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stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-03-30 11:12 am
stonepicnicking_okapi) wrote2025-03-30 11:12 am
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Sherlock Sunday: Silver Blaze and The Cardboard Box
We are moving into the second collection of stories called The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
Horses!
"The Adventure of Silver Blaze" is the one about horse racing.
Inspector Gregory asks Sherlock Holmes to accompany him at the stables of Colonel Ross in Dartmoor. A stable boy, Ned Hunter, was drugged after chasing a parasite tipster, Fitzroy Simpson. Soon after, Silver Blaze, the Wessex Cup champion has disappeared.
It gives us the second reference to the deerstalker which became an iconic symbol of Holmes and of detectives in general.
Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp eager face framed in his ear-flapping traveling cap
It gives us this Paget drawing which appears a lot in fandom icons.
And we get Holmes talking about 'the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime' [the fact it didn't bark] which has become shorthand for negative inference.
Also, I want to reproduce what ACD said in response to criticism of it.
I read an excellent and very damaging criticism of the story...he explained the exact penalties which would come upon everyone concerned if they'd acted as I described. Half would be in jail, and the other half warned off the turf forever. However, I have never been nervous about details, and one must be masterful sometimes.
Please quote that last bit at any hate comments on your fic and consider yourself in good company.
I did a couple of ficlets.
Title: Pragmatic
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Length: 200
Prompt: pragmatic
Notes: References to "Silver Blaze"
Summary: John Straker's mistress is not ashamed.
“Aren’t you even a bit ashamed, Emma?”
“Haven’t time, Julia. Have to be getting on with things,” replied Emma pragmatically.
“Doctor Watson has published the whole story,” went on Julia, undeterred. She waved at the folded copy of
The Strand and made a face. “At least he does us the courtesy of not giving the name of the women for whom John Straker bought the dress. I don’t know what I should do if anyone ever learned that my sister’s desire for pretty things lured a married man to commit a heinous crime—”
“He paid for it, didn’t he?” Emma pouted. “Poor horsey. But don’t wallow, Julia. Look.”
Emma drew a roll from her handbag and began counting out notes.
Julia’s eyes grew round as saucers. “Where in heavens did you get that money?”
“I sold the dress! Thirty guineas! More than Johnny paid for it! Did you know there’s a very lucrative trade in infamous ladies’ wear? I didn’t. Until today. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? A mistress’ insurance policy.”
“Oh, Emma. Well, at least the rent’s paid.”
“Shall I have a flutter?” teased Emma.
“Don’t you dare!”
Emma snorted. “You’re right: the turf’s too pure for me.”
Title: Superior
Author:stonepicknicking_okapi
Rating: Gen
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Characters/Pairing: Watson & OC
Prompt: Superior
Warnings/Notes: Reference to Silver Blaze
Summary: A new client reminds Watson of Colonel Ross.
“Yes, I also feel your case might interest Mister Holmes,” I said to the only other occupant of the sitting room of 221B Baker Street. “When Mister Holmes returns, you may repeat the story to him, but…”
Something about the young man recalled Colonel Ross, the owner of Silver Blaze. I remembered Holmes’ words.
The Colonel’s manner has been just a trifle cavalier to me. I am inclined now to have a little amusement at his expense.
Holmes might be intrigued by the problem, but he might also be challenged by the man’s superior attitude.
“…I advise humility and deference.”
---
"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is a dark story about three sisters and a love triangle and the nasty effects of alcoholism and jealousy.
Holmes, Watson and Lestrade visit Susan Cushing, who has just received by mail two human ears in a cardboard box.
I had read somewhere that 'brown study' (meaning a vacuous or melancholy state of mind) was racist but apparently it comes from William Congreve's An Imposible Thing: Invention flags, his brain grows muddly, / And black despair succeeds brown study.
We get a Dupin style 'train of thought' deduction by Holmes of Watson, which is nice. And we get Holmes' fascination with Paganini (which I did a whole fic about). But, in general, I think we are left feeling like Holmes when he asks Watson at the end:
What is the meaning of it, Watson? ... What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear?
Horses!
"The Adventure of Silver Blaze" is the one about horse racing.
Inspector Gregory asks Sherlock Holmes to accompany him at the stables of Colonel Ross in Dartmoor. A stable boy, Ned Hunter, was drugged after chasing a parasite tipster, Fitzroy Simpson. Soon after, Silver Blaze, the Wessex Cup champion has disappeared.
It gives us the second reference to the deerstalker which became an iconic symbol of Holmes and of detectives in general.
Sherlock Holmes, with his sharp eager face framed in his ear-flapping traveling cap
It gives us this Paget drawing which appears a lot in fandom icons.
And we get Holmes talking about 'the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime' [the fact it didn't bark] which has become shorthand for negative inference.
Also, I want to reproduce what ACD said in response to criticism of it.
I read an excellent and very damaging criticism of the story...he explained the exact penalties which would come upon everyone concerned if they'd acted as I described. Half would be in jail, and the other half warned off the turf forever. However, I have never been nervous about details, and one must be masterful sometimes.
Please quote that last bit at any hate comments on your fic and consider yourself in good company.
I did a couple of ficlets.
Title: Pragmatic
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Length: 200
Prompt: pragmatic
Notes: References to "Silver Blaze"
Summary: John Straker's mistress is not ashamed.
“Aren’t you even a bit ashamed, Emma?”
“Haven’t time, Julia. Have to be getting on with things,” replied Emma pragmatically.
“Doctor Watson has published the whole story,” went on Julia, undeterred. She waved at the folded copy of
The Strand and made a face. “At least he does us the courtesy of not giving the name of the women for whom John Straker bought the dress. I don’t know what I should do if anyone ever learned that my sister’s desire for pretty things lured a married man to commit a heinous crime—”
“He paid for it, didn’t he?” Emma pouted. “Poor horsey. But don’t wallow, Julia. Look.”
Emma drew a roll from her handbag and began counting out notes.
Julia’s eyes grew round as saucers. “Where in heavens did you get that money?”
“I sold the dress! Thirty guineas! More than Johnny paid for it! Did you know there’s a very lucrative trade in infamous ladies’ wear? I didn’t. Until today. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? A mistress’ insurance policy.”
“Oh, Emma. Well, at least the rent’s paid.”
“Shall I have a flutter?” teased Emma.
“Don’t you dare!”
Emma snorted. “You’re right: the turf’s too pure for me.”
Title: Superior
Author:
stonepicknicking_okapiRating: Gen
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Characters/Pairing: Watson & OC
Prompt: Superior
Warnings/Notes: Reference to Silver Blaze
Summary: A new client reminds Watson of Colonel Ross.
“Yes, I also feel your case might interest Mister Holmes,” I said to the only other occupant of the sitting room of 221B Baker Street. “When Mister Holmes returns, you may repeat the story to him, but…”
Something about the young man recalled Colonel Ross, the owner of Silver Blaze. I remembered Holmes’ words.
The Colonel’s manner has been just a trifle cavalier to me. I am inclined now to have a little amusement at his expense.
Holmes might be intrigued by the problem, but he might also be challenged by the man’s superior attitude.
“…I advise humility and deference.”
---
"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" is a dark story about three sisters and a love triangle and the nasty effects of alcoholism and jealousy.
Holmes, Watson and Lestrade visit Susan Cushing, who has just received by mail two human ears in a cardboard box.
I had read somewhere that 'brown study' (meaning a vacuous or melancholy state of mind) was racist but apparently it comes from William Congreve's An Imposible Thing: Invention flags, his brain grows muddly, / And black despair succeeds brown study.
We get a Dupin style 'train of thought' deduction by Holmes of Watson, which is nice. And we get Holmes' fascination with Paganini (which I did a whole fic about). But, in general, I think we are left feeling like Holmes when he asks Watson at the end:
What is the meaning of it, Watson? ... What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear?