WS 2010/2011 exam translation (advanced) (Staatsexamen Herbst 2005) text #7
Ever since the first piece of Sherlockian scholarship
was published by Father Ronald Knox in 1911, a small army of narrative sleuths
has been sifting through the canon, the latest of whom is Leslie S. Klinger. His
New Annotated Sherlock Holmes* is a handsome reprint of the 56 short
stories as they first appeared in the Strand Magazine* between 1891 and
1927, complete with Sidney Paget’s original illustrations, as well as a
mock-academic treasure trove, filled with copious notes on every deduction
dreamed up by Sherlockian obsessives to date.
Klinger’s two tomes run to almost 2,000 pages and come replete with facts
aimed at the reader for whom no nugget of Sherlockian minutiae can be minute
enough. [...] Of course no reputable editor relies on his theories and
researches alone, and Klinger makes ample space to summarise the contributions
of others. The weirdest theories revolve around what really happened at the
Reichenbach Falls; no Sherlockian scholar worth his salt accepts the explanation
that Conan Doyle was simply sick of devising plots for the detective by 1891,
and so contrived to have him tumble to his death locked in combat with his
nemesis, Professor Moriarty.
When Holmes miraculously reappeared in the pages of the Strand Magazine*
after a three-year absence, he explained the hiatus as a necessary period of
lying low to avoid reprisals from Moriarty's gang, and claimed to have spent the
time travelling through Tibet disguised as a Norwegian explorer named Sigerson.
Most Sherlock scholars will have none of this, however. T. Frederick Foss posits
that Holmes was actually on secret secondment to the British
government, collecting information on Russian intrigues in India. Harry Halen
thinks he underwent a “tantric1 materialisation ritual”
while in Tibet, and travelled to Russia in the guise of a tobacco merchant at
the invitation of Anton Chekhov.[...]
As
a single reference work The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes* seems unlikely
to be superseded for some time. There is no more comprehensive repository of
arcane Sherlockiana to be found in one place. Yet the curious situation remains
that the more information one stores up about the detective, the less one
actually seems to know. No amount of erudite commentary can alter the fact that
Holmes remains an unfathomable enigma, as much a product of the information
Conan Doyle withheld as the tenuous2 clues to his character he
actually put down.
From: A four-pipe
poseur. Alfred Hickling on The
New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, edited by Leslie S. Klinger, l,878pp, Norton. In:
The Guardian, December 4, 2004, and The Guardian Weekly, December
17-23, 2004. (Abridged and adapted)
* Der Titel ist nicht zu übersetzen!
1
tantric (adj.):
< tantra (n.) = a) a Hindu or Buddhist mystical or magical text, dating from
the 7th century or earlier;
b) adherence to the principles of the tantras,
involving mantras, meditation, yoga and ritual. (dt.: tantrisch)
2 tenuous (adj.): thin; subtle; insubstantial
CARTOONS: Crime & Crime Again
AND NOW FOR
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
#192) detective joke (1), Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock
Holmes: video links
"Wiki" on The Final Problem and The Reichenbach Falls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Problem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichenbach_Falls
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