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The Case of the Philosophers' Ring by Dr. John H. Watson
It is the summer before the outbreak of World War I. Holmes, at his Baker Street flat, receives a telegram from the brilliant young philosopher, Bertrand Russell, begging him to come to Cambridge to investigate the theft of a uniquely precious treasure - the mind of Ludwig Wittgenstein.
152 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
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83 people want to read
About the author
Randall Collins
58 books107 followers Dr. Randall Collins is an American sociologist who has been influential in both his teaching and writing. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various languages. Collins is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading contemporary social theorist whose areas of expertise include the macro-historical sociology of political and economic change; micro-sociology, including face-to-face interaction;and the sociology of intellectuals and social conflict. He has devoted much of his career and research to study society, how is it created and destroyed through emotional behaviors of human beings. He is considered to be one of the leading non-Marxist conflict theorists in the United States, and served as the president of the American Sociological Association from 2010 to 2011.
Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University of Virginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as a freelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago, Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles since finishing his undergraduate education. He has also written and contributed to several books with a range of topics such as the discovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.
Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.
Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University of Virginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as a freelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago, Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles since finishing his undergraduate education. He has also written and contributed to several books with a range of topics such as the discovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.
Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 15, 2012
This book was a rare/used-bookstore treasure find of my best college buddy, who gave it to me as a Christmas present (along with the other Holmes pastiche "The House of Silk" by Anthony Horowitz). Not wanting to read "Silk" before I finished the original Conan Doyle stories (since I believe "Silk" is meant to be a direct continuation of the original canon), I decided to start with this one.
I do not exaggerate when I say that this book is the most crackiest crackfest I have ever read in my entire LIFE -- and yet, somehow, it's still a (there's no other way to say it) f@#king awesome book. I'm still not entirely sure how Randall Collins was able to come up with something this insanely, bizarrely _cracked_ and still make it a great read, but I suspect it all boils down to the fact that the crack seems to have been done quite deliberately. What results is a bizarrely wild ride that really sort of defies description.
The premise -- that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson become entangled in a case involving the culture-changing philosophers of the early 20th century -- is a neat one (and one which I'm surprised more pastiche writers haven't played with). How that premise manifests itself, however, has to be read to be believed.
Here is a list of things which actually happen:
- A group of Edwardian hippies stage a vague peace protest outside a college campus.
- A radical feminist uses a psychically/philosophy-controlled Jedi mind trick to escape from one of the campus admins. (And of course it works on poor Watson too.)
- There are heavy-handed Alice in Wonderland allusions, including the "White Rabbit" showing up in the form of a white-uniformed cricket player. Also there is the Cheshire Cat.
- Betrand Russell, who is an actual character, brings up the Apostles, which I believe is basically like the Yale Skull and Bones society but for British atheist philosophers attending Cambridge. These are all real things, but it doesn't make it any the less insane.
- Holmes has to keep trying to talk to philosophers, who insist on responding in non-answers. Because, y'know, What Is Truth and blah blah blah. It makes me wish I'd read this book back in college because I think I could have taken a page from his book in how to talk to Purposefully Difficult People whilst conversing with philosophy-obsessed fellow students. ("Let us try another tack.")
- This dialogue exchange between Watson and Holmes actually occurs:
"Dastardly! Is there not more honor among intellectuals?"
"I scarcely know of a realm in which there is less."
- Arthur Conan Doyle makes a cameo -- a move which COULD have been corny and stupid, but which was done so beautifully it made me grin like an idiot.
And this is just a small sampling. (I'm leaving out the details of several of the seriously bizarre scenes in order to avoid spoiling the truly cracked-out moments.) At the risk of repetition: it's a bizarre, bizarre book. Which, I suppose, is perfectly in fitting with this pastiche's particular subject matter.
So why did I love it? Two reasons: one, the crack was, instead of stupid or corny, a whole lot of fun. But the other was because it turned out to have some real suspense and surprisingly high stakes. Halfway through, our villain is revealed: Aleister Crowley himself. THAT is a real-life villain worthy of Sherlock Holmes, on par (if for vastly different reasons) with the common pastiches of Holmes hunting down Jack the Ripper. The inclusion of Crowley pushes things from bizarre, cracked-out fun to seriously sinister, and there's nothing I love more than a story with epically high stakes. By far, my favorite scene of the novel happens about halfway through, when Holmes and Watson first encounter Aleister Crowley, and Holmes and Crowley basically have a psychic throw-down, with Holmes battling to save Watson from being swept up into Crowley's psychic mind-tricks. It is, as I say, sort of epic.
... because, yes, psychic forces are real things in "The Case of the Philosophers' Ring," which may or may not be in keeping with Conan Doyle's original stories. Then again, Conan Doyle himself became heavily involved in spiritualism towards the end of his life, so maybe that's not as impossible a combination as it sounds. (Although, admittedly, Conan Doyle's spiritualism was of a different sort than, say, Annie Besant's. But it's a point worth considering.)
What all this adds up to is one of the most unique books -- both among Holmes pastiches and novels in general -- that I have ever read. If you have any interest in Sherlock Holmes or the history of the changing age of modern philosophy ... or if you're just looking for a great cracked-out read ... give this one a whirl. I promise you've never read anything like it!
I do not exaggerate when I say that this book is the most crackiest crackfest I have ever read in my entire LIFE -- and yet, somehow, it's still a (there's no other way to say it) f@#king awesome book. I'm still not entirely sure how Randall Collins was able to come up with something this insanely, bizarrely _cracked_ and still make it a great read, but I suspect it all boils down to the fact that the crack seems to have been done quite deliberately. What results is a bizarrely wild ride that really sort of defies description.
The premise -- that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson become entangled in a case involving the culture-changing philosophers of the early 20th century -- is a neat one (and one which I'm surprised more pastiche writers haven't played with). How that premise manifests itself, however, has to be read to be believed.
Here is a list of things which actually happen:
- A group of Edwardian hippies stage a vague peace protest outside a college campus.
- A radical feminist uses a psychically/philosophy-controlled Jedi mind trick to escape from one of the campus admins. (And of course it works on poor Watson too.)
- There are heavy-handed Alice in Wonderland allusions, including the "White Rabbit" showing up in the form of a white-uniformed cricket player. Also there is the Cheshire Cat.
- Betrand Russell, who is an actual character, brings up the Apostles, which I believe is basically like the Yale Skull and Bones society but for British atheist philosophers attending Cambridge. These are all real things, but it doesn't make it any the less insane.
- Holmes has to keep trying to talk to philosophers, who insist on responding in non-answers. Because, y'know, What Is Truth and blah blah blah. It makes me wish I'd read this book back in college because I think I could have taken a page from his book in how to talk to Purposefully Difficult People whilst conversing with philosophy-obsessed fellow students. ("Let us try another tack.")
- This dialogue exchange between Watson and Holmes actually occurs:
"Dastardly! Is there not more honor among intellectuals?"
"I scarcely know of a realm in which there is less."
- Arthur Conan Doyle makes a cameo -- a move which COULD have been corny and stupid, but which was done so beautifully it made me grin like an idiot.
And this is just a small sampling. (I'm leaving out the details of several of the seriously bizarre scenes in order to avoid spoiling the truly cracked-out moments.) At the risk of repetition: it's a bizarre, bizarre book. Which, I suppose, is perfectly in fitting with this pastiche's particular subject matter.
So why did I love it? Two reasons: one, the crack was, instead of stupid or corny, a whole lot of fun. But the other was because it turned out to have some real suspense and surprisingly high stakes. Halfway through, our villain is revealed: Aleister Crowley himself. THAT is a real-life villain worthy of Sherlock Holmes, on par (if for vastly different reasons) with the common pastiches of Holmes hunting down Jack the Ripper. The inclusion of Crowley pushes things from bizarre, cracked-out fun to seriously sinister, and there's nothing I love more than a story with epically high stakes. By far, my favorite scene of the novel happens about halfway through, when Holmes and Watson first encounter Aleister Crowley, and Holmes and Crowley basically have a psychic throw-down, with Holmes battling to save Watson from being swept up into Crowley's psychic mind-tricks. It is, as I say, sort of epic.
... because, yes, psychic forces are real things in "The Case of the Philosophers' Ring," which may or may not be in keeping with Conan Doyle's original stories. Then again, Conan Doyle himself became heavily involved in spiritualism towards the end of his life, so maybe that's not as impossible a combination as it sounds. (Although, admittedly, Conan Doyle's spiritualism was of a different sort than, say, Annie Besant's. But it's a point worth considering.)
What all this adds up to is one of the most unique books -- both among Holmes pastiches and novels in general -- that I have ever read. If you have any interest in Sherlock Holmes or the history of the changing age of modern philosophy ... or if you're just looking for a great cracked-out read ... give this one a whirl. I promise you've never read anything like it!
April 23, 2019
This book had been in my library for many years now, sandwiched between my complete hardback copy of Sherlock Holmes adventures and Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. But never read because of that almighty enemy known as time. Randall Collins is by trade, a sociologist, a very famous one as a matter of a fact who has dabbled in fiction from time to time.
After diving into this one for a week over the Easter holiday, I can safely say I think I have had my fill for the time being of people trying to write in Doyle's voice about the legendary character. And yes, this comes from a guy who has read all of the adventures and watched most of the shows and movies for that matter. From Basil Rathbone to Johnny Lee Miller would be a good description of my experience.
Anyway, in this particular story we join along with Holmes and Watson as they dive into the Cambridge Apostles when Bertrand Russell sends a letter to Holmes begging him to come and investigate the disappearance of one Ludwig Wittgenstein. But that mystery is only truly the cusp of what is going on and the real mystery claims more than one professor being lost.
The book certainly has all of the markings of a Holmes novel with the detective being able to piece together the clues with pinpoint accuracy while Watson adds a few jibs to cover the gaps. The various supporting characters add reasonable elements to the story all the while keeping together a good story that moves reasonably from scene to scene.
I normally consider myself to be somewhat intelligent but I found this book should have come with a warning label. Somewhere between the mathematical equations strewn across the book or the dialog between the characters seems to require the IQ of well, dare I say a sociologist professor. For 152 pages, I guess I was expecting something a little less daunting.
I also believe that all Holmes' stories should have the ability to be logically explained. This means that any elements of the supernatural are to be explained or dispelled before the final curtain falls. Sorry, in this book there are few things, particularly with the character Aleister Crowley (Annie Besant as well) that take a leap of faith in order to understand.
In summary, I found that despite the yellowed cover and masterful intentions in "unearthing" a grand story have somewhat not worked out as planned by Randall Collins. Not to say that the story is not decent but rather it doesn't feel all that authentic to what I picture a Holmes story to be. My recommendation is stick with your typical Sherlock story and stay away from other traps such as this.
After diving into this one for a week over the Easter holiday, I can safely say I think I have had my fill for the time being of people trying to write in Doyle's voice about the legendary character. And yes, this comes from a guy who has read all of the adventures and watched most of the shows and movies for that matter. From Basil Rathbone to Johnny Lee Miller would be a good description of my experience.
Anyway, in this particular story we join along with Holmes and Watson as they dive into the Cambridge Apostles when Bertrand Russell sends a letter to Holmes begging him to come and investigate the disappearance of one Ludwig Wittgenstein. But that mystery is only truly the cusp of what is going on and the real mystery claims more than one professor being lost.
The book certainly has all of the markings of a Holmes novel with the detective being able to piece together the clues with pinpoint accuracy while Watson adds a few jibs to cover the gaps. The various supporting characters add reasonable elements to the story all the while keeping together a good story that moves reasonably from scene to scene.
I normally consider myself to be somewhat intelligent but I found this book should have come with a warning label. Somewhere between the mathematical equations strewn across the book or the dialog between the characters seems to require the IQ of well, dare I say a sociologist professor. For 152 pages, I guess I was expecting something a little less daunting.
I also believe that all Holmes' stories should have the ability to be logically explained. This means that any elements of the supernatural are to be explained or dispelled before the final curtain falls. Sorry, in this book there are few things, particularly with the character Aleister Crowley (Annie Besant as well) that take a leap of faith in order to understand.
In summary, I found that despite the yellowed cover and masterful intentions in "unearthing" a grand story have somewhat not worked out as planned by Randall Collins. Not to say that the story is not decent but rather it doesn't feel all that authentic to what I picture a Holmes story to be. My recommendation is stick with your typical Sherlock story and stay away from other traps such as this.
August 26, 2016
Wow - The Case of the Philosophers' Ring was definitely different. It started off strong, but slowed down some in middle. It was a pretty fun read, but not what I was expecting from a Sherlock and Watson story.
October 5, 2020
Una gran idea inicial pero desgraciadamente mal resuelta para mi gusto.
December 10, 2025
Some good stories! Of course we know who the bad guy turns out to be ha ha!
May 25, 2013
I enjoyed the book for the first 7 chapters, at which point it went downhill fast. It could just be my sensibilities, but if you want to read Holmes as written by someone other than Conan Doyle, I'd recommend House of Silk well above this.
November 28, 2016
I've read this out of purely academic interest. A decent sample of the genre features everyone who's anyone on the English intellectual scene at the beginning of XX century. Some bits of it are quite funny.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews