Canon Discussion: The Adventure of the Three Gables

[alafaye]

This week we are reading The Adventure of the Three Gables. It carries the themes of tangled or foiled romances and retiring or settling down. I had suggested we could perhaps for this round use the themes for the canon cases as themes for the 60s. Thoughts?



Our story is from late in the approximate chronological order of the stories, but it starts out as strong as many of the other cases. And dramatically as well.

Dear Watson stops by for a visit and no sooner does he that a large man interrupts the conversation with a threat for Holmes who, in his usual manner, does not appear to be alarmed. In fact, he seems thrilled by the interruption and quickly catches the intruder off guard with a reference to a previous murder. It turns out that this bruiser is in the employer of a man who is working for another.

Watson follows Holmes to a quiet area to visit a -- at first appearance -- run down home. Inside however is a widow who recently lost her son and has received an offer for the house and the things inside. Watson shines in his study of Holmes' methods by quickly pointing out that something new has appeared in the home and the widow is not meant to know what it is.

The maid is given the boot for overhearing and we discover that she is a plant -- maybe to get the item before the offer was made or to avoid too many complications? We many never know.

We do know however that the interested buyer acts quickly and the item in question -- a romance novel written by the widow's son -- is stolen. Or was it retrieved? Holmes follows the trail to the home of a Spanish beauty set to marry someone she considers more worth her attention than the dead son. I suspect she might have been talking with a Ms. Adler.

Holmes wraps up the case neatly thereafter, leaving the police to conduct the arrests and securing some funds for the poor widow to enjoy a tour around the world for her trouble and to buy silence from the Spanish beauty.

What are your thoughts, fellow readers? Too neat? Too easy? Did you, like I did, suspect that there was actually more to this case than it actually ended up being? I definitely had the idea that some other case was being worked out in this one, though I cannot put my finger on what.

Comments

[debriswoman]

Hello, alafaye...I wish you well with getting going with a new round...although I have run out of steam a little regarding adding 60 word fics at present:-)

I do find this an odd and rather unsatisfactory tale...Holmes seems very quick to judge and stereotype folk, and, when danger threatens, relies on others to keep the lady of the household safe. I presume he forbids publication of the tale till the ex love of the novelist is dead...again having judged what was a suitable recompense for the mourning mother...money for a trip. Not his finest hour, in my opinion.

[alafaye]

Hello! And thank you. No worries about the ficlets. Words are hard especially when other things demand attention, too (don't they understand fic is more important?).

It does rather feel lackluster. And Holmes was also very dismissive. Ho hum, someone not white. Ho hum, women, again. Alas, ACD! Twas not your best effort.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I agree with you and debriswoman above that it is an unsatisfactory tale. Racial stereotypes and racist language. The jab at an older woman preferring soft light. Lots of ethical questions about blackmailing and as debriswoman says above making presumptions. Unresolved issue of the maid. Not much mystery, just blah.

But one thing: someone on the Sherlock Kink Meme on tumblr has asked for Holmes/Roger Maberley and I have contemplated filling it using bits of Oscar Wilde's life/person as inspiration for Maberley. Holmes's opinion of him is interesting.

[alafaye]

And Holmes was very dismissive of the bruiser and client both. And when he confronted the Spanish Beauty -- he was very blah. Yes, as you said :)

Oh that would be interesting for a fic!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

On my last 3GAB 60, sanguinity made a most intriguing comment: This one feels like a US-set Pinkerton story to me, quickly and badly retrofitted to be a Holmes story. (http://sherlock60.livejournal.com/732029.html?thread=7804541#t7804541) (Clicking on the link will take you to the full thread.) And this does make a great deal of sense - Holmes just feels completely ooc all the way through to me.

Holmes follows the trail to the home of a Spanish beauty set to marry someone she considers more worth her attention than the dead son. I suspect she might have been talking with a Ms. Adler.

What a very interesting comparison to make - that had never occurred to me. Both women do suffer the attentions of an obsessed man, though I would argue that Irene Adler is a far better person than Isadora Klein and Douglas Maberley is a far less dangerous person than the King of Bohemia. Also, Irene Adler does seem to pick a genuinely better man than the King--and appears to have loved both men--whereas Isadora Klein loses interest in Maberley because he’s ‘a penniless commoner’ and wants to marry a man because he has a title.

I do have some sympathy with Isadora Klein though. It’s not a kind thing to do but why shouldn’t she have the right to have an affair, and then say, ‘Clear off. It’s over’? And why shouldn’t she choose to marry for social position? Maberley should have accepted his dismissal and not continued to hound her--though I don’t believe this then give Isadora Klein the right to have him beaten.

[sanguinity]

I tend to back Isadora on this story: Holmes talks like she somehow owed the Maberley kid something, when to my eye, the Maberley kid is very clearly stalking someone who said no. (I have the same problem with Holmes' behavior in LADY. Lady Carfax said no, she even fled the country to escape Mr Green, leaving no forwarding address when she went. What happened to the Holmes of SOLI, I ask?)

As to whether her having the kid beaten was going too far or not, it really depends on whether we believe Holmes' word about Maberley's behaviour, and how aggressive he did or didn't get. Holmes obviously thinks she was out-of-bounds in breaking it off with Maberley in the first place; I'm disinclined to consider him a trustworthy and fairminded narrator for the rest of it. Basically, I have questions, and I don't trust this version of Holmes to answer them.

All that said, that is an interesting comparison with SCAN! Especially since Isadora not only parallels with Irene, but with the King of Bohemia, too: she's trying to recover the reputation-destroying evidence of a love affair, and she's been resorting to force and thieves to do it. Obviously, she should have hired Holmes to get the manuscript back for her. ;-)

[trobadora]

Especially since Isadora not only parallels with Irene, but with the King of Bohemia, too

OMG, yes! And I really wish the story dealt better with those complexities.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I really like the US-Pinkerton theory because the opening scene does read a bit like noir. Detective minding his own business (it was an ordinary Thursday) then in bursts the Muscle of a Bad Guy making threats and swinging fists. Quips like a (racist) Sam Spade might make. I can hear Humphrey Bogart as Watson's narrator voice: 'She was the kind of doll who might dim the lights when company was a-comin''

And I definitely think Klein is more like the King of Bohemia than Irene Adler.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

As to whether her having the kid beaten was going too far or not, it really depends on whether we believe Holmes' word about Maberley's behaviour, and how aggressive he did or didn't get.

Well, looking back there's Because I had given he seemed to think that I still must give, and to him only. It was intolerable. At last I had to make him realize it.” “By hiring ruffians to beat him under your own window.” “You do indeed seem to know everything. Well, it is true. Barney and the boys drove him away, and were, I admit, a little rough in doing so..."

and

“. . . face bled considerably from the cuts and blows, but it was nothing to the bleeding of his heart as he saw that lovely face, the face for which he had been prepared to sacrifice his very life, looking out at his agony and humiliation. She smiled—yes, by Heaven! she smiled, like the heartless fiend she was, as he looked up at her..."

So in Isadora Klein's defence, presumably though the gang was waiting for Maberley, they wouldn't have gone looking for him and attacked him if he hadn't come to her home. And perhaps it was supposed to simply be a show of force to frighten him off, that turned into an uneven fight.

That It was intolerable. At last I had to make him realize it does make me sympathise with Isadora. Whether he was physically aggressive or not, he was causing her distress. On the other hand, that smile Maberley reports in his novel suggests someone in control of their emotions--someone who has calmly made the decision to have Maberley beaten up because it’s a convenient way to get rid of a problem, rather than been driven to it. But smiles are complicated things and this one may be fictional anyway.

And you’re quite right--Isadora Klein has parallels with the King of Bohemia too. That’s a very neat connection to make.

[alafaye]

Holmes was off in this story and I've begun to wonder if there might have been more to Maberley's behavior than we are told. Was it simply that he hounded her? Or was it more? And I don't think she was out of bounds and should Maberley have done more than mere hounding, maybe the beating was beyond justified. I do wonder about his death. Maybe he transferred his awful behavior to some other woman who had more serious protection.

This would have been a neater story if Holmes had been entrusted to find the novel. And one has to wonder if Isadora asked for help, but only about how to get the novel back rather than any other sound advice Adler might have had to give.

[trobadora]

This. I have a lot of sympathy for her - she had every right to call it off, and he had no right to go on and try to ruin her because of it. Doesn't make her a saint, but he really isn't the poor innocent victim either.

Excellent point on the Irene parallel, too!

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Yes, Maberley was no innocent - he must have known what the score was before starting the affair.

And it's lovely to see you joining in here ^___^

[trobadora]

And even if he was completely blindsided - hell, even if she did break it off in the most cruel way possible - it still doesn't give him any right to her. I found that so frustrating.

(Thank you! Glad to be here.)

[alafaye]

It is rather OOC of Holmes to be so dismissive of this point, yes.

I couldn't help but see the parallel!

[trobadora]

Holmes feels very flat in this, compared to other stories. I suppose that's inevitable with a story that's not interested in exploring any of its inherent complexities.

[alafaye]

This should have been so much better with just a little shift, I think. Alas.

[alafaye]

Holmes did seem very off for this off. And not interested. 'Oh, a client? I suppose I should do something. I did help her husband.' Bah.

Adler handled things much more deftly I think, but if the two girls had talked, I do think Klein only listened to get an idea of what to do rather than take any true advice.

But yes, you are are right. She did have the right to say "okay it's over now." and to choose someone who would help her social position. Given how little thought Holmes gave the case, one could wonder if it wasn't mere stalking and hounding that Maberley did which caused his beating and we just never knew.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed your debut discussion post - you made such intriguing points.

And I just wanted to add that I like your idea of coming up with themes for each of the stories. Even if people don't use them for their 60s, I think it's rather interesting to reread the stories with particular themes in mind - it focuses your mind on fresh details.

[alafaye]

I was actually clear minded for this. Fingers crossed I can keep it up ;)

I thought it would be a fun idea even if no one uses it. And if my themes hep guide the discussions, so much the better! :)

[mafief.livejournal.com]

I’m a little late to the discussion party, but here goes!

I’m not a fan of this tale. The beginning dialogue between Holmes and Dixie feel like two separate conversations to me and how Holmes treats Dixie makes me uncomfortable. Through my modern interpretation of the encounter, it feels racist. However, I am not sure what was culturally acceptable and normal.

I agree that Holmes feels very OOC.

As for Douglas and Isadora, I have a hard time feeling sympathetic to either of them. It was a messy situation on both sides.

I was also thinking that Doyle wanted to write something about the theme of “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy”. The poem mentioned, La Belle Dame sans Merci (link here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Dame_sans_Merci)), also has a pronoun change in the first and last stanza. Maybe he heavily borrowed themes from this?

[alafaye]

Never too late --the discussion is open until Saturday.

It is an odd tale. From our viewpoint, yes, it is racist, but from what I understand, yes, it was normal for the time period.

Made more messy, too, by the interference of too many interested parties, I believe.

Oh, that is an interesting idea. Badly executed, but an interesting idea.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

I'm also late to the discussion, but hello! I don't have much new of interest to add -- I agree with everyone that it is a weak story with major elements of racism and sexism that make it unpleasant to read.

In the "how wrong was Maberley, how justified was Isadora?" discussion, I think I fall somewhere in the middle. Klein had the right to break off the affair, and Maberley had no right to hound her. The story's refusal to recognize this is sexist and gross.

However, although his attempt to ruin her reputation was malicious, I don't see it as being as bad as, for example, blackmail. Maberley had the right to write whatever he wanted, it's not a crime to say thinly-veiled mean things about an ex. I think it proves that he was a jerk, but we knew that already. I can't agree that it morally justified Klein in hiring people to have him physically assaulted.

"It was intolerable. At last I had to make him realize it.”
“By hiring ruffians to beat him under your own window.”
“You do indeed seem to know everything. Well, it is true."

I interpret that passage rather differently than scfrankles did above. To me Holmes seems to be saying, and Klein to be confirming, that she carefully staged the beating like a personal message to Maberley. That level of calculation makes the violence worse, in my opinion. It makes it harder for me to interpret it as defensive and I tend instead to interpret it as performative. Did she have the right to stop him hanging around her window? Absolutely. If she had called on the police to accomplish that much, I would have been all for it. But she didn't try the police because a) she wanted to keep it quiet, and b) she wanted to make sure he was physically roughed up, so she hired criminals to do it. It's even possible that she arranged a meeting with Maberley so that she could spring the ambush -- we just don't know.

So while I agree that Holmes in this story is far from reliable, and I share the frustration that others have expressed that our heroes do not condemn Maberley's sexist insistence that Klein owed him her love or her body, I wouldn't automatically assume that Maberley engaged in off-screen actions that turned Klein's violence into justified self-defense.

The story as written says: she dumped him, he stalked her, she had him physically assaulted, he vented his anger in writing, she tried legal and then illegal means to censor him and save her reputation. I don't find this narrative of events unbelievable, so I tend to accept it rather than assume there was a lot more to the story that we didn't hear. If you accept the basic narrative, I think it's fair to say they both behaved abusively toward each other. Maberley was the first offender, and the more societally privileged one -- news of the affair would not ruin him as it would her. His stalking was readily romanticized as a form of 'love.' But she escalated to violence. I can't side with either of them.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I agree with your final paragraph. Probably the only one who was innocent and suffered was Mrs Maberley, who lost a son.

[alafaye]

But gained a trip around the world.

[alafaye]

Not too late -- the discussion remains open until Sunday.

Oh I wish I could give your comment all it's due worth. (I might later when my brain comes back online tomorrow or Saturday. We'll see.)

All of your comment was spot on, I agree with it. Definitely not up to ACD's usual work -- one wonders how much further this might have spun out if he had done it as usual.