Silver Blaze re-read

[mightymads]

It's a great story on so many levels! Holmes and Watson's interaction is beautiful: Holmes highly values Watson's input in the case and considers Watson's involvement a great favour. We also have glimpses of Holmes's fallible, human side: he states himself that he'd made a blunder and that he is far from the image of the ideal reasoner he would like to be, that which Watson presents in the stories. Watson is always low-key about his own merits, but this story is one of the best examples how Watson complements Holmes to perfection. He hears out Holmes's reasoning which helps Holmes to have a clear picture (the way Watson does it, though: "I lay back against the cushions, puffing at my cigar..." Quite a languid Bohemian, isn't he?). Then Watson offers his medical expertise, confirming Holmes's conjectures, and identifies the cataract knife for what it is—an instrument for a delicate operation (no doubt here ACD's own training in ophthalmology came in handy)—and thus pushes Holmes into the right direction. He also observes the returning trail of footsteps while Holmes is focused on the other trail and fails to notice it. His help is so substantial, but he, as always, just waves it off and gives all the spotlight to Holmes, like a modest and loving partner he is.

Watson is fiercely protective of Holmes and just has to retort when Colonel is disdainful towards Holmes. I'm pretty sure the exchange between the Colonel and Watson would have escalated to high words had not Holmes entered the room. As ever, Watson reads Holmes excellently: he can tell that Holmes arrived at some conclusions, and it is he who touches Holmes lightly, arousing him from the reverie. When Holmes solves the case, he playfully pinches Watson's arm, and Watson has no objection whatsoever about pranking the Colonel who wasn't nice to Holmes.

In this story Holmes's "ear-flapped travelling cap" makes an appearance. I googled it for fun, and it seems that rather than a deerstalker it could be this:


or this:



See this tumblr post for more interesting info.

This story features another reference to Romani people as a red herring. There was already one in SPEC, so this becomes a running gag of sorts.

£37 in 1888 is £4,845.30 in 2019. Quite a costly dress indeed!

Now to inaccuracies in this story. In his autobiography ACD himself admitted that he knew next to nothing about horse racing and didn't bother to research:

Sometimes I have got upon dangerous ground where I have taken risks through my own want of knowledge of the correct atmosphere. I have, for example, never been a racing man, and yet I ventured to write "Silver Blaze," in which the mystery depends upon the laws of training and racing. The story is all right, and Holmes may have been at the top of his form, but my ignorance cries aloud to heaven. I read an excellent and very damaging criticism of the story in some sporting paper, written clearly by a man who did know, in which he explained the exact penalties which would have come upon every one concerned if they had acted as I described. Half would have been in jail and the other half warned off the turf for ever. However, I have never been nervous about details, and one must be masterful sometimes. When an alarmed Editor wrote to me once: "There is no second line of rails at that point," I answered, "I make one." On the other hand, there are cases where accuracy is essential.

Naturally, I had to find out what exactly was wrong. This is a superb explanation, with lots of in-depth info. Highly recommend it!

Comments

[mightymads]

The characters are indeed are very well-drawn, and the story is very nicely balanced, with just enough exposition and action, and Holmes is at his finest. Besides, according to the source I’ve mentioned above, the Granada adaptation fixed ACD’s blunders regarding horse racing :)