"what a chorus of groans, cries and bleatings" [REDC]

Agony column. Agony column? To the modern reader, that term might be unfamiliar. Well, at least it would be unfamiliar with the reader who is new to the Sherlock Holmes stories. The first time we come across Holmes using the agony column is in The Sign of Four when he advertised for the Aurora in the agony column of the Standard.

Holmes regularly used newspaper classified ads and personal columns to track down criminals and surface clues. But just what is an agony column, how did it help Sherlock Holmes, and in which stories did he and others find a use for it?

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Links / Notes

• Stories mentioned in this episode: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, "The Engineer's Thumb," "The Noble Bachelor," "The Red Circle," "The Bruce-Partington Plans"
• Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: A Textbook of Friendship by Christopher Morley
• The Agony Column of The Times: 1800-1881, edited by Alice Clay, London: Chatto & Windus, 1881

Music credits

Performers: Uncredited violinist, US Marine Chamber Orchestra

Publisher Info.: Washington, DC: United States Marine Band

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

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