Dear SHians,

"The Tangled Skein" was first published in 1901 as "In Mary's Reign" as the
second book of Baroness Orczy, but in 1907 it was re-released as TTS after the
success of "The Scarlet Pimpernel." As the former title suggests, it is a
depiction of Queen Mary as "so passionately loving as to be almost lovable, a
woman of strong emotions, invariably swayed by justice" according to wikipedia.

However, "A Study in Scarlet" was actually titled "The Tangled Skein"
originally. The following paras are from wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_in_Scarlet):

"The story was originally titled A Tangled Skein, and was eventually published
by Ward Lock & Co. in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, after many rejections. The
author received £25 in return for the full rights (although Conan Doyle had
pressed for a royalty instead). The novel was produced in book form in July
1888, published by Ward, Lock & Co. This book was illustrated by Arthur Conan
Doyle's father, Charles Doyle. A second edition appeared the following year and
contained illustrations by George Hutchinson, and J. B. Lippincott Co. published
the first American edition in 1890."

The title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his companion Doctor Watson
on the nature of his work, in which he describes his murder investigation as a
"study in scarlet": "There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the
colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and
expose every inch of it."


Sridhar
PS: I think I should say the second author to use the title "The Tangled
Skein." There have apparently been other authors in later years who have used
the same title.


Tim Symonds <tim.symonds@...> wrote:
Did the phrase 'tangled skein' come from Shakespeare - what we humans
weave?

_____

From: SherlockHolmesSocietyofIndia@...
[mailto:SherlockHolmesSocietyofIndia@...] On Behalf Of Anand
Balachandran Pillai
Sent: 12 March 2008 16:33
To: SherlockHolmesSocietyofIndia@...
Subject: Re: [sherlock holmes society of india] On Johnny's and Sumal's
questions

Excuse me if I am wrong- but wasn't it "The tangled skein" ?

On 3/12/08, pinaki roy <monkaroy@yahoo. <mailto:monkaroy%40yahoo.com> com>
wrote:
> Dear Sherlockians,
>
> This has reference to Mr. Johnny's question regarding "The Tangled Skin".
> I do not think "The Tangled Skin" was to have any supernatural
connotation.
> From the draft of the story (Arthur Conan Doyle started writing it on 8
> March 1886), a copy of which Allen Eyles has provided in the 12th page of
> "Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration" (London: John Murray, 1986), it
> appears that Doyle was initially without any particular idea about how the
> detective story would develop, but obviously he had 'murder in his mind'.
> Probably the mass of skin was to be of a victim brutally annihilated by an
> initially-unknown assailant. It is interesting that Doyle aimed, even from
> the first draft, at demeaning detective characters created by other
writers
> like Poe and Gaboriau. The writer had scribbled, "Lecoq was a burglar -
> Dupin was better." In the first draft of that story, John H. Watson and
> Sherlock Holmes appeared respectively as 'Ormond Sacker' and 'Sherrinford
> Holmes'. The story was
> purchased for a mere 25 pounds by M/s. Ward, Lock and Company, and was
> published as "A Study in Scarlet" in "Beeton's Christmas Annual", November
> 1886. And the rest, as we know, is history.
>
> Sumal, I think this topic may be
> taken up for discussion. Though D.H.Friston was the first artist to depict
> Sherlock Holmes, followed by Charles Doyle, most of the Sherlock Holmes
> illustrations in "The Strand Magazine" were drawn by Sidney Paget (for 38
> adventures). It is often put forward as hypothesis that Sidney Paget
> modelled Sherlock Holmes on his brother Walter, whereas for Watson, he
> employed a slightly-modified image of Doyle himself. I ask for the
> Sherlockians' valuable opinion regarding how much have had our conception
> about the detective in his deerstalker and wooden pipe been influenced by
> Sidney Paget's illustrations.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> (Pinaki Roy, Ph.D.)
>
>
>
>
>
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-Anand

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