Proof Reader's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Nick Dunn-Meynell

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225 pages

English

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Not your typical Sherlock Holmes adventures...Nick Dunn-Meynell's new collection, A Proof Reader's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, contains twelve sequels - of sorts - to each of the original stories in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, which first appeared in The Strand from 1891 to 1892. Within this book, you'll find a series of conversations between Holmes and Watson, each immediately taking place at the conclusion of one of the Adventures.These aren't typical Sherlockian pastiches - the reader won't find new investigations in the traditional manner. Rather, these stories take the inconsistencies and contradictions to be found in those original twelve Canonical Adventures and pull them apart, twist them, double back on them, and construct them into something that's sly and new and thoroughly thought-provoking.These efforts are dense with material and are filled with Easter Eggs for the perceptive Sherlockian. The author's subtle sense of humour and affection for Holmes and Watson peeks through at every turn, and there are references in each of the individual stories that refer to the others within this collection, giving hints of a bigger narrative at play. Reading these cannot and should not be hurried. They must be pondered.And in addition to the Sherlockian aspects, Mr. Dunn-Meynell has managed to weave references to works of art from London's National Gallery into each story, pointing out their own hidden or ignored aspects, symbols, and meanings. There's much to enjoy and ponder about these stories. Some will catch you by surprise and make you laugh out loud, while others will leave you painfully aware of contradictions and mistakes that have been previously ignored in The Canon.These aren't typical Holmes adventures, but they are worth the time to savour and explore. Enjoy...

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	25 mars 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781787057012
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0450€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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A Proof Reader’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Nick Dunn-Meynell
Edited by
David Marcum

Published in 2021 by
MX Publishing
www . mxpublishing . com
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www . andrewsuk . com
Copyright © 2020 Nick Dunn-Meynell
The right of Nick Dunn-Meynell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Forewarned
by Nick Dunn-Meynell
In “The Blanched Soldier”, Godfrey Emsworth is diagnosed as suffering from psychosomatically induced ichthyosis, also known as pseudo-leprosy.
That is, he had pseudo-pseudo-leprosy.
I have written the literary equivalent of that imaginary complaint.
These are not pastiches in the style of Dr Watson’s accounts. Nor are they records of fictitious cases investigated by Mr Sherlock Holmes. They are not even intended to be creative re-workings of Watson’s published stories. Instead I have sifted through his fables in search of the very few absolute and undeniable facts. Then I have let them lead me where they would.
At first I tried to express my conclusions in conventional essay form. The results were dry and uninteresting. I realised I was in the position as Sherlock Holmes when he came to write “The Blanched Soldier”, having complained for years his hagiographer had reduced impersonal scientific investigations to a collection of fairy tales. Had Holmes written as he wished to, he would never have found a publisher.
And yet he had a point. The good doctor had been like the manufacturer who had the brilliant idea of making children’s toothpaste more palatable by adding sugar: It rather undermined the stated purpose of the enterprise. One ought not to sweeten a pill marketed as a cure for diabetes. Nor should one promise to teach readers how to think critically conditional upon their first suspending all disbelief.
How could Holmes ever have been so foolish as to attempt to compromise as he did between fact and fiction? Perhaps his brother Mycroft urged him to it. Mycroft was like the British Empire: He could soothe his conscience and justify his imperial authority by arguing that one day he would hand power over to the people – but not just yet. They were still children and had to be educated first, lest in modern democracies they be hoodwinked by tricksters peddling pleasing lies.
Plato’s Socrates condemned democracies because most men are seduced by the shadows of shadows. That best and wisest of men would surely have approved of Mycroft. By contrast, he would have been appalled by the silhouette of a man in a deerstalker with a magnifying glass in his hand as the public’s picture of the quintessential philosopher.
An amateur hypnotist realised that a certain television celebrity would win a political election – not in spite of the fact he talked nonsense, but because he did. The shyster mesmerised his followers by supplying simple mantras to be repeated over and over again. He gave them stories in single sentences with a beginning, middle, and end that promised to take them back to the future. He assured them that since only those things the heart believes are true, they could choose whichever alternative facts and realities they wished.
Watson was like that. He was a pickpocket who embraced the reader and whispered into their ear that they ought to be on their guard against pickpockets. He promised them the truth if only they would trust him, for he was a doctor.
In fact, he was a writer as doctor gone wrong. Instead of drawing upon his medical experience to ensure the accuracy of his accounts, at least from a medical point of view, he drew upon his appreciation of the credulity of patients. He knew he could get away with murdering the truth. He could say that a face was still twisted with hatred and fear and rage hours after death and his readers would accept it.
How could Holmes have countered such deceptions? I eventually concluded he could only have done so by supplementing Watson’s mythologized versions of his investigations with dialogues of his own. In these, he might reveal the truth he had deemed best to conceal from his friend, lest he pass it on to readers, many of whom belonged to the criminal underworld. Worse, some were investigative journalists.
“Try it yourself,” I heard the ghost of Holmes reply. So I did so.
I have found that it’s never a problem to find holes in the plots that can be turned into clues. Watson’s plots are nets consisting of practically nothing but holes, rather as matter seems solid but in reality is mostly empty space. I eventually realised the real trick would have to be to keep the holes together.
Bulletproof glass was discovered by chance when a flask fell and shattered into a hundred pieces yet retained its shape. It had contained liquid plastic and had not been properly cleaned, so that an invisible layer of the substance still coated it. The man who made the discovery was a painter and a composer who also happened to be a chemist. Perhaps only such a kindred spirit to Sherlock Holmes could have made such a discovery and seen how it could be put to use. One has to apply the methods of a Holmes to expose the difficulties with Watson’s accounts, and yet keep the spider webs from unravelling.
One of my chief aims has been to discredit the myth propagated by Watson that Holmes was a thinking machine without a drop of art in his veins. Holmes chose to live at 221b Baker Street, around the corner from the Wallace Collection. This boasts choice examples of the art of Greuze, Delaroche, and the Vernets. He could also pop down to the National Gallery any time he wanted. Mycroft lived in Pall Mall, an even easier walk away from it, though in his case he probably took a cab.
Like Holmes, I was brought up as a Catholic. My first teachers were nuns and priests. They taught me how the events of Christ’s early life had been deduced by hagiographers obeying to the letter Jesus’ instruction to “search the scriptures”. Those first Christian interpreters turned to the most sacred texts of their societies, including the myths of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, as well as those of the Jewish people. These were analysed, and previously inexplicable passages identified as prophecies that had now been fulfilled by such events as the deduced journey of the Magi to Bethlehem. The surmise that Sherlock Holmes as the last Magus who must have been born on the feast of the Adoration of the Magi is in that same logical tradition.
Let me end by repeating that I have presented my trains of thought as continuations of Watson’s tales for one reason and one reason only: To make them slightly less indigestible. But please do not imagine that, because these records have been presented like fiction, they are no better than the good doctor’s own “novelised” biographical sketches.
Nick Dunn-Meynell
May 2020

Editor’s Note
“. . . but the sequel was rather unusual .” [1]
by David Marcum
First of all, you should know that these are curiously different Sherlockian tales – every one is a unique continuation and analysis of the original twelve stories in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes , which first appeared in The Strand from 1891 to 1892. Within them, you’ll find a series of conversations between Holmes and Watson, each immediately taking place at the conclusion of one of the Adventures.
Next, it should be known that these are not typical Holmes narratives where you’ll find Holmes and Watson solving a new mystery – A visitor to Baker Street tells a strange story. Holmes jumps up and does things, maybe in disguise, maybe stopping to receive a report from an Irregular. Maybe there’s the smoking of three pipes, or a visit to the Diogenes Club, or the lair of some informant. Then an exciting twist, followed by the explanatory denouement for a puzzled Dr. Watson.
No, you won’t find that here, and these stories are not like that. You should know that up front. Rather, they take the inconsistencies and contradictions to be found in those original twelve Adventures and pull them apart, twist them, double back on them, and construct them into something that’s sly and new and thoroughly thought-provoking.
Since I’m known as a long-time and adamant defender of the pure traditional Holmes story – Canon and pastiche – some might wonder that I’m associated with these stories, which are not pure or traditional or Canonical. As a pretty firm rule, I only promote and support tales that can stand alongside those original sixty Canon adventures.
But . . . .
Several years ago, I first heard of Mr. Nick Dunn-Meynell when he wrote a letter to The Baker Street Journal , commenting on an essay of mine that had run in a previous issue, “Basil Rathbone’s Solar Pons Films” [Vol. 63, No. 4, Winter 2013]. Nick disagreed with my premise, writing a response that was possibly longer than my original offering. BSJ editor, Steve Rothman, included Nick’s letter in the Autumn 2014 issue [Vol. 64, No. 3] and emailed me that he thought I’d find it amusing. I told Steve that I was mostly flattered – whether I agreed with Nick or not – that som