sketchbook: charles augustus milverton part 3

I’m going on book tour this June to promote THE DEEP DARK! Here’s my schedule, come say hi!

And here’s the third and final part of this Holmes story, CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON. I took this totally off-book, because when I first read this story this alternative telling popped into my head and I needed to explore it. Some thoughts on my changes at the end of the story!

and, somewhat later…

thoughts:

MILVERTON IS SUCH A WEIRD STORY. I believe it's the only case in canon where we don't meet the supposed client, Lady Eva, or even read an overly descriptive letter from them. That was what originally made me think there was more going on - that, and Holmes's "intensity of feeling" when he speaks about Milverton.

The 1885 Labouchere amendment, which made it much easier to prosecute men for having queer sex, was called "the Blackmailer's Law". Although queer sex was illegal before the passage of the law, two people needed to actually be caught in the act. After 1885, the standard for evidence got much looser - including suggestive letters.

Learning about that in conjunction with reading Milverton put this idea in my head - that Holmes himself is Milverton's target, rather than a mysterious unmet woman. I've been avoiding reading fanfiction or watching any other adaptations of this story because I knew I had a specific way I wanted to do it, but I'm sure I’m far from the first one to draw this connection!

The second WEIRD part of this story is the remarkable coincidence that, on the same night Watson and Holmes burgle Milverton's house and hide behind the curtains, a second mysterious woman appears and shoots him. "No interference upon our part could have saved the man from his fate". With uncharacteristic passivity, they watch a man die and a murderer escape. Holmes has certainly let criminals go before, but usually he talks to them first!

As I was digging into the story, certain descriptors for this mysterious avenger stood out to me. She is described as tall, dark, and lithe. She has "a face with a curved nose, strong, dark eyebrows shading hard, glittering eyes, and a straight, thin-lipped mouth set in a dangerous smile". Does that sound like anyone else we know?

I truly believe that the enduring power of the Sherlock Holmes canon lies in the fact that Doyle did not write these stories with particular care. There are holes, inconsistencies, and contradictions. At the same time, the charismatic center of the story is (while chastising Watson for not recording his adventures accurately) telling the reader to pay attention to trifles. To look closer, to ask questions, to consider every angle, no matter how outlandish. The combination of these two factors results in: a series of facts that do not *quite* hang together, and authorial encouragement to deduce the true story.

Finally, something that fascinates me about the Victorian era is that it marked the birth of many ideologies and power systems that, in the 2020s, we are now living through the consequences of. Notably, capitalism. Milverton, who insists he is only doing business, and therefore is not morally responsible for the lives he ruins, struck me as a very modern villain. "How could one compare the ruffian, who in hot blood bludgeons his mate, with this man, who methodically and at his leisure tortures the soul and wrings the nerves in order to add to his already swollen money-bags?"

If only we could hit more men like that with chairs.