Reviews

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box by Arthur Conan Doyle

Only show reviews with written explanations

sean67's review against another edition

2.0

Well this one did not excite me too much, another Holmes story and well it was what it was. Nothing much to get excited about here.

lisaarnsdorf's review against another edition

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3.0

My favorite things about this story:

1. Sherlock Holmes declares himself an expert in human ears and can identify blood relations based on the shape of their ears

2. a piece of evidence given against the murder is that he is from Northern Ireland. A truly damning piece of evidence!

kiess_nyx's review against another edition

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4.0

Introduction.

Hello and welcome to my arrogant abode.

I will be reading my favorite Sherlock Holmes story today. So you got it, it is a life review post.

Which of the stories am I talking about?

The Adventure of the Cardboard box.

I remember reading this as a wee little twelve-year-old and distinctly remember loving it.

I can’t remember it much, I just remember a weird case of missing ears.

In the end, nostalgia got the better of me and I decided to re-read it.

Review.

We are starting the book with Watson singing praises of Sherlock and whining about how he can’t stop recording Sherlock’s memoirs as stories.

Then he complains it is super hot and mentions that he should be on holiday but since he is broke that ain’t happening.

Sherlock is busy, so Watson reads a newspaper and then Sherlock shows his new ability to read minds.

Actually, he just mentions a really long and boring lecture about how you can read a person’s mind by their features.

Sad, I Wanted a Professor X.

I have tried this, maybe I am just a simpleton, but this does not work. I mean I usually choose all expressions on my face, so I can hide my inner pain.

Your theory is faulty Sherlock.

Then Watson admits to being surprised by Sherlock for what I swear is the hundredth time.

Sherlock read the paper out to Watson. It is about a woman just checking her post and opening a box of freshly severed ears.

I am so sorry, I can’t stop laughing. I know it is gruesome, but can you imagine it?

Imagine it will Call Me Maybe

Hey, I just met you and this is crazy.

but here is my ear,

so freak out maybe.

Anyhow the public suspects three youths who used to live with her until she kicked them out.

The police suspect those kids and I read this statement.

In the meantime, the matter is being actively investigated, Mr. Lestrade, one of the very smartest of our detective officers, being in charge of the case.”

With what I remember, Lestrade could not even catch a cold talk less of a criminal.

If Lestrade is their best, I am scared to meet the worst.

Long story short Lestrade turns out incompetent (as always) and asks Sherlock to help him.

Sherlock then asks if Watson wants to come along and Watson says yes.

I wonder why Sherlock even bothers asking Watson. He is always gonna say yes.

They go to Miss Cushing’s (receiver of the ears) house and Miss Cushing is upset cause her name is everywhere and she, according to her, says she is a very private woman.

Look on the bright side, at least someone knows you exist.

Tells them to check the outhouse for the ears.

What is an outhouse? Let me check on google.

Hmm. It seems like it is a big storage room.

Sherlock does a Sherlock scan and sees the thread used to tie the parcel is tarred. Whatever that means.

Then he remarks the knot is expertly done.

My deduction: This is in some way connected to a sailor because everyone knows sailors tie great knots into excellent knots.

Sherlock debunks the medical students sent it into theory with the fact that the ears should have preservative fluid if that was the case.

He remarks that the ears are not of a pair. Then says that infamous line :

I repeat that there is no practical joke here, but that we are investigating a serious crime.”

Watson also feels a thrill of excitement after that statement.

I think it would have been cool to say that during 1800, now I just cringe.

We learn that the ears are both male and female.

My Deduction 2: Maybe a girl liked a sailor, but she cheated on him and he butchered her.

If Sherlock were real, he would probably kill me for this blasphemy.

He goes to miss Cushing and asks about her two sisters.

She mentions her younger sister who is married to an army guy or something and also mentions that he is a certified drinker called Jim.

Then mentions her other meddlesome (Thus ain’t Scooby-Doo, Arthur) and annoying sister Sarah, who formerly used to live with her.

She says Sarah used to live with Mary and her husband but had a quarrel and now hates Jim.

Deduction 3: Sarah used to have some relationship with Jim and she left him and he murdered her sister and sent her to the ears for vengeance. Though that does not explain the second ear.

Sherlock goes to visit Sarah and learns she has brain fever and was currently being quarantined.

You’ll be fine Sarah, most YA female protagonists have brain fever they turn out fine. I mean, look at Bella Swan.

Sherlock sends a letter to Lestrade stating he has solved the mystery.

He formulates that the package was probably meant for Sarah and a mistake must have been made because Sarah and her sister used to live together.

Lestrade goes to find Jim and sends a letter to Sherlock with the conclusion to the story.

Lestrade takes his police dudes to arrest Jim, and he offers no resistance as he seems to be broken.

So Jim talks about how he married Mary and was happy, how he put aside drinking for her.

What a second Jim, you set aside drinking for her not your own good; you are probably going to do it again.

Going forward, they brought Sarah Mary’s sister into the family, and everything was so perfect.

It turns out Sarah has feelings for Jim, her sister’s husband.

That is disgusting.

One day Sarah and Jim were alone at home(recipe for disaster) and Jim starts talking about Mary and Sarah gets jealous.

“Can’t you be happy for five minutes without Mary, Jim?” says she. “It’s a bad compliment to me that you can’t be contented with my society for so short a time.”

Uhm, woman, she is his wife; he is allowed to think about her. If you had to arrest someone for showing affection, I wonder how many times I would have to bail my parents.

Then she makes her feelings known to Jim, and he rejects her and says.

Then she stood by my side in silence for a bit, and then put up her hand and patted me on the shoulder. “Steady old Jim!” said she, and with a kind o’ mocking laugh, she ran out of the room.

Then Sarah becomes a complete alpha *censored* And starts poisoning Mary’s mind about Jim cause she is weak, feather-headed, and most likely daft (in my opinion)

She starts behaving like that annoying wife, always asking where you been, always checking your correspondence and then the worst of them of nagging.

Anyhow Jim gets messed up by all this and starts to drink again and gives Mary an excuse to hate him.

Well done Jim, way to give your enemy ammunition.

Later on one of Sarah’s friends Alec Fairbairn starts visiting a lot, and he is everything Jim isn’t, experienced, nice and charming.
Jim is too daft to see that something else is going on.

Then one day he gets home early and Mary opens the door, smiling radiantly until she sees it is Jim.

That was enough for me. There was no one but Alec Fairbairn whose step she could have mistaken for mine.

You sure about that?

He apparently has the devil’s light in his eyes (his words not mine) because Mary begs him not to do anything brash

He shouts at Sarah that Alec should never darken his doorstep again or

“You can do what you like,” says I, “but if Fairbairn shows his face here again I’ll send you one of his ears for a keepsake.”

Well, that solves the mystery, but let’s go on.

Sarah moves out of the house to move to a house next to sailors and Sarah would invite Mary and Alec for tea together whenever Jim is not home.

Sarah, don’t you think you are going a little too far? She clearly has not watched Disney channel. Those are rejections and they don’t even warrant what you are doing.

Jim then figures out and goes to them, but Alec sneaks out through the back and Jim threatens to kill her if he sees her with Alec again.

That is harsh Jim, and even I am appalled along with Mary who finally decides to hate Jim.

Then Sarah decides she has been a *censored* long enough and leaves to live with Miss Cushing and everything is fairly ok.

So Jim comes early from work and deludes himself that Mary will be happy to see him and as he is going home, he sees Mary and Alec laughing, blushing and smiling and he loses it.

He takes a giant oak stick and follows them while they go on a cruise on the ocean with them still smiling and blushing until they see him.

“My God, shall I ever forget their faces when they saw who was in the boat that was closing in upon them?”

I hear Lethe, the river of forgetfulness is open this time of year.

She screamed out. He swore like a madman and jabbed at me with an oar, for he must have seen death in my eyes. I got past it and got one in with my stick that crushed his head like an egg.

I remember reading the statement during my first read with my brother and how we were cackling about how it was possible to at how some ones head could be cracked like an egg.

He wants to spare Mary, but she does the cry over your dead lover thing and he kills her and makes it seem like a shipwreck.

Then he sends the package to Sarah, and that is why she is sick.

So it was Jim all along.

Let’s sing it with Agatha all along.

Who has been messing up everything?

It's been Jim all along,

Who has been severing people’s ears,

It’s been Jim all along,

He is not that insidious,

Kinda dumb Really,

You bet we actually noticed.

And the pity, pity, pity IS,

It's too late to redeem yourself.

Now that you have murdered them,

Thanks to Sarah, thanks to Sarah,

Ugly Sarah,

Oh, and he killed Mary too.

*Insert Evil Cackling*

Jim begs them to hang him cause he can’t live with the guilt.

Then Sherlock finishes with this.

“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”

What the fudge is that supposed to mean.

Conclusion.

So that is it.

Now, I did not enjoy it as much as the first time but I will admit it was a fun read.

I usually feel that the 19th century was more dignified than this.

That even the slightest sight of a woman's legs would cause panic but here we have violence, cheating, adultery or is it fornication.

I like how the story made me think a lot.

Like who is really at fault for all this soap opera?

Sarah got a big part in everything

Mary should have trusted her husband.

Alec should have looked for some other woman who was not married to flirt with.

Jim should have chilled.

Jim honestly had a right to be angry, but murder is not the first thing one should think of.

Actually, it is what I would think of but I would not actually do it.

It was a fun read for me; I hope you like it.

My deductions were somehow right. I guess I'm smarter than my twelve-year-old self.

Like, follow, share as usual.

Lokiess Out.