Sherlock Holmes: Trifles

When traveling or settling into a city for a bit, Victorians had options. Hotels were commonplace, but could be expensive. So what's a reasonable alte…

Rack 'em up! Our monthly discussion of games and sports turns to billiards.

While the game itself is mentioned once in a significant way…

As early as A Study in Scarlet, we discover that Sherlock Holmes "was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty."…

From golf clubs to gentlemen's clubs... 

Ask any Sherlockian to name a club in the Canon and they'll invariably say the Diogenes Club (that's right after …

"It is always a joy to meet an American." [NOBL] 

Americans have been avid fans of Sherlock Holmes since the earliest days. The novels were pirated and the short stories were syndicated to reach mill…

Sherlock Holmes and golf don't necessarily go together. That is clearly represented by the few times that the sport is mentioned in the Sherlock Ho…

We first hear of boarding-schools in "The Naval Treaty," in which Watson mentions his fellow alumnus Percy Phelps, who needs Sherlock Holmes'…

The questions in the Musgrave Ritual lead us to answers that are nearly as cryptic as the questions themselves. Among the questions was "Where was the …

France and England have always had a close relationship, if contentious at times. Is it any small wonder that we find plenty of French influ…

There were scores of jobs mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes stories, but we focus on some of the more trifling titles in this epi…

Eight episodes ago, we talked very specifically about a card game: whist. But we're aware that there's more to cards than whist, and there are …

From the very first Sherlock Holmes story, we're introduced to poisons and their role in crime and detective fiction. From there, it's a hopscotch of…

This is National Coin Week, according to the American Numismatic Association. What better week to consider old money in the Sherlock Holmes stories?

The terminolo…

To readers of the Sherlock Holmes stories in the late Victorian era, Australia was an exotic and dangerous place. It was not all that far removed from the days of t…

Sherlock Holmes and tennis — they go together like...like... Well, we're here to tell you that while combining the great detective with a lawn sport is actually elementary.

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The beginning of April dependably brings April Fools' Day. And while there weren't outright hi-jinks in the Sherlock Holmes stories, there were a fa…

The opening of The Valley of Fear introduced us to a mysterious individual: Porlock, who sent a cryptic note to Sherlock Holmes to warn him of doings afoot at Birls…

The Irish make scant appearances across the earlier Sherlock Holmes stories, but once we pass The Valley of Fear, it's as if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brogue has …

We continue our monthly investigation into Games and Sports in the Sherlock Holmes stories, and in this case, we turn our attention to a card game. Specifically, whist.

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“volumes of poetry” [ENGR] 

  When we think of poetry, it's a style of writing that transports us, particularly emotionally, to another plane of existence. Poetry is like the rose over which Sherlock…