Re: RARA-AVIS: RE: RARA-AVIS Digest V2 #661

wharker@ix.netcom.com
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 19:14:04 -0800 Christopher Bahn (Kelly Services Inc) wrote:
>
> Frederick Zackel <fzackel@bgnet.bgsu.edu> wrote:
>
> >But, what turned me off to
> > the detective came from two of the episodes. One, about a journalist who
> > loses his job then becomes a professional begger, had Holmes looking down
> > his nose at the poor fellow for trying to keep his family fed; Holmes
> > tells the wife and at the end of the story everybody knows she'll leave
> > him. (The man was middle-class and struggle; holmes feeds him to the
> > dogs.)

> Good grief - Holmes is an arrogant jerk at times, sure, but that first
> example seems really out of character for him. I don't recall an incident
> like that in the original Conan Doyle stories, though it's possible of
> course that I've forgotten. You've piqued my curiosity to reread the stories
> in question and see how/if they differ from the Brett TV versions. Anyone
> know which stories these two are? The second is, I believe, "Silver Blaze."

The first story is that of "The Man With the Twisted Lip." There are
differing opinions, for a number of reasons, as to why and how the Brett
series differs from the original Conan Doyle writings. However, the
Conan Doyle writings do not, IMHO, lend themselves to the interpretation
indicated by the above writing. Inspector Bradstreet is the person who
tells Hugh Boone (aka Neville St. Clair) that he must never again assume
the identity of a beggar. Holmes merely "solves" the case and does not
offer a normative judgement.

As far as the Brett series, I think "most" followers of the series and
the writings agree that as Brett's health failed, the producers of the
series took more liberties with the stories because Brett could not,
physically, dominate the stories in the same way in which Conan Doyle
wrote the stories.

Bill Harker
wharker@ix.netcom.com
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