Sherlock Holmes 2025: Week 06/Story 03 - Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, The

[Gem , Moderator]

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes)

Availability The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/834

Background Information

"The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The story was originally published in The Strand Magazine (UK) and Harper's Weekly (US) in September 1893. This story introduces Holmes's elder brother Mycroft. Doyle ranked "The Greek Interpreter" seventeenth in a list of his nineteen favorite Sherlock Holmes stories.

Publication History

"The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" was first published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in September 1893, and in the US in Harper's Weekly (under the title "The Greek Interpreter") on September 16, 1893. It was also published in the US edition of The Strand Magazine in October 1893. The story was published with eight illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand, and with two illustrations by W. H. Hyde in Harper's Weekly. It was included in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in December 1893 in the UK and February 1894 in the US.

A Short Review



For two years, the short Sherlock Holmes stories had been published in The Strand Magazine, and the powers of the consulting detective were well established. In "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter," though, Conan Doyle introduced a figure whose skills potentially outstripped those of his most famous creation.

This figure was of course Mycroft Holmes, but Mycroft Holmes did not have the inclination, nor the energy, to undertake the same kind of work his brother did.

The case is not a difficult one for Sherlock Holmes to solve, for indeed, some of the preparatory work, in the form of newspaper advertisements, has already been undertaken. In investigating the case though, there is a certain amount of urgency that is not always present in Sherlock Holmes tales.

In the end, the urgency doesn’t allow him to apprehend the criminals, but as with other cases where the criminals appear to escape, justice does seemingly catch up to them.

The episode would be adapted for television by Granada TV; and in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett would star as the detective. This adaptation kept fairly close to the original storyline, although Mycroft Holmes had been introduced in an earlier episode, and also the ending was amended, with the criminals being captured by Holmes.

[Gem , Moderator]

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes)
Discussion Questions

1) What is the purpose of the Diogenes Club?

2) Why is Mr. Melas kidnapped? What lengths do his kidnappers take to ensure that he cannot lead anyone back to them?

3) Why do you think Mr. Melas’s kidnappers choose to let him go, rather than killing him?

4) If Mycroft is as brilliant as Sherlock, why do you think, he placed ads in the paper requesting information about missing man? Did he not think far enough ahead to understand the the kidnappers would suspect Mr. Melas? Or was there another reason?

5) Who is J. Davenport? How does he help the Holmes brothers and Watson solve the mystery?

6) Based on the ending of the story, do you think that Sophy and her brother were avenged?

[Lori, Moderator]

Mr. Melas didn't seem to care much for his safety, since he immediately told the police what happened, so I guess Mycroft was following his lead. But I was wondering why Sherlock didn't just take Mr. Melas with him when he and Watson left, since they would have been safer together. I suppose Sophy stabbed the two men, and good riddance.

[Emmeline]

Lori wrote: "Mr. Melas didn't seem to care much for his safety, since he immediately told the police what happened, so I guess Mycroft was following his lead. But I was wondering why Sherlock didn't just take M..."

Yes, this seemed another case of Holmes (and his brother) playing fast and loose with client safety. But I agree Mr Melas wasn't taking many precautions anyway.

I like this story. Mycroft is a fun introduction, though I was unconvinced by the way he "bested" Holmes when they analyzed that man on the street. Would Holmes really not notice the two gifts for children of different ages? Unlikely I thought. Nonetheless, I love the idea of a cleverer brother who simply cannot be bothered to get up and investigate.

[Frances, Moderator]

I also love the idea of the superior brother-I wonder whether Agatha Christie incorporated some of Mycroft into Hercule Poirot, who prefers to sit in his armchair and use his little grey cells rather than run about searching for clues and in fact mocks the Sherlockian way of investigating carried on by Japp and other police investigators.

[Ian]

I suspect that Mycroft had a lot to do with Nero Wolfe as well.

Analogs to a whole lot of literary detectives and their associates appear in a series of alternate history stories by Randall Garrett, the Lord Darcy series.

E.g. Nero Wolfe shows up as the Marquess of London, in a twentieth century in which the Plantagenets still govern an Anglo-French empire, and psychic powers were developed instead of physical science. For example, they can communicate by “telecom,” but no one understands why it works.

The brilliant Lord Darcy’s “Watson” is not a physician but a Forensic Sorcerer, who provides the detective with essential evidence as a combined Medical Examiner and CSI squad, instead of recounting cases.

[Ian]

The Lord Darcy detective stories appear in the collections Lord Darcy Investigates and Murder and Magic, and the novel Too Many Magicians. Most originally appeared in the science fiction magazine Analog, starting in the 1960s, one of the better results of the editor’s practice of treating psychic powers (“psionics”)as a scientific phenomenon. The late Randall Garrett’s “rational” accounts of how “magic” actually works in practice is a main feature for many readers.

[Trev]

If the Diogenes club really existed I would join immediately.

However I would demand changes, according to the philosophy of Diogenes, including the use of ten foot diameter jars scattered around the study to escape into away from the modern world.

I would demand that the lights are lit at sunrise and turned off at dusk. Unlike Mycroft’s club, newspapers and other news providing devices would be banned because all they do is encourage materialistic personal greed. There would be large windows facing out on to the London streets so that the members could frown at people passing by worrying about money.

The place would be full of plants other natural phenomena in order to provide an oasis, a sanctuary away from the avaricious lust of monetarism.

The only meals provided would be lettuce leaves which you had to wash yourself.

Human nature tells me that this would a great place to be a member……….

Apart from the introduction of Mycroft (and the idea of the Diogenes club) the story itself was a bit underwhelming for me.

Conan Doyle has already used the ‘driving around in a carriage with blocked up windows’ in a previous story.

It was another one where the criminals got away, at least for a time.

The Greek woman would now live the rest of her life in fear of being arrested for murder ( if she did do the stabbings) not to mention always feeling the sickening guilt of being the cause of her brother’s death. All for the ‘love’ of a devious man.

I think I really prefer the Jeremy Brett TV ending to Doyle’s conclusion and I certainly understand why they changed it, although normally I would frown on such sacrilege.