Data! Data! Data! – The Veiled Lodger

“‘Data! Data! Data!‘ he cried impatiently. ‘I can’t make bricks without clay.’”

– The Adventures of The Copper Beeches (COPP)

This column is composed of material (Data!) developed for a short course called Appreciating Sherlock Holmes that I taught twice a year in the Community Education Life Enrichment Program for a local community college.  It is composed of “points of information” that are common to many / most / all of the 60 Canonical stories.

HERE GOES….. The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY SAYS

“There is also a lion’s mane in this story, but quite different from the preceding one.  A landlady comes to consult Holmes about her lodger, Mrs. Ronder, who has only allowed her face to be seen once in seven years.  When the milkman saw her in the window he was so startled he dropped his milk.  Holmes fortified himself for the meeting by one of his favorite meals (cold partridge and white wine) but even so he was shocked by the tragedy of Ronder’s Circus.”

DUMMIES SHORT SUMMARY

“When summoned by a landlady to check out a mysterious tenant who never shows her face, Holmes finds himself in the role of a confessor instead of a detective.  The Veiled Lodger is one of the most tragic tales in the canon.

PUBLICATION HISTORY

The 59th of the 60 stories.

First published in The Strand Magazine, February, 1927 In the US Liberty Magazine, January 22, 1927

Part of The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes collection by John Murray, London, 1927 and George D. Doran, New York, 1927

British Illustrator was Frank Wiles while Frederic Dorr Steele did the American illustrations.

CHRONOLOGY

Baring-Gould places the dating of the story as a nonspecific day in October, 1896 (one day only) making it 39th of the 60.  This means that Holmes is 42 and Watson would 43.

HOW MANY WORDS

The shortest story is VEIL.  At 4,499 words it has the most words of any story in the Canon (#1 is VEIL – 4,499, #56 if NAVL – 12,701)

CLASSIFYING THIS CASE

This case is one of 23 classified as a MURDER where the perpetrator was either killed, arrested, or otherwise satisfactorily handled.  And one of 4 where Holmes let the perpetrator go free.  The others were ABBE, BOSC, and DEVI.

THE BEST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

This one is rarely above the bottom 5 on everyone’s list.

• 1927 – Arthur Conan Doyle did not have it on his list of 12 favorites.
• 1959 – The Baker Street Irregulars voted it 59th of their favorites.
• 1999 – The Baker Street Irregulars voted 56th of the 56 short stories.
• 1999 – The Sherlock Holmes Society of London voted it 56th of the 56 short stories.

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THAT YEAR (1896)

• Jameson Raid in South Africa; British negotiations with Boers (to 1899) fail.
• Start of Kitchener’s campaign against the Madhi in the Sudan (1896 – 99).
• Widespread famine in India, to 1897.
• National Portrait Gallery moves to present site in Trafalgar Square.
• First all-steel English building erected at West Hartlepool.
• Locomotives Act: repeal of “Red Flag” restriction; maximum speed raised to 14 mph.
• Royal Victorian Order founded as Personal Order of Sovereign.
• First modern Olympic Games are held at Athens.
• Utah admitted as state in the U.S.
• France annexes Madagascar.
• French Tunisian protectorate recognized by Italy.
• Italians are defeated by Menelek of Abyssinia at Adowa, resulting in Treaty of Addis-Ababa and end of Italian protectorate.
• Massacre of Armenians by Kurds and Circassians supported by the Sultan.
• Insurrection in Crete against Turkish rule.
• Beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush.
• First public film exhibition, in U.S.
• Wells publishes Island of Dr. Moreau.
• Giacomo Puccini debuts La Boheme at Turin.
• Antoine Henri Becquerel, observes radiation from uranium affects photographic plates; discovery of radioactivity.
• Nobel Prizes started, for physics, physiology or medicine, chemistry,
  literature, furtherance of the cause of peace.
• Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates on Salisbury Plain the practicability of
  wireless telegraphy.
• Samuel Langley (U.S.), successfully flies a steam-driven model aircraft.

 HOLMES AND WATSON – PERSONAL INFORMATION

The master and his Boswell can be found at Baker Street in this tale.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

• EUGENIA ROUNDER, the veiled lodger.
• ROUNDER, deceased. Husband of Eugenia. Circus owner.
• WOMBWELL, a rival circus owner.
• SANGER, another rival circus owner.
• LEONARDO, strongman, acrobat and lover of Eugenia.
• GRIGGS, the clown. Friend of Eugenia.
• SAHARA KING, a magnificent lion owned by the Rounders.
• MERRILEW, Eugenia’s landlady.
• YOUNG EDMUNDS investigated the death of Mr. Rounder

UNRECORDED CASES

Sherlockians are greatly intrigued by this title but little about the story.

• The politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant

SHERLOCK HOLMES ON THE BIG AND THE LITTLE SCREEN

This story in on the very short list of never done by anyone on any screen.

FAINTING IN THE CANON

In this tale Eugenia Ronder faints,

WEAPONS

• Five-Pronged Club – Used by Leonardo, the circus strong man, to murder Ronder, the lion keeper and the head of his wild beast show.
• Poles – Which some of the circus hands used to corner “Sahara King” and escaped lion which mauled Mrs. Ronder.
• Prussic Acid – Which Eugenia Ronder contemplated committing suicide with.
• Riding Whip – Which Ronder used to flog his wife.

 

 

Frank Mentzel, aka Merridew of Abominable Memory, is a past Gasogene of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore.