Sherlock Holmes Quote of the Day

[Mr.Lordi]

Originally Posted by CigarGal

gotta love google...what did you find?

I found out I was wrong, and edited the above post to reflect that. lol


EDIT:
Literary Criticism: Volume One: Essays on Literature, American Writers and English Writers
Matching titles: Charles Dickens, "Our Mutual Friend"

this is the closet they had to a result on there site.

[CigarGal]

At least it is easy to find good editions of the collection on e-bay and amazon. The annotated version is very nice. I need to dig mine out and look for some quotes as well.

[Arizona]

I LOVE the Sherlock Holmes stories. Over the years I've read most if not all of them and yes I do enjoy the smoking scenes where he'll puff an "old briar pipe" typically. Every story has at least one such mention in it seemingly.

No matter how many times I read these stories I always enjoy them.

[paperairplane]

I got the illustrated version with the original typeset and sketches - found it at B&N on sale for under $10.

"Then he lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue smoke rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling."

[squeeze left]

Hi all,

I am so pleased to find other Holmes enthusiasts here! Here's a scene from "The Sign of the Four." This time, it's not Sherlock smoking, but rather "a small man with a very high head, a bristle of red hair all round the fringe of it, and a bald , shining scalp which shot out from amoung it like a mountain-peak from fir-trees":

----------------
[SIZE=2]
"We were all astonished. . . . The carpet was of amber and black, so soft and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it, as into a bed of moss. Two great tiger-skins thrown athwart it increased the suggestion of Eastern luxury, as did a huge hookah which stood upon a mat in the corner. . . As it burned it filled the air with a subtle and aromatic odour."

. . .

[Mr. Thaddeus Sholto] said, "I trust that you have no objection to tobacco-smoke, to the balsamic odour of the Eastern tobacco. I am a little nervous, and I find my hookah an invaluable sedative." He applied a taper to the great bowl, and the smoke bubbled merrily through the rose-water. We all three sat in a semicircle, with our heads advanced and our chins upon our hands, while the strange, jerky little fellow, with his high, shining head, puffed uneasily in the centre."

. . .

"Mr. Thaddeus Sholto looked from one to the other of us with an obvious pride at the effect which his story had produced and then continued between puffs of his overgrown pipe."

. . .

[When we left he] "very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah."

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I thought this one evokes some great imagery as well as the rituals we all seem to build around tobacco.

Dave


[/SIZE]

[JacksonCognac]

From what you have shown us, I really like Doyle's writing style. I am looking forward to reading these stories!

[mcdevster]

So the games afoot ayy??
Yeah Arthur Conan Doyle's writing is very fun.. and Sherlock has to be one of the most eccentric characters in the whole of literature..
I bought the Barnes and Noble two volume edition of the complete works... and I am slowly plugging away at it.. the great thing about sherlock is you can put him down and pick him up later... just pleasant reading.

[squeeze left]

Hi all, and thanks for the comments, much appreciated. I'm still liking Mr. Holmes's style here, as he finds a pipe left behind in his quarters by an unknown visitor in "The Yellow Face." BTW, there I couldn't find anything currently available called "Grosvenor mixture"; surprising given the number of blenders out there that nobody's come up with one:

[SIZE=4] "Hullo! that's not your pipe on the table [Watson]. He must have left his behind him. A nice old brier with a good long stem of what the tobacconists call amber. I wonder how many real amber mouthpieces there are in London? Some people think that a fly in it is a sign. Well, he must have been disturbed in his mind to leave a pipe behind him which he evidently values highly."

"How do you know that he values it highly?" I asked.

"Well, I should put the original cost of the pipe at seven and sixpence. Now it has, you see, been twice mended, once in the wooden stem and once in the amber. Each of these mends, done, as you observe, with silver bands, must have cost more than the pipe did originally. The man must value the pipe highly when he prefers to patch it up rather than buy a new one with the same money."
. . .
"Pipes are occasionally of extraordinary interest," said he. "Nothing has more individuality, save perhaps watches and bootlaces. The indications here, however, are neither very marked nor very important. The owner is obviously a muscular man, left-handed, with an excellent set of teeth, careless in his habits, and with no need to practise economy."
. . .
"You think a man must be well-to-do if he smokes a seven-shilling pipe?" said I.

"This is Grosvenor mixture at eightpence an ounce," Holmes answered, knocking a little out on his palm. "As he might get an excellent smoke for half the price, he has no need to practise economy."

"He has been in the habit of lighting his pipe at lamps and gasjets. You can see that it is quite charred all down one side. Of course a match could not have done that. Why should a man hold a match to the side of his pipe? But you cannot light it at a lamp wihtout getting the bowl charred. And it is all on the right side of the pipe. From that I gather that he is a left handed man. . . . Then he has bitten through his amber. It takes a muscular, energetic fellow, and one with a good set of teeth, to do that."[/SIZE]