Skip to main content

The Adventure of the Speckled Band - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes

"The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is a famous Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is told by Dr. Watson. A young woman named Helen Stoner visits Holmes because she is afraid. She lives with her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott, in an old house called Stoke Moran. Helen’s mother had married Roylott after her first husband died. Helen’s mother died in a train accident, leaving Helen and her twin sister Julia under Roylott’s care. Roylott once lived in India and brought back wild animals. Gypsies camp on the land near the house, which makes the place feel strange and scary.

Two years earlier, Julia died just before her wedding. Before she died, she told Helen she had heard a low whistle at night. On the night she died, Julia screamed and said, “It was the band! The speckled band!” Now Helen is hearing the same whistle in the same room where Julia died. She is scared that she will die too.

Holmes and Watson go to the house. They see a ventilator between Helen’s room and Roylott’s room, a fake bell rope, and a bed fixed to the floor. That night, they wait in Helen’s room. At midnight, they hear the whistle and see a snake coming down the rope. Holmes hits the snake with his stick. The snake goes back through the ventilator and bites Roylott. He dies instantly.

Holmes explains that the “speckled band” was a deadly snake. Roylott wanted to kill his stepdaughters so he could keep their inheritance money. The story teaches that greed can be dangerous, but truth and intelligence can win. Holmes uses his quick thinking to save Helen and solve the mystery.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Things That Haven't Been Done Before - Edgar Guest - Poem & Summary

    The things that haven’t been done before, Those are the things to try; Columbus dreamed of an unknown shore At the rim of the far-flung sky, And his heart was bold and his faith was strong As he ventured in dangers new, And he paid no heed to the jeering throng Or the fears of the doubting crew. The many will follow the beaten track With guideposts on the way. They live and have lived for ages back With a chart for every day. Someone has told them it’s safe to go On the road he has traveled o’er, And all that they ever strive to know Are the things that were known before . A few strike out without map or chart, Where never a man has been, From the beaten path they draw apart To see what no man has seen. There are deeds they hunger alone to do; ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rabindranath Tagore - Where the Mind is Without Fear – Gitanjali 35

  Rabindranath Tagore - Where the Mind is Without Fear – Gitanjali 35 Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. About Author Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a renowned Bengali poet, writer, composer, and philosopher. He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art, with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his collection of poems, "Gitanjali" ("Song Offerings"). ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali - Song 35 “Where the Mind Is Without Fear”

Poem Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake . Essay          Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali is a collection of 103 song offerings to God. Tagore got Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Song 35 “Where the Mind Is Without Fear” turns from a religious to a patriotic poem.      Tagore dreams of an independent and progressive India. The poet prays for the spiritual emancipation of his country.  He asks for a country,  where a man can move fearlessly and hold his head high with nobility and generosity;  Where every individual can be imparte...
Post a Comment
Read more