I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me back into my chair.
'It is both, or none,' said he. 'You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me.'
'From the point of view of the criminal expert,' said Mr. Sherlock Holmes, 'London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the late lamented Professor Moriarty.'
Perhaps, when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.
- Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
well this is going in my "subtle ways to praise self and insult others" file
(with some additional ruminations on holmes/watson, naturally)
let's talk about "the adventure of the blanched soldier", which is already interesting enough in that it's one of only two stories told from holmes's point of view. this gives us gems such as:
The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone.
(the only selfish action you guys the bitterness and hurt are palpable)
but coupled with the dodd/emsworth relationship in the story some really suggestive points raise themselves. so, what is this relationship, anyway?
the case goes as follows: a soldier named james dodd visits holmes one day because he's worried about his friend, godfrey emsworth. now, who is this emsworth? in dodd's words:
"When I joined up in January, 1901—just two years ago—young Godfrey Emsworth had joined the same squadron...There was not a finer lad in the regiment. We formed a friendship—the sort of friendship which can only be made when one lives the same life and shares the same joys and sorrows. He was my mate—and that means a good deal in the Army. We took the rough and the smooth together for a year of hard fighting."
dodd is worried because emsworth hasn't written him:
"[after Emsworth was injured] I got one letter from the hospital at Cape Town and one from Southampton. Since then not a word—not one word, Mr. Holmes, for six months and more, and he my closest pal."
and the idea that emsworth wouldn't write is unthinkable:
"The whole thing seemed to me so damned unnatural. He was a good lad, and he would not drop a pal like that. It was not like him."
so dodd is absolutely committed to figuring out what's wrong with his friend:
"I mean to drop everything in order to see it through."
seriously.
anyway, dodd does what any good friend might do and visits emsworth's home. the father (who is a cranky, stern man) is suspicious and asks for proof that dodd actually even knows emsworth. well:
"I have his letters to me in my pocket."
yeah, those two letters emsworth sent to him before dropping off the face of the earth? both in his pocket ♥
the father continues to be suspicious, and dodd explains why he cares:
"I was fond of your son Godfrey, sir. Many ties and memories united us. Is it not natural that I should wonder at his sudden silence and should wish to know what has become of him?"
the father says that emsworth is away, sailing around the world. this does not deter dodd at all:
"Perhaps you would have the goodness to let me have the name of the steamer and of the line by which he sailed, together with the date. I have no doubt that I should be able to get a letter through to him."
at this point the father is baffled at dodd's persistence. the reply:
"You must put it down, sir, to my real love for your son."
excuse me while i flail over a newly-found otp.
anyway, dodd spends the night at the emsworth house, talks to some servants, and hypothesizes a bit, when something very interesting happens:
"Godfrey was a reckless fellow. He was easily influencedby those around him. No doubt he had fallen into bad hands and been misled to his ruin. It was a piteous business, if it was indeed so, but even now it was my duty to hunt him out and see if I could aid him. I was anxiously pondering the matter when I looked up, and there was Godfrey Emsworth standing before me [right outside the window].”
My client had paused as one in deep emotion.
no, dodd isn't hallucinating, it really is him! look:
"[Emsworth's] nose was pressed against the glass. The lamplight shone full upon him."
so apparently emsworth was quite desperate to see dodd, too. but sadly, emsworth runs away, and dodd loses him in the chase. he then spends that night and much of the next day looking for emsworth. naturally, the father is accuses him of spying and kicks him out, upon which dodd retorts:
"I have seen your son, and I am convinced that for some reason of your own you are concealing him from the world. I have no idea what your motives are in cutting him off in this fashion, but I am sure that he is no longer a free agent. I warn you, Colonel Emsworth, that until I am assured as to the safety and well-being of my friend I shall never desist in my efforts to get to the bottom of the mystery, and I shall certainly not allow myself to be intimidated by anything which you may say or do."
have i mentioned yet that emsworth senior is a very large, intimidating man? but of course that doesn't stop dodd's protective instincts, and this is the point where he goes to hire holmes.
they go back to the emsworth house; holmes, who's already figured it all out, persuades the father to show them godfrey. dodd's first reaction?
At the sight of him my client sprang forward with outstretched hand.
“Why, Godfrey, old man, this is fine!”
but no, "don't touch me," emsworth says, because he has leprosy D: apparently he's been hiding out because if people knew they'd force him to live away from his family. but look:
“I don’t mind you, Jimmie, but I could have done without your friend [Holmes]."
because this is a requited love, dammit:
"[A servant] told me you were there, and I couldn’t help taking a peep at you."
awwww ♥ (do you remember that he was so desperate to see dodd that he literally had his nose pressed against the window!)
in the end, it turns out that emsworth actually has something that just looks like leprosy but is curable \o/ and he and dodd live happily ever after
i mentioned that this is written from holmes's pov, because watson is literally not on this case at all. despite that, holmes just keeps talking about watson throughout the whole thing.
i mean, the entire first paragraph is all about how watson keeps telling holmes to write up a story by himself if he's not satisfied with how watson does it, and holmes wraps it all up by pointing out that watson also has some "remarkable characteristics", he just doesn't mention it in his own stories.
he mentions watson's write-up of another case:
It happened that at the moment I was clearing up the case which my friend Watson has described as that of the Abbey School, in which the Duke of Greyminster was so deeply involved.
(...did you actually read his stories, though, holmes. i believe that's the priory school? the one with the duke of holdernesse?)
i don't even know why he feels necessary to mention watson here:
The narratives of Watson have accustomed the reader, no doubt, to the fact that I do not waste words or disclose my thoughts while a case is actually under consideration.
or here:
I have, as my friend Watson may have remarked, an abnormally acute set of senses
look, an admission that maybe watson's better at this story-telling lark than he is!
Alas, that I should have to show my hand so when I tell my own story! It was by concealing such links in the chain that Watson was enabled to produce his meretricious finales.
and again:
And here it is that I miss my Watson. By cunning questions and ejaculations of wonder he could elevate my simple art, which is but systematized common sense, into a prodigy. When I tell my own story I have no such aid.
god, you two ♥
and finally, it's really interesting to me that while holmes had other cases he could've written up (like this really exciting-sounding "commission from the Sultan of Turkey"), he chooses this one! the super slashy one about a fairly intelligent, determined man concerned about his missing friend, who's a soldier invalided out of the army. and he writes this up while watson's missing from his side.
i mean, i'm definitely not saying holmes is totally the kind of person to write terrible self-insert stories. but just. hello, parallels.
are you getting tired of me posting about holmestice yet? sorry, have another rec anyway <3
Casualties (Holmes/Watson, PG)
When Watson attempts to enlist in the Great War, a series of misunderstandings (and much angst) ensues. An epistolary fic set after the events of ‘His Last Bow’.
the holmes voice in this truly wonderful, sharp and biting and tender by turns, and the ending -- perfect.
