#acd veil

[sarahthecoat]

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

A tragic story of love and revenge induces pity and sorrow in the great Sherlock Holmes.

Read by James Nickerson

[sarahthecoat]

The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

I finally found an audiobook version! And it’s read by Christopher Lee! what a treat.

This story has always seemed a bit odd to me, since it’s nearly all told in retrospect. The landlady, Mrs Merrilow, comes and tells about how Mrs Ronder came to lodge with her years ago, then Holmes consults his scrapbooks about the death of Mr Ronder some years past, and then Mrs Ronder herself fills in the story. Really the only present excitement, is Holmes’ twigging on her having become suicidal, and speaking up to urge her not to kill herself.

This story does ring changes on many recurring themes though. Mrs Ronder was an abused wife, but in this case, it all happened in the past, Holmes was not able to help her during that time. There are other stories in which someone is mauled by a beast (dogs, off the top of my head, in COPP and HOUN), and again, too far in the past for Watson to come to the rescue with his good aim.

It also in a way echoes the events of FINA, in that Mrs Ronder and Leonardo had a plan for how to deal with Mr Ronder, and Leonardo did part of it, he did kill Mr Ronder, but then he left Mrs Ronder to her fate, when he should have stayed by her side and protected her. I wonder how Watson and Holmes see themselves reflected, whether each one sees himself as the one who left when he should have stayed. At least it wasn’t cowardice as it was with Leonardo.

[victorianfantasywatson]

"When one considers that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to cooperate with him and to keep notes of his doings,"

This phrasing here is fascinating me, "I was ALLOWED to cooperate" as if the times when they weren't together were because Holmes didn't want to see HIM? Isn't this in direct contradiction of what Holmes says in BLAN when he says Watson had deserted him for a wife?

I feel like one of them is misreading the situation or not telling the whole truth... or because of Watson's marriage(s) they were no longer able to communicate openly with each other what they wanted... as if Holmes assumed Watson had replaced him with a wife and so stopped calling on him, and Watson assumed this meant Holmes no longer needed him...