I’ll be uploading rankings of Sherlock Holmes stories from my new book, Wherever Fact May Lead Me: A Ranking of the Sherlock Holmes Stories, every day till we reach the best story. After that, I’ll share my ranking of the best villains in the Holmes canon. You can find the rankings on my website, and you can buy a copy of the book on Amazon.
Ranking the Sherlock Holmes Stories
35. The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (September 1893, Memoirs)
Though definitely made eminent by its introduction of Holmes’ elder brother, Mycroft, readers should not forget that it is also The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter that provides us with Holmes’ timeless precept: “‘My dear Watson,’ said he, ‘I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.’” The wisdom of this precept is as relevant now as it was then, and the precept shall retain its relevance a hundred years from now, without its shine ever succumbing to so much as a blemish. One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s hallmarks is that he often graces his pages with sagacity, expressed tightly in easily memorable mots justes. Some phrases have become, perhaps unjustly, more famous than others over the years. For instance, “The curious incident” quote, which arises from Silver Blaze in reference to the dog in the nighttime, seems to me to have become vogueish in pop culture for reasons that I cannot quite fathom. (That said, I have no strong emotion either for or against such popularity, and, if pressed on the matter, would admit to being slightly in favor of Holmesian expressions achieving popularity, even ones that, to me, seem to achieve that popularity without substantive cause.) Simultaneously, other quotes in the Holmes canon seem not to have achieved the popularity that they seem due. For instance, I have long thought that the above remark on the proper estimation of one’s powers ought to be more famous than such a remark as, “Elementary, my dear Watson!” (which fails even to appear in the canon), yet fame is fickle and mercurial, seemingly bestowed more often like a lottery prize than as a merit. Well, well, well: One cannot right all the wrongs of the world, and one must take them in, more or less, happy stride if one wishes to live in pleasant harmony with the chaos of life.
Back to the story. In The Greek Interpreter, we are also introduced to The Diogenes Club, which has spawned imitations, and understandably so. No other club in literature seems to me to be so attractive. Having unintentionally simulated the Diogenes Club myself in the course of spending many long nights in university libraries reading coursework, I can attest that there is something breathtaking marvelous about the act of reading while surrounded by one’s silent peers. One is left to one’s thoughts and to literature, while retaining the pleasure of remaining in society. (It often helps, in increasingly noisy university libraries, to study deep into the night, so that the more raucous and less dedicated/less desperate students go to bed or to party.)
With respect to the story, it is very lucky for Holmes (and for the unfortunate Greek interpreter, Melas) that there is an answer to the advertisement. If no one had answered the advertisement, Holmes would not have had the slightest clue of where to find Sophy and Paul Kratides, and the case would have taken on an entirely different aspect. As it stands, the criminals get away, only to be found stabbed to death in Budapest (“Two cities: Buda and Pesht”— an inside joke that at least one reader may find humorous), and the supposition by Holmes is that Sophy Kratides has had her revenge. The plot is no more than fair, and Doyle’s inclusion of Mycroft and the Diogenes Club are perhaps the most distinguishing features of The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.
