The Mazarin Stone: To the Life

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Title: The Mazarin Stone: To the Life
Author: gardnerhill               
Word Count: 60
Rating: G
Warning: None.
Summary: Again, Doyle teases. I wanted to see this one.

***

An elderly woman – the dowager’s hump, tattered umbrella, and every line of her body bespeaking a lifetime of drudgery, from her unattractively hawkish nose to the shuffling flatfooted gait – appeared in the parlour.

“Bravo!” I smiled. “Or should that be ‘brava’?”

My partner responded with a modest head-turn, and just a touch of the impish grin of a faded coquette.

Comments

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I love that Holmes has given his character a whole history - down to the fact, that despite her hard life (and her hawkish nose ^^), she was once young and attractive and got her share of attention, and has never quite lost that cheeky flirtatiousness. Watson's phrase "just a touch of the impish grin of a faded coquette" is perfect.

And a minor thing: even now in Britain a six foot woman turns heads. I've always wondered how on earth Holmes could have got away with being a six foot elderly woman in Victorian times. But your idea of the dowager's hump would probably have helped a great deal in the illusion.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Holmes modeled her on the 1895 "Belle Heaulmiere" sculpture of Auguste Rodin - the withered crone who was once a beautiful girl.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Just had a look at a photograph of the sculpture. Thanks for pointing me in its direction.

[debriswoman]

Particularly taken with the last line:-)

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Holmes doesn't just slap on a hat and a bit of soot, he comes up with believable backstories that come out in his characters' traits (like his old sailor's "workhouse cough" and bad legs). A woman - old and homely now, as a man of Holmes' age and features would have to dress to be believable - could easily have had a youth where she turned heads. Rodin's "Belle Heaulmiere" sculpture was made about that time.

[debriswoman]

Makes sense:-)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Definitely worth seeing.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Doyle, quit teasing.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Master of Disguise, indeed! How long did he practice that smile, I wonder. Well done.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Holmes has probably spent enough time in the fouler streets and docks to see the older prostitutes doing what they can to seem alluring when their looks have faded. This is also about the time Rodin's "Belle Heaulmiere" sculpture came out - the withered old woman who was once a beautiful girl.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Holmes, master of disguise, flirtation, and shrinking.... brava

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

He's the same man who took a foot off his stature as the old bookseller, so turning himself into a humped old woman would be equally simple.

[godsdaisiechain.livejournal.com]

Master of hump..., erm, hunchbacks....