Talk:The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

message: I would like to point out that this story is unique among Conan Doyle's Holmes stories in that it anticipates later "noir" style mysteries, with informers playing a role, frank references to prostitution, the hint of something perverse in the villain's behavior, the negative attitude toward the trusting Victorian girl, and the savage revenge that Kitty eventually takes.
CharlesTheBold 03:51, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  discussion 

message: *In the Granada TV version Holmes explains that the Baron killed his wife on the border between two countires.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.53.145.63 (talk) 15:20, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: explantaion?

message: The following was removed as it doesn't really belong in the main article. I will add it back here as some readers will find it interesting and useful.
One odd thing about the story is its mention of the Splügen Pass. It seems a bit peculiar that a court in Prague, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, would try a case relating to a crime allegedly committed in a place outside the Empire; The Splügen Pass is on the border between Switzerland and Italy.	 
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−	This Sherlock Holmes story is also unusual, although by no means unique, in that there is no actual mystery to solve. All is quite plain. Holmes is presented instead with the challenge of making a love-blinded woman see some common sense.	 
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−	The story constitutes in some ways a repetition of and in others a counterpoint to "A Scandal in Bohemia". In both stories there is no mystery to solve, but rather an illustrious client requiring Holmes to himself break the law - i.e., commit burglary, with Watson acting as accessory - in order to obtain a crucial piece of evidence which can prevent a marriage. 	 
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−	One difference is that in the first case, it is Holmes' client who wants to get married and needs the impediment removed, and in the second the client is the one who wants to use the evidence and prevent the marriage. Holmes of course satisfies both. Another difference is that, since Baron Gruner is an incomparably nastier character than Irene Adler, the second story has a grim atmosphere absent from the rather humorous first one. In both stories, the illustrious client's identity is initially unknown; in the first story, however, the client's identity is quickly revealed, whereas in the latter story, the client's identity is never explicitly revealed to the reader. However, there are strong hints that the client's identity is King Edward VII, due to: the correspondence of the year; the emphasis placed on the "illustriousness" of the client; the similarity of the ending to "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" (in which Queen Victoria awards Holmes); the parallels throughout the story to "A Scandal in Bohemia" (in which Holmes's client is also a king); and the fact that Holmes is cleared of the charge of burglary at the end due the client being sufficiently illustrious that "the rigid British law becomes human and elastic".	 
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−	In the early part of this story, Holmes, who is an accomplished violinist, makes reference to a real-life criminal, Charles Peace, who among other talents, was also a virtuoso, and who carried his burglary tools in a violin case. The quote regarding Charles Peace is a reference to Baron Gruner as an artist among criminals (hence Peace as a violinist), and also includes a more troublesome reference to one "Wainwright" as no mean artist. Most Sherlockian commentators believe that Conan Doyle was referring to the writer and painter (and forger and poisoner) Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, but they note that he spelled his name with a silent "e" in the middle. 	 
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−	Conan Doyle had a remarkable habit of combining bits and pieces of various items in his mind to create effects or new characters. "Wainwright", spelled without the "e" actually has a meaning that is separate from Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, but closer to Charle Peace. Peace career was in the late 1870s. A near contemporary murderer was Henry Wainwright, a well-to-do businessman in the East End of London, who shot and killed his mistress Harriet Lane in 1874. He buried her under the floor of his warehouse, but a year later was caught transporting the remains when he had to dig them up. Wainwright (who was eventually hanged for the murder of Miss Lane) actually had a contract to sell paint brushes to the police department. It is more than likely that Conan Doyle (who was an avid student of criminal history) combined the two Wainwrights, and linked them to Peace because Peace happened to operate at the same time as Henry Wainwright.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 42.3.134.46 (talk) 16:52, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Removed text

message: Both Kitty Winter and Violet de Merville have been mentioned as possibly the new mrs. Watson, who Watson probably marries shortly afterwards.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.130.31.203 (talk) 09:55, 23 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  The new mrs Watson?