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The Adventure of the Three Gables
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
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The Complete Sherlock Holmes - The Adventure of the Three Gables
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The Adventure of the Three Gables (The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes)
Discussion Questions
1) What does Sherlock Holmes say to Dixie so that he backs off on his warning against Holmes?
2) What does Mrs. Maberley’s lawyer tell her about the legal agreement that was drawn up to sell her house?
3) How did Holmes suspect that what occurred at Mrs. Maberley’s home was not a normal burglary?
4) Why do you think Susan the maid was eavesdropping on Holmes and Mrs. Maberley’s conversation at the Three Gables house?
5) Why did Holmes advise Mrs. Maberley to have her lawyer stay with her in her home?
6) What was the manuscript that led to Isadora Klein hiring Barney Stockdale to steal from within Mrs. Maberley’s home about?
Langsdale Pike: he contributed every week to the garbage papers who cater to our inquisitive public” ha ha!Just like our tabloid Press, I thought!
Another distasteful story. Holmes’ sense of justice is certainly awry in this one. The woman he lets off with a fine of £5000 is a hardened criminal who has driven a fine young man to his death, had an old lady drugged and hospitalised and thinks nothing of organising thugs to beat up anyone who gets in her way. The aristocratic Duke that she is marrying may not be up to much but surely he needs protecting from her?
The author’s description and characters’ comments regarding Holme’s would-be assailant were excrutiatingly awful to read even with an awareness of the inherent racist opinions of the period.
https://gazetteer.sherlock-holmes.org...
100% with you Trev.And the racial attitudes contrasted weirdly with the more open-minded take in "The Yellow Face," though it reminds me a bit of the depiction of the Sumatra Islander in The Sign of Four.
The editor of my version went so far as to suggest ACD didn't write this. Not sure I agree, but definitely a low point.
The Adventure of the Three Gables (The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes)
Availability The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69700
Background Information
"The Adventure of the Three Gables" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, collected as one of 12 in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1926 as a serial.
Publication History
"The Adventure of the Three Gables" was first published in the US in Liberty in September 1926, and in the UK in The Strand Magazine in October 1926. The story was published with six illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Liberty, and with four illustrations by Howard K. Elcock in the Strand. It was included in the short story collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in the UK and the US in June 1927.
A Short Review / Summary
"The Adventure of the Three Gables" by Arthur Conan Doyle is a suspenseful and cleverly plotted short story featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The story revolves around a mysterious series of incidents at a house called Three Gables and a threat to an upcoming examination. While some criticize the story for its outdated portrayal of a character, others appreciate it for its classic Holmesian mystery and suspense.
Commentaries
"The Adventure of the Three Gables" has been criticized for its reliance on racist stereotypes in the portrayal of the black boxer, Steve Dixie. This contrasts strikingly with Doyle's earlier sympathetic portrayal of an interracial marriage, in "The Adventure of the Yellow Face".
D. Martin Dakin wrote that "no admirer of Holmes can read these scenes [with or discussing Steve Dixie] without a blush". Dakin saw Holmes's crude jeers at Dixie as completely out of character for the detective, and this was one reason behind his conclusion that someone other than Doyle had in fact written the story. Others, including Walter Pond, have rejected Dakin's argument and concluded that there is no reason to doubt Doyle's authorship.