The empty house

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Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbachfall in Meiringen after the Moriarty crash

The empty house ( The Adventure of the Empty House ) is a Sherlock Holmes -Kurzgeschichte by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1903, which in Collier's Weekly was published and Sidney Paget was illustrated. In 1905 she appeared in the complete volume The Return of Sherlock Holmes ( The Return of Sherlock Holmes ).

action

The capture of Col. Sebastian Moran by Sherlock Holmes, illustration by Sidney Paget from The Empty House

The story begins with Dr. Watson tells of the strange murder in which the noble Ronald Adair fell victim: Adair was shot, but nobody heard a shot. Watson tours the street outside the crime scene, where he meets an old man with books. Back at his house, the old man visits him, who turns out to be Sherlock Holmes. Watson, who thought that Holmes was dead, is very surprised and asks for clarification on what really happened in Switzerland.

Holmes then tells him how he managed to escape Moriarty after the events of The Last Problem : Moriarty and Holmes fought, but Holmes was able to escape his grip, so that only Moriarty fell into the depths. Holmes then went into hiding, but was attacked by Sebastian Moran - an accomplice of Moriarty who was also at the Reichenbach Falls. To avoid Moran's attacks, Holmes did not return to London straight away, but only drove to the capital when he heard of a murder that appeared to have been committed by Moran.

Holmes and Watson then put Moran in jail by arranging a situation in which Moran tries to shoot Holmes. In truth, however, he is firing at a wax figure of Holmes. The weapon is a powerful, almost silent air rifle (a so-called wind rifle ), which Moran also used with Adair, so that he can also be arrested for this murder.

The briefly mentioned in this story "time out" after the fall of the Reichenbach Falls, which Sherlock Holmes under the code name Sigerson u. a. has spent in Tibet, is represented in the pastiche story of Jamyang Norbu in the novel Das Mandala des Dalai Lama , published in German in 2004 (original title: The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of the Great Detective in India and Tibet). Other authors devote themselves to this period in Sherlock Holmes Pastiches .

background

The story marks the return of Holmes and ties in with the events of The Final Problem . She tells how Holmes escaped death in the Reichenbach Falls in Meiringen and how Professor James Moriarty actually found death.

filming

In 1986, the story was broadcast by Granada Television as the first episode of the third season of the television series Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson made a film. There was a second film adaptation in 2014 under the title The Empty Coffin for the television series Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman .

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