"The Red-Headed League" is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in the Strand in August 1891, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. Conan Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories. It is also the second of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892.
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Synopsis
The story, set in 1890, follows Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they attempt to solve the singular puzzle provided by a London pawnbroker, Jabez Wilson, who is being paid very very large sums of money for simply coming to an office and copying the Encyclopædia Britannica. There is a far more serious underlying motive, though. It seems obvious to Holmes that the point in having Jabez Wilson spend several hours each day away from his pawnshop performing such a pointless task is simply to keep him out of the way while some nefarious deed is perpetrated back at the shop. Since Wilson is a widower and the only female member of his household is a fourteen-year old servant girl, Holmes rules out the possibility that the motive for keeping Wilson away is "a mere vulgar intrigue". The high pay given Jabez Wilson for his meaningless task suggests that it may involve quite a bit of money. After a visit to the pawnshop and the surrounding neighbourhood, Holmes deduces exactly what the pawnbroker's assistant is up to, and catches him red-handed. John Clay, also known as Spaulding throughout the story, is the one who is in charge of the robbery. Signs of this are as follows: Spaulding is accepting only half of his normal wage, he takes photos and develops them in the cellar (where he is actually digging a tunnel from the cellar of the pawnshop to the vault of the bank next door), Spaulding points out the advertisement for the Red-Headed League, and Wilson applies (and gets it, because Spaulding is the one who created the League), the Red-Headed League pays out a ridiculous sum of money for the work (though Clay will get an even greater sum of money through the robbery), and before the robbery, the League suddenly dissolves. The wear and tear on Clay's knees also indicates that he was digging or was underground. Holmes suspects that the robbery will take place on Saturday night for the following reasons: it is when the dissolution of the Red-Headed League is almost complete, the banks are closed on nights and Sundays; so that would give Clay the most time to escape (i.e., before his robbery is noticed). Holmes alerts the police and the bank to await the burglars' entrance into the vault and arrest them on the spot.
Analysis
It has been noted that the dates given in the story do not match the characters' descriptions of time passing. In this story, Holmes implies to Jabez Wilson that he has benefitted from copying out all the A articles of the Encyclopaedia, and so acquiring some minute knowledge of every subject beginning with "A". This opinion seems to contradict Holmes' assertion to Watson in A Study in Scarlet that the broad acquisition of general knowledge is actually detrimental (hence his resolution to forget the Copernican theory which Watson has made him aware of), although this is consistent with the changes made to Holmes' character.
Other media
In the television adaptation starring Jeremy Brett, the scheme was masterminded by Professor Moriarty. In the Sherlock Holmes parody Without a Clue, starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley, Clay and Archie are shown breaking into the Royal Gallery. In early editions of Arthur Conan Doyle's autobiography, Memories and Adventures, he mentions an organisation called "The Glove" as an inspiration for The Red-Headed League. In later volumes this reference has been removed.
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