His Last Bow E-Book

Arthur Conan Doyle

• Herausgeber: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of seven previously-published Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Five of the stories were published in The Strand Magazine between September 1908 and December 1913. The final story, an epilogue about Holmes' war service, was first published in Collier's on 22 September 1917—one month before the book's premier on 22 October. Some later editions of the collection include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", which was also collected in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). The Strand published "The Adventure of Wistaria Lodge" as "A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes", and divided it into two parts, called "The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles" and "The Tiger of San Pedro". Later printings of His Last Bow correct Wistaria to Wisteria. Also, the first US edition adjusts the subtitle to Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes. All editions contain a brief preface, by "John H. Watson, M.D.". The preface assures readers that as of the date of publication (1917), Holmes is long retired from his profession of detective—but is still alive and well, albeit suffering from a touch of rheumatism.

Leseprobe

His Last Bow

by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Preface

The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge

The Adventure of the Red Circle

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

The Adventure of the Dying Detective

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot

His Last Bow: An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes

His Last Bow: Preface

The friends of Mr. Sherlock Holmes will be glad to learn that he is still alive and well, though somewhat crippled by occasional attacks of rheumatism. He has, for many years, lived in a small farm upon the downs five miles from Eastbourne, where his time is divided between philosophy and agriculture. During this period of rest he has refused the most princely offers to take up various cases, having determined that his retirement was a permanent one. The approach of the German war caused him however, to lay his remarkable combination of intellectual and practical activity at the disposal of the government, with historical results which are recounted in His Last Bow. Several previous experiences which have lain long in my portfolio have been added to His Last Bow so as to complete the volume.

JOHN H. WATSON, M. D.

The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge

1. The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles

I find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy day towards the end of March in the year 1892. Holmes had received a telegram while we sat at our lunch, and he had scribbled a reply. He made no remark, but the matter remained in his thoughts, for he stood in front of the fire afterwards with a thoughtful face, smoking his pipe, and casting an occasional glance at the message. Suddenly he turned upon me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

“I suppose, Watson, we must look upon you as a man of letters,” said he. “How do you define the word ‘grotesque’?”

“Strange — remarkable,” I suggested.

He shook his head at my definition.

“There is surely something more than that,” said he; “some underlying suggestion of the tragic and the terrible. If you cast your mind back to some of those narratives with which you have afflicted a long-suffering public, you will recognize how often the grotesque has deepened into the criminal. Think of that little affair of the red-headed men. That was grotesque enough in the outset, and yet it ended in a desperate attempt at robbery. Or, again, there was that most grotesque affair of the five orange pips, which led straight to a murderous conspiracy. The word puts me on the alert.”

“Have you it there?” I asked.

He read the telegram aloud.

“Have just had most incredible and grotesque experience. May I consult you?

“Scott Eccles,

“Post-Office, Charing Cross.”

“Man or woman?” I asked.

“Oh, man, of course. No woman would ever send a reply-paid telegram. She would have come.”

“Will you see him?”

“My dear Watson, you know how bored I have been since we locked up Colonel Carruthers. My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built. Life is commonplace; the papers are sterile; audacity and romance seem to have passed forever from the criminal world. Can you ask me, then, whether I am ready to look into any new problem, however trivial it may prove? But here, unless I am mistaken, is our client.”