#Vincent Starrett

[watsonsdetective]

Just learned about the existence of this poem written by Vincent Starrett in 1942. I'm always so happy when I can learn more about the Sherlockian fandom and discover more of Sherlockiana.

#And it is always 1895 #the private life of sherlock holmes #sherlock holmes #john watson #vincent starrett #221b poem #poem #poetry #Sherlockiana

[letallthetrashraindown]

The history book on the shelf / is always repeating itself

John Steinbeck / Carolina Ebeid / Vincent Starrett, “211B” / Toni Morrison, “Beloved” / Vincent Starrett, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” / Matt Stover, “Revenge of the Sith”

#i love the sherlock holmes one so much #web weaving #web weave #compilations #intertexuality #parallels #parallelism #poetry #stories #words #sherlock holmes #vincent starrett #toni morrison #john steinbeck #mine

[helloliriels]

Though the world

Explode

Yet these two survive,

And it's

Always

1 8 9 5

#sherlock #johnlock #sherlock holmes #vincent starrett #221b baker street #still dreaming

[sherlockianscholar]

through pure happenstance, i stumbled on this first edition (published 1940) of 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes at my local bookstore!! i am officially having the best birthday ever

#happy birthday to me #sherlock holmes #acd canon #vincent starrett #sherlockian studies #sherlockian #holmesian studies #holmesian #221B: studies in sherlock holmes #original post

[solarotters]

"It was as if a god had been destroyed by treachery. So children mourn, perhaps, when Santa Claus is murdered by their elders" (from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett about the public's reaction to Holmes' death)

This topic will always be interesting to me. This decision by Doyle is usually described as Doyle hating Holmes, though the truth was that the stories simply weren't what Doyle, as a writer, wanted to write. It's interesting how even when talking about Holmes' death as a character, he is described as a real human being; it's not "Doyle hated writing him", it's "Doyle hated him" (both aren't true, it's just if I were to simplify it). Starrett put it perfectly--at that moment, Holmes' death would've been like when kids found out that Santa Claus wasn't real, when people realize he's simply a character that the author can decide to discard at any moment. But Starrett also acknowledges that Holmes is more than that, he is beyond a fictional character. Doyle, without realizing, has lost control over this character that he has created. It doesn't belong just to him anymore. This writer is no longer the god of his creation, instead Holmes is the god and Doyle only brings upon the treachery.

Starrett also says that Holmes is "an illusion so real...that one might some day look about for him in Heaven, forgetting that he was only a character in a book."

#I'm still only 2 chapters in but I can tell this book will provide some interesting perspectives #for the foggy line between doylist holmes and watsonian holmes #he is both a character and a person and an idea #and I think starrett has an extremely good grasp on that #the private life of sherlock holmes #vincent starrett #sherlock holmes meta #sherlock holmes #acd holmes #arthur conan doyle #classic holmes

[holmesxwatson]

“But Watson, although he may have faltered, never actually blundered. Holmes knew the qualities of his assistant. No case was ever lost by Watson's failure. And his reward all that he ever asked or cared for—was an approving word or nod from Holmes. Did not he get them both, outside the record? During those nights in Baker Street, perhaps? After the problem had been solved forever—after the reader had put down the book?”

— Vincent Starrett, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

#sherlock holmes #john watson #the private life of sherlock holmes #vincent starrett #quotes #sh books

[holmesoldfellow]

1940 Studies in Sherlock Holmes plaque

#love that they have no clue what the origin of this plaque is lmao #acd #vincent starrett #studies in sherlock holmes #221b vincent starrett #arthur conan doyle #sir arthur conan doyle #the baker street irregulars #the macmillan company #murray hill hotels #commemorative plaque #Sherlock Holmes #Holmes

[lets-share-neen]

I can't believe I finally, finally got this book! I was looking years for a good price and to get my hands on it with no luck. Now I found it last week for insanely cheap online and I am so happy I can finally add this to my collection 🥰

#Sherlock Holmes #The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes #Vincent Starrett #Picture

[bizarrebazaar13]

a tribute to Fallen London, based on the poem “221b” by Vincent Starrett.

Here beneath dwells still a city of note Which no longer lives and so can never die How very near it seems, yet how remote That age before we lost our sky But the city still sings for those with ears Attuned to catch the distant hullabaloo London is London yet, for all our fears Only those things the heart believes are true

Wolfstack’s fog swirls past the window-pane As lacre descends upon this unnamed street Spies trade secrets in the greatest game The ghostly gas-lamps fail at twenty feet Here, though the lights go out, city survives And it is always eighteen ninety-nine

#aelan speaks #fallen london

[charlesoberonn]

The lengths fans will go to in order to fix continuity errors

The stories give contradictory indications about Moriarty's family. In his first appearance in "The Final Problem" (1893), Moriarty is referred to as "Professor Moriarty" — no forename is mentioned. Watson does, however, refer to the name of another family member when he writes of "the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his brother". In "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903), Holmes refers to Moriarty on one occasion as "Professor James Moriarty". This is the only time Moriarty is given a first name, and oddly, it is the same as that of his purported brother. In the 1914 novel The Valley of Fear (written after the preceding two stories, but set earlier), Holmes says of Professor Moriarty: "He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in the west of England."

Vincent Starrett wrote that it is possible that Moriarty had one brother (who is a colonel and station master) or two brothers (one a colonel and the other a station master), though Starrett considered two more likely, and suggested that all three brothers were named James.

[zingaplanet]

Here dwell together still two men of note

Who never lived and so can never die:

How very near they seem, yet how remote

That age before the world went all awry.

But still the game's afoot for those with ears

Attuned to catch the distant view-halloo:

England is England yet, for all our fears—

Only those things the heart believes are true.

A yellow fog swirls past the window-pane

As night descends upon this fabled street:

A lonely hansom splashes through the rain,

The ghostly gas lamps fail at twenty feet.

Here, though the world explode, these two survive,

And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

- 221b, poem by Vincent Starrett

#appreciation post to my ultimate love of arthur conan doyle's works #and my all time favourite poem! #granada holmes #victorian holmes #sherlock holmes #acd #holmes #sherlock #johnlock #holmes and watson #poetry #literature

[raina-at]

Together

221b

By Vincent Starrett

Here, though the world explode, these two survive,

And it is always eighteen ninety-five.

"But this is unfair, there's two of you!" Moriarty says, a petulant pout on his face.

John cocks the gun. "There's always two of us, don't you read the Strand?"

And it's that exact moment Sherlock finally, finally understands why he's here. Why he's doing this to himself. He needed to find the glitch, the mistake, the thing that made everything go so very wrong. The fatal flaw, the original sin.

Where did he go wrong?

And now he knows.

He closes his eyes and jumps.

*-*

When he wakes up, he's lying on the sofa in 221B. The familiar lines of the room blur together with the Victorian setting he imagined, but then reality reasserts itself. His chrome chair. The telly. The skull. A tired-looking, worn-down, John Watson, staring into the fire, looking lost. He doesn't look at all like the Victorian John Watson Sherlock created to save him from himself, Sherlock's hero. No, he looks like the John Watson who bears the heavy burden of Sherlock's life, health and happiness on his shoulders and who's buckling under the weight.

"John," he mutters.

John turns his head and looks at him, sadness and resignation in every line of his body. "You need to drink some water," he says, and he sounds as tired as he looks.

Sherlock watches in silence as John goes into the kitchen, fills up a glass of water and brings it to Sherlock.

Sherlock takes it and drinks deeply, only now realising that he's parched. John sits on the sofa table and watches Sherlock drink, then takes the glass from him.

There's an odd silence in the room. John's very quiet, very serious, very tired.

"I missed something, haven't I?" Sherlock deduces, lying back on the sofa. He feels like shit, which is to be expected after a drugs binge. There's also a disturbing gap in his memory, because he can't quite remember how he got back here.

John sighs and rubs a hand over his face. "You missed the part where you lost consciousness in the car back to Baker Street and I thought you were going to die. Again."

"I'm quite done justifying my life choices to you," Sherlock snaps, beyond tired of this vicious cycle they seem to be trapped in, where he's both the martyr and the villain, and John is the person he both saves and hurts over and over again. "Especially since the main reason I was in this predicament in the first place was because you impregnated a psychopath."

John's face does something complicated, something between hurt and anger, and he presses his lips together in a silent attempt to keep his temper. "I'm almost sure you don't realise this, so I'm going to say it in the simplest possible words," John finally says, his voice tightly controlled but vibrating with suppressed emotion, "the things you do for me, you also do to me. I want you to imagine for a second that the person you love most in the world keeps hurting themselves and others for you. And now tell me that's not horrible."

Sherlock closes his eyes, because this hurts. Hurts down to the bones. "I know," he says quietly. "It took me a while to realise. But I know.” 

John doesn't answer, but Sherlock can hear him breathe deeply, obviously trying to get his emotions under control.

“But I’m not the person you love most. That’s your wife, remember?” Sherlock says, though it hurts to put it into words. 

John huffs a humourless laugh. “You know, I’m not sure if that was ever true, but it’s certainly not true now.” John takes a deep breath and continues, low and sad, “I can’t stay with her, Sherlock. I know there’s a very real danger she’ll come after me if I leave, and I know there’s an even bigger danger that she’ll just leave with my daughter still in her belly, but I - I can’t. I can’t forgive her. I can’t even pretend.”

Sherlock is glad he has his eyes closed, because he doesn’t even want to know how much of what he’s feeling is showing on his face, how much John can see. How well he’s hiding the relief. 

“I realised something,” Sherlock says, quietly, not opening his eyes. He can’t say any of this while looking at John. He tried, at the airfield. But he failed. 

“What’s that?” John asks, matching his tone to Sherlock’s.

“I realised my mistake. Too late to fix it, but I do finally know what I did wrong.”

“And what’s that?” John asks, gentle, calm. 

Sherlock opens his eyes and meets John’s guarded but expectant gaze. “I do things for you, and to you, when I should do things with you. I never asked what you want.”

John swallows hard. “Are you asking me now?”

Sherlock nods. 

John gives him a small smile. “I want to stay. For good. If that’s acceptable.”

Sherlock nods again. “I was wrong, you know.”

John’s smile widens. “About what?”

“Alone doesn’t protect me. Alone is shit, in fact.”

“I quite agree,” John says gently. “When you came back, you told me you wanted it to be you and me against the rest of the world again. Is that still true?”

Sherlock rolls his eyes. “That’s the stupidest question you ever asked me.”

John laughs, just a bit, but it dissolves the awful anxious knot in Sherlock’s chest, because he knows, with absolute certainty, that they’ll be all right. Maybe not today, or tomorrow. But soon. And for good, this time.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then?” John asks, and there’s something in his eyes that hasn’t been there in a long time. Hope. Anticipation. Joy. 

“Yes,” he says, and it’s a promise, a vow. From now on, we do this together, or not at all. “Yes.”

So here we are. 31 days. 29 ficlets (I still owe you two). Thank you so much @notjustamumj and @calaisreno for the prompts and for keeping this going. It was quite a ride. Thank you all for your kind words, for liking and reblogging and going on this journey with us. I love this fandom.

I'm collecting all 31 ficlets here on AO3 . I'll post the last two within the next few days.

Tagging a few people if you still want to join the fun: @jrow @keirgreeneyes @meetinginsamarra @lisbeth-kk @peanitbear @helloliriels @catlock-holmes @topsyturvy-turtely @7-percent @totallysilvergirl @discordantwords and anyone else who wants to take a last swing at this.

#johnlock #bbc sherlock #johnlock fic #my fic #tab fix it #may 2023 prompts #together #this is it you guys #but I still owe you two

[halloawhatisthis]

Vincent Starrett, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

#sherlockedit #sherlockholmesedit #tplosh #the private life of sherlock holmes #** #text #quote

[dellain]

holmes and watson being immortal, as they should

(the case of death and honey by neil gaiman, my favorite sherlockian)

(you need to read it for context it's so good)

(and, of course, 221B by Vincent Starrett)

nothing is forever except sherlock holmes and john watson.

and spies

#they find each other in every universe #they will endure beyond the end of everything #sherlock holmes #acd holmes #john watson #neil gaiman #literature #poem

[solarotters]

Just finished The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett and here's my review:

The first time I heard of this book was when I found and bought it at a local secondhand bookstore, so I had zero idea what the book talks about or how it was perceived by Sherlock Holmes fans. I don't want to say what is "essential" or non-essential for Sherlockians but this book is definitely 100% worth the time of a devoted fan (and maybe a bit hard to follow for a casual enjoyer, but personally my years of fixation for my autistic special interest has adequately prepared me for this one).

This book looks at Sherlock Holmes through every aspect of him: his inspiration, his introduction, methods, death and return, his author, adaptations, illustrations, etc.... Despite all that there is one theme that Vincent Starrett revisits throughout the book, and that is the existence of Sherlock Holmes. Often times in the subtext and few in the literal text, Starrett ponders about the meaning of "existing". Sherlock Holmes is a funny case of existence: many people thinks he was real, more treat him like he was real, and few treat him as a fictional character who has nothing to do with the real world. It's common knowledge that the whole England was experiencing grief after The Final Problem, even my mom, when I told her about this book, asked me if Sherlock Holmes was a real person. Starrett also entertains the reality of Holmes and Watson in his text, theorizing that Watson had a bad memory for details, and discussing bad adaptations as not having consulted Doyle and Watson. Starrett described Doyle as a creator who shares the likeness of his creation, and suggested that the real "death" of Sherlock Holmes came with the death of Doyle. The way this book blurred the line between reality and fiction - it almost gave me a new understanding of the relationship between the terms "Doylist" and "Watsonian".

All in all very glad I read this book. I was thoroughly entertained and informed and it's given me a deeper and better understanding of, not only what is within, but what is outside of Sherlock Holmes as a character. My favourite quote (which I read before reading this book) is:

"So they still live for all that love them well: in a romantic chamber of the heart: in a nostalgic country of the mind: where it is always 1895."

#sherlock holmes #acd holmes #vincent starrett #the private life of sherlock holmes vincent starrett

[holmesxwatson]

“O ye of little faith! Surely he lived—our Sherlock—and breathed the fog and dust of Baker Street, even as now, one hopes, he breathes the purer air that blows across the Sussex Downs. And Watson too—has he not sold his latest practice, and gone to join his comrade? How often one likes to think that it is so!”

— Vincent Starrett, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

#sherlock holmes #the private life of sherlock holmes #vincent starrett #sh books