Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
Cargando... The Adventure of the Copper Beeches [short story]por Arthur Conan Doyle
Books Read in 2015 (2,373) Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. This is another superb short story with our main character, detective Sherlock Holmes. The plot is interesting: Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as governess; a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120 when Miss Hunter balks at having to cut her long hair short (her previous position paid £48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisos to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions. She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to Hampshire, where Mr Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated. After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in Winchester. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr. Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: there was a man standing there on the road looking towards the house. At another such session, Mr Rucastle told a series of funny stories that made Miss Hunter laugh until she was quite weary. The one astonishing thing about this was that Mr. Rucastle not only did not laugh, but did not even smile. There were other unsavoury things about the household. The six-year-old child that she was supposed to look after was astonishingly cruel to small animals. The servants, Mr. and Mrs. Toller, were quite a sour pair. A great mastiff was kept on the property, and always kept hungry. It was let out to prowl the grounds at night and Miss Hunter was warned not to cross the threshold after dark. Also, Toller, who was quite often drunk, was the only one who had any control over the dog. There was also the odd discovery by Miss Hunter of what appeared to be her own tresses in a locked drawer. Upon checking her own luggage, however, they turned out to be another woman's, but identical in every way to Miss Hunter's, even to the unusual colour. However, the most disturbing thing of all about the household was the mystery wing. Miss Hunter had observed that there was a part of the house that did not seem to be used. The windows were either dirty or shuttered, and once she saw Mr Rucastle coming out of the door leading into the wing looking most perturbed. Later, he explained that he used the rooms as a photographic darkroom, but Miss Hunter was not convinced. When he is drunk, Toller leaves the keys in the door to the mystery wing. Miss Hunter sneaks in. She finds the place spooky and when she spots a shadow moving on the other side of a locked door, she panics and runs out, into Mr Rucastle's waiting arms. Mr. Rucastle does not reproach her, instead he pretends to comfort her. However, he overdoes his act and alerts her suspicions, causing her to claim that she saw nothing. In an instant, his expression changes from comfort to rage. With the aid of the great detective, it is discovered that someone has been kept a prisoner in the forbidden wing. The purpose of hiring Miss Hunter becomes clear: her presence is to convince the man watching from the road that Rucastle's daughter Alice, previously unknown to Miss Hunter, and whom she resembles, is no longer interested in seeing him. Watson rescuing Rucastle from his mastiff Holmes, Watson and Miss Hunter find Miss Rucastle's secret room empty; Rucastle arrives and thinks the trio has helped his daughter escape and goes to fetch the mastiff to set upon the trespassers. Unfortunately for Rucastle, the dog has been accidentally starved for longer than usual and attacks him instead. Watson shoots the dog with his revolver. Later, Mrs. Toller confirms Holmes' theory about Rucastle's daughter and reveals that when Alice came of age she was to receive an annuity from her late mother's will; Rucastle tried to force his daughter to sign control of the inheritance over to him which only resulted in Alice becoming ill with brain fever; hence, the cut hair. Rucastle then tried to keep Alice away from her fiancé by locking her up in the mystery wing and hiring Miss Hunter to unknowingly impersonate Alice. Rucastle's daughter escapes with her fiancé, and they marry soon after. Watson notes, at the end of the story, that Holmes appears to have been drawn to Miss Hunter. However, to his disappointment, Holmes does not show any interest in Miss Hunter after the mystery has been solved, which was the real force behind his feelings. Rucastle survives as an invalid, kept alive solely by his second wife. Miss Hunter later becomes principal of a girls' school, where, according to Watson, she meets with "considerable success". I recommend this short story to all readers that appreciate a well written mystery story, mainly when it involves Sherlock Holmes clever solutions! sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Pertenece a las seriesContenido enTodo Sherlock Holmes por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes Omnibus (4) por আর্থার কোনান ডয়েল (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes Short Stories por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes / The Hound of the Baskervilles / The Return of Sherlock Holmes por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Celebrated Cases of Sherlock Holmes por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Illustrated Sherlock Holmes Treasury por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) A Study in Scarlet / The Sign of Four / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes / The Hound of the Baskervilles por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmesin seikkailut 1-2 por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes - Tomo I por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) A Study in Scarlet / The Sign of Four / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Complete Sherlock Holmes and The Complete Tales Of Terror and Mystery por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Complete Sherlock Holmes Short Stories por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes: Complete Short Stories por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes. Tom 2 por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) British Mystery Megapack Volume 5 - The Sherlock Holmes Collection: 4 Novels and 43 Short Stories + Extras por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Oeuvres complètes : II. Étude en rouge. Le Signe des quatre. Les Aventures de Sherlock Holmes. por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Classic Illustrated Sherlock Holmes: Thirty Seven Short Stories Plus a Complete Novel por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Word Cloud Box Set: Brown por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) শার্লক হোমস সমগ্র por আর্থার কোনান ডয়েল (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes Omnibus por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Complete Sherlock Holmes Treasury por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Club del Misterio, volum 1 por Jorge Luís Borges (indirecto) Club del misterio. Volumen I: Prólogo de J. J. BORGES. "El cuento policial, IX" . Dashiell HAMMETT: "Cosecha roja". Arthur CONAN DOYLE: "Las aventuras de Shrlock Holmes". Hellery QUEEN: "Cara a cara". Raymond CHANDLER: "El sueño eterno". Patricia IHGSMITH: Erle STANLEY GARDNER: "El cuchillo". "El caso del juguete mortífero". James HADLEY CHASE: "Impulso creador". "El secuestro de Miss Blandish". Nicholas BLAKE: "La bestia debe morir". Volumen 2: Prólogo de R. CHANDLER: " El simpl por AA.VV. (indirecto) ESSENTIAL COLLECTION OF CLASSIC BANNED BOOKS: Adam Bede, Fanny Hill, Candide, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Awakening, Sister Carrie, Women In Love, Madame Bovary, And Many More… por John Cleland (indirecto) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes / The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes / The Return of Sherlock Holmes / A Study in Scarlet por Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Sherlock Holmes - vol. 2 por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) The Banned Books Compendium: 32 Classic Forbidden Books por Grigory Lukin (indirecto) The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (2-Volume Set) por Arthur Conan Doyle (indirecto) Tiene la adaptación
Comienza este relato cuando Watson recibe un telegrama de Sherlock Holmes, mientras desayuna apaciblemente con la señora Watson. El texto dice: "¿Tiene usted un par de días libres? Acabo de recibir un telegrama del oeste de Inglaterra en relación con la tragedia del valle de Boscombe. Me encantaría llevarle. Tiempo y panorama excelentes. Saldré de Paddington a las 11.15 h."Watson parte con Holmes hacia el valle de Boscombe, una región cerca de Ross, en Herefordshire. A su llegada, el inspector Lestrade de Scotland Yard se encarga de ponerles en antecedentes de lo que, dentro de su miopía habitual, es un caso claro. El joven James ha asesinado a su padre, el granjero McCarthy. Aunque la culpabilidad del joven parece evidente, atendiendo a las súplicas de Alice Turner, hija del millonario John Turner e íntima amiga del joven, por caballerosidad, Lestrade ha solicitado la presencia de Sherlock Holmes. Éste demostrará, una vez más, la ineficacia de los métodos policiales habituales. Gracias a su brillante actuación, saldrá a la luz un sórdido caso de chantaje y venganza, donde el auténtico criminal resultará ser la propia víctima. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
|
just to wear an ugly dress
and chop your hair off. ( )