Jan 16, 2004 08:27 PM
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(Updated Jan 16, 2004 08:27 PM)
THE ADVENTURE OF THE DANCING MEN: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
From 1891 to 1893 the STRAND magazine continued to publish stories featuring the great SHERLOCK HOLMES and his faithful DR.WATSON who brought in fame ,fortune and accolades for the creator CONAN DOYLE.In all ,about 56 stories have been published having the blessed presence of Holmes in its midst.
Right from the beginning, the idea of HOLMES with his keen sense of observation, his lean face and hooked nose,his magnifying glass ,his ever present pipe and his eccentricity caught the imagination of the reading public-the personality of Holmes appealed to the readers’ imagination. However everyone has to admit ,no matter how good a detective’s character is he is as good as the story is or for that purpose how cunning and devious the villain can get.Thus to ensure an enduring popularity one has to present not only a masterful detective but also an appropriate story in which the detective can show his prowess before the rapt audience.Doyle, to be honest has always presented before us such a storyline which is commensurate with the surrounding and also the characters engaged in it.
To be critical of a person you have to walk in his shoes for sometime, similarly to criticize any Holmes story you have to look up the times and the setting in which it had evolved.Surely in these days of C.S.I. MIAMI, the forensic experts could have found various ways to test the papers on which the dancing men appeared but Holmes had none of such luxury ,but under the circumstances he did as always exceedingly well. Starting from finding the evidence of the third bullet lodged in the window sill to the actual recovery of it,the deduction of the opening and shutting of the window from the amount of candle usage all point to the orderly working of the brain cells.Holmes was unable to prevent the death of his client but was able to convict the criminal.
The story was unique in the way that it had all the ingredients to make a memorable one- the honest country squire, a loving wife with a disreputable past ,the trans-Atlantic ex-flame and con ,the tinges of soured romance and the dancing men which introduced the reader to the world of hieroglyphics and secret writing.No matter how easy an encryption is of a secret code it always baffles the brain of the uninitiated – if even in today’s frame of mind it can excite the reader one can imagine what it did to those reading it at the time of publication in the STRAND magazine.
The story is portrayed through the eyes of DR.WATSON and it is at times like writing reviews you wonder the implication of the presence of the man.Tell you, he makes sure we understand the complexity of the problem and that the solution that is arrived at the end of the story is not beyond our grasp because as always WATSON cannot fathom how the end came into being and HOLMES very much understandably goes to the task of explaining the steps involved in finding out the truth.The truth is always out there only we have to have the eyes to look for it.Thankfully ,we have people like Holmes who have an uncanny knack for finding it and Watson who makes it easier for us to understand it in guise of his own lack of understanding.
AMEN
