This is a word that I like to say, but I didn’t know the exact definition ’til I looked it up for this post. I found it in one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It is used in the beginning of Part Two, where Dr Watson reveals the history of the events that lead to a murder almost twenty years later. The murder which Sherlock Holmes investigates, and Dr Watson titles The Valley of Fear.
Gregarious – fond of the company of others
Usage: “Anyone could pick him at once as gregarious in his habits and communicative in his nature, with a quick wit and a ready smile.”
I finished The Valley of Fear this week. This was the final, full-length Sherlock Holmes novel that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. It was published in 1914, but it is set around 1895. Doyle followed the same plot pattern that he did for his first novel, A Study in Scarlet: there are two parts and a kind of epilogue at the end.
The Valley of Fear begins with Holmes and Watson investigating the brutal and senseless murder of a country squire, Mr Douglas. The man had an Irish upbringing, but he’d lived for many years in America. Fives years before the murder, Mr Douglas moved to England, married, and settled into a quiet country house called Birlstone Manor.
The Valley of Fear is a kind of locked-door mystery, because Birlston Manor is situated within a moat with a drawbridge. When the bridge is raised, no one can enter or leave the house. Or, that is what they thought until the murder.
Mr Douglas was found shot to death in his study by his friend and houseguest Mr Barker. Barker called for help, and Mrs Douglas and the butler came running from their rooms. Barker would not allow the lady to enter and sent the butler for the police. The room was not touched by anyone else. The police sent word to Scotland Yard to send a detective, who asked Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson to join the investigation.
When Holmes arrived, he studied the room where the murder took place and questioned the people in the house. Though their stories seemed true and conclusive at the beginning, they were quickly disproved by Holmes. He was not sure at first what the answer to the mystery was, but he could tell at least that Mrs Douglas and Mr Barker were not telling the whole truth. According to Holmes, the case rested on the fact that there was only one dumb-bell in the room where the murder happened. Where was the other?
I was intrigued! I think I’ve seen this story on television, but I couldn’t remember what the final answer was. I tried to read as quickly as I could because I wanted to see how it ended. Just so you know, The Valley of Fear has a great plot twist at the end of the first part. And I’m going to do my best not to give it away.
In part two, Doyle, as Dr Watson, relays events that happened twenty years earlier – events which culminated in the murder at Birlstone Manor. The history follows a young man named Jack McMurdo who takes up residence in a coal mining town in Vermissa Valley. He joins the lodge in town and soon finds out that the members of the lodge are a hardened criminal gang who extend their hand of judgment and revenge on the people in the valley. The lodge would blackmail the local people and require coal companies to pay them large sums of money to keep them from destroying mines. Any time the law would come after them for a crime, the members of the lodge would band together to provide alibis and to intimidate judges and juries.
McMurdo proved himself to be as black-hearted as the rest of the gang, but he also fell in love with a lady named Ettie. He assured her that he would never hurt her or her family. There was no way McMurdo and Ettie could continue to live in that Valley of Fear, so he promised her that they would leave the valley before a year was over. Leaving the valley and the lodge could be dangerous, as the lodge would see it as desertion, so McMurdo told Ettie to be ready to drop everything and leave with him as soon as he gave the signal.
Soon, the lodge was disturbed by news that a Pinkerton detective was coming to the Valley to shut them down. They plotted to kill him, and McMurdo offered his rooms as the place where they could do it. Fortunately, the Pinkerton detective got away before he was harmed, but not before several of the lodge were arrested on charges that they could not fight in court. The detective travelled from Chicago to California, changed his name, married his sweetheart, but no matter where he was, he was never safe. The leaders of the lodge had sworn to have revenge on him. When his wife died, he left America for good. Changing his name to Douglas, he sailed across the ocean to England and then took up residence in Birlstone Manor.
I’m afraid my summary of The Valley of Fear doesn’t do the book justice, but I can’t say too much more or I’ll give the story away. I really don’t want to do that! Instead, I want to encourage you to find this novel and read it for yourself. I think you will enjoy it. Although it’s not as gripping as The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear has a great plot, a curious mystery, and as I mentioned before, several plot twists.
One final word: I wanted to share a chuckle that I got when I started the next short story in The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I was reading “Wisteria Lodge”, and Holmes said something about Dr Watson’s style of writing. It’s really amusing because “Wisteria Lodge” was written before The Valley of Fear. I wonder if Doyle was hinting at his next novel, or if he was remembering A Study in Scarlet.
“Come, come, sir,” said Holmes, laughing. “You are like my friend, Dr Watson, who has a bad habit of telling his stories wrong end foremost.”
Sherlock Holmes, “Wisteria Lodge”, The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, circa 1908
Here is a strange word that I have had trouble rolling over my tongue since the moment I saw it. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it before. I could guess the meaning by the context, however, but I wanted to share the word with you too, so I looked it up.
Ululation – to howl, hoot, or wail; to lament loudly and shrilly (for those who are curious, it is pronounced ul – ya – lay – shun)
Usage: “It was badly stage-managed, for even the rawest investigators must be struck by the absence of the usual feminine ululation.”
Here is a curious word from The Vally of Fear in The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant, though I knew it had to be a part of a room based on the context. Now that I’ve looked it up, it’s no wonder that is where Holmes chose to sit. It sounds quite cozy, actually.
Inglenook – a space on either side of a large fireplace
Usage: “Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case, rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a considered statement.”
This is an interesting word that Dr Watson uses to describe the country police sergeant who aids in solving the mystery of The Vally of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve never heard this word, and from the context, I thought it meant something different, so I’m glad I looked it up.
Bucolic – pertaining to or suggesting an idyllic rural life
Usage: “But, I say,” remarked the police sergeant, whose slow, bucolic common sense was still pondering the open window.
Here is an interesting word from The Valley of Fear, in The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes uses this word when he describes Professor Moriarty to Scotland Yard Detective MacDonald. Moriarty is the genius behind London’s underworld, and Holmes knows this, but he cannot prove it in court, so he must wait for the professor to make a mistake.
Exigous – scanty, meager, small
Usage: “Of course I have other reasons for thinking [Moriarty’s wealth was obtained illegally] – dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking.”
Here is a word from The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. When I looked it up the first time, it really puzzled me, so I had to find another dictionary. Now I fully understand.
Coruscation – according to Merriam-Webster, there are two definitions. 1. Glitter or sparkle. 2. A flash of wit. I am sure Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was using the second definition.
Usage: Holmes and Watson are trying to decipher a coded message.
“Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning… Have we reached the limits of what reason can supply?”
“I fear that we have.”
“Surely you do yourself an injustice. One more coruscation, my dear Watson. Yet another brain-wave.”
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
Here is an interesting word that Sherlock Holmes used to describe Dr Watson in The Valley of Fear, one of the The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I wasn’t fully able to grasp the meaning of the word by the context, so I had to look it up. Now I find the context that much more enlightening and certainly more humorous.
Pawky – having a mocking or cynical sense of humor
Usage: Holmes says to Watson, “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humor, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself.”
Here is a word that sounds as gross as its definition. It is one of the words Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used to describe the Grimpen Mire in The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Watson and Holmes chase the villain into the mire on a dark and foggy night. It was very dangerous for them all.
Miasmatic – a vapor from decaying organic matter
Usage: “Rank weeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odor of decay and a heavy miasmatic vapor onto our faces, while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet.”
“One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects – if, indeed, one may call it a defect – was that he was exceedingly loth to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfillment. Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him. Partly also from his professional caution, which urged him never to take any chances. The result, however, was very trying for those who were acting as his agents and assistants.”
Dr Watson, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1902