We did it! We finished our read-along before Thanksgiving! Hurrah!
This last chapter feels a bit draggy to me, to be honest. A lot of it is just recapping the mystery, and I feel like muttering, "I know all this already" more than once. But I don't. It IS Holmes, after all. And we do learn some interesting things, like the fact that Holmes was convinced that the hound was real before they ever left London.
I'm very sad that Sir Henry loses Beryl, however. Holmes says, "His love for the lady was deep and sincere, and to him the saddest part of all this black business was that he should have been deceived by her" (p. 694). I'd forgotten that. I thought they would get together since her husband was at the bottom of the mire and she was free of him at last.
And that's all I have to say! Please join me in the concluding post for a link-up and some goodies! I'm not doing a give-away for the end of this because I never found a satisfactory prize, so instead I've made a little something for you :-) You can claim it here and also see how to share your own review of this book and read others' posts about it. I thought that worked really well for the last read-along, so I'm trying it again for this one.
Favorite Lines:
"The more outre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined" (p. 692).
Possible Discussion Question:
Do you feel like this chapter is a bit too much rehashing of old news, or do you think it nicely wraps things up?
Book reviews by a Christian writer/wife/mother
Actually, I rather liked Sherlock's recap. :-) I'm fascinated with the way his brain works, and I think it's a nice way to pull in the loose threads.
ReplyDeleteI felt a little sad about Mrs. Stapleton. I'm curious what happened to her, and if she liked Watson as much as he liked her.
Maybe I've just read this too often! Or too recently.
DeleteAnd yes, it's sad about Mrs. Stapleton. She was definitely used badly. (Though it was Laura Lyons that Watson thought had the beauty of the sulphur rose -- is it she you're thinking of here?)
Ack, no! I meant Sir Henry, not Watson. Wow...love triangle in a Holmes story. But now that you mention it, I wonder if poor Laura ever got her divorce. She was in a bad way, too, poor thing.
DeleteAha! That makes more sense.
DeleteAnd yes, what does happen to LL? Hmm.
I really enjoyed reading all of your posts on these chapters! And I'm planning on doing your Hamlet read-along later in the year :)
ReplyDeleteI think I might come across as a cold, unromantic cynic here but I have to disagree with Holmes when he says that the saddest thing about this whole business is that Mrs Stapleton lied to Sir Henry. Really?! His throat was almost ripped out by a glowing hound so his evil, homicidal relative could steal his fortune and yet his crush's deception is the saddest thing about this whole business? Nope, not agreeing with you there Holmes I'm afraid. Yes, it's sad but it's not *the* saddest thing.
One thing that I did find funny about this chapter is the reveal that Sir Henry will be travelling with Dr Mortimer. Erm, what about Mortimer's wife?! Will she coming with them too or is she perfectly okay with her husband gallivanting around the world with some dude?! :D
And I've enjoyed reading all your responses! (Plus, I've always kind of hoped that people would go back and do the read-alongs after they've ended, so yay! Now someone has!)
DeleteI've shoved my Hamlet read-along back to the fall, but I'm definitely still planning to do it. Glad to have you aboard!
I think it was Sir Henry who found that the saddest thing, wasn't it? Didn't the "to him" refer to Sir Henry, not to Sherlock? Oh dear, I might have to go find my copy and look. Sir Henry found that sadder than that someone tried to kill him.
ACD does seem to have a bit of a problem remembering wives are around, doesn't he? Perhaps Mrs. Mortimer likes not being bothered with new skulls for a while?