#* speaks

[holmesillustrations]

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Paget Eliminations

Other Artist Eliminations

Full captions and details for each illustration below the cut:

"The maid carried his supper to the stables." WH Hyde, Silver Blaze (Harper’s Weekly) Characters: Maid

[Swiss messenger lad] Harry C Edwards, Final Problem (McClure’s) Characters: Messenger

Colliers cover FD Steele, Black Peter (Collier’s) Characters: Holmes

"Sherlock Holmes examines the glasses." FD Steele, Abbey Grange (Collier’s) Characters: Holmes

"Before our prisoner had recovered his balance the door was shut and Holmes standing with his back against it." Arthur Twidle, Bruce-Partington Plans (The Strand) Characters: Holmes, Col Walter

"See!" she cried, "The miscreant follows still! There is the very man of whom I speak." FD Steele, Lady Frances Carfax (The American Magazine) Characters: Watson, Marie Devine, Hon. Phillip Green

"I heard him cock the gun, but i had got hold of it before he could fire." Frank Wiles, Valley of Fear (The Strand) Characters: Ted Baldwin, Douglas/McMurdo

"If I didn't dare things, mister, I wouldn't be in your service." FD Steele, His Last Bow (Collier’s) Characters: Holmes, Von Bork

[Interview with the clients] FD Steele, Creeping Man (Hearst’s International) Characters: Trevor Bennett, Edith Presbury, Watson, Holmes

"Shinwell Johnson's vivid black eyes were the only external sign of the very cunning mind within." JR Flanagan, Illustrious Client (Collier’s) Characters: Shinwell Johnson

"He sprang back when he saw that I was looking at him and vanished into the darkness." HK Elcock, Blanched Soldier (Strand) Characters: James Dodd, Godfrey Emsworth

"It was a head and a few bones of a mummy that must have been a thousand years old." FD Steele, Shoscombe Old Place (Liberty) Characters: Stephens (Butler), John Mason

[funnuraba]

Part 475 in the ongoing "Why Baxtance? How Baxtance?" series: We know that Baxter is very willing to marry into money and status, that being his entire purpose with "Miss Schoonmaker" in Summer Lightning. But what about Lady Constance? Why would she even think of marrying someone of his status?

Well, the thing is, for all that Connie is the most prominent snob in the family, being as she is the enforcer at Blandings... she's actually the least snobbish sister in her own marriages. Joe Keeble is specifically stated to be a complete no-name, not a member of the upper class, to the point that there was gossip about their marriage. True, he was super rich, but we're told on the highest authority that she married him out of love. Her next husband is James Schoonmaker, another self-made millionaire (60 million dollars would actually make him a billionaire today) with no family name to speak of--in fact, he's an American with no position in British society at all. We're told that he admires the British nobility (this time she picked a husband who's equally peeved when his daughter runs off with a poor man), but again, Connie's genuinely in love with him.

Meanwhile, of her sisters we know something about, they've mostly married military men (Julia, Hermione, Dora), presumably younger sons or nephews of the upper class who went into the military because they weren't in line for much income. Julia's husband at least was one of Galahad's pals, so presumably of the same class. Georgiana, the only one to marry up, scored a marquess.

There's also Florence, who's a peculiarity: married first to a man who left her several million dollars, and more recently to a random playwright??? Who has money trouble??? And Lord Emsworth, of all people, disapproved because he felt he was marrying her for her money???? Some truly wild things were shaping up in Subset at Blandings, because this flies in the face of everything we knew about the Threepwood family. Did she take a cue from the younger generation after seeing at least six marriages to the common folk? What on earth did her sisters have to say about this, coming right after Connie marries her second millionaire? We'll never know, because the book remains unfinished!

Anyway, wherever I was going with this, all roads lead to #BaxtanceReal

[fervour-a]

@gcminas​ liked for a starter ! ( 2 / 2 )

“you shouldn’t let people talk to you like that.” he murmurs, throwing a soft look in her direction. “or would you rather i roughed them up for you?” it’s added then, almost as a sudden musing; hand smacking against his fist dramatically, playfully. “i can be scary when i want to be.” 

[devoursjohnlock]

John Watson, James Sholto, and The Blanched Soldier

I haven’t been able to find any metas written about this, but TSOT was so long ago that perhaps parts of this have been discussed already. I read The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes recently, and since S4 appears to be all about the Case-book stories, it seems appropriate to write something on this one now. This story wasn’t at all what I expected it to be, even knowing Sherlock inside and out.

The Blanched Soldier is one of only two Sherlock Holmes stories that Holmes narrates himself:

“Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark that if I burden myself with a companion in my various little inquiries it is not done out of sentiment or caprice, but it is that Watson has some remarkable characteristics of his own to which in his modesty he has given small attention amid his exaggerated estimates of my own performances. A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate.“

But of course, the bulk of this story is not about Holmes and Watson at all; it’s about two soldiers with a very close relationship.

“We formed a friendship--the sort of friendship which can only be made when one lives the same life and shares the same joys and sorrows.“

... 91-year old spoilers and more under the cut.

James Dodd comes to Holmes as a client. Holmes describes him as “a big, fresh, sunburned, upstanding Briton” (sigh... here it is that I miss my Watson). After Holmes deduces Dodd’s military career from his tan, his face, and his accessories, Dodd explains that he is worried about his missing friend Godfrey.

Godfrey Emsworth is the missing former soldier. In the end, it turns out he hasn’t actually been missing; he’s been in hiding on his father’s estate. He has forcibly become a recluse because believes that he’s contracted leprosy, leaving him disfigured and a danger to those around him.

So far, so obvious. On the surface, it seems clear that James Dodd is represented in The Sign of Three by John, and Godfrey Emsworth by James Sholto. But, hold on a minute. That’s not right.

Godfrey Emsworth was released from service after being shot in the shoulder. Hmm.

Godfrey’s father, Charles Emsworth, was also a military man, and very tough on his son. He’s described as a bully and a martinet, linking him to the another hard-nosed military character on Sherlock, Major Barrymore.

Handshake denied by the martinet. (The Hounds of Baskerville)

We tend to think of men like Barrymore and Major Reed, who John interviews during The Sign of Three, as stand-ins for John’s father. They disrespect his military career, and they dismiss him out of hand. They don’t value him. It hurts.

“You could be a used car salesman, for all I know.” (The Sign of Three)

Just before this interview is interrupted, Reed realizes where he recognizes John from. He says with a sneer, “You hang around with that detective... the one with the silly hat.” These interactions, while small, are all we’re given to explain John’s present character, so of course we run with them. It sounds like John’s father was homophobic, and it sounds like John has internalized that to some extent.

“I’m not his date!” (A Study in Pink)

Godfrey has an abusive military father. He’s courageous and reckless. He had a close relationship with another soldier, whom he cannot see again. He left the war with a bullet in the shoulder and a scandalous secret, leprosy, so he needs to hide himself away. When approached, he literally flees from the man who loves him.

Godfrey is John, not Sholto. But John hasn’t been disfigured. Where’s the parallel there?

In The Blanched Soldier, when Holmes finally exposes that Godfrey has been living on his father’s estate, he brings along a specialist on skin conditions, who discovers that Godfrey had not, in fact, contracted leprosy at all. His lesions are real, but the cause was not contagious, but psychosomatic. Oh.

It’s starting to look like John’s psychosomatic limp is not solely linked to feelings of uselessness.

Doyle chose to leave Watson out of this story entirely, as a participant, as a first-person narrator, or even as a third-person narrator (which there is precedent for in the Case-book), despite his direct relevance as both a doctor and a soldier. Doyle wanted Watson as far away from this story as he could possibly place him. It’s easy to see why Mofftiss decided that the relationship between James and Godfrey must actually be a part of John Watson’s secret backstory, and why they needed to create Sholto’s character in The Sign of Three particularly, and why they gave John a psychosomatic limp in A Study in Pink to begin with.

In The Sign of Three, Sherlock saves Sholto’s life, not John’s, from a physical threat. In The Blanched Soldier, Holmes saves Godfrey Emsworth from a life of shame and isolation, and reunites him with his partner. In the context of Sherlock, the Blanched Soldier case can’t be resolved by saving Sholto’s life – it’s John he needs to save. Sherlock cured John’s limp in A Study in Pink, but he still has more to do.

Interesting that we’re reminded of the limp once again in The Lying Detective.

It’s also interesting that there are parallels between James Dodd’s experiences with Godfrey Emsworth’s father and Holmes’ experiences with Victor Trevor’s father in The Gloria Scott. Sounds like John and Sherlock will have a lot to talk about.

We’ve been given pieces of The Blanched Soldier in an episode of every series so far: ASIP, THOB, TSOT, and TLD. This story isn’t resolved yet.

@may-shepard @tjlcisthenewsexy @vanetti​ @jenna221b​ @darlingtonsubstitution​ @green-violin-bow​ @gloriascott93​ @sarahthecoat​ @inevitably-johnlocked​ @ebaeschnbliah​ @gosherlocked​