The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


 

This month, I read The Red-Headed League, a Sherlock Holmes short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story starts with a man named Mr. Jabez Wilson telling Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson about the strange events that recently happened to him. Mr. Wilson saw an announcement in the newspaper for a position in the Red-Headed-League, a society formed by a rich red-headed man to help support other red-headed people. Mr. Wilson, who is also red headed, applied for the position and got a job  copying the Encyclopedia Britannica. He was very pleased with the work and the extra money he was making until one day without warning, the office of the red-headed league closed and a bewildered Mr. Wilson came to seek advice from Sherlock Holmes about what possibly could have happened. The rest of the story is about how Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solved the mystery.

I really enjoyed this story. I have enjoyed reading other Sherlock Holmes stories in the past and I thought this one was particularly interesting. When I first heard about the events that took place, I had no idea what they could possibly mean and I thought it was really fun to read about the clues Sherlock Holmes found and try to make sense of the mystery along with them. It felt satisfying to read about how all the clues fit into place at the end when the mystery was solved and Sherlock Holmes figured everything out.

Another thing I liked about the story, were the details and descriptions. The story has detailed descriptions of the places the characters visit in London and that made me be able to truly imagine the scene in my head. It made me feel like I was transported to London in 1890 and that different setting made the story more enjoyable to read. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the characters. Even though the story was short and there was not much information about each one of the characters, I could still get a sense of their personalities. The way they worded their comments gave me a sense of their opinions on what was happening. For example, one of the policemen said “You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir. He has his own little methods…” I was able to learn a lot about his character from this sentence. His trust in Sherlock Holmes shows that he is friendly and good natured while his description of Holmes’ methods as “little” shows that he is not clever enough to fully appreciate what Sherlock Holmes does.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this story and I highly recommend it, especially if you like other Sherlock Holmes stories or mystery in general.


Comments

  1. AnkitaMay 16, 2021 at 9:13 AM

    Nice post! I agree, this story is one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes story and I like the characters that were introduced in this story, like the policemen and Mr Wilson.

    ReplyDelete

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