![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Canon Re-read: The Norwood Builder
Jun. 20th, 2021 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mightymads- NORW gives us a delightful insight into Holmes and Watson's post-Reichenbach relationship. Even if there was any bitterness from Watson's side which he doesn't mention, Holmes is forgiven pretty soon. Watson sells his practice, moves back to Baker Street, and basically lives as Holmes's kept man, since he isn't even allowed to publish new stories. Then, some time later, he finds out that it was Holmes who bought his practice. What a sweet domestic idyll! UPD. What if Holmes providing for Watson financially and making it unnecessary for Watson to work is Holmes’s way of apology to Watson? After so many hardships Watson can live in leasure and do whatever he pleases, even write stories (to publish them some time in the future).
- Holmes is such a drama queen in this story! He always is, but this is a finest example. He whines that there's nothing interesting in the news with Moriarty's being gone. However, when MacFarlane arrives, he reads out to Holmes a newspaper report. Holmes, you dolt, you didn't even bother to check out a fresh issue before complaining!
- Wonderful Victorian remedies: Holmes offers MacFarlane a cigarette as a sedative after deducing that MacFarlane is an asthmatic. Always gets me.
- Watson has mastered Holmes's method and can easily follow Holmes's reasoning without an explanation from Holmes. So glad that Granada does justice to that.
- Holmes relies on Watson if a mission is dangerous. Holmes needs Watson's company and moral support. This story is such a balm.
- The terrible murderer Bert Stevens, who tried to trick Holmes into clearing his name. I want to know more about that case!
- Holmes's unhealthy eating behaviour. Maybe Holmes physically can't eat when he is agitated/under a mental strain? Does he have a nervous stomach or some other kind of an eating disorder?
- That moment when Holmes sees the fingerprint which wasn't there the night before: "An extraordinary change had come over his face. It was writhing with inward merriment. His two eyes were shining like stars. It seemed to me that he was making desperate efforts to restrain a convulsive attack of laughter." That I'd like to see in an adaptation, pronto.
- Holmes's theatrical antics. That's a highlight of the story because yes, it would have been dull if Holmes had just told Lestrade where to find Oldacre. Oh no, the true master always knows how to make a superb show.
NORW is one of my favourite canon stories: the softness of Holmes and Watson's relationship, the ingenuity of the case. ACD didn't list it among his favourite ones, but that didn't prevent him from using the same gimmick in a Holmes novel, no less. Maybe it wasn't as effective in VALL, and Holmes's astuteness does more damage than good there, but the idea itself is so spectacular that ACD returned to it.
- Holmes is such a drama queen in this story! He always is, but this is a finest example. He whines that there's nothing interesting in the news with Moriarty's being gone. However, when MacFarlane arrives, he reads out to Holmes a newspaper report. Holmes, you dolt, you didn't even bother to check out a fresh issue before complaining!
- Wonderful Victorian remedies: Holmes offers MacFarlane a cigarette as a sedative after deducing that MacFarlane is an asthmatic. Always gets me.
- Watson has mastered Holmes's method and can easily follow Holmes's reasoning without an explanation from Holmes. So glad that Granada does justice to that.
- Holmes relies on Watson if a mission is dangerous. Holmes needs Watson's company and moral support. This story is such a balm.
- The terrible murderer Bert Stevens, who tried to trick Holmes into clearing his name. I want to know more about that case!
- Holmes's unhealthy eating behaviour. Maybe Holmes physically can't eat when he is agitated/under a mental strain? Does he have a nervous stomach or some other kind of an eating disorder?
- That moment when Holmes sees the fingerprint which wasn't there the night before: "An extraordinary change had come over his face. It was writhing with inward merriment. His two eyes were shining like stars. It seemed to me that he was making desperate efforts to restrain a convulsive attack of laughter." That I'd like to see in an adaptation, pronto.
- Holmes's theatrical antics. That's a highlight of the story because yes, it would have been dull if Holmes had just told Lestrade where to find Oldacre. Oh no, the true master always knows how to make a superb show.
NORW is one of my favourite canon stories: the softness of Holmes and Watson's relationship, the ingenuity of the case. ACD didn't list it among his favourite ones, but that didn't prevent him from using the same gimmick in a Holmes novel, no less. Maybe it wasn't as effective in VALL, and Holmes's astuteness does more damage than good there, but the idea itself is so spectacular that ACD returned to it.
