A Study in Emerald: impressions
Dec. 29th, 2019 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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victorian221bA Study in Emerald, in all its iterations, is delightful. The graphic novel was a feast to the eyes, and it was fun to listen to Neil Gaiman reading, while the print version is available on Neil Gaiman’s website for free.
The world of the short story took me in instantly. It’s such a curious mirror universe where the world is ruled by Lovecraftian monsters. So in this case, loyal subjects of the Crown (the protagonists) are baddies while anarchists (the outlaws) are good. Both the narrative and the drawing style are exquisite.
The idea that Moriarty and Moran are Holmes and Watson’s mirrors is developed to its utmost. I especially enjoyed that in the graphic novel Moriarty and Holmes are lookalikes.
Also, A Study in Emerald must have influenced Petr Kopl’s graphic novels because there is a similar way of introducing small skits as funny advertisements between the chapters.
And then there is a paragraph which can rival with the canon in its romantic tension between the two protagonists, when the consulting detective says to his companion:
“I have a feeling that we were meant to be together. That we have fought the good fight side by side, in the past or in the future, I do not know. I am a rational man, but I have learned the value of a good companion, and from the moment I clapped eyes on you, I knew I trusted you as well as I do myself. Yes. I want you with me.”
The companion fully reciprocates:
“I blushed, or said something meaningless. For the first time since Afghanistan I felt that I had worth in the world.”
Another point: the circumstances of the murder seem to be a reference to Jack the Ripper.
Of course there are numerous parallels with STUD and SCAN and references to other cases, but it’s the ending I liked the most. Just as in SCAN, the detective is outwitted by his adversary. In SCAN Irene Adler flees with her husband Godfrey Norton, while in this story Holmes escapes with Watson and writes to Moriarty something like “too late, but you played well”.
The world of the short story took me in instantly. It’s such a curious mirror universe where the world is ruled by Lovecraftian monsters. So in this case, loyal subjects of the Crown (the protagonists) are baddies while anarchists (the outlaws) are good. Both the narrative and the drawing style are exquisite.
The idea that Moriarty and Moran are Holmes and Watson’s mirrors is developed to its utmost. I especially enjoyed that in the graphic novel Moriarty and Holmes are lookalikes.
Also, A Study in Emerald must have influenced Petr Kopl’s graphic novels because there is a similar way of introducing small skits as funny advertisements between the chapters.
And then there is a paragraph which can rival with the canon in its romantic tension between the two protagonists, when the consulting detective says to his companion:
“I have a feeling that we were meant to be together. That we have fought the good fight side by side, in the past or in the future, I do not know. I am a rational man, but I have learned the value of a good companion, and from the moment I clapped eyes on you, I knew I trusted you as well as I do myself. Yes. I want you with me.”
The companion fully reciprocates:
“I blushed, or said something meaningless. For the first time since Afghanistan I felt that I had worth in the world.”
Another point: the circumstances of the murder seem to be a reference to Jack the Ripper.
Of course there are numerous parallels with STUD and SCAN and references to other cases, but it’s the ending I liked the most. Just as in SCAN, the detective is outwitted by his adversary. In SCAN Irene Adler flees with her husband Godfrey Norton, while in this story Holmes escapes with Watson and writes to Moriarty something like “too late, but you played well”.
