Sherlock Holmes

Genres: Classics; Mystery Anthologies & Collections; Traditional Mysteries

Synopsis

“His Last Bow” is a Sherlock Holmes short story and is the last chronological installment of the series published in. It was given the subtitle “An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes.” Arthur Conan Doyle still wrote subsequent stories about Sherlock Holmes but they were all set a decade or more before His Last Bow. What’s interesting about this short story is that it was narrated in the third person which was different from the previous books which were usually from the point of view of Dr. Watson. This is also more of a spy story rather than a detective mystery. The story takes place during the First World War which was an ongoing war at the time of the story’s publication that’s why some interpreted it as a propaganda tool designed to boost British readers’ morale at that time. His Last Bow has been adapted and dramatized many times in tv, film, and radio. 

His Last Bow” was meant to be the last of the Holmes stories, and is given the subtitle “An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes”. Doyle did pen and publish a subsequent collection of stories, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, but all the stories in that collection “take place” a decade or more before “His Last Bow.” The story is unusual in that it is one of only a couple of Holmes stories not written in the first person; most of the Holmes’ stories and all of the novels are written from the point of view of Dr. Watson, Holmes's faithful companion and a few stories are written from Holmes’ own perspective. This story, though, was written in the 3rd person, perhaps because Doyle wanted to present this story of espionage thwarted in such a way that Holmes’ entrance comes as something of a surprise, though the subtitle kind of serves as a spoiler.

Release date: October 21, 2015

Publisher: Everyman's Library

Print pages: 304