TODAY: "The Final Problem"
This story, set in 1891, introduces Holmes's greatest
opponent, the criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty. In a cat and mouse game that ranges from the streets of London to the Alpine Europe, Holmes and Watson play a dangerous game as the Great Detective labors to bring an end to a huge organization of criminal lead by the brilliant and devious Moriarty. It all comes to a climax at the falls - Reichenbach Falls.
One of the legends surrounding this canon of work is that Conan Doyle wanted to finish it off at the end of this story, and so killed Sherlock Holmes. By the time stories comprising The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were all published there were two novellas and 24 short stories to this one character. One might think Sir Arthur reasonably thought he could bring it to a conclusion, and he was said to already be working on the full-length novel The Hound of the Baskervilles which would be the crowning achievement of this canon. Published in 1904, Hound was said to have re-ignited a fury among readers who demanded Holmes' return.
Conan Doyle would finally end the canon in 1927 with 56 short story adventures, two novellas, two full length novels and a smattering of short adventures and parodies - many generated by the author himself. And as we know today, over a hundred years after Holmes first went over the falls, the canon remains a fertile franchise; taking on new forms and new variations even as the writing itself changed the science and method detection in Britain and all over the world.
BONUS: An encore presentation of the hilarious parody story "The Mystery of the Spot Ball"
Corwyn Allen, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower live in voice
No comments:
Post a Comment