The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Disappearance of the Lady Frances Carfax (His Last Bow)

Availability His Last Bow: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2350

Background Information

"The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of the eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow (1917), and one of the few stories in which for much of the plot Watson must act alone and try his best with Holmes left in the background. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom and The American Magazine in the United States in December 1911.

Publication History

"The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in December 1911, and in the US in The American Magazine in the same month. The story was published with five illustrations by Alec Ball in the Strand, and with five illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in The American Magazine. It was included in the short story collection His Last Bow, which was published in the UK and the US in October 1917.



A Short Summary



In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," Sherlock Holmes sends Dr. Watson to Lausanne to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy, unmarried woman, Lady Frances Carfax, who vanished after leaving her hotel, leaving behind a trail of clues and a mystery to unravel.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Disappearance of the Lady Frances Carfax (His Last Bow)
Discussion Questions

1) What point is Holmes trying to make by pointing out Watson’s shoes at the beginning of the story?

2) Why does Holmes send Watson off to investigate by himself, especially if he was just going to criticize his investigation so harshly? There seems to be a common theme of Holmes telling Watson that he could have investigated much better than him. What do you think about this?

3) Who of Lady Frances Carfax’s acquaintances suspects something suspicious about her disappearance? Why?

4) How do Holmes and Watson use Lady France Carfax’s reputation and well-documented comings and goings to figure out what happened to her?

5) What gave Holmes an idea that Lady Frances Carfax was somewhere in the Peters home, even after he discovered she was not in the coffin as he initially suspected?

I thought this was a fairly disjointed story. Some good moments, but it was so peculiar that Holmes sent Watson to Switzerland, just to follow him there, and for both of them to rush back to London.

In general though I agree with Holmes own take: "Good heavens, Watson, what has become of any brains that God has given me?" Even I caught the coffin comment!

I remember the revelation of Lady Carfax’s anaesthetised form beneath the dead woman in the coffin being very dramatic in the Granada TV episode.

I am not sure what to make of Holme’s comment re the ‘drifting and friendless woman.’

’ “One of the most dangerous classes in the world,” said he, “is the drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often the most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime in others. She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient means to take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is lost, as often as not, in a maze of obscure pensions and boardinghouses. She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes. When she is gobbled up she is hardly missed. I much fear that some evil has come to the Lady Frances Carfax.”

Parts of the above seemed contradictory. How was she dangerous and harmless at the same time?

I felt sorry for Watson in the way he was admonished by Holmes for drawing attention to himself. However, a trip to Switzerland is always something to savour, despite getting into a fight and having to put up with a grumbling companion.

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I took it to mean she was in danger, rather than actually dangerous herself.