask to stay in England? (Must admit I have no idea what the rules for political asylum would have been at the time.) Was he worried about retribution being taken against family members? Or did he simply hope he was wrong and didn’t want to give up his wealth and his own country if he could help it? But perhaps Signora Durando meant by “premonition” a gut instinct that her husband didn’t consciously acknowledge.

“Murillo twisted my arm round until I gave him the address. I swear that he might have twisted it off had I understood what it would mean to Garcia.” Surely Signora Durando must have realised immediately that Garcia’s life would be in danger if Murillo knew his address? But perhaps she assumed that Garcia would notice something was odd about the handwritten address on the note and not come.

Some six months afterwards the Marquess of Montalva and Signor Rulli, his secretary, were both murdered in their rooms at the Hotel Escurial at Madrid. Was one of the murderers the man passing as Garcia’s manservant? What happened to him after he disappeared? And what happened to the cook after his false arrest? Also, what became of Murillo’s children? Was their mother dead? Or still in San Pedro? Did Murillo abandon her or did she not want to go with him?

Next Sunday, 15th November, we’ll be having a look at The Bruce-Partington Plans. Hope you can join us then.

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The year was never 1892, but 1897. The printer merely misread Dr Watson's handwriting.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I can well believe that ^_^

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I liked the article that you linked to about Murillo's identity. I was also struck by the fact that the voodoo/Santeria clue would suggest a Caribbean source rather than a Central American one (though the cook needn't have come from the same place as his master). Doyle did like his bit of 'other,' didn't he?

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Scott Eccles does relate about Garcia: "He lived
with a faithful servant, a countryman of his own..." and "...there was a wonderful cook, he said, a half-breed whom he had picked up in his travels..." Which, if Garcia was speaking truthfully to Scott Eccles, does imply that the cook was not from San Pedro.

Though later Holmes does say: "The man was a primitive savage from the backwoods of San Pedro..." And the fact he was involved with the revenge plot does suggest he was from San Pedro. But Holmes could have just been making an assumption. Or perhaps the cook was from San Pedro but he or his parents had been born elsewhere.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Never mind me. I'll be in the corner, Not Paying Attention.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

It does have to be said that ACD seems to manage to give the cook different origins at opposite ends of the story ^^" (^^)

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

I think it possible that Watson uses the term locked up to suggest an asylum rather than a prison.

That's a good point about Durando's premonition. I think he might feel obliged to risk himself even if there was strong likelihood of his being caught. Himself, but not his wife.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting point. I think "locked up" is more likely to relate to a prison but Holmes could be referring to an asylum I suppose.