“When I draw your attention” [REIG]
Dr. Watson's role was much more than Sherlock Holmes's friend, colleague, and sometime-flatmate. Writ large, he was a front-man — Holmes's publicist, bringing to life “those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents.” [EMPT]
Considering that Watson was his own man, with his own practice, and just as widely known as his detective friend, it may seem odd that Watson didn't bring more cases to Holmes's attention. Certainly, fan mail and client visits would naturally gravitate to 221B Baker Street. But shouldn't Watson's notoriety afford him more occasions to make some referrals to Holmes?
The number of cases in which he did is surprisingly low.
In "The Engineer's Thumb," Watson admits that “there were only two which I was the means of introducing” a new case to Sherlock Holmes: that story and an unpublished one (Colonel Warburton's madness).
But there is one other...
An old school associate by the name of Percy "Tadpole" Phelps wrote to Watson asking him to bring Sherlock Holmes down to Woking to hear the case that Watson ultimately wrote up as "The Naval Treaty."
So there we have it. Watson introduced two of the 60 cases to Holmes, and one unpublished case (that we know of).
Let's see if they're teaching common sense at Baker Street Elementary...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at the Baker Street Elementary website.
0 comments:
Post a Comment