The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
This topic is about
The Adventure of the Dying Detective
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
>
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Dying Detective
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
The Adventure of the Dying Detective (His Last Bow)
Discussion Questions
1) Does Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ever explicitly detail Holmes’ finances? What does this tell us about the detective?
2) How do you perceive Holmes and Watson’s relationship in this story?
3) To what extent does Watson’s medical knowledge play a role in this story or in general?
4) How apparent is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s medical background?
Watson is looking particularly dandy in that image up above!The main appeal for me here was the affection between Holmes and Watson and how disagreeable Holmes makes himself to keep Watson away. More than an actual mystery, this is a story with emotional stakes.
I've lost the chronology a bit, but this is meant to be an early one, right? Watson still seems to be married.
Reading this story was interesting because half way I get that probably the doctor was involved with something. I have to noticed that there's no crime until that point, so maybe the crime had already happened.
What a contrast between the long distance travel of the Lady Carfax story and this one, with Holmes doing all the sleuthing from Baker Street in his supposed death bed.Yet another ingenious way of transmitting a deadly substance, this time a virus/bacteria, to an unwitting victim.
Could this have been Holmes’ best disguise, the one that made him look like he was about to die?
The stories in this collection do keep jumping around, this one going way back to when Watson was married.
Mrs, Hudson might have had a soft spot for Holmes, but how she managed to survive all his deadly and noxious substances scattered about his lodgings, I can’t imagine. She must have had a very strong constitution.
https://gazetteer.sherlock-holmes.org...
The Adventure of the Dying Detective (His Last Bow)
Availability His Last Bow: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2350
Background Information
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective", in some editions simply titled "The Dying Detective", is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories that were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was originally published in Collier's in the United States on November 22, 1913, and The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in December 1913. Together with seven other stories, it was collected in His Last Bow (published 1917)
Publication History
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" was published in the US in Collier's on November 22, 1913, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in December 1913. The story was published with three illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's, and with four illustrations by Walter Paget (Sidney Paget's brother) in the Strand. The story was included in the short story collection His Last Bow, which was published in the UK and the US in October 1917.
A Short Summary
"The Adventure of the Dying Detective" is a classic Sherlock Holmes story where Holmes feigns illness to lure out his nemesis, Culverton Smith, and expose his crimes, ultimately revealing a clever deception and a thrilling resolution.