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The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
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The Complete Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
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The Adventure of the Abbey Grange (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Discussion Questions
1) Holmes almost always supports and informs law enforcement in his stories. What is the significance that in this story, he lets the clear culprit go free?
2) If you were listening to Captain Crocker tell his story, would you have made the same decision about his fate as Holmes? Why or why not?
3) How do you think Inspector Hopkins would have reacted if he had heard Captain Crocker’s truth?
4 )How does the theme of loyalty add to this story? How do the characters’ loyalties to each other drive the plot forward?
5) Who do you think is the real villain of this story? Who is the hero?
This one was interesting. In it Holmes disregards the letter of the law and instead embraces the spirit of the law. He knows that the Justice may be harsh towards the two culprits so he decided to look the other side.I think that this is quite courageous considering the time when it was written. Although there was earlier instances of the same disregard of the laws because of the circumstances.
There seem to be a lot of people trapped in unhappy marriages in this collection, and nowhere more explicitly than here where Lady Brackenstall couldn't help but make an impassioned speech on the subject even whilst supposedly grieving her husband.And I couldn't help but check when Conan Doyle himself remarried (1907, after the death of his first wife in 1906). And The Return was published in 1905. Of course, there's no suggestion his first wife was abusive or monstrous, but I wonder if he wasn't chafing somewhat during the writing of these?
Holmes and Watson as judge and jury was really taking the law into their own hands with an explicitness that goes beyond any we've seen!
I think that this was more than just an unhappy marriage. Brackenhall was physically abusive towards his wife and had harmed her. He deserved to be punished, but I would have preferred the law to do it. At that time, I’m not sure if the police would have prosecuted Sir Eustace but I wished his wife could have escaped him in a different way. She would have had to suffer the burden of his death on her conscience for the rest of her life.As for Holmes the match maker, (‘Come back in a year’) I would have advised the widow to be cautious. Her courtship with Brackenhall was brief and had disastrous consequences. The poor woman doesn’t want to be making the same mistake twice.
She hardly knew the sailor. They had a few brief meetings on board ship. I don’t think she could have brought him as her husband to Abbey Grange without suspicious gossip. Locals would probably have seen him lurking about on the night of the murder/killing.
As for Conan Doyle's marriage, for years his wife was suffering from a terminal illness (consumption/tuberculosis) during which time he fell in love with another woman. His wife never knew about the other women (as far as it is known) but the rest of his family did. Here are more details……
https://www.conandoyleinfo.com/life-c...
https://gazetteer.sherlock-holmes.org...
The Adventure of the Abbey Grange (The Return of Sherlock Holmes)
Availability The Return of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/108
Background Information
"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange", 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 September 1904, and was also published in Collier's in the United States on December 31, 1904.
Publication History
"The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in September 1904, and in the US in Collier's on December 31, 1904. The story was published with eight illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand, and with six 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.
A Short Review / Summary
Inspector Hopkins calls Holmes to investigate the death of Sir Eustace Brackenstall at his country estate, Abbey Grange, where he was found bludgeoned to death, apparently with a fireplace poker. Lady Brackenstall, Sir Eustace's wife, claims that three burglars, possibly the notorious Randall gang, broke into the house, attacked her, and killed her husband. Holmes, however, is skeptical of Lady Brackenstall's story and begins his own investigation, noticing inconsistencies and details that suggest a different narrative. Holmes discovers that Sir Eustace was a violent and abusive husband, and that Lady Brackenstall had a friend, Captain Croker, who had come to her rescue.