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Dr. Watson

gown flapping on each side of him… like some huge bat….” He then torments and taunts his chained wolfhound, until the animal breaks free and bites his master’s throat. Bennett manages to calm the dog, and he and Watson dress the professor’s injuries.

An unnatural solution

Holmes deduces that the professor, madly in love and conscious of his advanced years, has made contact with an experimental scientist in Prague, who has been sending him samples of a rejuvenating serum. They find a letter with a Prague postmark from an H. Lowenstein,

Science fiction

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of writers were beginning to explore various speculative themes that were to become the preoccupations of later science fiction: time travel, lost worlds, utopianism, and ambitious scientists. The works of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs were to prove enduringly popular. Conan Doyle himself turned his talents to science fiction, writing a series of stories charting the adventures of Professor Challenger, who leads

which confirms that his “wondrous strengthgiving” serum is extracted from a black-faced langur, a kind of Himalayan climbing monkey. Lowenstein has been supplying it to the professor via a third party in London, a Mr. A. Dorak. Recklessly, the professor has attempted to manipulate nature, halt the aging process, and revive his waning powers. During the course of this dangerous experiment, however, he has taken on the characteristics of an aggressive primate. His own dog attacked him because its natural instincts alerted it to the danger.

The surreal spectacle of the professor’s apelike behavior prompts Holmes to warn of the risks of scientific experimentation that distorts the “natural order.” The story also explores the necessity of accepting that everything comes to an end—that youth disappears, and the more sedate pleasures of old age must be embraced. The advances of modern science may be enlisted to hold back the tide, but ultimately everyone shares the same fate. It is a lesson that Holmes must learn too, as he contemplates retiring to what he calls “that little farm of my dreams.” ■

exhibitions into the unknown, discovers dinosaurs living deep in the South American rain-forest, and wrestles with the imminent extinction of the Earth as it is threatened by poisonous ether from outer space.

“The Creeping Man”, which was, in part, influenced by 1920s research into the rejuvenating effects of implanting monkey glands into humans, explores the consequences of reckless scientific experimentation. Presciently, it is also relevant to 21st-century fears about genetic mutation and eugenics.

IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

UK: January 1924 US: January 1924

COLLECTION

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, 1927

CHARACTERS

Mr. Robert Ferguson

Tea broker and father of two.

Mrs. Ferguson Peruvian wife of Robert, mother of a baby boy, and stepmother to Jack.

Jack Robert’s disabled 15-year-old son.

Dolores Long-time friend and servant of Mrs. Ferguson.

Mrs. Mason Trusted nurse to the baby.

THE WORLD IS BIG

ENOUGH FOR US. NO

GHOSTS NEED APPLY

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUSSEX VAMPIRE (1924)

Love and betrayal within the Ferguson family

imprisons

Mr. Robert Ferguson Mrs. Ferguson

Husband Wife

saves

Jack Baby

Son of Mr. Ferguson Son of Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson

poisons

I

n contrast to Holmes’s usually logical cases, “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” contains hints of the supernatural, similar to those in “The Adventure of the Creeping Man” (pp.258–59). A societal shift toward spirituality had begun in the late 19th century, and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had shaken the religious foundations of society. People were searching for alternative meaning in their lives, and Conan Doyle became a great supporter of the Spiritualist

protects

movement. He was also a prominent member of the paranormal Ghost Club and an avid believer in an afterlife, telepathy, and even fairies.

Spiritualist journey

Conan Doyle’s spiritualism has been attributed to the tragic deaths of his wife and son in the early 20th century; however, his interest began years before. “The American’s Tale” (1880), a short story about a bloodsucking plant, reflects his early interest in the metaphysical; by

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUSSEX VAMPIRE 261

1924 when “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” was published, his spiritualism had become an obsession. Two years later, Conan Doyle published his pivotal work

The History of Spiritualism.

A Peruvian vampire?

In “The Sussex Vampire,” Robert Ferguson, a tea broker and father of two, asks Sherlock Holmes for help because he is convinced that his new Peruvian wife has been sucking the blood of their baby son. Although she is a devoted wife and mother, she was caught in this vampiric act by their nurse, who plucked up the courage to confide in her master.

Ferguson was in disbelief until he saw the baby’s wounded neck and his mother’s bloodied lips. His wife offered no explanation to her husband, but just gazed at him “with a sort of wild, despairing look in her eyes.” She had also, inexplicably, twice beaten her crippled 15-year-old stepson, Jack—her husband’s son from his previous marriage. Ferguson is appalled and beside himself with concern.

Holmes and Watson travel to Ferguson’s Sussex home to confirm what Holmes has already deduced— that a vampire has not played any part in this strange case. Indeed, he says, “The idea of a vampire was to me absurd. Such things do not happen in criminal practice in England.” Holmes, as the fictional standard-bearer for rationalism, is a clear-minded and reasoned forensic investigator who never falls for the illogical.

Once installed at Ferguson’s decaying Tudor farmhouse, Holmes engages his powers of observation. He notices first that the central room of the house contains a collection of South American artifacts, including weapons. The second clue is a lame pet spaniel, which, his inquiries reveal, was suddenly semi-paralyzed by an unknown condition. The third clue is Jack’s expression of intense jealousy and hatred when he watches Ferguson embrace his baby son.

Unraveling the mystery

Holmes soon announces that Ferguson’s wife is entirely innocent and that the culprit, is in fact, Jack. The boy has taken poisoned darts from his stepmother’s collection and shot them first at the dog, as a trial run, and later at the baby,

Vampires in the Victorian era

From the ancient world to the 21st century, people have had a thirst for tales of blood-sucking vampires. Various supernatural, grotesque forms have been depicted in world culture, but it was the Victorians who made them human, albeit in a Gothic style. The most notable example in the literary genre is the 1897 novel Dracula, written by Conan Doyle’s friend Bram Stoker.

Victorian writers and readers were fascinated by the pale, often fanged, undead. Their hypnotic powers and nocturnal habits pitted evil against the good nature of their victims, demonstrating both a fin de siècle decadence and the idea of betrayed innocence. At once sinister, inviting, shocking, and sensuous, Victorian vampires— male and female—can be seen as an articulation of suppressed homosexual and female sexual expression. Maternal and loving, Mrs. Ferguson certainly doesn’t appear to fit the archetypal Victorian image of a vampire.

The original cover of The Strand Magazine that first featured “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.” The short story was first serialized in the publication in January 1924.

attempting to kill his half-brother out of jealousy. Mrs. Ferguson saved her baby’s life by sucking the poison from his neck, and beat her stepson for his wickedness. She did not reveal the reason behind these events for fear of breaking her husband’s heart.

The tension between author and protagonist, spiritualist, and logician, runs throughout this story, and reflects the wider debate in society about spiritualism and rationalism, religion, and science, that was raging at the time.

In an ironic flourish at the end of the story, Mrs. Ferguson praises Holmes’s intellect in supernatural terms: “this gentleman… seems to have powers of magic,” she declares. It is as though Conan Doyle was proving that he could be true to the nature of his literary creation despite his own personal convictions regarding ghosts and spiritualism. ■

IN CONTEXT

TYPE

Short story

FIRST PUBLICATION

US: October 1924 UK: January 1925

COLLECTION

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, 1927

CHARACTERS John Garrideb American lawyer from Kansas.

Nathan Garrideb Reclusive bachelor and dedicated collector of antiquities.

Alexander Hamilton Garrideb Wealthy, elderly American man.

THERE IS SOME

GUILTY SECRET

IN THE ROOM

THE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE GARRIDEBS (1925)

I

n his introduction to this tale, Watson states that the events it relates occurred in June 1902— he can clearly recollect the date because it was the month in which Holmes refused a knighthood “for services which may perhaps some day be described.” He speculates about whether the “adventure” that follows is a comedy or a tragedy. Certainly, the story’s ingenious plotting and flamboyant trickery incorporate some comic elements, but the consequences for the main protagonists are far from a laughing matter. For many readers, however, this is very much a story about the relationship between Holmes and Watson; in a life-threatening

Well, if you can lay your hand upon a Garrideb, there’s money in it.

Sherlock Holmes

situation, the depth of Holmes’s affection and respect for his friend and chronicler is finally revealed.

A mysterious legacy

The story begins with a visit from John Garrideb—an alert, bright-eyed American who says he is a counselor at law from Kansas. He tells an astonishing tale that relates to his unusual surname; he claims that he encountered just one other Garrideb in his home country— Alexander Hamilton Garrideb— a wealthy, elderly man who left a curious will: if John was able to find two other men with their surname, they would each inherit a part of his substantial estate. John left his practice to conduct a search, and he has now found and met with a Nathan Garrideb in London. In fact, against John’s wishes, Nathan has already enlisted Holmes’s help, and this is the reason for John’s visit.

Holmes is deeply suspicious of this tale, and of John himself— the man implies that he is a recent arrival in London, yet his well-worn English clothes and smoothed-out American accent indicate that he has been in the country for some time. He is also defensive, quickly “ruffled” by Holmes, and clearly

THE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE GARRIDEBS 263

This ITV adaptation, “The Mazarin Stone” (1994), combined that case with “The Three Garridebs” and starred Gavan O’Herlihy and Richard Caldicott.

angry that Nathan Garrideb considered it necessary to involve the detective. Nathan is easily located in the London telephone directory, which, in Holmes’s day, would have been a relatively small volume: the first edition was only published in 1880, 22 years before this story took place, and listed only 248 names. Watson phones and makes an appointment to visit him.

Cabinets of curiosities

Nathan is a stooping, bearded man of around 60, who lives in a bachelor’s apartment in a small street off Edgware Road; Watson notes that it is very close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, a place of public execution for many centuries—an ominous observation that stirs a sense of danger. Holmes and Watson immediately like and trust this Garrideb, finding him “amiable, though eccentric.” He is an avid collector of curiosities and antiquities, and his home is a veritable storehouse of treasures,

Victorian collectors

ranging from ancient coins and fossilized bones to cases full of moths and butterflies. Studying and maintaining this eclectic personal museum is his abiding passion, and he admits that he rarely leaves the house. He is intrigued by the story of the Garrideb legacy and is so enthralled by the prospect of using his potential share—$5 million— to expand his collection, that he does not question its veracity.

At this point, John Garrideb arrives, brandishing a Birmingham newspaper in which the services of one Howard Garrideb—constructor

When Nathan Garrideb says he wants to become “the Hans Sloane of my age,” he is referring to British physician Hans Sloane (1660–1753; pictured), whose passion for collecting was ignited when he visited Jamaica and brought back some 800 species of plants and animals. Sloane’s “cabinet of curiosities” grew over the years, and embraced objects from fields as diverse as botany, archaeology, ethnography, natural history, and geology. By the time of his death, Sloane had acquired around 71,000 items, which he bequeathed to the nation.

of agricultural machinery—are advertised. John suggests that Nathan should travel by train to the city the following day, and explain the situation to the third Garrideb, who will likely be more receptive to a “Britisher”; the old man reluctantly agrees. Before leaving Nathan’s home, Holmes and Watson obtain permission to view his collection while he is away. Holmes then informs Watson that John himself had placed the advertisement as part of a ruse to get Nathan out of his apartment; although he does not yet know why. ❯❯

They became the foundation of the British Museum, which opened to the public in 1759. By the Victorian era, many of those who traveled to the farthest corners of the British Empire were also dedicated collectors, helping to stock the galleries of newly founded institutions such as London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. However, the appetite for curiosities inevitably led to clever forgeries, and many amateur collectors were fooled by “authentic” treasures that had in fact been manufactured in Birmingham or Manchester.

264 THE FINAL DEDUCTIONS

The next day, Holmes conducts some investigations on his own, and returns in a somber mood. He warns Watson that they are up against a very hard case, and a dangerous one, too. He has paid a visit to Inspector Lestrade at Scotland Yard, and has found out that the lawyer John Garrideb is, in fact, a hardened Chicago-born criminal known as “Killer Evans.” After murdering three men in the US and then breaking out of jail, he headed to London, where he has lived for the past ten years and where, in 1895, he shot and killed a fellow American named Rodger Prescott over a game of cards. The dead man drew his gun first, so Evans served a relatively light sentence of just over five years. Since his release, he has been under police watch, but so far, he has stayed out of trouble.

The advertisement, which John Garrideb claims to have found in a local Birmingham newspaper, contains a number of clues that suggest to Holmes that it was written by an American.