Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

There was a scandal in Sherlockian circles in the early 1940s. Author Rex Stout, BSI ("The Boscombe Valley Mystery"), creator of Nero Wolfe, after careful research, determined that Watson was a woman. He presented his facts in the Saturday Review of Literature and let them sit.

They didn't sit well with all Sherlockians, and Julian Wolff, BSI ("The Red-Headed League") took up his pen to offer a retort in "That Was No Lady." Both essays appeared in Edgar W. Smith's Profile By Gaslight, and we discussed them in our monthly feature "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist" episode. It's just a Trifle.

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• Watson Was Actually a Woman
• That Was No Lady

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After Holmes "died" at the Reichenbach Falls, wouldn't people have looked for a funeral or memorial service? Watson, in particular, would have expected to assist in such an arrangement.

As next of kin, Mycroft would have been expected to handle it, but that would have put him in an awkward position. If he was reluctant, that would have seemed suspect; but if he did, he knew how mischievous his younger brother could be, possibly disguising himself and witnessing his own funeral. What happened here? It's just a trifle.

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Dr. Watson was a general practitioner, and one "with very limited experience and mediocre qualifications," as Holmes blurted out in "The Dying Detective." It's the reason he called for a specialist in rare diseases.

With global news being filled with talk of coronavirus, we thought it might be the perfect time to reflect on what we know about infectious diseases in the Sherlock Holmes stories. It's just a trifle.

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• The Baker Street Journal

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"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" first appeared in print in 1903 as part of The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It was the second story in the collection, after Sherlock Holmes was resurrected from what many thought was a watery grave.

We can forgive the muddled minds of the time then, for missing a couple of key points in "The Norwood Builder." Key points that, had Holmes been on his game, would have given the whole charade away. It's just a trifle.

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• The Baker Street Journal

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For all of his familiarity with American cities, American police forces, American language and attire, Sherlock Holmes may very well have been American.

A number of scholars have taken up the argument, including Christopher Morley in his famous essay. Even President Franklin Roosevelt tried his hand at it. It's just a trifle.

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• A Baker Street Folio: Five Letters About Sherlock Holmes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Abebooks.com)

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We have plenty of instances of animal flesh on the side-board, whether it's a couple of brace of grouse, Henry Baker's Christmas goose, or a joint of beef.

There was one lone vegetarian restaurant mentioned in the Canon. It had a real-life inspiration. But what else do we know about vegetarianism in Victorian times? It's just a trifle.

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• The Strand Magazine and Sherlock Holmes by Robert Veld (Wessex Press)
• Veggie Victorians (History Extra)
• The famous "pea-squashing" scene in Murder By Decree

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Steve Dixie in "The Three Gables," Lucy Hebron in "The Yellow Face," and the unnamed mulatto in "Wisteria Lodge" are notable black people in the Canon. Actually, they're the only ones. What does this say about Arthur Conan Doyle's attitude and treatment toward them?

We know about the shocking way he chose to portray Steve Dixie – at least shocking by our standards. What were prevailing attitudes of the day? And how does Conan Doyle fare? It's just a trifle.

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• This episode: ihose.co/trifles162
• Black British People in the 19th Century (Wikipedia)
• IHOSE Episode 44: Watson and Holmes (New Paradigm Studios)
• IHOSE Episode 81: Mycroft Holmes (Kareem Abdul Jabbar)

• The Baker Street Journal

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Why did Mycroft put himself in harm's way for Sherlock Holmes when the latter faced his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty? Mycroft put Sherlock up for a night, drove the brougham that took Watson to Waterloo, and kept the rooms up at 221B during the hiatus that ensued.

But why didn't Moriarty go after Mycroft? What made him think that "the British government" didn't know about his activities? We explore the role of Mycroft Holmes in "The Final Problem." It's more than a trifle.

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• The Baker Street Journal

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Here's one of those things that lends itself to the title of this podcast. We were thinking about Professor Moriarty and his ignominious fall from grace. After he left the university where he was Mathematical Chair, he came to London, where he became an army coach.

Army coach? That brought a number of things to mind. But surprisingly little has been written about it. We explore this trifle and reach a couple of reasonable conclusions.

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• This episode: ihose.co/trifles160
• British Army During the Victorian Era (Wikipedia)
• "Professor James Moriarty, 1836-91" by Nicholas Utechin (The Baker Street Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2)

• The Baker Street Journal

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With Season 4, we're starting a new monthly series that we're calling "Mr. Sherlock Holmes the Theorist." Each month, we'll be taking a look at what some early Sherlockian scholars had to say about certain trifling elements in the Sherlock Holmes stories.

In this case, we're looking at "The Date of The Sign of Four" from H.W. Bell's Baker Street Studies, first published in 1934. It's more than a trifle.

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• This episode: ihose.co/trifles159
• Baker Street Studies by H.W. Bell
• The Grand Game from the BSI Press

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