“The view was sordid enough” — illustration to Arthur Conan Doyle's “Adventure of the Naval Treaty” by Sidney Paget

[Victorian Web Home —> Arthur Conan Doyle —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Sidney Paget —> Next]

The view was sordid enough

Sidney Paget

1892

Photographic reproduction of ink or watercolor on paper

Illustration for Arthur Conan Doyle's “Adventure of the Naval Treaty,” p. 314.

The lines to which this illustration refers (see below) reveal the social and political views of Holmes — and Doyle.

Formatting and text by George P. Landow.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage illustrated

Holmes was sunk in profound thought, and hardly opened his mouth until we had passed Clapham Junction.

"It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high, and allow you to look down upon the houses like this."

I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soon explained himself.

"Look at those big, isolated clumps of building rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-colored sea."

"The board-schools."

"Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wise, better England of the future.

Bibliography

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes. “Reproduced from the original publication in The Strand Magazine with the classic illustrations by Sidney Paget.” Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, [after 1954]. Internet Archive version of a copy donated by Friends of the San Francisco Library. Web.

Last modified 6 December 2013