The Case of Lady Sannox is a short story written by Conan Doyle
in 1893 as part of his Round The Red Lamp series of medical stories. A
gothic masterpiece, the story is still shocking to this day…
You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Case_of_Lady_Sannox
The episode can be heard here: http://doingsofdoyle.podbean.com/.
Synopsis
Douglas Stone is one of the most outstanding surgeons operating in 1890’s
London. He is also one of the least morally restrained. His sensual excesses
are infamous, as is his affair with the former actress, Marion Dawson, now Lady
Sannox.
One night, as he prepares for another appointment with his mistress,
Stone receives a visitor: a bearded Turkish gentleman whose wife requires an
emergency operation on her lip after cutting herself with a poisoned dagger.
The surgeon hesitates, but the fee is too attractive.
He operates on the veiled patient to remove the infected lip. There is
a blood-choked scream, the veil is removed and, in the shock of recognition, Stone’s
brilliant mind lurches into madness. He has kept his appointment with Lady
Sannox whose husband is a vengeful man…
Writing and publication history
In 1892, Jerome K. Jerome, editor of The Idler, commissioned Conan
Doyle to write 6-8 short stories. Conan Doyle proposed a series of medical-themed
stories.
Conan Doyle only submitted four stories to The Idler, of which
three were printed.
The Case of Lady Sannox was first published in The Idler
in November 1893, around the time that the Sherlock Holmes stories The Naval
Treaty and The Final Problem appeared in The Strand.
The Conte Cruel
Hale, Terry (ed), Daedalus Book of French Horror: The Nineteenth
Century (1996).
Charles Beaudelair - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Baudelaire.
Edgar Allan Poe - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe.
Villiers de L’Isle-Adam - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Villiers_de_l%27Isle-Adam.
Catulle Mendes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catulle_Mend%C3%A8s
Guy de Maupassant - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_de_Maupassant.
Related Conan Doyle works
Through the Magic Door (1907) in which Conan Doyle discusses the
literature that influenced him - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Through_the_Magic_Door.
The Retirement of Signor Lambert (1898) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Retirement_of_Signor_Lambert.
The Surgeon Talks (1894) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Surgeon_Talks
The Third Generation (1894) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Third_Generation
The Medal of Brigadier Gerard (1894) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Medal_of_Brigadier_Gerard.
Interpretations
Divorce laws in the UK - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divorce_in_England_and_Wales.
Matrimonial Causes Act, 1857 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrimonial_Causes_Act_1857.
Orientalism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism.
Translations of The Arabian Nights by Antoine Galland (1704-17), Edward
W Laine (1841) and Sir Richard Francis Burton (1846).
Sir Richard Francis Burton - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton.
Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture in the Fin de
Siecle (New York, Viking, 1990).
Robert Darby, editor of Round the Red Lamp and other Medical
Writings (Missouri, Valancourt Press, 2007).
Adaptations
Play: ‘The Black Mask’ (1899) by F Marriott Watson.
CBS TV Series ‘Suspense’ – The Case of Lady Sannox (27 Dec 1949, 27’):
Starring Stella Adler (Lady Sannox), Henry Brandon (Douglas Stone), Berry
Kroeger (Lord Sannox). https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Case_of_Lady_Sannox_(TV_episode_1949).
BBC2 TV Series ‘Late Night Horror’ – The Kiss of Blood (24 May 1968):
Starring Diane Cilentro (Lady Sannox), Roy Dotrice (Douglas Stone), Charles
Workman (Lord Sannox).
BBC Choice TV ‘The Fear’ – The Kiss of Blood (31 July 2001): Book at
bedtime format, read by Neve McIntosh (who played Beryl Stapleton in the
Richard Roxborough version of The Hound of the Baskervilles in 2002).
Sherlockian connections
The Man with the Twisted Lip (1891) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Man_with_the_Twisted_Lip.
The Veiled Lodger (1927) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Veiled_Lodger.
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton (1904) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_Charles_Augustus_Milverton.
The Adventure of The Naval Treaty (1893) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Naval_Treaty.
The Adventure of The Final Problem (1893) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Final_Problem.
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (1893) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Cardboard_Box.
The Adventure of The Illustrious Client (1924) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Illustrious_Client.
The Adventure of The Creeping Man (1923) - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Creeping_Man.
Next time on the Doings of Doyle…
Conan Doyle’s pirate adventures featuring the dreaded Captain Sharkey. Read
them here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Sir_Arthur_Conan_Doyle:Captain_Sharkey.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books: www.belangerbooks.com.
Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle
Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the
encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.
Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed
under Creative Commons: By Attribution
3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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