Sherlock Holmes reread: The Gloria Scott
Mar. 3rd, 2025 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanContinuing my reread of the Memoirs collection, and another story I can barely recall.
This story wasn't a hit for me today, being surprisingly muddled, and also too reminiscent of many earlier Sherlock Holmes stories.
Here we have Holmes recounting a tale from his younger days, when he visited a friend in Norfolk, only to end up dealing with the friend's father receiving an enigmatic message, collapsing on the spot, and dying soon after. With a back story of transportation, prisoners escaping at sea, and a cryptic message.
This riffs off so many earlier tales, such as "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Five Orange Pips", and even the novel length The Sign of the Four. So the feeling was constantly "Oh that again ..." rather than a sense of novelty and excitement.
The retelling within the story was also extremely muddled, especially as Holmes at second hand recounted the prisoners on a convict ship to Australia overcoming and escaping their captors at sea. Conan Doyle usually describes scenes well, but this section felt remarkably messy.
And then it finishes. And all I can think is how pleased I am to see the next title coming up: "The Musgrave Ritual", which is one of my all time favourites.
So yup, not a hit. Too familiar, and also messy storytelling. Checking the history of the story I'm not surprised that it's been missed by many TV adaptations. Though it's better served on radio.
This story wasn't a hit for me today, being surprisingly muddled, and also too reminiscent of many earlier Sherlock Holmes stories.
Here we have Holmes recounting a tale from his younger days, when he visited a friend in Norfolk, only to end up dealing with the friend's father receiving an enigmatic message, collapsing on the spot, and dying soon after. With a back story of transportation, prisoners escaping at sea, and a cryptic message.
This riffs off so many earlier tales, such as "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", "The Five Orange Pips", and even the novel length The Sign of the Four. So the feeling was constantly "Oh that again ..." rather than a sense of novelty and excitement.
The retelling within the story was also extremely muddled, especially as Holmes at second hand recounted the prisoners on a convict ship to Australia overcoming and escaping their captors at sea. Conan Doyle usually describes scenes well, but this section felt remarkably messy.
And then it finishes. And all I can think is how pleased I am to see the next title coming up: "The Musgrave Ritual", which is one of my all time favourites.
So yup, not a hit. Too familiar, and also messy storytelling. Checking the history of the story I'm not surprised that it's been missed by many TV adaptations. Though it's better served on radio.