Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

"These villains have coaxed this unhappy lady to London" [LADY]    Professor James Moriarty, Colonel Sebastian Moran, Dr. Grimesby Roylott — it seems as if the male villains in the Sherlock Holmes stories get all of our attention.   And yet, there are a number of women who are complicit in Canonical crime — and in some cases the instigators. Who are they and where do we find them? It's just a Trif...

"a rough familiarity" [LAST]    According to one Sherlockian scholar, there is material in "The Musgrave Ritual" that is strangely familiar. You may or may not have picked up on it before. We certainly didn't.   E. Butler Richards, in Vol. 9 of Baker Street Miscellanea , wonders if Watson or Holmes was pulling the wool over our eyes in this entry from an early part of Holmes's career. Does he succ...

"Funds were wanting, however" [STUD]    Not every case Sherlock Holmes took involved a crime. Often times, clients were dealing with a puzzling situation or a conundrum without a crime. And taking their cases to Sherlock Holmes was the best recourse.   And a number of these cases involved clients who were in a bit of a financial jam. Interestingly these cases all appeared in fairly close successio...

"Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society" [HOUN]    When James Mortimer, M.R.C.S. left behind his walking stick in The Hound of the Baskervilles , it was filled with clues — enough to lead Watson to his medical directory, which listed Mortimer as a member of the Swedish Pathological Society.   In his 2008 Morley-Montgomery Award-winning article in Vol. 58, No. 4 of The Baker Stree...

"To my astonishment it was Sherlock Holmes" [CROO] What if we told you that Watson wasn't exactly honest with readers in "The Crooked Man"? That his telling of the tale masked that it was actually he, and not Sherlock Holmes, who solved the case.   John Rabe, son of old Irregular W.T. Rabe ("Colonel Warburton's Madness") questions Watson's version of "The Crooked Man" in Vol. 76, No. 1 of The Bake...

"the business in the crypt" [SHOS]    If you experience claustrophobia, this may not be the episode for you. Because it's all about being shut up in close spaces. And it's the monthly "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" episode.   Denise M. Rogers walks us through the gothic theme shared between Edgar Allan Poe and some of the Sherlock Holmes stories in her Baker Street Miscellanea article "Crypts,...

"an exaggerated view of my scientific methods" [SUSS]    We consider Watson a reliable narrator. At least we hope he is. And yet there are a number of times when Sherlock Holmes accuses his Boswell of romanticizing the factual.   Is Holmes simply taking issue with how Watson writes with a more emotional and imaginative framework? Or is it possible that Watson was also exaggerating to make the stor...

"the hidden wickedness" [COPP]      Vincent Starrett eventually became the dean of American Sherlockians, widely recognized as the foremost expert and significant collector, in part due to his publication of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1933. This month's Morley-Montgomery Award episode comes to us from Starrett expert Ray Betzner, BSI ("The Agony Column") from Vol. 57, No. 3 of The Bake...

"As to your dates, that is the biggest mystification of all." [CREE]      If you want to know five different options for dates of a Sherlock Holmes story, all you have to do it get four chronologists together. Such is the case with "The Five Orange Pips."   In the mid-1990s, Les Klinger, BSI ("The Abbey Grange") looked at evidence within the story and external to it to determine if Watson's claim...

"spat out some atrocious word" [CREE]    One of the curiosities of Victorian and Edwardian life that doesn't get much attention, at least in Sherlockian conversation, is that of spats.   This curious piece of attire related to footwear gets a scant two mentions in all of the Sherlock Holmes stories (do you remember who is mentioned as wearing them?), but its history and evolution are even more fas...

"This little group forms the real family" [WIST]    Baker Street Miscellanea is the source of this month's Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist episode. Rev. Raymond Holly, in Number 50, Spring 1987, wondered who "The Real Three Garridebs" were. Or namely, one of them.   He brings us into French Napeleonic territory on this journey of discovery. How does Brigadier Gerard connect with the problems of N...

"he arranged a number of breadcrumbs" [PRIO]     Toast is a simple accompaniment of breakfast that we take for granted. We place bread in an appliance and minutes later, we have a perfect slice of toast.   It wasn't quite so simple in Victorian times. How was toast cooked in Mrs. Hudson's kitchen? And in which stories do we even find toast mentioned? It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question...

"researches which have a medico-criminal aspect" [DYIN]     This month, the Morley-Montgomery Award brings us up to the year 2006, when Harold Billings pulled out some serious research originating in Edinburgh.   His article "The Materia Medica of Sherlock Holmes" in Vol. 56, No. 3 of The Baker Street Journal helps us understand the sources Holmes may have used for his non-traditional education in...

"through the courtesy of Mr. Moriarty" [FINA]     As a student and practitioner of the latest forensic sciences as they pertained to the world of crime, Sherlock Holmes was on the cutting edge. He even wrote a number of monographs on topics related to crime.   One might think that among them we might find "on the use of fingerprints to identify criminals." This is not the case. Why, we even had tr...

"through the courtesy of Mr. Moriarty" [FINA]   Each month, we look at a bit of Sherlockian scholarship that deserves to be unearthed and explored. Together, we consider the trifling matter is concerns.   This month, we look at A.G. Macdonell's chapter "Mr. Moriarty" in the 1934 landmark publication Baker Street Studies , edited by H.W. Bell.  And it's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for...

"I can't stand his lordship" [MAZA]   For hapless Americans, the titles used by peers in the Sherlock Holmes stories can be vexing indeed. One would think that Sherlock Holmes would be able to keep things straight.   Between his devil-may-care attitude toward the upper class and Conan Doyle's own lack of breeding, Damian Thompson found a decided gap in the way certain members of the peerage are ti...

"It confirms my diagnosis, as you doctors express it." [SIGN]   Our latest Morley-Montgomery award episode features another dive into the medical world of Sherlock Holmes. But this time, it's about a diagnosis made by Dr. Watson.   In 2004, Costa Rossakis, MD, BSI ("St. Bartholomew's Hospital"), a trained cardiologist, investigated exactly what was going on with the nervous Thaddeus Sholto. His ar...

"we have had a close shave" [SIGN]  Holmes was always clean-shaven, Watson always had a mustache. This is the way of the world of Sherlock Holmes as we know it.   But they didn't arrive at that state naturally. Like any good Victorian gentleman who eschewed whiskers, they had to shave. As did others in the Canon. We explore a bit of the history of shaving and its applications. It's just a Trifle....

"a bit of professional business between two gentlemen" [3GAR]   In this month's Mr. Sherlock Holmes the theorist, we turn again to a bit of British scholarship from the 1950s.     James Edward Holroyd's chapter "Dr. Watson and Mr. Wilde" in Baker Street By-Ways does an exemplary job of comparing the timelines of the great detective and the great wit, who each had a connection to a certain dinner w...

"a methodical revenge" [STUD]     They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But what about when it's just threatened?   In this episode, we do a sweep of figures in the Sherlock Holmes stories who promised or exacted revenge. Did we catch them all? It's just a Trifle.     If you have a question for us, please email us at trifles@ihearofsherlock.com. If you use your inquiry on the show, we'll se...

"some strange and inexplicable horror in the background" [CARD]   This Morley-Montgomery award-winning article is the only one written under a pseudonym (thus far). In "The Case of 'J': A Psychoanalytic Case Study with Particular Attention to `Marriage Neurosis', one D.K. Andrews provides a 1920s medical journal-like case study.   In it, Dr. Andrews presents the background of an individual every S...

"You evidently do not know the Earl" [CHAS]     For modern audiences (particularly those not familiar with British aristocracy), the titles of the nobility could be a bit confusing. In the Sherlock Holmes stories, we find our fair share of dukes, barons, and lords. But what about earls?   There are only a handful of earls in the Canon, so in this episode, we spend a little time investigating the d...

"one of the brightest intellects of the University" [3STU]     Of the long-running debates about the Sherlock Holmes stories (the location of Watson's wound, the true dates of "The Red-Headed League," the location of 221B Baker Street), one of the most perennial is Sherlock Holmes's university.   There are cases to be made for each of the great universities, but it was Gavin Brend who made a defin...

"I must really know more before I leave him." [MISS]   Professor Moriarty. We know him as the arch-rival of Sherlock Holmes. In many ways, he was the original model for the supervillain. But what do we really know about him?   The answer is surprisingly little. And what we do know about him comes primarily from Sherlock Holmes. Join us as we dig a little deeper (or as deep as we can) on this Napol...

"whose interest is it that the letter should come out?" [SECO]   Season 10 kicks off with another Morley-Montgomery Award winning article from The Baker Street Journal  — a series we're continuing in which we look at notable pieces of Sherlockian scholarship about certain trifling issues.   In Vol. 52, No. 4, Robert Schultz, BSI ("The Gloria Scott ") examined "The Second Stain" for historical clue...