Silver Blaze
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"The Adventure of Silver Blaze", one of the 56
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
short stories written by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
, is the first from the 12 in the cycle collected as '' The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes''. It was first published in '' The Strand Magazine'' in December 1892. Doyle considered "Silver Blaze" among his favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. One of the most popular Sherlock Holmes short stories, "Silver Blaze" focuses on the disappearance of the eponymous race horse (a famous winner, owned by a Colonel Ross) on the eve of an important race and on the apparent murder of its trainer. The tale is distinguished by its atmospheric Dartmoor setting and late-Victorian sporting milieu. The plotting hinges on the "curious incident of the dog in the night-time":


Plot summary

Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. Watson travel by train to Dartmoor to investigate a crime of disappearance of the great race horse Silver Blaze and the murder of the horse's trainer, John Straker. Holmes and Watson arrive at King's Pyland, from which Silver Blaze is missing. Bookmaker Fitzroy Simpson had come to Dartmoor (and specifically to King's Pyland) to gather information about Silver Blaze and his stablemate Bayard. He had approached both Straker's maid and a stable boy the night of the horse's disappearance and has been arrested for the murder. However, to Holmes, there seem to be a number of facts that do not fit the case against Simpson, damning as it looks. It seems odd, for instance, that he would lead the horse out on to the moor simply to injure or kill him, which could be done right in his stall. He could not have stolen the animal. What good would such a famous thoroughbred be to him? Why has an exhaustive search of the neighbourhood not turned up Silver Blaze? What has Simpson done with him? Sherlock Holmes soon tracks down Silver Blaze, literally: his tracks (along with a man's) are clearly visible in the soil, albeit intermittently. Holmes also deduces why the police could not find the horse, despite having looked right at him. Holmes ensures Silver Blaze's safety, and turns his mind to other aspects of the case. John Straker, Silver Blaze's late trainer, has been killed by a blow to the skull, assumed to have been administered by Simpson with his " Penang lawyer", a clublike walking stick. Simpson's cravat is also found in Straker's hand, and the latter's coat is found draped over a furze bush. A knife is found at the crime scene—a peculiarly delicate-looking one, with a small blade. Dr. Watson, from his medical experience, identifies it as a cataract knife used for the most delicate surgery—useful as it is for that purpose, it would be unsuitable as a weapon. In addition, Straker also seems to have gashed himself in the hip with it. One of the stable lads, Ned Hunter, was on guard duty the night of the crime, but he proves to have been drugged with powdered
opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
placed in his supper. No one else who ate the curried mutton made at the Strakers' house that evening suffered any ill effects, but Hunter was in a profound stupor well into the next day. Straker's pockets contained two interesting items: a tallow candle and a milliner's bill for (among other things) a 22-
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dress, made out to one William Derbyshire. There is the curious incident with the dog, and a problem with the sheep kept at the stable: a shepherd tells Holmes that three of his animals have recently become suddenly lame. Holmes's powers unravel the mystery, and lay bare what villainies there are to be exposed. He visits the milliner's shop in London and determines, using Straker's photograph, that Straker posed as Derbyshire. This establishes his motive: he had a mistress with expensive tastes, and tried to influence the race's outcome to earn himself a large sum of money. The curried mutton was a clue, also; only such a spicy dish could have masked the taste of powdered opium, and it was impossible for Simpson to arrange a highly seasoned meal that evening for his purposes. Therefore, someone in the household must have conceived the idea—namely, Straker himself. The "curious incident of the dog in the night-time" is easily explained: the dog made no noise, because no stranger was there. As Holmes explains: "I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others.... Obviously the midnight visitor was someone whom the dog knew well." It was Straker who removed Silver Blaze from his stall and led him out on to the moor. Straker's purpose in doing this was to use the cataract knife to inflict a slight injury upon one of the horse's legs, rendering him temporarily lame in a way that would be undetectable on examination and thus likely put down to strain. He had thought to use Simpson's cravat (which the latter dropped when he was expelled from King's Pyland) as a sling to hold the horse's leg to cut it. But instead, Straker was killed when the horse, sensing that something was wrong, panicked and kicked the trainer in the head. The lame sheep had been used by Straker for practice. Colonel Ross's main concern, of course, is getting his horse back safely. Holmes chooses not to tell Ross where his horse has been (although he has known all along) until after the Wessex Cup, which is won by Silver Blaze. At first the Colonel does not recognize his own horse, since the animal's distinguishing white markings have been covered with dye. The horse had been looked after by one of the Colonel's neighbours, Silas Brown, who had found him wandering the moor and hidden him in his barn. Holmes then explains the details of the case step-by-step to the satisfaction of the Colonel, Watson, and Inspector Gregory. Gregory is one of the more competent police detectives Holmes works with in the course of his career. He conducts a thorough investigation of the crime before Holmes's arrival, and gathers all the evidence Holmes needs to solve the case. Holmes notes that Gregory is "an extremely good officer", and observes that the only quality he lacks is imagination—the ability to imagine what might have happened on a given occasion, and act on this intuition.


Publication history

"The Adventure of Silver Blaze" was published in the UK in '' The Strand Magazine'' in December 1892, and in the United States in the US edition of the ''Strand'' in January 1893. It was also published in '' Harper's Weekly'' (US) on 25 February 1893.Smith (2014), p. 74. The story was published with nine illustrations by Sidney Paget in ''The Strand Magazine'',Cawthorne (2011), p. 75. and with two illustrations by W. H. Hyde in ''Harper's Weekly''. It was included in the short story collection '' The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'', which was published in December 1893 in the UK and February 1894 in the US.


Adaptations


Film and television

One of the short films in the Sherlock Holmes Éclair film series (1912) was based on the story.
Georges Tréville Georges Tréville (28 July 1875 – 30 May 1944) was a French actor and film director. Born as Georges Troly, during the silent era, he played the gentlemen thief Arsène Lupin in several short films. He also went to Britain to direct and star i ...
played Sherlock Holmes in the film series. A short film adaptation was released in 1923 starring Eille Norwood in the role of Holmes and
Hubert Willis Hubert Willis (1862 – 13 December 1933) was a British actor best known for his recurring role as Doctor Watson in a series of silent Sherlock Holmes films co-starring with Eille Norwood. Stage career Willis appeared in the copyright per ...
cast as Dr Watson. This was part of the 1921–1923 Sherlock Holmes Stoll film series, specifically the set of films released in 1923 under the series title ''The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. In 1937, the British film '' Silver Blaze'' was released starring Arthur Wontner as Holmes and
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
as Watson. The film was released in the U.S. four years later as ''Murder at the Baskervilles''. The story was adapted as the 1977 television film '' Silver Blaze'' starring Christopher Plummer as Holmes and Thorley Walters as Watson. The story was adapted in 1988 for Granada television's ''
The Return of Sherlock Holmes ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes'' is a 1905 collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903–1904, by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories were published in the '' Strand Magazine'' in Britain and ''Collier's'' i ...
'' starring
Jeremy Brett Peter Jeremy William Huggins (3 November 1933 – 12 September 1995), known professionally as Jeremy Brett, was an English actor. He played fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in four Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series), Granada TV series from 1984 ...
as Holmes and
Edward Hardwicke Edward Cedric Hardwicke (7 August 1932 – 16 May 2011) was an English actor, who had a distinguished career on the stage and on-screen. He was best known for playing Captain Pat Grant in ''Colditz'' (1972-73), and Dr. Watson in Granada Te ...
as Watson. An episode of the animated television series '' Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century'' was based on the story. The episode, titled "Silver Blaze", first aired in 1999. In '' Elementary'', season 2, episode 7 "The Marchioness", used elements from "Silver Blaze" in the plot.


Radio

"Silver Blaze" was adapted by
Edith Meiser Edith Meiser (May 9, 1898 – September 26, 1993) was an American author and actress, who wrote mystery novels, stage plays, and numerous radio dramas. She is perhaps best known for bringing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories to radio in the ...
as an episode of the radio series '' The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson. The episode aired on 8 December 1930. Other episodes adapted from the story aired in May 1935 (with Louis Hector as Holmes and Lovell as Watson) and in April 1936 (with Gordon as Holmes and Harry West as Watson). Meiser also adapted the story for ''
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ''The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a radio drama series which aired in the USA from 1939 to 1950, it ran for 374 episodes, with many of the later episodes considered lost media. The series was based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Art ...
'' for a 1939 episode with
Basil Rathbone Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume ...
as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. It was also dramatised as a 1943 episode of the series. A radio dramatisation of the story aired on British radio in 1938, titled "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of Silver Blaze". A different adaptation of the story aired on the
BBC Home Service The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4. History 1922–1939: Interwar period Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
in 1945 with
Laidman Browne Laidman Browne (13 September 1896 - 11 September 1961) was an English radio and television actor. In 1949 he was the narrator of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band "The Adventure of the Speckled Ba ...
as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson. A radio adaptation starring John Gielgud as Holmes and
Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...
as Watson aired on NBC radio in March 1955. A 1962 dramatisation of "Silver Blaze" aired on the BBC Light Programme, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson. Another adaptation aired on British radio in 1978, starring Barry Foster as Holmes and David Buck as Watson. "Silver Blaze" was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 1992 by Bert Coules as an episode of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. It featured
Jack May Jack Wynne May (23 April 1922 – 19 September 1997) was an English actor. Early life and education May was born in 1922 in Henley-on-Thames, and was educated at Forest School in Walthamstow. After war service with the Royal Indian Navy in Bri ...
as Colonel Ross,
Susan Sheridan Susan Haydn Thomas (18 March 1947 – 8 August 2015) better known as Susan Sheridan, was an English voice actress. Her roles included Noddy in '' Noddy's Toyland Adventures'', Princess Sylvia in '' Muzzy in Gondoland'', Trillian in the BBC rad ...
as Mrs Straker,
Brett Usher Brett Usher (10 December 1946– 13 June 2013) was an English actor, writer and ecclesiastical historian. Although he appeared frequently on stage and television, it was as a radio actor that he came to be best known. His many radio roles ranged ...
as Silas Brown,
Terence Edmond Terence Edmond (22 November 1939 – 14 March 2009) was an English actor, who played PC Ian Sweet in 78 episodes of ''Z-Cars'' between 1962 and 1964. His popular TV character was killed off in an episode of the police drama transmitted live ...
as Inspector Gregory, and Petra Markham as Edith. A 2014 episode of the radio series '' The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' was adapted from the story, with
John Patrick Lowrie John Patrick Lowrie (born June 28, 1952) is an American actor, musician and author best known for voicing the Sniper in ''Team Fortress 2'' and various characters in ''Dota 2''. He has played Sherlock Holmes in the radio series ''The Further Adv ...
as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.


Other

In 1966, jigsaw manufacturer Springbok released a circular puzzle called "Silver Blaze - From the Memories of Sherlock Holmes". The goal was to solve the mystery using an enclosed story booklet combined with scenes depicted in the puzzle. A sealed solution was also included.


In popular culture

The title of
Mark Haddon Mark Haddon (born 28 October 1962) is an English novelist, best known for ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth Wr ...
's award-winning novel ''
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (created by Arthur Conan Doyle) in the 1892 short story ...
'' is taken from a remark made by Sherlock Holmes in "Silver Blaze". The protagonist of this novel, Christopher John Francis Boone, mentions Sherlock Holmes several times throughout the book. In the episode "Service of All the Dead" of the TV series '' Inspector Morse'', Morse asks Sergeant Lewis how well he knows his Sherlock Holmes and starts to quote the passage, then a constable (an extra) says the punchline to Lewis's further bewilderment. Without explicitly referencing or quoting the Sherlock Holmes story, the silence of a dog in the night-time is similarly a clue in the crime film ''
Beck – Mannen utan ansikte ''Beck – Mannen utan ansikte'' (English: ''Beck – The Man Without a Face'') is a 2001 film about the Swedish police detective Martin Beck directed by Harald Hamrell. Cast * Peter Haber as Martin Beck * Mikael Persbrandt as Gunvald Larsson * ...
''. In '' Guards! Guards!'' Sir Terry Pratchett refers to "the curious incident of the orang-utan in the nighttime." In the Three Investigators' fourth book ''The Mystery of the Green Ghost'', Jupiter Jones remembers this Sherlock Holmes story. He uses the fact that a dog does nothing in the night-time, in the presence of the eponymous green ghost, to solve the mystery: the ghost is not really there at all. The phrase "the dog didn't bark" is often used as a shorthand way of saying that if we believe that a proposition is made true in virtue of corresponding to fact, then the absence of one or more relevant facts indicates that the proposition is likely not true. This is usually called evidence of absence, whereby the expectation of evidence makes its absence significant. Since we would expect a watch dog (as in Holmes' story) to bark if the horse it was guarding were stolen by a thief, the failure of the dog to bark when the theft occurred probably means that the thief was someone known to the dog as a friendly person and not a stranger. The absence of an expected fact (the barking of the dog if a stranger had stolen the horse) narrows down the list of likely suspects who could be the thief.


References

;Notes ;Sources * * *


External links


text of The Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Adventure Of Silver Blaze, The 1892 short stories Fictional horses Silver Blaze Works originally published in The Strand Magazine Short stories adapted into films