The Red-Headed League

"The Red-Headed League" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in The Strand Magazine in August 1891, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. Conan Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his twelve favorite Holmes stories. It is also the second of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892.

Plot summary

Watson reading the newspaper to Holmes and Wilson.

Set in 1890, a London pawnbroker named Jabez Wilson, a man with "fiery red hair," comes to Holmes and Watson. He tells them that his young assistant, Vincent Spaulding, some weeks ago had shown him and urged him to respond to a newspaper want-ad offering work to only red-headed male applicants. The next morning, Wilson had waited in a long line of fellow red-headed men, was interviewed and was the only applicant hired, because none of the other applicants had hair to match Wilson's red locks. He was well-paid, four pounds a week, for several weeks of doing obviously useless clerical busywork in a lonely office, but finally one morning a sign on the locked office door inexplicably announced: "THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED." Wilson then went to the landlord, who said that he'd never heard of Duncan Ross, the person who formed the league. The landlord did remember the tenant with scarlet hair and gives him a card which directs Wilson to an artificial knee company. He ends the story with how frustrated he is losing the four-pounds-a-week. Holmes and Watson laugh a little over the ridiculous situation, but Holmes assures that by Monday they would have the case solved. After Holmes' client, Wilson, leaves (having given the detective a description of Spaulding), Holmes decides to go and see Spaulding, whom Holmes notices has dirty trouser knees. Holmes then taps on the pavement in front of the pawnbroker's shop. With the case solved, he calls Inspector Jones and Mr. Merryweather.

Bank robbery

The Royal Bank of Scotland's office in Fleet Street, London- also home to Child & Co.

The four confront the thieves, John Clay and his helper William Morris (they were Spaulding and Ross in disguise), who had contrived the Red-Headed League rigamarole just to keep Wilson out of his shop while they did digging in the basement in order to break into the bank vault next door. Back at Baker Street, Holmes explains to Watson how he solved the case.

Analysis

It has been noted that the dates given in the story do not match the characters' descriptions of time passing. The date that Wilson sees the advertisement is April 27, 1890 and he has been at work for 8 weeks (~2 months) at copying out in longhand, the Encyclopedia. However the date on the door telling of the league being dissolved is that of October 9, 1890, 6 months after the ad was placed. Dorothy L. Sayers analyzed this discrepancy and demonstrated that the dates must have been August 4 and October 4 respectively.^[1]

Other media

In the television adaptation starring Jeremy Brett, the scheme was masterminded by Professor Moriarty and Clay is Moriarty's star pupil of crime.

A radio adaptation aired on April 26, 1977, on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Kevin McCarthy was the voice of Holmes.

In the Sherlock Holmes parody Without a Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, Clay and Archie are shown breaking into the Royal Gallery.

In early editions of Arthur Conan Doyle's autobiography, Memories and Adventures, he mentions an organisation called "The Glove" as an inspiration for The Red-Headed League. In later volumes this reference has been removed.

The plot of the story was used by The Deaf Man as a means to confuse the detectives of the 87th Precinct in the Ed McBain novel The Heckler.

References

1. ^ Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Dates in The Red-Headed League", reprinted in 17 Steps to 221B Baker Street (George Allen and Unwin, 1967) pp.57-67.

Wikimedia links

• Works related to The Red-Headed League at Wikisource

• Media related to The Red-Headed League at Wikimedia Commons