Classics and Commercials: A Literary Chronicle of the Forties by Edmund Wilson

Author:Edmund Wilson [Wilson, Edmund]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Criticism, Modern, 20th Century, Literary Collections, essays, General
ISBN: 9780374600266
Google: MZK3DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2019-11-12T00:21:44.977523+00:00

Both these incidents, so soberly told, the appearance of the woman and the ringing of the bell, give us shocks that reverberate. Of course there is no one upstairs in the room and the naval treaty has been taken.

The stories have also both form and style of a kind very much superior to what one finds in our padded novels, though sometimes, it seems to me, the requirements of length for short stories in the Strand Magazine compelled Doyle somewhat to skimp his endings. There is wit, not mere tricks, in the “deductions” of Holmes and wit in the dialogue, and not only in the interchanges between Watson and Holmes but even in some of the stagy lines which Doyle’s very sure sense of point save from being merely absurd. Take for example, the conclusion of The Second Stain:

“ ‘Come, sir,’ said he. There is more in this than meets the eye. How came the letter back in the box?’

“Holmes turned away smiling from the keen scrutiny of those wonderful eyes.

“ ‘We also have our diplomatic secrets,’ said he and, picking up his hat, he turned to the door.”

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