Like us, Holmes and Watson lived through a pandemic (even two) during their lifetime. Some thirty years before the Spanish flu of 1918 there was the Russian flu of 1889. Here are a few brief facts:
- The largest nineteenth-century epidemic of influenza, called ‘the Russian epidemic,’ arrived in Europe from the east in November and December of 1889. It was the first epidemic to be so widely commented on in the intensively developing daily press. First information concerning the epidemic in London appeared in the press around the middle of December 1889. (source)
- The Russian flu was at the time the deadliest flu pandemic in Britain. It was the first truly urban outbreak, gliding from town to town by rail and passing through tightly packed terraces and soot-smeared workshops at speed. It even sent the prime minister Lord Salisbury to his sickbed for over two weeks, and Queen Victoria’s grandson, Prince Albert Victor, the second in line to the throne, to his grave. (source)
- Despite appeals in the medical press for newspapers to keep the threat in perspective and not to foster ‘dread’ of the epidemic through ‘sensational telegrams’, the pandemic appears to have sparked hysteria in London, particularly among male patients. At St Bartholomew’s Hospital in Smithfield and the Royal Free Hospital in the Grays Inn Road, for instance, Samuel West, a specialist in respiratory disease, described how he had been astonished to arrive at morning surgery to find more than 1,000 patients—the majority of them men—‘clamouring for treatment’. (source)
So, basing on this, I wrote a fix-it for the
Dying Detective, where Holmes’s malingering plan backfires a bit (but nothing too terrible happens), Watson sees through his pretence instantly, and Holmes apologises both to him and Mrs. Hudson in the end.
The Crying Detective (T, Holmes/Watson, ~3,000 words)
Beta:
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recently_folded Warnings: mentions of mental health issues and unhealthy eating behaviour, set during an influenza pandemic (historically accurate)
Summary:
When the Russian Influenza pandemic had reached Britain and was at its peak in London in January, 1890, Dr. Watson was on the forefront with other medics battling it. For fear of bringing the disease to Baker Street, he had moved temporarily to his surgery. But Holmes missed him too much and came up with a devious plan to see him again, if only for a few hours.Also, there are two gorgeous edits made by
Granada-Brett-Crumbs. I don't repost them here, but they can be viewed on AO3. They look like pages from
the Strand Magazine with Sidney Paget style illustrations.
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