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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Whimsical Allusions to Holmes in Sayers


When I began a year-long project of reading and re-reading my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey saga in chronological order in January, I resolved not to write about the Sherlock Holmes references. But with Strong Poison, the fifth novel, my resolution has crumbled.

Author Dorothy L. Sayers was, of course, a notable Holmes devotee and scholar who figured out that Dr. Watson’s middle name is Hamish. It’s not surprising that most of her books show the influence of the Baker Street. In Strong Poison, that's true to a glaring degree. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is mentioned before his most famous creation, however. Wimsey’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Denver, is speaking in her roundabout way in Chapter III: “I don’t suppose detective writers detect much in real life, do they, except Edgar Wallace of course, who seems to be everywhere, and dear old Conan Doyle . . .”

She goes on to allude to the cases of Oscar Slater and George Edalji, whose innocence “dear old Canon Doyle” had worked to establish. She might also have mentioned ACD's speculations in the disappearance of her fellow mystery writer, Agatha Christie! Conan Doyle died in 1930, the year Strong Poison hit the shelves. 

Later in the novel, one of the other characters describes her method of amateur sleuthing by saying: "I merely proceed on the old Sherlock Holmes basis, that when you have eliminated the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be true."

That's clearly Holmes's favorite axiom, uttered on at least four occasions. But Wimsey, rather pettishly, observes that, "Dupin said that before Sherlock." Later, though, he himself paraphrases another of Holmes's signature lines: 
"I see nothing at all," said Freddy."That, as Sherlock Holmes would say, is what you may expect to see when there is nothing there," said Wimsey kindly. 
Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey, whose literary careers overlapped although their sleuthing careers did not, are very different sorts of detectives. But Lord Peter walked in the footsteps of the Master - and his creator knew it. 

2 comments:

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  2. Hi Dan, I am just finished translating in Italian The Poisoned Penman, where miss Sayers features as a prominent character (I was also the translator of The Amateur Executioner, which came out in Italian for Mondadori some months ago).

    It's always fun to work after your writing. One thing tickled my curiosity, though: what's with your (and you co-author McMullen's) obsession with your characters' height, down to the half-inch? :-)

    Greetins from Milano, Italy

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