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100 THE EARLY ADVENTURES

“My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don’t you see that the converse is equally valid. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.”

By looking to the character of Rucastle’s son to gain insight into that of his father, not the other way around, Holmes turns a common way of thinking on its head.

of the 20th century. Unlike many other fictional characters, he is not looking for evil spirits but for clues to real behavior.

The disturbed child

The emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline in the late Victorian era meant that many people were beginning to believe that to understand the present, you also had to understand the past. There was a shift toward a more scientific study of criminals, with new theories proposing that human behavior could be explained by inheritance and biology gaining wider currency.

So when Violet tells Holmes that the little boy in her charge is morose and cruel, and crushes cockroaches for fun, in a typical Gothic tale this might be a sign that the child is demonically possessed. But Holmes seeks a rational explanation. As he explains to Watson, in the bad behavior of the child he sees warning signs of the true nature of his father, Jephro Rucastle, and he is alerted to the peril Violet may be in.

The governess’s story

Violet tells Holmes that she has learned that Rucastle also has a daughter, Alice, from his first marriage, who has gone away to Philadelphia. In her position as governess, Violet has been asked to wear a particularly striking electric-blue dress, and told to sit with her back to the window, either reading out loud or listening to Rucastle’s stories while his wife sits in deadly silence. Sneaking a peek in a mirror one day, Violet glimpsed a mysterious young man watching her from the road.

She recounts other bizarre and unnerving matters—a huge mastiff, which is kept hungry, prowls the grounds at night; she finds a tress of hair very much like her own locked away in a drawer; and, strangest of all, there is a wing of the house kept locked and seemingly empty. Desperate to know what is going on, Violet sneaked into the locked wing and was terrified to see the shadow of someone moving in a barricaded room. Rucastle caught her and threatened to throw her to the dog if she did not curb her curiosity. Genuinely frightened by this, she had sent for Holmes.

The secret revealed

Holmes then surmises that Violet has been hired to impersonate Rucastle’s daughter, Alice, who is not in Philadelphia at all but is instead imprisoned in the empty wing. He devises a plan to free Alice when the Rucastles are out that evening. Violet returns to the house, and, following the plan, lures the servant Mrs. Toller into the cellar and traps her there while Mr. Toller is drunk. Holmes and Watson arrive and break into the locked room, only to find it is empty.

Astonishingly, it seems that Alice has been taken out through the skylight. In one of his rare mistakes, Holmes believes that Rucastle has taken her away. At that moment, Rucastle surprises them in the locked wing and dashes

The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

Sherlock Holmes

THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES 101

This illustration from The Strand Magazine depicts the moment Rucastle is savagely attacked by the huge mastiff.

out to set the mastiff on them, but the starving hound savages him instead. Watson manages to shoot the dog, but Rucastle is badly hurt.

As Watson tends to Rucastle’s wounds, Mrs. Toller appears and reveals the truth. Alice was the sole beneficiary of her late mother’s will, but she allowed her father to take care of the affairs. Upon meeting her fiancé Mr. Fowler, Rucastle tried to force Alice to sign the inheritance over to him before she married and he lost control of the finances. Distraught, she had an attack of “brain fever,” suffering from the illness for six weeks. Alice recovered, but Rucastle locked her in the chamber. Violet was hired to act as Alice so that Fowler would believe she was well again, but no longer interested in him. Fowler was not put off, however, and it was he who rescued her.

Holmes the man

Although Holmes is attentive to Violet and seems to admire her, describing her as a “quite

Prisoners in the home

The immense control Victorian men had over their wives and daughters has been the stuff of Gothic horror stories ever since Charlotte Brontë wrote about mad Bertha Rochester being locked in the attic by her husband in Jane Eyre (1847). Legally, families were allowed to keep a family member confined if they were declared insane (to avoid a charge of false imprisonment)—but it was up to the family or a hired “doctor” to diagnose their insanity.

exceptional woman,” to Watson’s disappointment Holmes’s brief interest in her is over as soon as the case is solved. Conan Doyle has teased the reader, momentarily hinting that emotion might lurk behind the detective’s coolly mechanical facade.

The tale also reveals Holmes’s somewhat bleak outlook on life. While traveling on the train to Winchester, Watson remarks on the beautiful countryside, dotted with charming farmhouses. Holmes admits that he can see only their

Brontë may have been inspired by a government report in 1844, which revealed shocking cases of the rural poor attempting to look after their unstable family members at home. The reason for the secrecy was partially the deep shame felt about mental illness; however, in some cases families were also trying to save their loved ones from the horrors of lunatic asylums. Nevertheless, many unfortunate people were locked away because of personal grievances or for financial gain. There were certainly many cases of unspeakable cruelty

desperate isolation in which unspeakable crimes may be concealed. Watson is appalled by his negativity, but the moment hints at the psychological complexity of Holmes that has enthralled readers for so long.

Interestingly, although Holmes says at the start of the story that Watson should tell tales that reveal his deductive powers, here they actually play very little part. Instead, the action is precipitated almost entirely by Violet, with Holmes taking a supporting role. ■

that never saw the light of day, and many others like Alice Rucastle whose terrible suffering remained hidden.

In 1879, the British Medical Journal observed that there was still “no law to prevent a Mr. Rochester from locking up his mad wife in the attic of a mansion, with a keeper.” A rise in awareness followed, and 1890, the year in which “The Copper Beeches” is believed to be set, was the last year in which Rucastle could legally have gotten away with locking up his daughter.

THE GRE

DETECTI

AT

VE

104 THE GREAT DETECTIVE

The “Great Hiatus” continues; Holmes travels throughout Asia and Europe (see “The Empty House” pp.162–67).

IN THIS CHAPTER

COLLECTION

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1894

Silver Blaze The Cardboard Box The Yellow Face The Stock-broker’s Clerk The Gloria Scott The Musgrave Ritual The Reigate Squire The Crooked Man The Resident Patient The Greek Interpreter The Naval Treaty The Final Problem

The stories later

collected in The

Memoirs of

Sherlock Holmes

begin to appear in The Strand Magazine. Conan Doyle publishes the

historical novel The Refugees (p.344).

1893

Conan Doyle’s first wife, Louise, is diagnosed with tuberculosis.

L

ess than two months after

The Adventures of Sherlock

Holmes was published, The Strand Magazine began serializing the short stories of what would be that book’s successor, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. This collection would culminate in an event that horrified readers— Holmes’s untimely death, in the thrilling “The Final Problem.”

Faithfulness and fallibility

In both “The Yellow Face” and “The Cardboard Box,” Holmes displays a new awareness to criminals’ own sense of victimization. In fact, in this collection of stories, the detective seems more in tune with human psychology in general. One sequence in “The Naval Treaty,” in which Holmes hints at his thoughts on religious faith, illuminates a

“The Final Problem” (pp.142–47) appears in The Strand Magazine. Holmes’s death is met with a stunned response.

1892

Event in the lives of Holmes and Watson

OCT 1892

Conan Doyle publishes The Great Shadow, a novel about the Napoleonic wars.

DEC 1892

MAY 1893 DEC 1893

OCT 1893

Conan Doyle’s father, Charles Altamont Doyle, dies at age 61.

new, more wistful side to his personality. And in “The Reigate Squire,” he seems more human, too, as he succumbs to burnout due to overwork. Meanwhile, Holmes’s wide misreading of the facts in “The Yellow Face” reveals for the first time his fallibility as a detective, and elicits an unusually contrite reaction.

A strong theme of betrayal runs through the Memoirs. “The Gloria Scott,” “The Crooked Man,” and “The Resident Patient” all attest to this. Suggestions of adultery fuel “The Cardboard Box,” and in “The Yellow Face” Grant Munro’s behavior is driven by the fear that his beloved wife is being unfaithful. Continuing this theme in “The Musgrave Ritual,” the butler’s jilting of one woman for another is key to his mysterious disappearance.

INTRODUCTION 105

Conan Doyle publishes

Following the death of his wife, Round the Red Watson sells his practice and moves Lamp—a collection back into 221B Baker Street (see of short stories on “The Norwood Builder,” pp.168–69) medical themes.

1894 OCT 1894 DEC 1893 FEB 1894

Conan Doyle publishes The Memoirs of

Sherlock Holmes. Holmes returns to London, marking the end of the “Great Hiatus” (see “The Empty House,” pp.162–67).

Conan Doyle publishes The Medal of Brigadier Gerard in The Strand Magazine— the first of a series.

DEC 1894

1894

Conan Doyle embarks on a successful lecture tour of the US with his brother Innes.

The first ending

Two key characters are introduced in the Memoirs: Holmes’s brother Mycroft—unmentioned before “The Greek Interpreter”—and the detective’s nemesis, Moriarty, who unexpectedly materializes for the first time in “The Final Problem,” which narrates the destruction of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. Sidney Paget’s full-page rendition of the horrifying scene prefaced the story in the Strand.

The public response was instant and powerful: “I heard of many who wept,” said Conan Doyle. In the story, the author describes Moriarty as “the Napoleon of Crime”—and it is interesting to note that the “better things” to which Conan Doyle wished to dedicate his time also centered on the Napoleonic era. His historical novel The Great Shadow had been published just 13 months before “The Final Problem,” and in 1894 he began his stories set during the Napoleonic wars: the “Brigadier Gerard” series.

Gone for good?

Conan Doyle is known to have grown tired of Holmes, but aside from the fulfillment of his higher literary ambitions, there may have been other reasons for killing off his most famous creation at this difficult time in his personal life— his wife had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and in October 1893, his alcoholic father died in an asylum. However, did Conan Doyle really plan to permanently shelve Holmes? The mystery surrounding the Reichenbach Falls incident left open the possibility of a plausible resurrection. And 10 years later, that is exactly what happened. Holmes’s fictional interlude—between his “death” in April 1891 and his return in February 1894—became known as the “Great Hiatus.”

The deeper question of whether Conan Doyle created this mystery deliberately for economic reasons, or whether he had greater affection for Holmes than he let on and could not bring himself to narrate a clearcut death, will probably never be answered. What is certain is that Conan Doyle was paid £1,000 for the stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes—earnings a world away from the early days of his writing career, when he got by on a shilling a day and, as he recalled, subsisted on “bread, bacon and tea, with an occasional saveloy—what could man ask for more?” ■

IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

UK: December 1892 US: January/February 1893

COLLECTION

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1894

CHARACTERS John Straker Racehorse trainer and retired jockey.

Fitzroy Simpson Wealthy London bookmaker and profligate gambler.

Colonel Ross Owner of the racehorse Silver Blaze.

Inspector Gregory

Official investigating officer.

Silas Brown Trainer at Mapleton stables.

Ned Hunter Stable lad at King’s Pyland stables.

THE REAL MURDERER

IS STANDING

IMMEDIATELY

BEHIND YOU

SILVER BLAZE (1892)

O

ne of the most commonly reproduced images of Sherlock Holmes is a Sidney Paget illustration from “Silver Blaze,” showing a deerstalker-clad Holmes sitting in a train car. He is gesticulating with his long fingers as he expounds the mystery of a missing racehorse and its apparently murdered trainer to a cigar-toting Watson. Prior to this explanation, he (rather improbably) declares the train’s speed to be exactly 531⁄2 miles an hour, based on the telegraph posts alongside the track being 60 yards apart. “Silver Blaze” is bookended by train journeys, during which both the exposition and the final explanation of the case take place.

A vanished favorite

The racehorse Silver Blaze, so named for his distinctive white forehead, has gone missing from his stable at King’s Pyland on Dartmoor, a week before he is due to run as odds-on favorite in the Wessex Cup. His trainer, John Straker, has been found dead out on the moor, his skull staved in and his hand gripped around a peculiar knife. Fitzroy Simpson, a bookmaker, is already in custody as prime suspect, having attempted to bribe his way into the stable on the evening in question. Furthermore, that same night he had dined at Straker’s house, where a portion of their curried mutton had been laced with opium and used to drug the stable boy who should have been guarding Silver Blaze. Simpson’s presence at dinner could have given him the opportunity to drug the food in order to later steal the horse. Simpson claims that in attempting to enter the stables he had merely been looking for some inside tips on the race, but his heavy palm-wood walking stick, a “Penang lawyer,”

…nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.

Sherlock Holmes

SILVER BLAZE 107

Holmes is depicted here in his iconic deerstalker, in The Strand Magazine’s illustration from “Silver Blaze.” The watercolor version of this scene sold at Christie’s for $90,000 in 2014.