The Five Orange Pips - a Sherlock Holmes short story

The Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle a Sherlock Holmes short story

The Five Orange Pips is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection and Holmes’ 11^thcase.

I congratulate myself on two counts – First, I think I was actually ahead of Sherlock in solving this mystery. 

The client relates how his uncle and then father died under suspicious circumstances, after receiving ominous notes, each containing five orange pips, and that he, the client, has now received a similar communiqué.  The uncle emigrated to the United States, made a small fortune, fought for the Confederacy, and then returned to England, where he led a private and friendless life.

SPOILER ALERT – The following contains a spoiler.

When the uncle receives the threatening note, singed by K.K.K. I was immediately suspicious of the Ku Klux Klan. Doyle’s English readers were probably less familiar with the K.K.K., so it was probably more astonishing for Sherlock to draw upon his encyclopedic well of knowledge to make the connection – but for me, considering the victim's history, it was a fairly obvious nexus.

The case is unusual in several respects. Although Holmes solves the case, he fails to act quickly enough to prevent his client’s murder or to see the culprits arrested – though fate deals out justice quite nicely.

Oh yes, my second point of self-congratulation. I am slowly making my way through The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, which purports to put all of Holmes’ cases into chronological order, and I have detected an error in the arrangement. When discussing this case, Holmes asserts:

I think, Watson…that of all our cases we have had none more fantastic than this.

And Watson replies:

Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four.

Which clearly refutes the order in The Annotated Sherlock Holmes in which The Sign of the Four does not occur for some time yet.

Perhaps I should take up sleuthing.

Two amusing bits of dialogue. When a visitor is noted on a particularly dismal London night, Watson wonders if it is one of Sherlock’s friends. Holmes replies:

Except yourself, I have none

A bit later, when the client expresses his impression of Holmes’ reputation, that he was “never beaten” Holmes, in rare humility admits:

I have been beaten four times – three times by men and once by a woman.

The woman is almost certainly Irene Adler – of the three men, I am uncertain. Holmes has not yet encountered Professor Moriarty.

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Six Degrees of Separation: From Vanity Fair to 1984

Six Degree of Separation is a monthly meme hosted by Kate @ Books Are My Favorite and Best.

This month’s chain begins with Vanity Fair by William Thackeray which I have read and loved; however, I also used Vanity Fair in the August version of six degrees. So, I will force myself to a different path. 

Vanity Fair is subtitled A Novel Without a Hero. So, I decided to follow the “no hero” path, but it was a bit difficult, as I have read many novels that had no hero. I decided on, one of the greatest novels of all time, and yet without a hero…

The Great Gatsby – which has a certain vibe that reminds me a little of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I think it’s partially the café society, opulence, and hedonism, but more so, it was a similarity between Jay Gatsby and Holly Golightly; both shamelessly pursuing their goals, aloof to the disapproval of others. Holly, as an intrepid female lead, reminds me of…

Dagny Taggert from Atlas Shrugged (just the intrepid part, they are very different otherwise). Nonetheless, in Atlas Shrugged there is a hidden civilization – a sequestered utopia, which reminds me of…

Shangri La in Lost Horizon. In fact, there is a very distinct similarity. Both authors depict someone hearing music that they find unmistakably in the style of some dead or missing composer – and the reader later learns it is indeed from the very composer – who isn’t dead after all, with a piece of their music leaking to the outside world. James Hilton should maybe sue Ayn Rand. But, back to six degrees: in Lost Horizon, utopia isn’t really all that, much like the…

Brave New World – one of the great dystopian novels ever. But if I follow that tack, THE greatest dystopian novel is probably…

1984.

And that – is how you get from Vanity Fair to 1984.

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The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky (novel #113)

(translation by Eva Martin)

I made up my mind to be honest, and steadfast in accomplishing my task. Perhaps I shall meet with troubles and many disappointments, but I have made up my mind to be polite and sincere to everyone; more cannot be asked of me. People may consider me a child if they like. I am often called an idiot, and at one time I was certainly so ill that I was nearly as bad as an idiot; but I am not an idiot now. How can I possibly be so when I know myself that I am considered one? ~ Prince Muishkin

This is the first time I’ve read The Idiot and the third novel I’ve read by Dostoevsky. Due to my previous experiences and a peek at a synopsis, I was anticipating a very enjoyable read.

But no! I was quite disappointed. I really wanted to love this for both my admiration of the author and my interest in the premise: the story of a man so sincere, so kind, so artless, that he was thought an idiot by his acquaintances. The title character is Dostoevsky’s

…positively good and beautiful man

Characters in the novel said of him:

You are more honest than all, and better, nobler, kinder, wiser than all. There are some here who are unworthy to bend and pick up the handkerchief you have just dropped. ~ Aglaya Ivanovna

 

I ought to tell you that I never in my life met a man anything like him for noble simplicity of mind and for boundless trustfulness. I guessed that anyone who lied could deceive him, and that he would immediately forgive anyone who did deceive him… ~ Nastasia Philipovna

To be astonished by nothing is a sign, they say, of a great intellect. ~ Hippolyte commenting on the Prince’s unflappable character

Besides wanting to love the novel, I also wanted to love the protagonist, Prince Muishkin, and I did – at first. But as the novel wears on, I confess I began to think him rather absurd myself, though not quite an idiot.

But most of the characters were absurd. Aglaya Ivanovna – the fickle and flighty love interest of the Prince; Nastasia Philipovna – her beautiful and bitter rival; Rogojin the vicious and vain antithesis to the Prince; Hippolyte the tedious and tubercular nihilist; Elizabetha Prokofievna the proper and passionate mother of Aglaya; and on and on.

Perhaps it suffered in translation, translation not of words, but translation of 19^thcentury Russian society vs 21^stcentury Western society – perhaps, but that can’t really explain it fully. I loved The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment after all.

Perhaps I’m the idiot, but this just didn’t work for me. I’m sorry brother D, but I feel I’m being generous to even give this…

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dostoevsky said himself:

I do not stand behind the novel, but I do stand behind the idea.

I agree with that.

This novel satisfies – Back to the Classics Challenge 2018 – Category: a classic in translation.

Other excerpts:

In a word, the world spoke well of the girls; [Aglaya and her sisters] but they were not without their enemies, and occasionally, people talked with horror of the number of books they had read.

A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart. ~ Elizabetha Prokofievna

Exactly as is a mother’s joy when her baby smiles for the first time into her eyes, so is God’s joy when one of his children turns and prays to Him for the first time, with all his heart. ~ Prince Muishkin

Things are hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes. ~ Lebedeff

References to Classic Literature

Don Quixote

Gogol

Hamlet

Moliere

Madame Bovary

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The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (novel #112)

All men, however highly educated retain some superstitious inklings. The feeling that is called “eerie” came upon him. ~ narrative of Dr. Kemp’s feelings as he enters a room, not knowing the invisible man is present.

This was a reread, so I knew what to expect. Wells does a good job of describing the terror and panic the invisible man creates, added with just a bit of comic relief. But like my previous read, Dr. Jekyll, I think there was some profound commentary on the nature of man that is bigger than the scary story.

The reader does not encounter Griffin before he makes himself irreversibly invisible; however, with a few reminisces, the reader can only assume he was a fairly decent chap.

But then – endued with this tremendous power, he is quickly transformed into a pretty awful human being. He steals without scruple, and eventually murders. He reasons that he will have to murder again and is quite comfortable with the notion. He eventually threatens

…a reign of terror.

I think Wells was demonstrating that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don’t think invisibility is exactly absolute power, but nonetheless is certainly corrupts Griffin.

Less profound, but very interesting was another nuance to invisibility that Wells was clever to point out – that while invisibility has some advantages, it certainly has severe inconveniences as well:  such as the need to be completely naked, and the inability to hold or carry objects without detection.

It was a fun read, entertaining, good – not great.

My rating: 3 ½ of 5 stars

This is the second Horror/Thriller I read for Halloween and The Classics Club – Get Your Goth on Dare. (the other being The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

Reference to other classic literature. The invisible man’s footprint is described as

…isolated and incomprehensible to them as Crusoe’s solitary discovery

Interesting fact: if a person were completely invisible, they would be blind. Something to do with the way the eye reflects light, and the brain interprets the sensory input. Invisibility would mean light would pass through the invisible eye without reflecting, and the person would be blind. Of course, in fantasy anything is possible.

Note: The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells is not to be confused with Invisible Man [without “The”] by Ralph Ellison.

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (novel #111)

…all human beings, as we meet them, are comingled out of good and evil: and Edward Hyde, alone in the ranks of mankind, was pure evil. ~ Dr. Jekyll

This is one of those novels (novella actually), that even though I’d never read it, or even watched a movie version, I was quite familiar with the plot. 

However, it was not what I expected: a classic thriller, pursuit of a maniacal villain, grotesque horrors, and satisfying justice. Nope.

Which in one sense was disappointing. I decided to read a few macabre tales for Halloween, and even though this is typically classified as horror, it isn’t very scary. It wasn’t quite what I hoped for. There is little portrayal of Hyde’s villainy – the reader is simply asked to believe he is despicable at the assertion of Dr. Jekyll.

In one sense, disappointing; in another more profound than I anticipated. I think more was intended than just a fantastic tale. Stevenson quite clearly believes in a dichotomy within man – the divine creation and the depraved sinner struggling within a single human vessel. Something akin to the familiar portrayal of the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, arguing with our conscience. By experimentation, and unlucky chance, Dr. Jekyll concocts an elixir that is able to isolate his two natures. Under its influence, he is transformed into the villain Mr. Hyde. 

I am of a similar mind as Stevenson. I think every human has the ability to do good and evil. More than just ability, competing proclivities: a divine spark endowed by the creator and a bent to sin inherited from Adam. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an interesting drama of the contest between the two, though I am unnerved by the apparent conclusion – that man cannot subdue his depraved nature.

Well actually, I agree with that but would add: apart from divine grace.

My rating: 3 ½ of 5 stars

I read this for The Classics Club - Get Your Goth on Dare.

And now, for my next Halloween-themed Horror, another tale that explores the two natures of man: The Invisible Man.

Excerpts:

Most of the story is told from the point of view of London attorney Gabriel Utterson. Both excerpts are descriptions of Utterson.

In this character, it was frequently his fortune to be the last reputable acquaintance and the last good influence in the lives of downgoing men. 

Hosts loved to detain the dry lawyer, when the light-hearted and loose-tongued had already their foot on the threshold; they liked to sit a while in his unobtrusive company, practicing for solitude, sobering their minds in the man’s rich silence after the expense and strain of gaiety.

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Recap of novels 101 - 110

Average rating of novels 101-110 – 3.9 stars (out of 5) 

101.  ★★★★         Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright

102.  ★★★½         The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

103.  ★★★★½      The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

104.  ★★★★         The Man Who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

105   ★★★★         Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
106.  ★★★½         Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
107.  ★★★★★      A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

108.  ★★★★         Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

109.  ★★★★         The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

110.  ★★★★          Middlemarch by George Elliot

 

Favorite: A Tale of Two Cities (now my all-time favorite novel)

Honorable Mention: The Little Prince

Least Favorite: The Pickwick Papers

Best Hero: Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities

Best Heroine: Dorothea from Middlemarch

Best Villain: Quilp from The Old Curiosity Shop

Most interesting/Complex character: Sunday from The Man Who was Thursday

Best Quotation: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities

Best Subtitle: Gadsby: 50,000 Word Novel Without the Letter “E”

Best film adaptation: Of Mice and Men

Worst film adaptation: I’m sorry to say I did not like the 2015 animated rendition of The Little Prince.

Film adaptation that is neither better nor worse than the novel – but different:  1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn in perhaps her most iconic role. It’s a very good movie – if you aren’t expecting a faithful adaptation. And even though Audrey Hepburn does not match the physical description of Holly – she is so iconic to the role, I pictured her the entire time I was reading.

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The Man with the Twisted Lip - a Sherlock Holmes short story

The Man with the Twisted Lip by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle                                      a Sherlock Holmes short story

The Man with the Twisted Lip is part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection and Holmes’ 10^thcase.

This is my least favored Sherlock Holmes case yet. It is pretty forgettable. 

SPOILER ALERT – The following contains a spoiler.

It is simply the case of a respectable newspaper man, who leads a double life, begging the streets of London in disguise because he makes more money begging than he does as a reporter. The beggar is arrested on suspicion of murdering the reporter – who is necessarily missing, since the beggar is locked up. Holmes eventually just figures out the double identity is the only possible explanation. Case solved. Yawn.

Probably the reason I’d never heard of this case. Of course, the begging, under false pretense, has some contemporary significance, but still – yawn.