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The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1892).
“To the man who loves art for its own sake,” remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Telegraph, “it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselv...

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1892).
“Holmes,” said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking down the street, “here is a madman coming along. It seems rather sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone.” My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as ...

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1892).
The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of this remarkable episode. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days ...

The Adventure of the Engineers Thumb

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1892).
Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his notice—that of Mr. Hatherley’s thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton’s madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story has, I belie...

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1892).
On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which presented more singular features than that which was associated with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. The events in q...

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1892).
I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the purpose of examination. “...

The Man with the Twisted Lip

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1891).
Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal of the Theological College of St. George’s, was much addicted to opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Quincey’s description of his dreams and sensations, he had drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see him now, with yellow, pasty face,...

The Five Orange Pips

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
 Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1891).
When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes cases between the years ’82 and ’90, I am faced by so many which present strange and interesting features that it is no easy matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and have their exp...

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1891).
We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran in this way: “Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Leave Paddington by the 11:15.” “What do you say, dear?” said my wife, looking across at me. “Will you go?” “I really don’t know what to say. I have a fairly long list at present.” “Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you go...

A case of Identity

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1891).
“My dear fellow,” said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, “life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities ...

The Red-Headed League

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1891).
I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door behind me. “You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Watson,” he said cordially. “I was afraid that you were engaged.” “So I am. Very much so.” “Then I can wait in the next room.” “Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no doubt that...

A Scandal in Bohemia

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Then he stood before the fire. Illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine (1891).
Chapter 1 To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the v...

L’avventura del carbonchio azzurro

Titolo originale: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (1892)

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustrations by Sidney Paget (1892).
Natale era trascorso da due giorni quando andai a far visita al mio amico Sherlock Holmes: volevo porgergli gli auguri per il nuovo anno. Lo trovai che oziava sul divano, avvolto in una veste da camera color porpora con un reggipipe a portata di mano da un lato e dall’altro una pila di giornali spiegazzati evidentemente consultati da poco. Accanto al divano c’era una sedia con un cappello di feltro sdrucito e consunto appeso alla spalliera e un paio di pinze chirurgiche e una lente di ingrandimento sul ripiano imbottito che, pensai, dovevano esser state usate per esaminare a fondo il cappello in questione. «Siete occupato?» chiesi. «Vi ho...
1

Il mistero di Boscombe Valley

Titolo originale: The Boscombe Valley Mystery.

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Illustrations by Sidney Paget (1891).
Mia moglie e io stavamo facendo colazione, una mattina, quando la cameriera ci consegnò un telegramma. Era di Sherlock Holmes, ed era steso in questi termini: “Avete un paio di giorni liberi a disposizione? Mi hanno appena telegrafato dall’ovest dell’Inghilterra riguardo alla tragedia di Boscombe Valley. Sarei lieto se veniste con me. Aria e paesaggio sono splendidi. Partirò da Paddington alle 11,15.” «Che cosa hai intenzione di fare?» chiese mia moglie. «Andrai?» «Per la verità non lo so. Ho una lunga lista di pazienti in questo periodo.» «Potresti farti sostituire da Anstruther, no? Negli ultimi tempi ti sei stancato molto, sei palli...

L’avventura del diadema di Berilli

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Me ne stavo appoggiato al davanzale della finestra nella nostra casa di Baker Street quando giù in strada vidi qualcosa che richiamò la mia attenzione. «Holmes,» dissi «sta arrivando un pazzo. È triste che i suoi familiari lo lascino andare in giro così da solo.» Il mio amico si alzò pigramente dalla poltrona e, con le mani nelle tasche della veste da camera, dette una sbirciata al disopra delle mie spalle. Era una limpida mattinata di febbraio e la neve caduta il giorno prima scintillava sotto il pallido sole invernale. Il traffico l’aveva ridotta, al centro della strada, a una scura striscia fangosa, ma sui due lati e sui marciapie...

La scomparsa di Lady Frances Carfax

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
«Ma perché proprio turchi?» chiese Sherlock Holmes con lo sguardo puntato sui miei stivali. Io me ne stavo adagiato su una poltrona di vimini, in quel momento, e pensai che i miei piedi protesi in avanti avessero attirato la sua attenzione. «Sono inglesi» risposi, piuttosto sorpreso. «Li ho comprati da Latimer, in Oxford Street.» Holmes sorrise con una cert’aria di sufficienza. «Io parlo dei bagni» disse. «Dei bagni! Perché frequentare i bagni turchi che costano un occhio della testa e indeboliscono, invece di accontentarsi del rinvigorente bagno casalingo?» «Perché in questi ultimi giorni mi sono sentito vecchio e pieno di reumatismi»...

L’avventura dei Faggi Rossi

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
«A chi ama l’arte per se stessa» osservò Sherlock Holmes, mettendo via la pagina con gli annunci pubblicitari del Daily Telegraph «piacciono di più gli aspetti meno importanti. E voi, caro Watson, appartenete a questa schiera; ho notato che nei casi e nelle vicende che mi riguardano e di cui avete preso nota, magari abbellendoli un po’, avete scartato le cause celebri, i processi clamorosi per porre l’accento sugli episodi, in apparenza banali, che mi hanno permesso di esplicare quelle facoltà di deduzione e di sintesi logica che considero i miei pregi maggiori.» «Tuttavia» risposi, sorridendo «non riesco a farmi assolvere del tutto da...

L’avventura del Piede del Diavolo

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Mi è accaduto talvolta, nell’annotare esperienze e ricordi che si collegano alla mia lunga e intima amicizia con Sherlock Holmes, di trovarmi in difficoltà a causa della sua netta avversione per qualsiasi forma di pubblicità. Il suo carattere scettico e chiuso lo spinge a disprezzare il consenso delle folle e niente lo ha mai divertito tanto quanto il riversare, al termine di qualche inchiesta conclusa felicemente, tutto il merito del successo su qualche membro della polizia ufficiale e ascoltare con un sorriso beffardo il coro generale di congratulazioni non meritate. È stato per questo atteggiamento del mio amico e non certo per man...

L’avventura della Faccia Livida

SherlockHolmes's profile picture
Published in 
 · 7 years ago
Nel pubblicare queste brevi note sui numerosi casi in cui il mio bizzarro amico è stato coinvolto e che spesso mi hanno visto nel ruolo di spettatore, è naturale che dia la preferenza ai suoi successi piuttosto che ai fallimenti. E questo non per salvaguardarne la reputazione, visto che, proprio quando sembrava esaurita ogni risorsa, la sua energia e versatilità erano più ammirevoli che mai, ma perché là dove lui sbagliò, nessun altro mai riuscì e così la mia cronaca sarebbe rimasta senza una conclusione. Qualche volta, comunque, accadde che la verità venisse a galla da sola. Ho annotato una mezza dozzina di casi del genere; l’a...
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