The Three Gables
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930) was a Scott… Read Full Bio ↴Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930) was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction.

All of the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are now freely available at Project Gutenberg, both in text and spoken word.

The stories of Sherlock Holmes are also available on tape/CD from CSA Word Publications as audiobooks and is read by Edward Hardwicke who is best known for playing Dr Watson in the highly acclaimed Granada tv series Sherlock Holmes which starred Jeremy Brett.
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The Three Gables
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Lyrics


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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@synesthete23

It seems to me that all the elements of a usual Sherlock Holmes story are there, but the composition is a bit off. As a writer myself, I can imagine a few possibilities:

- This was an early-written story repurposed to complete a final series

- The author had the germ of an idea but had no proper chance to mature it, hence the wonky flow and development

- The publisher was under pressure and the editor and/or author had to deliver it prematurely

All in all, I hear Doyle’s ‘voice’ in this one but not in his usual style and presentation. Those are my two cents Greg and thank you again for a delightful reading! :)



@maxfinel7762

A little re-&-re-considering (and comment reading), and this: The reading is as wonderful as could possibly be -- all your readings are!(!!!) The Three Gables certainly doesn't feel like ACD -- here's the only kind of twist I could imagine might happen...(long one)

I'm a very long time student and fan of Sherlock Holmes and I never knew about this authorship controversy, though I did have the same off-put feelings I think I hear everyone voicing.

This is especially so to me because I was delighted by what I took the message to be in the earlier Holmes story, The Adventure of the Yellow Face (considered in the context of time, place and cultural inertia). The Three Gables seemed to be a complete flip in racial attitude and expression! Did anyone else find the racial themes of these two stories especially incongruous?

It is an occupational hazard for me to look for possible psychological gestalts and matrices which might make plausible, if improbable, circumstances possible. Here is the only sort of circumstance in which I might see this story slipping out of Sir Arthur's pen. It is loosely constructed from some stories I have come across regarding him:

Firstly, at what point in time did he write this story? I know it was later on, but how much later on? Then, consider the following factors of his long-term mental set at the time:
A.) Arthur Conan Doyle had gotten tired of writing the Sherlock Holmes stories in general;
B.) He felt that the Holmes stories were over shadowing some of his other, more serious writings;
C.) He felt that writing the Holmes stories were causing him to be type cast as an author, and so he wasn't be taken as seriously as he thought he should be;
D.) He was, to some extent, "forced" back into writing the stories due to financial pressures, possibly combined with social pressure, and he no doubt resented this to some extent and on some levels.

Secondly, Doyle had a traumatic childhood involving an alcoholic father. We know that children in such circumstances often grow up to become drinkers themselves. Was this true in his case? If so, and this was a particularly difficult period during which he was feeling especially resentful of the Holmes stories, might he have resorted to a little extra drink? Then, perhaps further exasperated by sleep loss, was he in a more or less, if you'll excuse the pun, "liquid" state of consciousness bordering on a half-awake, light hypnotic trance (it has happened to all of us)? (If so, this could also explain the fact that, "it didn't sound like him".)

Thirdly, in this permeable state of consciousness, could his unconscious mind conflate the source of unreasonable authority -- his father -- with Dr. Joseph Bell, the main inspiration for at least Holmes' deductive methods, if not the Sherlock Holmes character in general? Remember, this was a person who, by virtue of his mastery of the techniques of observation and deduction, held at least a place of symbolic authority in Doyle's mind. So Holmes becomes symbolically his father!

Finally, what if all the above hypothetical factors did manifest and coalesce all at once, in the worst possible way, at the worst possible time for Doyle emotionally? Then could this sense of being forced back into writing the Holmes stories, and all the anger and resentment he was feeling, be focused onto Holmes? And then be expressed in, and even as, the story, as an act of spite, even a partially unconscious one?

If not some such circumstance, I find the story as it stands hard to reconcile with his body of work, interviews, etc.



@AA-zq1sx

I hope this will settle the question of authorship. Not only did Doyle write the manuscript for the story himself, he wrote it by hand with ink and paper, and made many corrections, before signing his name to it. The manuscript was put up for auction by Sothebys, and is described with the following:

"Lot 104: "The Adventure of the Three Gables" manuscript
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the original manuscript of "The Three Gables" in ink on 31 ruled pages (rectos only) that are 8 x 6 1/4 inches. It is signed at end as "A Conan Doyle | Crowborough" and contains more than 100 corrections, additions and deletions – some in darker ink or in pencil. It was bound for the author in vellum and titled in gilt on the upper cover as "The | Adventure | of the | Three Gables || A Sherlock Holmes Story."

Although the date of writing is not listed on the manuscript, it was written circa 1926 and first published in September 1926. This story was later collected in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. The Marquis of Donegall once owned the manuscript. It is estimated to sell at US$350,000-$500,000.

The online catalogue contains three photos of the manuscript, including the first page, an interior page, and the last page. When you click an image it displays in a new browser window, and allows you to zoom in to see details. Sotheby's April - June Sale Schedule press release includes a small photo of the first page of the manuscript (PDF). Registration is not required to view this."


I'll add that one must be very careful questioning the authorship of something from a much-admired writer, simply because of a personal dislike of the story, or of backwards views expressed within it. Not every Sherlock Holmes story rises to greatness... that would be impossible for any author to achieve! I personally don't care for a professor injecting ape-juice as an elixir of youth, or Holmes chasing "vampires" and poison jellyfish to name just a few of the plots that fall short of great murder mysteries (imho). There's also plenty of nonsense included that people took as scientific facts back in the Victorian era, like "reading" character and personality (and criminality) from the shape of someone's head, or facial features, or family background, or the behavior of their pets - all of which seem completely ridiculous today, and rather illogical for someone who claims to be all-reason-and-logic like Holmes.

Even the characterization of Holmes himself varies quite significantly over the years - from the socially hopeless, theatrical, and rather vain nerd we first met in 'Study in Scarlet', a man who Watson often observes is most succeptable to flattery, and makes a point to show off his skills in front of others as much as possible in the earlier stories because he loves to have his ego stroked - to a noble, quiet, steadfast, alpha-war-hero-badass with nerves of steel, a man who is supremely moral and humble, who positively loathes to have credit or notoriety for his work in the later stories. Gone is the vanity and the narcissism, to make way for brooding silence and mystery and reverence... continuity of personality didn't matter much to Doyle. In a similarly carefree fashion Doyle never observes any consistency with Watson and his (many?) dead & vanished wives. Or consider that in some stories Holmes proclaims his dislike of women, insults their intelligence and nature as "building on quicksand" and is described by Watson as being completely immune to their charms - but not only does Holmes worship Irene Adler and treasure her photograph as the woman who outwitted him, many times he will risk life and limb to save the honor or engagement of some woman he's never met, and severely berates a millionaire man he does not know for taking an interest in a young lady while already married, because Holmes is so disgusted at the moral mistreatement of a lady. Now I ask, if Holmes really didn't care for women and lived in complete indifference to their charms as is claimed in several stories by Watson, why is he so determined to play the knight in shining armor and match-maker to so many of them?! Why does he avenge the wrongs brought upon them? It seems to be his favorite passtime, rescuing beautiful ladies everywhere he goes!

The answer, I believe is simple... Doyle did not actually give any of this much thought. Holmes was not a person, but a writing experiment... what would happen if a character, a detective character, was more "calculating machine" than human being. Doyle certainly didn't imagine his stories would be devoured by ardent fans 120+ years later. At the time, he wasn't writing for posterity, he thought he was writing pulp fiction trash for magazines, not "real literature". Anything that appealed to the masses and made the story "sell" could be used... so Holmes and Watson changed to whatever character traits and plot devices worked for the adventure at hand. The only thing that stayed consistent was that Holmes was a brilliantly clever man with a few eccentric traits, and Watson was his ever faithful fanboy/lapdog.

Like most people, Doyle had mixed social views that reflected the time he lived in as a subject of the "great" British empire. This empire was certainly not "great" to all the people of color it was oppressing and murdering. Brittons were swimming in so much racism and tribalism and classism and sexism back then they didn't even consider for a moment any of it was wrong... and so it makes sense that Holmes stories leap from one blatant offensive stereotype to the next when describing people that are not white, Brittish, and male. There is plenty of racism in Doyles other Holmes stories, the Three Gables is certainly not alone in that... remember when Watson said he could not tell if something was a dead monkey or a "negro baby" in the The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge??



@AA-zq1sx

@@sherlock_holmes_magpie_audio It seems to me that accusing him of selling his name to authors of lower quality with racist undertones, would be a worse crime than writing it himself in the first place. That would be quite dishonorable for a great author to do, especially in a time and in a culture where a man’s honor and reputation was everything. Since the story was published under his name, while he was very much alive, and in the same magazine he always published Holmes stories in, there's no way he didn't know about the story - and it would have been a big lawsuit/scandal if someone else pretended to be him without his consent. So, if he "farmed it out" as you say, he still knowingly allowed his name and his famous detective to be used in a racist, low-quality story, showing what his own social attitudes were.

It is not surprising that an upper class (rich & knighted) member of the British empire would have some racist attitudes in the early 1900s! After all, this is by far not the first time such undemocratic attitudes were put forth in his work toward some “less desirable” group of people. ACD often has his characters remarking about personal flaws due to someone's family background, with discussions of their "breeding", and exhibits widespread classist attitudes as the backdrop of almost all of his tales. The greatest thing Holmes can do is help a "noble" or "royal" lady; the most shocking thing Holmes can do is become engaged to a lowly maid. The worst crime, worse than murder in the eyes of Holmes (as he states directly to Watson) is that of a blackmailer going after "noble" wealthy people who have done questionable things. And when this blackmailer is murdered in cold blood right in front of Holmes by a Dutchess, Holmes lets her get away with it and says nothing to the police. Then he burns all the evidence against the noble people in the blackmailers safe, even as his life and liberty are at immediate risk! This tells you exactly how ACD felt about the classism/peerage system in the UK, namely that anyone with "royal" blood was worth more than the commoners, and preserving the honor of “noble” persons at any cost (including giving murder a pass) was a cause Sherlock always took up with great passion.

For me, as a modern American, all this fussing over “noble born” people seems completely insane and ridiculous… but to Sherlock (and to ACD) both “gentlemen” in the Victorian era, classism was absolutely justifiable fact, to be vigorously upheld as the very foundation of society.

Then of course there is the sexism... when a paying female client hires Sherlock to find her missing fiancée, he solves the mystery but lies to her about what actually happened to him. Watson is shocked, but Sherlock simply says "it is dangerous to snatch a delusion from a woman" and lets her return heartbroken and confused to an abusive family household that has tricked her in order to commit financial exploitation against her. It’s appallingly unethical behavior by today’s standards, for Sherlock to willingly play accomplice to the persons abusing his client simply because of her gender. Many other examples of casual sexist remarks in the dialogue from Sherlock, I don't need to quote them all here... The point is that ACD was not perfect in his views, he was a product of the average attitudes of his time and country; defending nobility rather than democracy, proud of British empire building instead of seeing the conquering of other non-white people as racist and immoral, and accepting sexism as right and normal in a time/culture where women could neither vote or work like the men, and everything hinged on their "marrying well" or receiving some inheritance to survive.

Rather than be upset by Doyle's attitudes reflected in the Holmes stories, I see it as an instructional history lesson on how far humanity has come... and delight all the more on the rare occasions when a Holmes story aspires to greatness by going against type and speaking out against racism or sexism (Irene Adler outsmarting Sherlock, The Yellow Face, etc.)

I would be remiss if in closing this comment I did not thank you for your outstanding work in reading the Sherlock Holmes cannon - you have brought great delight to myself and countless thousands of people through your wonderful interpretation of the material.🧡🧡🧡



All comments from YouTube:

@satanlucifer6099

Thanks Greg. Now that Doyle's work has been exhausted, are you planning to continue with some of the other authors that you've read? There are certainly quite a few great stories out there that belong in the public domain.

Congratulations on your triumphant win over the demons of demonetization.

@colindowd3892

I listen to the Sherlock Holmes audio books every single night before I go to sleep.
They help me to relax.

@tonydemitre9392

😆 so do I, I thought I was the only one that finds these stories relaxing, might I suggest the Arrowwood series by Mick Finlay

@rivkaclifford427

Same here, going on about 5 years.

@crazymode341

Me too.

@michaellouisweissman9597

Amazing! I thought I was the only one! I listen to Simon Vance's readings every night!

@extracurricularkitty3605

I'm super glad to get another Holmes tale from you! Glad you got re-monetized (congratulations). And thanks for all the great recordings over the years.

@osquer42

I have to agree with you that this story was not up to the standards that I expect from Doyle. There was nothing wrong with your delivery and I commend you for your dedication to bring all of the Holmes tales to us. Thank you.

@failsmichael2542

I find his last works overall quite weak.

@nusaibaumarmadaki3418

@@failsmichael2542that is because he began detesting creating the character of Sherlock because his other books get a very little recognition because Sherlock’s stories overshadows the he even tried killing the character but fans are so hell bend on the character that he has to bring him back to life the return of Sherlock Holmes was never suppose to happen.

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