The Cardboard Box

[The Rani]

I've watched the Granada adaption of this story, but I would love to read it. It seems that for some reason this is not available in the UK.  It should be included in the Memoirs, which I have two copies of, but it is missing from both of these.  Does anyone know why? 

 

EDIT: I have found this online, but it's just not the same as reading from a book or even an e-reader!

[Carol the Dabbler]

"The Cardboard Box" isn't in my Memoirs either (an old Modern Library edition of my father's).  It is in my Baring-Gould annotated edition, but I can hardly recommend that for pleasure reading, since the volumes are large and heavy, and the annotations are distracting.

 

I would love to have a complete set of the Holmes stories in ten or so sturdily-bound, manageable-size volumes with good legible type.  Trade paperbacks would be fine.

 

Hopefully someone can point us both in the right direction!

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I have a favorite little bookstore that loves a good Sherlockian challenge. I'll check with them either tomorrow or Monday to see if they can get it.

[The Rani]

I have a favorite little bookstore that loves a good Sherlockian challenge. I'll check with them either tomorrow or Monday to see if they can get it.

 

I've just been having a closer look on the web and it's available on Amazon in the UK. Thanks for the offer though  Strange that it's not included in the Memoirs. I'll probably order it tomorrow. 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

There you go. Good luck.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I assume you say it "should" be in The Memoirs because it was written during the same era as the stories that are in that collection?

 

Now I'm wondering what other stories were omitted from various collections -- and wondering whether anyone has published a volume of "omitted stories"?

 

[softmachine]

it's in the Oxford editions as part of the Memoirs

 

most editions of the Casebook (after various editing rejiggles over the years)

[The Rani]

I assume you say it "should" be in The Memoirs because it was written during the same era as the stories that are in that collection?

 

Now I'm wondering what other stories were omitted from various collections -- and wondering whether anyone has published a volume of "omitted stories"?

 I've been looking online and it seems that it wasn't originally included in The Memoirs but it is supposed to be now. Mind you I did get this information from Wikipedia which isn't exactly always reliable. 

[The Rani]

it's in the Oxford editions as part of the Memoirs

 

most editions of the Casebook (after various editing rejiggles over the years)

 

Great. Thanks for saying 

[Carol the Dabbler]

And according to the Table of Contents, it's in the BBC Books reprint of His Last Bow:

 

 

 

 

[Ruthyone]

I saw 'The Adventures of the Cardboard Box' with Jeremy Brett as 'Sherlock Holmes'.........

 

Miss Susan Cushing of Croydon receives a parcel in the post that contains two severed human ears packed in coarse salt. Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard suspects a prank by three medical students whom Miss Cushing was forced to evict because of their unruly behaviour. The parcel was sent from Belfast, the city of origin of one of the former boarders. Upon examining the parcel himself, Holmes is convinced that it is evidence of a serious crime. He reasons that a medical student with access to a dissection laboratory would likely use something other than plain salt to preserve human remains, and would be able to make a more precise cut than the roughly hacked ears suggest. The address on the package, roughly written and with a spelling correction, suggests to Holmes that the sender lacks education and is unfamiliar with Croydon. The knot in the string suggests to Holmes that they are looking for someone with sailing experience.

Holmes considers the solution so simple that he asks Lestrade not to mention his name in connection with it. A few simple questions to Miss Cushing, a few observations, a cable to Liverpool, and a visit to Miss Cushing's sister Sarah (Holmes was denied admittance by the doctor because she was having a "brain fever") convince Holmes that the ears belong to Miss Cushing's other sister, Mary, and her extramarital lover, and that they have been murdered. He is convinced that Mary's estranged husband, Jim Browner, is the murderer, and that Browner had sent the cardboard box containing the ears to the Cushing's house in Croydon (addressing it merely to "S. Cushing"), not realizing that Sarah was no longer resident there. Browner, who is an unpleasant man when drunk, had meant to horrify Sarah (rather than Susan) because he blamed Sarah for causing the trouble that culminated in his murder of his wife and her lover.

Browner is indeed a sailor, and Belfast was the first port where he had the chance to post the parcel. Lestrade, acting on Holmes's information, is waiting to arrest him when his ship reaches London. He confesses everything. He is presented with considerable sympathy, a simple man so tormented by guilt at his act that he would welcome being hanged. The real villain of the story - morally if not legally - is Sarah Cushing, who tried to seduce Browner herself and, when he rejected her advances, set out to wreck his marriage with her sister Mary.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Carol the Dabbler
Added spoiler box for those who don't care to know the plot before they read the story

[softmachine]

I must rewatch the Granada version..... very chilling, and one of the best. Great acting. You actually do feel very much for the killer.   In a horrible way.

 

I love Sherlockian Michael Harrison's view on the story, that this was Watson's way of translating Holmes' involvement in the Ripper murders into a slightly more palatable version of events!!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 This was a supposed take on the "Ripper" murders?  Not only "a slightly more palatable version" but altogether unrecognizable as such.

[Ruthyone]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0646182/

 

[softmachine]

 This was a supposed take on the "Ripper" murders?  Not only "a slightly more palatable version" but altogether unrecognizable as such.

 

precisely Watson's intention....

 

(according to Harrison, entertainingly)

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Wow, if that's what Watson intended,  he accomplished it...hands down.

[Ruthyone]

 

http://historicalsherlock.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/holmes-and-ripper-connection.html

 

 

Historical Sherlock Blog About Jack The Ripper/The Cardboard Box

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I found this online, just a snippet that explains why "The Cardboard Box" wasn't included in the British collection of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

 

    “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” (Omitted from English editions because it deals with adultery! This story is in His Last Bow in American editions of the canon) Client: Susan Cushing."

[The Rani]

I found this online, just a snippet that explains why "The Cardboard Box" wasn't included in the British collection of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

 

    “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” (Omitted from English editions because it deals with adultery! This story is in His Last Bow in American editions of the canon) Client: Susan Cushing."

 

Thanks. Strange though that it's still hard to get.  I would have thought it would be included in all editions now.

[softmachine]

there is a theory, expounded upon in the bbc docudrama about ACD, that he kept the story away from book collections for many years because it was so close to home.... his drunken father committed to the asylum, guilt over his family's treatement of the father, and also his mother's (perceived or real) infidelity.....

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Ahh, that would make a lot of sense too.

[Carol the Dabbler]

So maybe he wrote it partly as therapy -- put it on paper and then throw the paper away.  If so, then no wonder he wouldn't care to see it in every bookstore.

 

[Ruthyone]

Yes, it would remind him of his childhood. I wonder if any of his other life events ended up in his novels.

[The Rani]

I have an idea! Watch the Granada adaption with subtitles, and read the subtitles  Ok bad joke!

[Ruthyone]

I have an idea! Watch the Granada adaption with subtitles, and read the subtitles  Ok bad joke!

 

Unless the subtitles are foreign!!!