69. 'The Adventure of the Illustrious Client' (1924)

John R. Flanagan's illustration for Collier's (USA), November 1924.

This episode, Sherlock Holmes contends with a predatory Austrian baron who “collects” women in ‘The Adventure of the Illustrious Client’ (1924).

You can read the story here.

The show notes will be available at https://bit.ly/DOD69sn (for all shownotes, just replace ‘69’ with the episode number in question).

You can listen to the episode here, or through your podcaster of choice:

The episode will shortly be posted to our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Please like and subscribe.

Synopsis

It is September 1902. Sherlock Holmes is at the height of his fame and professional standing when he is approached by the noted society fixer, Colonel Sir James Damery, who wishes to employ Holmes’s knowledge, influence and powers of detection to help prevent the impending marriage of the sinister Baron Adelbert Gruner to Miss Violet de Merville. Damery, however, is not the principal but simply an agent acting on behalf of a highly placed client who has his own reasons for wanting to prevent the misalliance. Holmes at first demurs in the face of such muddied waters – to have mystery at both ends of a case is too confusing – but his desire to bring down the Austrian murderer, as he terms Gruner, and to prevent a potentially infamous and tragic society scandal proves too strong and he embarks upon one of the most dangerous cases of his career…

Writing and Publication History

‘The Illustrious Client’ was probably written in late summer/early Autumn 1924, before ACD embarked upon The Land of Mist, which was underway in October. Earlier in 1924, he had completed his autobiography, Memories and Adventures, and written the charming ‘How Watson Learned the Trick’ for the Queen Mary Dolls’s House.

‘The Illustrious Client’ was first published in Collier's in the USA in November 1924 and in the Strand Magazine (UK) in February-March 1926 (with illustrations by Howard Elcock). The story became the first in The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, reflecting the affection ACD had for the story, which he was in his top twelve, if not his top six favourite Sherlock Holmes stories.

The story has a noticeably darker, moodier, and more visceral feel than most Holmes stories, and touches on subjects that would have been beyond the pale in the 1890s.

Real-world identities in ‘The Illustrious Client’

Sir George Lewis by John Singer Sargent

The Illustrious Client is Edward VII. The references to his “paternal” interest in Violet de Merville is a clear suggestion that she is the illegitimate daughter of the King, which raises the stakes of the marriage to Gruner. Edward, as Prince of Wales, was the “illustrious client” who pawned the beryl coronet in the story of the same name. It is implied that ‘The Illustrious Client’ was written by Watson in 1912, i.e. shortly after Edward VII’s death.

Holmes’s “old friend Charlie Peace” was a notorious burglar and murderer, executed in 1879. The noted British Sherlockian John Hall suggested that, rather than being a former case, Peace may have taught Holmes how to break and enter.

Sir George Lewis was a legal fixer, in much the way that Damery is a society fixer. Lewis tried to keep Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, out of the courts in the Tranby Croft/Royal Baccarat scandal in 1891. Lewis served with ACD on a committee in 1907 to overturn George Edalji’s conviction. He also prosecuted Slade the Medium, which may have been on ACD’s mind as he was preparing his history of spiritualism around the time of writing this adventure.

The use of real-world people is unusual for a Holmes story and adds to the feeling of verisimilitude.

Baron Adelbert Gruner

Jeremy Brett as Dracula in the 
1978 Gorey-inspired stage play 

One of the greatest villains of the Canon, Gruner is a step up from ACD’s previous grand masters, Moriarty and Milverton, and one tailor-made for a 1920s audience. He at once feels like a character from a Victorian sensation novel while also being contemporary. Gruner is also extremely dangerous – threatening Holmes as he did Le Brun and making good on his promise. He very much feels like a match for Holmes, who may have a grudging respect for the Baron’s intelligence.

Gruner’s crimes may be based on those of Bluebeard from French folk tales, as retold by Charles Perrault in 1697. Bluebeard kills a succession of wives, hiding evidence in a hidden room, much as Gruner has his “lust diary”. ACD had read and enjoyed Huisman’s Là-Bas (1891) in which the main character is researching Gilles de Rais, an associate of Joan of Arc, who is connected with the Bluebeard legend.

Many people have noted the similarities between Gruner and Count Dracula. Robert Eighteen-Bisang, writing in the Sherlock Holmes Journal (2009) suggested ‘The Illustrious Client’ is a rational re-telling of Dracula. There are several similarities in terms of description, plus Gruner’s hypnotic powers – an element of his character that is unnecessarily melodramatic. George du Maurier’s Trilby (1894) featured Svengali, another possible influence. Octavius Gaster in ‘The Winning Shot’ (Episode 2) may be another forerunner.

Gruner’s outwardly respectable, cultured and artistic appearance and lifestyle hides a corrupted soul and inner life – a play on Dorian Gray. He feels very much like a commentary on the decadent movement which was firmly in retreat in 1902 when ‘The Illustrious Client’ is set.

Broken or alternative masculinity

David Langton as Damery in the Granada series

General de Merville, the Indian hero, is a broken man, much in the way that Dominic Holden has suffered to mental strain and exhaustion in ‘The Brown Hand’.

Colonel Damery is a curious military figure, with his varnished shoes and lavender spats, with a touch of the aesthete about him. Gruner is an interesting contrast to Damery, both are dangerous but somewhat dandified.

Set in 1902, the story comes as the British had won the Second Boer War, but the conflict had revealed weaknesses in the Empire and concerns about military preparedness and by extension masculinity.

Shinwell “Porky” Johnson and Kitty Winter

Catherine ("Kitty") Walters

There is a sense in the Holmes stories of the 1920s that Holmes has become reliant on a group of individuals – Watson, Langdale Pike (‘The Three Gables’) and Shinwell Johnson among them. Johnson is a reformed criminal who still mixes in “the darker recesses of the underworld” – a fixer in the criminal world, in contrast to Damery in high society.

It is interesting that Holmes works with a morally ambiguous character such as Johnson, especially on the back of his apparent willingness to overlook the Baron’s crimes on the continent. This reflects a certain moral flexibility in ‘The Illustrious Client’. The presence of Johnson also suggests that Holmes has become too well known to now be able to go down into the criminal underworld without being spotted.

Kitty Winter – the “brand” – is a fascinating character, arguably richer than we might expect from ACD. Her background and story are left unsaid, but there is the implication that she had a reputation which has now been lost and may well be working as a prostitute. She is also described almost as a pre-Raphaelite model. Violet de Merville is ice to Kitty Winter’s fire.

There is the suggestion that Kitty may be a courtesan or former mistress of Edward VII. One of Edward’s most famous mistresses was Catherine (or “Kitty”) Walters – nicknamed “Skittles” – who signed her name “KW”.

Murderous Attack on Sherlock Holmes

Howard Elcock's illustration
for the Strand Magazine

In a genuinely shocking moment, Holmes is beaten by two men, armed with sticks, in Regent Street, outside the Café Royal. He must have been transported across Trafalgar Square to Charing Cross Hospital, which was adjacent to the Westminster Eye Hospital where ACD volunteered in 1891.

The location of the attack is interesting as the Café Royal was Oscar Wilde’s old hang-out, and therefore another echo of the decadent. Unusually, the thugs are well-dressed. Holmes gives his best with his singlestick but the second man was too much for him…

The London Library

When Watson is told to “spend the next twenty-four hours in an intensive study of Chinese pottery,” he heads off to his friend Lomax, the sub-Librarian at the London Library.

The London Library is a private lending library, established 1841 by Thomas Carlyle, a great hero of ACD, who was dissatisfied with the British Museum library which was pokey, frequently too busy and badly catalogued. T. S. Eliot, an ACD fan, was President of the library in the mid-20thC and it remains a popular resource for writers to this day.

ACD mentions the library in A Duet (1899): “one could become a member of the London Library, with the right to take out fifteen books at a time, and all the world's literature to draw from.” 

Stoker used the London Library between 1890 and 1897 while writing Dracula. He annotated several books that the library discovered only recently. It was previously assumed Stoker had used the British Museum library, like Jonathan Harker. Stoker was sponsored for membership of the London Library by Hall Caine, to whom Stoker dedicated Dracula.

“Dr Hill Barton, 369, Half Moon Street”

Lola Montez, possible inspiration
for Irene Adler

Hill Barton is a reference to John Hill Burton, the Doyle family friend and famous book collector. In 1866, Mary Doyle sent seven year old ACD to live with the John’s sister, Mary, a progressive reformer who was instrumental in getting Arthur into Newington Academy and later Hodder, the Stoneyhurst prep-school.

Half Moon Street, which is on the edge of the highly respectable St James district, was home to Boswell in 1768. Other famous residents include Lola Montez, the mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria and possible model for Irene Adler, and Sax Rohmer, the author of Fu-Manchu.

In fiction, Half Moon Street is the home of Algernon in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Sapper’s hero Bulldog Drummond, and Stephen Maturin in The Ionian Mission. Cecil Lambert in ACD’s ‘The Retirement of Signor Lambert’ (1898) lives at 138B Half Moon Street.

The ending

The vitriol throwing is horrific and described in unpleasant detail. The corruption of Gruner’s face – now mirroring his soul – is another nod to Dorian Gray.

The vitriol throwing may have been inspired by the case of Iris Howe, sentenced in September 1924 to three years’ penal servitude, which was felt to be too harsh in some quarters. Vitriol throwing is often presented as a woman’s crime but recent evidence shows it was as likely to be committed by men as women. In Brighton Rock (1938) by Graham Greene, Pinkie Brown carries vitriol, which ultimately contributes to his death.

We are left with the question whether Holmes knew Kitty had vitriol and therefore whether he was complicit. Kitty is given a light sentence, but Holmes gets off a burglary charge scot-free, another reflection on the power and influence of the ‘Illustrious Client’ himself and of the way class worked in Edwardian London.

Watson says at the beginning of ‘The Illustrious Client’ that this case was “the supreme moment of [his] friend’s career.” Hyperbole perhaps or was it a recognition of the terrible state in which Holmes is left at the end? “Very pale and exhausted, his iron nerves… shocked by the events,” maybe this was the beginning of the end for Sherlock Holmes, who retired in 1903, and Baron Gruner was the man who broke him…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We answer your questions on ACD, his life and times in our very first Q/A episode. Submit your questions by 8 December via BlueSky, Facebook or email mark@doingsofdoyle.com.

And we’ll have a bonus extended edition on the making of the podcast for our patrons. To hear that episode, just sign up now – for free or for a small monthly fee – at www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

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/

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.