Abstract
Crowe provides an analysis centered on the idea of a Gestalt shift of the twelve Holmes stories anthologized in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Included are some of the very best Holmes stories such as “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Red-Headed League,” “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” and “The Man with the Twisted Lip.” Also included is an important statement by Professor Martin Willis.
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- 1.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 177.
- 2.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 181.
- 3.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 182.
- 4.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 177.
- 5.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 183.
- 6.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 186.
- 7.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 187.
- 8.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 194.
- 9.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 194.
- 10.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 194.
- 11.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 179.
- 12.
Martin Willis, Vision, Science, and Literature, 1870–1920: Ocular Horizons (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016), 167–169.
- 13.
Willis, Vision, 169.
- 14.
Willis, Vision, 170.
- 15.
Willis, Vision, 170.
- 16.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 205.
- 17.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 205.
- 18.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 207.
- 19.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 211.
- 20.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 212.
- 21.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 222.
- 22.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 222.
- 23.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 223.
- 24.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 228.
- 25.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 228.
- 26.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 231–232.
- 27.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 238.
- 28.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 239.
- 29.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 241.
- 30.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 249.
- 31.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 251.
- 32.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 250.
- 33.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 252.
- 34.
Knox wrote: “The first part is the Prooimion, a homely Baker Street scene, with invaluable personal touches, and sometimes a demonstration by the detective. Then follows the first explanation, or Exegesis … that is, the client’s statement of the case, followed by the Ichneusis, or personal investigation, often including the famous floor-walk on hands and knees. No. I is invariable, Nos. 2 and 3 almost always present.” Quoted from Michael J. Crowe (ed.). Ronald Knox and Sherlock Holmes: Five Writings by Ronald Knox (Indianapolis: Gasogene Books, 2010), 43.
- 35.
Doyle, When Holmes … case further. I, 257.
- 36.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 259.
- 37.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 277.
- 38.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 279.
- 39.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 280.
- 40.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 285.
- 41.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 285.
- 42.
Sherlockians have pointed out that Doyle himself did a bit of magic in this story. They have uncovered that geese do not have crops (Arthur Conan Doyle, The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, annotated by Leslie S. Klinger, vol. 1 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005), 224); that carbuncles come in many colors, but not blue (Klinger, Holmes, I, 203), and that geese could not be sold at Covent Gardens at that time, though vegetables, flowers, and fruit were. See D. Martin Dakin, A Sherlock Holmes Commentary (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1974), 74.
- 43.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 309. The verb used by Holmes seems significant. In one sense, Holmes is asking not only whether Watson can see the snake, but also whether Watson can understand the plan for the murder worked out by Roylott.
- 44.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 325.
- 45.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 325.
- 46.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 311.
- 47.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 343.
- 48.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 335.
- 49.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 337.
- 50.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 342.
- 51.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 343.
- 52.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 344.
- 53.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 345.
- 54.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 346.
- 55.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 351.
- 56.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 355.
- 57.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 356.
- 58.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 357.
- 59.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 357.
- 60.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 358.
- 61.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 369.
- 62.
Christopher Redmond, Sherlock Holmes Handbook, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009), 19.
- 63.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 375.
- 64.
Doyle, Holmes, I, 375.
- 65.
It is worth mentioning that some months after finishing the first draft of this book, I reread every chapter hoping to improve the book and check it central thesis. I found that in the first draft I had listed this story as not conforming to the Gestalt shift pattern! One factor that especially pointed me away from this analysis was my recognition of the importance of Holmes’s comments on the criminality of the countryside, especially when linked with my belief that it is vital to see the stories in a holistic manner.
Bibliography
Printed Sources
Crowe, Michael J. (ed.). Ronald Knox and Sherlock Holmes: Five Writings by Ronald Knox (Indianapolis: Gasogene Books, 2010).
Dakin, D. Martin, A Sherlock Holmes Commentary (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1974).
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, 2 vols. (New York: Doubleday, 1953).
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, annotated by Leslie S. Klinger, vol. 1 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005).
Redmond, Christopher, Sherlock Holmes Handbook, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009).
Willis, Martin. Vision, Science, and Literature, 1870–1920: Ocular Horizons (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016).
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Crowe, M.J. (2018). The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). In: The Gestalt Shift in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Stories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98291-5_3
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