The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Adventure of the Creeping Man (The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes)

Availability The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69700

Background Information

"The Adventure of the Creeping Man"is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle collected in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom and Hearst's International in the United States in March 1923. Watson states at the beginning of the story that this case was among the last that Holmes investigated before retiring to Sussex in 1903.

Publication History

The Adventure of the Creeping Man" was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in March 1923, and in the US in Hearst's International in the same month. The story was published with five illustrations by Howard K. Elcock in the Strand, and with seven illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Hearst's International. It was included in the short story collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in the UK and the US in June 1927.



A Short Summary



Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Adventure of the Creeping Man' is an unusual Sherlock Holmes story. He shifts the focus away from the analytical toward scientific discovery. The end result reads more like fantasy than the usual crime drama one associates with Sherlock Holmes.



Sources

Lowenstein's development of a "rejuvenation serum" derived from monkeys parallels actual treatments popularised in the early twentieth century, notably those of the Russian-born surgeon Serge Voronoff, who had experimented with injections of extracts from animal glands; in the 1920s, he popularised the transplantation into humans of tissue from monkey testicles.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The Adventure of the Creeping Man (The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes)
Discussion Questions

1) Why does the dog’s behavior lead to an investigation into the Professor?

2) What role does Professor Presbury’s relationship with a younger woman play in his development of a drug habit?

3) What does the note found in the Professor’s special box reveal about his condition and current state?

4) How does Professor Presbury’s family feel about his odd behavior? Why are they reluctant to bring the Professor to a high-end hospital at the end of the story?

Interesting story. I wonder if ape serum would have been much better. He might have retained a bit more intelligence and not climbed (much) during his "episodes," but he would have still acted strangely. Was the serum supposed to have long-term effects?

A bit like the man-monkey, things were left a little up in the air at the end of this story.

Are we led to believe that being savaged by the dog would bring the old man to his senses? His youth invigorating serum secret was out and would probably disgust the young woman he wanted as his wife.

I would have liked a couple more paragraphs to complete the tale.

I was rather amused at how an old man’s body, with the aid of monkey serum, could suddenly gain the strength, suppleness and agility to scale vertical walls like Spiderman.

But I was equally concerned that the serum caused the professor to head directly towards the nearest young girl, his own daughter!

https://gazetteer.sherlock-holmes.org...

This was my favourite of the stories so far (I'm reading this book at a more leisurely pace, having missed the deadline). It's not that it made sense, it was that it was just so deliciously Victorian in such a bonkers way. It really seems to prey on all those insecurities: men regressing into monkeys! But also, how science aims to solve all things! Holmes's digression on dogs in crime was wonderful too, and the piece had a lot of dramatic tension (which ultimately couldn't pay off as the solution was so ludicrous).

I suppose my feeling was that this fails as detective fiction, because the solution wasn't plausible, but wins on adventure and 19th century vibes.