The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
This topic is about
The Adventure Of The Three Students
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
>
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Three Students
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
The Adventure of the Three Students (The Return of Sherlock Holmes)
Discussion Questions
1) Mr. Soames desperate to get Holmes’ help, rather than the police’s. Do you think this was the correct course of action? Why? Why not?
2) What did Holmes mean when he said “Not one of your cases, Watson— mental, not physical”?
3) Did you think at any point that Bannister’s grief was disproportionate to the situation, or were you convinced by his performance? If you were suspicious that his grief was over-the-top, what led you to this conclusion?
4) Did you have a main suspect out of the three students? If so, who, and why?
5) Who had the most to lose if the situation were to come to light? The students or Mr. Soames? Why?
This one was also fairly silly and minor. I suspected Gilchrist purely because he seemed the one painted least guilty.
I have to agree with Emily. Bannister sitting on the gloves to protect his incorrigible old master’s son was like something out of a Whitehall farce.
Gilchrist’s mad panic on the professor’s unexpected return had a similar sense of the slapstick.
The student’s admission and explanation also had me in stitches. His job in the Rhodesian police force sounded like a prison sentence in itself, one step up from transportation to the colonies.
https://gazetteer.sherlock-holmes.org...
The Adventure of the Three Students (The Return of Sherlock Holmes)
Availability The Return of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/108
Background Information
"The Adventure of the Three Students", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). It was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in June 1904 and in Collier's in the United States on September 24, 1904.
Publication History
"The Adventure of the Three Students" was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in June 1904, and in the US in Collier's on 24 September 1904. The story was published with seven illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand, and with nine illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's. It was included in the short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in the US in February 1905 and in the UK in March 1905.0
A Short Summary
Professor Soames suspects someone has accessed and copied the exam papers he is to administer the next day, leading him to seek Holmes' help. Holmes narrows the suspects to three students, focusing on their potential motives and opportunities. Holmes meticulously examines the scene, noticing seemingly insignificant details like pencil shavings, a broken pencil tip, and a small ball of black clay. Through his keen observation, Holmes deduces that the culprit is one of the students, Gilchrist, who is tall enough to see into Soames' window and whose spiked shoes left a scratch on the desk.
The story explores themes of academic integrity, jealousy, and the power of observation in solving mysteries. While not one of the most complex or thrilling Holmes stories, "The Adventure of the Three Students" showcases Holmes's deductive abilities and provides a glimpse into the workings of a university setting.