pedanther: (0)
pedanther ([personal profile] pedanther) wrote in [personal profile] skygiants 2020-05-10 01:08 am (UTC)

(Isn't there some running gag/fixit in the Holmes stories about Watson's wives?)

ACD wasn't great at keeping track of his timeline, so if you arrange the Holmes stories in the most plausible chronological order Watson starts out as Holmes's bachelor housemate, then gets married and moves out, then his wife dies and he moves back in, then after that point there's some more stories where Watson is married and living with his wife again without explanation.

A common patch in fandom is to assume that Watson married twice and ACD never got around to explaining who his second wife was and how they met, but I've also seen an essay arguing that his first wife never died (the story in question just says "a bereavement" and leaves the reader to assume who died from the fact that Watson is back living with Holmes, and the essay suggests that it was a temporary separation following the death of a child) -- and, on the other hand, there have been people who have amused themselves by going in the other direction and mining the stories for evidence of a third, fourth, etc. wife.

Post a comment in response:

This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting