Thread by @d_jaishankar

A little off-brand thread this Sunday: 10 Lessons from reading all 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories.

Background: A lot of people have used their lockdowns to catch up on fiction, but I've honestly not had time between work and childcare. So every night as I put the kids to sleep, I read one Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. In 56 days, I read all 56 of them.

Lesson 1 (Scandal in Bohemia): "It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has his data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."

Lesson 2 (Boscombe Valley Mystery): "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing...It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally compromising manner to something entirely different."

Indeed, Holmes almost never describes his methods as deduction, but as inference: finding a theory that best explains the pertinent facts.

From Silver Blaze: "[O]ne true inference invariably suggests others."

Lesson 3 (Blue Carbuncle): "Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place."

Lesson 4 (Red-Headed League): "Omne ignotum pro magnifico ('Everything unknown appears grand')...my poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I am so candid."

Holmes was a pioneer in proprietary methods, apparently.

Lesson 5 (Case of Identity): "There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world."

An unexpected appreciation for non-Western sources.

Lesson 6 (Bruce-Partington Plans): "I play the game for the game's own sake."

Mike drop.

Lesson 7 (Dying Detective): "You won't be offended, Watson? You will realise that among your many talents dissimulation finds no place."

The importance of the art of deception.

Lesson 8 (Sussex Vampire): "It was one of the peculiarities of his proud, self-contained nature that though he docketed any fresh information very quietly and accurately in his brain, he seldom made any acknowledgement to the giver."

Docket information but acknowledge the source

Lesson 9 (Wisteria Lodge): "I have not all my facts yet...it is an error to argue in front of your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit your theories."

Same as Lesson 1, but important so worth repeating.

Lesson 10: "[T]he chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness."

That's from The Sign of Four, one of the novels, but I threw it in anyway, since it's apt.

Overall, my favorites, in no particular order:

Dancing Men, Six Napoleons, Musgrave Ritual, Speckled Band, Silver Blaze, Lady Frances Carfax, Priory School, Beryl Coronet, Red Headed League, Bruce-Partington Plans, Boscombe Valley Mystery, Norwood Builder, Thor Bridge.

Other stories were just terrible: Mazarin Stone (badly adapted from a terrible stage play), Three Gables (cringeworthy and racist, even for its time), and some that were both silly and not even mysteries (Veiled Lodger, Illustrious Client, etc.)

A few concluding thoughts. One is how numerous adaptations and spin-offs feature secondary characters - Moriarty, Mycroft, Irene Adler - that appear in just 5 of 56 stories between them. Moreover, Holmes never claims to be infallible, and is quite susceptible to emotion.

There are also some frequently recurring tropes: hot-headed Latin women, hot-headed Italian men, exotic Indian animals, vengeful sailors, ill-gotten wealth in the colonies (Australia/South Africa), pompous noblemen, precious stones, naval espionage, oleaginous villains.

Finally, Conan Doyle's cultural biases are fascinating. Americans are invariably admirable or enterprising (even criminals). English returnees from India feature prominently; India is very much central to Empire. Europeans from the continent are often exotic spies or scoundrels.

Coda: All the stories are available for free here.

gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/…