The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume I - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [464]
ENDNOTES
1 (p. 14) Thomas Carlyle: This great Scottish essayist and historian, born in 1795, first gained prominence by publishing a history of the French Revolution in 1837. His highly unorthodox style puzzled and enraged many readers but inspired many more. He died on February 4, 1881, days before Watson and Holmes met.
2 (p. 19) Gaboriau . . . Lecoq: French author Émile Gaboriau (1832-1873) was the creator of the detective novel. Between 1866 and 1869 he wrote five such works in which his detective, the simple Monsieur Lecoq, solves a host of baffling crimes.
3 (p. 19) even a Scotland Yard official can see through it: This remark is not as sarcastic as it may appear. Scotland Yard, a nickname for the London Metropolitan Police, had not yet gained its reputation for crime investigation. That came later, partly as a result of adopting the scientific techniques of Sherlock Holmes. Scotland Yard is so named because the building in which the service was housed was once the site of the home of Scottish kings when they visited London.
4 (p. 22) Cremona fiddles and the difference between a Stradivarius and an Amati: For three generations, the Amati family of Cremona, beginning with Andrea (c.1510-c.1578) and extending through his grandson Nicolò (1596-1684) were celebrated violin makers. Together with Nicolò’s pupils, Antonio Stradivari (c.1644-1737) and Andrea Guarneri (c.1626-1698), they created what are still considered the finest violins and violas ever made. Cremona is synonymous with great string instruments.
5 (p. 27) “They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains”: A common corruption of Thomas Carlyle’s well-known saying, from his History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great (1858-1865), book 4, chapter 3: “ ‘Genius’ (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).” By quoting this saying Holmes revealed that, for whatever reason, he misled Watson when he pretended to be ignorant of Carlyle’s very existence. As Carlyle was the leading British man of letters of his day, no educated man of the time could have been unaware of his importance. In addition, as Carlyle’s death had occurred just weeks before the conversation about him that Watson records, Holmes certainly would have read about him in the newspapers he so regularly devoured.
6 (p. 30) Hallé’s concert: From 1861 until his death in 1895, pianist and conductor Charles Hallé gave a series of seasonal concerts in London that included piano recitals, operatic performances, and symphony orchestras. He was knighted in 1888.
7 (p. 30) Norman Néruda: Born in Germany, Wilhelmine Néruda (1839-1911) was a musical prodigy as a child. She gave her first violin recital at the age of six, then toured Europe three years later, when she made her London debut. After she married Swedish composer Ludwig Norman, she used the name Norman-Néruda. After Norman’s death, she married Sir Charles Hallé, with whom she played many concerts. She retired upon his death in 1895, but resumed her career again in 1898.
8 (p. 36) Henri Murger’s Vie de Bohème: Louis-Henri Murger (1822-1861) was among the first French writers to depict the lifestyle of young students, painters, and writers who scorned conventional mores. His Scènes de la vie de bohème (Scenes of Bohemian Life; 1847-1849) formed the basis of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème (1896).
9 (p. 38) Vehmgericht . . . the Ratcliff Highway murders: Every item in this list refers in some way to the history of crime. The Vehmgericht in Germany and the Carbonari in France and Italy were secret criminal tribunals, operated by “holy bands” sworn to secrecy on pain of death. Aqua tofana was a secret poison supposedly invented and used by