dégagé pipe smoking scenes.
In The Final Problem, when Holmes appears at Watson ' s house with bleeding knuckles and having survived three murder attempts the following takes place:
“ I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you. Might I trouble you for a match?” He drew in the smoke of his cigarette as if the soothing influence was grateful to him.'
If the pipe is Holmes ' counsel, the cigarette is his therapist. A nervous man he isn ' t, but nervous energy is certainly not something he is short of. When Holmes is explaining the solution to The Adventure of the Empty House he does so ' between puffs of his cigarette.' Here there are no smoke rings chasing towards the ceiling to be watched with ' langour ' or ' blue-wreathed ' smoke lending an air of meditative stillness. Rather, ' puffs ' punctuate the explanation, interrupting it as speaking and cigarette-smoking compete for Holmes ' attention. The subtext is subtle but, in light of previous associations between cigarettes and agitation, it is natural to make a similar link here.
Certainly Holmes seems to think cigarettes a calming tonic, perfect for stilling the nerves. When he offers a jittery Mr McFarlane a cigarette in The Adventure of the Norwood Builder he does so as a reasonable alternative to a ' sedative ' that Dr Watson, were he there, ' would prescribe.' Later in the same story a fitful evening of Holmes ' is related by Watson discovering the next morning that ' The carpet round his chair was littered with cigarette-ends and with the early editions of the morning papers.' A moment later Holmes ' tosses ' an open telegram to Watson in yet another impatient act, and in The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist Holmes ' tosses ' the end of a cigarette ' into the grate ' before saying( one would imagine frustratedly) '" I have been very obtuse."' And what is Holmes smoking when he is ' shooting little darting glances all over the room ' in The Adventure of the Golden Pince Nez? Of course it is a cigarette.
It would be an incomplete analysis if I did not turn my attention to cigars which Holmes does smoke, but cigars are chiefly reserved for those moments of intimate conviviality between Holmes and Watson. In The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans Holmes invites Watson to try a cigar as they sit to take coffee and curacao together, and in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box Watson and Holmes smoke them as they ' chat ' in their rooms in Baker Street. But usually cigars are reserved for other characters and often flawed ones at that.
" There is so much smoking in the books you are at risk of cancer just reading them."
Consider the following description from The Adventure of the Devil ' s Foot: ' The huge body, the craggy and deeply seamed face with the fierce eyes and hawk-like nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed our cottage ceiling, the beard— golden at the fringes and white near the lips, save for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar— all these were as well known in London as in Africa, and could only be associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale, the great lion-hunter and explorer.' Large and thuggish, the explorer is somewhat of a Marquess of Queensbury figure. Incidentally, the next mention of his cigar in this story as when he takes his cigar from his lips and ' gazed sternly ' at Holmes. It is unlikely that the choice of the name ' Sterndale ' is a coincidence. smokers ' manifesto 07