22) “The Case of Lady Sannox” by Arthur Conan Doyle
Plot:
Those in the know understand that the married surgeon Douglas Stone and the equally married Lady Sannox were having an affair. That she announced she was taking the veil and would never be seen by the world again got tongues wagging.
Stone’s valet found the brilliant man one morning “with both legs jammed into one side of his breeches and his great brain about as valuable as a cap full of porridge.” He was thirty-nine, so the condition could not be the result of advanced age.
Stone had been a skilled surgeon but also something of a “sensualist.” Lord Sannox had once been something of an actor, but gave that up. He likes to garden.
One evening, when Stone was supposed to meet Lady Sannox, a man came to call and asked him to attend to his wife. The man presented a card naming himself Hamil Ali from Smyrna. As he described it, his wife fell on a poisoned “dagger of the Almohades” and cut her lip. She’s in a coma. The only way to save her life is to remove the damaged part of her lip.
At first, Stone demurred. He had a hot date. But Mr. Ali paid him one hundred pounds in gold. He could use the money to pay off some debts. He gathered some instruments and got in the cab with Mr. Ali.
Thoughts:
No supernatural elements appear in this story, but the horror is in the lengths people will go to exact revenge, a morality tale tinged with orientalism. The ending is a bit of a see-it-coming.
Although Conan Doyle writes in sparse prose, the story itself is nicely atmospheric, producing a sense of dread. It opens with a “notorious” married woman “taking the veil,” not because she’s seen the light or whatever, but for the result that “the world would see her no more.” And a brilliant surgeon’s mind has turned to mush. What happened?
Are the two events related? How are they related?
I imagine most readers will catch on at some point and will scream at Stone, “You damn fool!” But since we already know he’s going to end up with cereal for brains, we know he’s going to go ahead and do the stupid thing anyway.
The story is enjoyable, if brutal. As for recommendation—fair to middling.
This story can be read here:
This story can be listened to here: (25:55)
Bio: Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British author and physician. He is best known for creating the detective Sherlock Holmes, whose deductive reasoning solved many cases that would otherwise have remained unsolvable. Holmes remains one of the most popular detectives and has become the subject of many books, plays, and movies. Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887. Unlike Holmes, Doyle was a believer in the supernatural. He also wrote some fantasy, such as The Lost World.
Title: “The Case of Lady Sannox”
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
First published: The Idler, November 1893
Length: short story
