The Gloria Scott is the "origin story" of Sherlock Holmes adventures, chronicling what the consulting detective himself refers to as his first case. In it, there are elements that work very well, and some not quite as well thought out.
In the plus column, the depiction of the younger Holmes who doesn't quite realize his own capabilities is convincing. The mystery here revolves around Holmes off-handedly using his deductive reasoning as a parlor trick on a friend's father, and coming so near a long-hidden secret as to terrify the man. Later, when that secret past comes home to roost, the friend enlists Holmes to get the bottom of the puzzle. Believably for a first time detective, Holmes isn't quite able to do so... or at least, not in a way that averts tragedy.
The case itself plays reasonably fair with the audience. You're not provided quite enough detail to actually deduce the solution, but you can certainly get in the ballpark of the answer, as Holmes does. You even have an advantage the detective himself does not have -- the knowledge of the mystery's title, and the strong indication it must refer to a ship of some kind.
But on the down side, Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't willing to dispense with the character of Watson to tell to this story. Thus, the story is actually Holmes sitting down to tell the tale of his first adventure to Watson, and Watson in turn recounting it to us. It's two steps removed from the actual action. Worse still is when Holmes, in his narrative, comes to moments where his friend is recounting his backstory to then-young Holmes. So now Watson is recounting Holmes, who is telling a story of a time that a friend of his once told him a story. The quotation marks get nested three deep for a significant chunk of the tale, and it's quite off-putting. While I certainly feel that Watson is a vital part of any "modern" Holmes adventure, I think the thing to do for this tale would have been to set him aside and just tell Holmes' first mystery, straight up.
Still, the tale manages to be fairly compelling overall... one of the better Holmes stories to date, in fact. I'd give it a B+.
1 comment:
Good story. One I remember liking very much.
But yes, the nesting or stories gets a little heavy-handed at times.
You'll be glad to know that there are two stories in the Canon that are *written* by Holmes (and not just retold by him).
There's also a third story, famous amongst scholars because the writer is not known. I've been in many sherlockian meetings where people argued for one solution or another to that minor mystery. :)
FKL
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