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Sunday 9 March 2014

The Adventure of Passages--Finishing up "A Study in Scarlet" Week 5

by Claire

This week we finished "A Study in Scarlet", and thus concludes John and Sherlock's first case together as a dynamic duo.
Downloaded from: Here
Sherlock and John enjoying their first case.

Most of what we read was narrative/thriller type material, but here were the  passages I like best:

"'If there's a vacant place for a chief of the police, I reckon you are the man for it,' he said, gazing with undisguised admiration at my fellow-lodger. 'The way you kept on my trail was a caution.'"

Its not very long, but it just goes to show how even criminals can appreciate the wit and mental strength of Sherlock Holmes.

The next passage is more towards the end,


"'He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, and then I saw a horror spring up in them, and convulse his whole features, which showed me that he knew me. He staggered back with a livid face, and I saw the perspiration break out upon his brow, while his teeth chattered in his head. At the sight, I leaned my back against the door and laughed loud and long. I had always known that vengeance would be sweet, but I had never hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me.'"

Originally, I felt bad for Jefferson Hope(listed as Jeff in BBC Sherlock), but in this passage, I lost it all. He laughed a creepy laugh right before he killed someone (well, technically, he made the guy chose between a poisoned pill and a harmless pill, and he chose the poisoned one, but still), and that's just scary. 
For your viewing pleasure, here is the criminal, Jeff Hope, as depicted by the BBC:
Downloaded from: Here

Hope you enjoyed the book!

~Claire

2 comments:

  1. I do like how Hope compliments Holmes for staying with him throughout the case, because he realizes that he is caught, but he is perfectly content because he did his duty.

    I agree, at first he is a heartbroken man looking for vengeance for his love and her father, but when he laughs, it makes it almost like he enjoys killing, and you realize that all this time he spent letting the anger brew inside him basically drove him mad with thoughts of revenge

    ~Jarod

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  2. Hope is a complex character but also a fairly simple one. He's multi-dimensional and surprisingly one-sided. When people obsess over a singular goal, things go wrong in their minds. Things get out of control. And it gets really bad- like Hope.
    -Katie

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