Victorian 221b

David Burke turned 87 yesterday :D

 

I've already recommended these two podcasts, but there are recent episodes I'd like to mention.

1) On March 22 History Extra posted an episode about ACD and the real life case he investigated. In 1903, a case of George Edalji, a Parsee lawyer who had been unjustly convicted, was brought to Doyle's attention. At that time Doyle had a crisis in his personal life: his first wife had died of tuberculosis, and he felt guilty because he was in love with another woman who was to become his second wife. The Edalji case helped Doyle to overcome his depression. It was a just cause: he set out to obtain a full pardon for the man labeled as a criminal due to racism which was commonplace in the Edwardian Britain.

Hate mail & mutilated horses: Conan Doyle investigates

Note: descriptions of mutilated animals are not very graphic, but still the content might be sensitive for some people.


2) Just yesterday Caroline Crampton posted another brilliant episode of her Shedunnit podcast. This episode is dedicated to Hercule Poirot and the way he is portrayed in various adaptations. Caroline also provides Poirot's backstory, how Agatha Christie created him, and how her atitude toward him evolved throughout the years.

The Many Afterlives of Hercule Poirot

Hello everyone! There's been a lull in this comm due to RL things, and the read along is temporarily on hiatus, but soon we'll be back. Meanwhile, I'd like to talk about two awesome podcasts I've been listening to for the past few weeks. 

The first one is History Extra podcast, produced by BBC History Magazine. There is a HUGE number of episodes, covering various topics from pre-historical to contemporary periods. I'm listening to it by selecting episodes which interest me, such as Victorian Medicine, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Victorians, Identifying Jack the Ripper, Science and Suffrage, The Roaring 1920s: Roaring or Tame?, etc. The episodes are structured as interviews with historians, writers, educators, and other specialists. For example, for the Victorian Medicine the hosts invited Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, the author of The Butchering Art, a book luthienberen recommended a while ago and which I am still to read. Dr. Fitzharris shared her in-depth knowledge of medical history in a fascinating interview. She is a really good storyteller which is important for the podcast format. Sometimes I couldn't finish an episode with an intriguing topic because the interviewee was boring, but Dr. Fitzharris was certainly not the case. Despite the gruesome aspects of medical realities of the early 19th century her tale was a sheer pleasure to listen to.

The episodes about the Suffrage movement were very interesting and insightful too. In one of them the host and the interviewee discussed terrorist methods which were employed by the Suffragettes, their motives, the price they payed for their beliefs, and the questionable morality of achieving higher goals with such means.

I'll continue to listen to this podcast for a long time still, since there are so many episodes. If you already knew about this podcast and have favourite episodes, please let me know in the comments!

I've learned about the second one from an episode of History Extra called The Big Questions of LGBTQ History. A very interesting episode in itself, it also referred to a podcast called Bad Gays. The Bad Gays podcast is hosted by Huw Lemmey, a writer and novelist, and Ben Miller, a writer, historian, and member of the board of the Gay Museum in Berlin. The hosts approach each episode in a creative way, studying their sources minutely and providing backstories of the people they talk about. Namely, they discuss queer men who did morally bad things or had problematic attitudes and questionable lifestyles. Just as the History Extra pod, Bad Gays include men from different histrical periods, from Alexander the Great to Truman Capote. Again, I haven't listened to all the episodes yet. So far I have chosen the episodes concerning men from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, such as Bosie (whom the hosts call 'evil twink' XD), Prince Albert Victor (Queen Victoria's grandson who was involved in the Cleveland Street Scandal and was even suspected to be Jack the Ripper), General Gordon (on whom Watson had a man crush), Lawrence of Arabia, and Roger Casement (a diplomat and Irish nationalist, whom ACD defended to the bitter end).

While in case of History Extra I had to be selective, as not every episode proved to be interesting, every epidose of Bad Gays I've listened to so far was excellent, really recommend it.

We're halfway through the canon! Thanks so much to luthienberen for pitching the idea of a re-read! It's such fun and keeps the comm going.

There's a lot of interesting stuff regarding this particular story, so it's going to be a rather long post with lots of quotes. Buckle up.

Everyone knows that after Holmes had become tremendously popular, Doyle grew so fed up with him that he tried to kill him off. I was surprised to find out, however, that ACD was thinking about doing away with Holmes as early as November 1891, i.e. only some six months after skyrocketing to fame and money through the Strand Magazine! SCAN was published in July 1891, and here's what Doyle writes to his mother on November 11, 1891:

“I have done five of the Sherlock Holmes stories of the new Series. They are 1. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle 2. The Adventure of the Speckled Band 3. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor 4. The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb 5. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet. I think that they are up to the standard of the first series, & the twelve ought to make a rather good book of the sort. I think of slaying Holmes in the sixth & winding him up for good & all. He takes my mind from better things.” (—Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters)

Such a weird decision, isn't it? Numerous authors dream of coming up with something that would sell, and you just don't turn away from your goldmine once you've struck it. Before Holmes Doyle was struggling financially and was fairly unknown. Only half a year after the breakthrough he decides that he's done with Holmes. That speaks of Doyle's ambition, but it seems like he was a bit too sure of himself. 

Thankfully, in 1891 his mother managed to talk him out of it, and during the next couple of years Doyle did another dozen before winding it all up in December 1893. What a Christmas present to his readers.

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Recently, whiling away time in airports, I watched a mini-series which popped up in recommendations. Created by a Sherlock writer Stephen Thompson, Vienna Blood has many familiar traits. There's a duo of protagonists, one of them tall, dark, wearing a funny hat, and having unusual investigation methods whereas the other is heavily built, more down-to-earth, and can defend himself and his companion.





The series is set in 1907 in Vienna, where a young doctor Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) becomes an assistant to a police detective Oskar Rheinhardt (Jürgen Maurer). At first the policeman is not glad at all that some snotty youth with connections now follows him around and is being clever, but when Liebermann's insightful suggestions based on his studies of psychology prove pivotal in solving crime cases, Rheinhardt grows more appreciative of Liebermann's company. These two definitely have the Dynamic, one being an observer of human nature and the other a man of action, one of middle class and the other of working class, and both stubborn and determined. 

Max's fiancee Clara Weiss (Luise von Finckh) deserves a special note. In the beginning she seems to be somewhat vacuous in comparison with Max the intellectual. He has little interest in her and often runs off to investigate while she, long-suffering and good-natured, lets him—a kind of a shout-out to the canon Mary. Later on, her character has a significant development. She voices her displeasure about being constantly neglected by Max, she tries to understand him and his fascination with crime, she even sets out to help him with an investigation by bravely risking her safety and posing as a bait for a suspect.



Eventually (SPOILER ALERT!), she has the courage to break off their engagement, having realised that Max is infatuated with someone else. Max, on the other hand, is good at analysing others, but when it comes to his own feelings and motivations, he is a mumbling mess. Rheinhardt teases him about it in a kind, friendly way.

Watching this series, it's easy to imagine young Holmes and his first acquiantance with Lestrade, and how Holmes gradually makes a reputation for himself while at first no one takes him seriously. It's interesting that Liebermann and Rheinhardt are on first name terms which is unusual for the time period.

There are only three episodes, but each is one and a half hour long. The cases are complex and multilayered, a real treat even if they lack the edge just a tiny bit (imo). Anyway, I'm looking forward to season 2!

This time it will be a lengthy post as I'd like to go quote by quote. There are so many remarkable things!

- “I cannot be sure of the exact date, for some of my memoranda upon the matter have been mislaid, but it must have been towards the end of the first year during which Holmes and I shared chambers in Baker Street.”

Is Watson Holmes’s opposite in terms of papers? Holmes had a horror of losing/destroying his papers and thus hoarded them, whereas Watson mislaid his.

- “For three hours we strolled about together, watching the ever-changing kaleidoscope of life as it ebbs and flows through Fleet Street and the Strand. His characteristic talk, with its keen observance of detail and subtle power of inference held me amused and enthralled. It was ten o’clock before we reached Baker Street again.”

So Watson sits cooped up indoors the whole day because he isn’t sure the weather would be good for his health, but as soon as Holmes suggests a walk, Watson agrees, at 7 pm, when it must be colder? Wow.

Compare with this quote from YELL, where they have lived together for a few years:
“For two hours we rambled about together, in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately.”

In RESI it’s their first year together and already they ramble about for THREE hours, Watson listening to Holmes spellbound.

- “I was sufficiently conversant with Holmes’s methods to be able to follow his reasoning,”

By the end of their first year together Watson is already “sufficiently conversant with Holmes’s methods”, a keen pupil, isn’t he?

- My favourite Paget illustration is from this story:



- “I followed Holmes into our sanctum.”
Our sanctum. Just think about the choice of words. Not to “our rooms” or “our flat” but “sanctum”, a safe, private place. And that’s just their first year together!

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