Just an outstanding piece of work. There is so much to enjoy and appreciate, and so much to make the reader think. Using Thucydides’ work as a device is inspired - easing us in with how it humorously echoes Watson and Holmes, and then going on to how it reflects the bigger picture, both past and present. I so admire your research and your use of detail - you use it with a light hand.
I loved that you have Mrs. Elsie Cubitt joining the intelligence services and working with ciphers. And it’s almost a minor part of the story but Mary having continued on as a governess is such an original idea. I mean, Mary marries and she doesn’t concentrate on running her husband’s household, she doesn’t join her husband in his work helping Holmes - she carries on with her own work. And even though being a governess is low paid and has low social status, Mary sees the worth in the work itself. More than that - it’s the children she sees the worth in.
And it’s all so moving - an older and wiser Watson reflecting on money and honour, he and Holmes talking about how lucky they were to meet each other, Watson being able to help Mycroft, and a brighter future awaiting the three of them. You engage the heart, you engage the head and it’s all just beautifully written.
I’ll just pick out a few parts that particularly struck me:
The author's noble ambition and careful rationality demand admiration, but I am no less charmed by his casual snobbery. For the remainder of the book I shall be imagining Thucydides puffing anachronistically on your cherrywood pipe whilst lambasting 'The Iliad.'
I do believe that the next time you begin to lecture me about the imprecision of my writings, I shall simply whisper "Thucydides" in your ear and have done.
I'm glad that I have always been too intimidated to discuss politics with your brother. His insights into the real nature of empire, however wise and incisive, would probably destroy what tattered illusions I have managed to retain. I am too old and have seen too much sacrificed for our country to let go of what patriotism I have left.
Yet he was like an architect who raises vast cities atop old ruins without surveying the underlying faults. For the last four years he has watched sinkholes erupt; he has seen his life's work collapse and bury a whole generation in the rubble. The scope of the disaster is nearly incomprehensible, though to his extraordinary perception it reveals itself with agonizing clarity. He holds himself responsible, and the miserable truth is that he probably is so, to the degree that any individual can be… He has the look of a dying oak; towering, serene, but hollowed through.
And yet, for all that, Thucydides tells only one side of the story. For heroism is still possible in extremis, and I have been privileged to see it many times. For I have spent much of my life standing next to you, Holmes. You have defended innocence and justice, not merely in the abstract but in the lives of individuals. Danger and violence have never stood in your way. Call 'human nature' whatever names you like, but there will always be those who embody its nobler facets.
no subject
I loved that you have Mrs. Elsie Cubitt joining the intelligence services and working with ciphers. And it’s almost a minor part of the story but Mary having continued on as a governess is such an original idea. I mean, Mary marries and she doesn’t concentrate on running her husband’s household, she doesn’t join her husband in his work helping Holmes - she carries on with her own work. And even though being a governess is low paid and has low social status, Mary sees the worth in the work itself. More than that - it’s the children she sees the worth in.
And it’s all so moving - an older and wiser Watson reflecting on money and honour, he and Holmes talking about how lucky they were to meet each other, Watson being able to help Mycroft, and a brighter future awaiting the three of them. You engage the heart, you engage the head and it’s all just beautifully written.
I’ll just pick out a few parts that particularly struck me:
The author's noble ambition and careful rationality demand admiration, but I am no less charmed by his casual snobbery. For the remainder of the book I shall be imagining Thucydides puffing anachronistically on your cherrywood pipe whilst lambasting 'The Iliad.'
I do believe that the next time you begin to lecture me about the imprecision of my writings, I shall simply whisper "Thucydides" in your ear and have done.
I'm glad that I have always been too intimidated to discuss politics with your brother. His insights into the real nature of empire, however wise and incisive, would probably destroy what tattered illusions I have managed to retain. I am too old and have seen too much sacrificed for our country to let go of what patriotism I have left.
Yet he was like an architect who raises vast cities atop old ruins without surveying the underlying faults. For the last four years he has watched sinkholes erupt; he has seen his life's work collapse and bury a whole generation in the rubble. The scope of the disaster is nearly incomprehensible, though to his extraordinary perception it reveals itself with agonizing clarity. He holds himself responsible, and the miserable truth is that he probably is so, to the degree that any individual can be… He has the look of a dying oak; towering, serene, but hollowed through.
And yet, for all that, Thucydides tells only one side of the story. For heroism is still possible in extremis, and I have been privileged to see it many times. For I have spent much of my life standing next to you, Holmes. You have defended innocence and justice, not merely in the abstract but in the lives of individuals. Danger and violence have never stood in your way. Call 'human nature' whatever names you like, but there will always be those who embody its nobler facets.