ANNOTATED
By Steve Ahlquist
Book Cover
Cover Page
-About the first Basil of Baker Street
mystery, Adrian Conan Doyle said, "May
I offer you my heart-felt congratulations. It is a simply wonderful creation, and I can assure you that
my father would have reveled in every page."
- Adrian Malcolm Conan Doyle
(November 19, 1910 -June 3, 1970) was the youngest son of Arthur Conan Doyle,
and his father's literary executor.
Adrian Doyle was described as a racecar driver, big-game hunter, explorer,
and writer. He was born in Crowborough,
England and died in Geneva, Switzerland.
-In my opinion this endorsement from Adrian
Conan Doyle, son of Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, raises the
Basil of Baker Street series
of books above the status of pastiche to the level of approved canon. At the very least, such an endorsement opens the door to canonicity.
-Eve Titus first published Basil of
Baker Street in 1958. The
manuscripts must have come into her possession in the mid 1950's.
A street-shot of London, near 221B Baker Street.
The presence of a Black Cat,
in addition to being a symbol of bad luck
also an ancient enemy to the mouse race,
adds an atmosphere of threat and menace.
Chapter 1: Basil, the Super
Sleuth
Page 1:
-Basil: It is claimed that Eve Titus named Basil
for Basil Rathbone, who played Sherlock Holmes in 14 films (15 if you count his uncredited voiceover in The Great Mouse
Detective.) Dawson wrote the manuscripts sometime in the early
1900's, years before Titus was born.
Titus surely edited the manuscripts after they somehow fell into her
hands, shaping them into a form suitable for children after learning that
the publishing world in the mid 1950's was unwilling to foist a work about
a member of an intelligent race of mice on the human world.. If she changed the name of the main character of the piece,
naming him for the actor for marketing purposes, then Basil's true name has
been lost to human history. Mouse
manuscripts are extremely small and easy to lose.
Page 2:
-Dating the
events in the narrative is fairly simple.
Dawson states that the year in 1885.
The ice-y conditions indicate winter, and the walk through the cold,
the building of Holmestead and the moving of the forty-four families took
a little more than a month. So
Holmestead was populated just after Christmas, 1884.
About one month after the move the main events take place, over the
course of 48 hours, under a full moon.
This means Friday, January 30, 1885 and Saturday, January 31, 1885. February may be discounted as a date because
February 1885 was one of those rare months in which no full moon was present.
-London, 1885: Not much is known about Sherlock Holmes
from this time period. Watson only records four cases preceding this date. It's a date set before Watson's first
marriage, and Holmes was in the period of his life when he was establishing
his awesome reputation. It would
be a good time to learn from Holmes, as he would be perfecting and experimenting
with his technique during this period.
-"I
am Dr. David Q. Dawson, Basil's close friend and associate."
: A mouse, trained as a Doctor.
Throughout the series we will find indications, like this, that the
mouse society is every bit as complex and diverse as human society, if not
more so. The societal infrastructure necessary to make Doctors, Private Detectives, and Criminals is vast,
deep, and expansive.
-Also of note:
David Q. Dawson has three names, Basil only one.
No last name is given to Basil.
Other mice mentioned throughout the book have first names, the last
name being an indication of their occupation, such as Clarence the Crook. Still other mice, such as Mrs. Judson,
Basils housekeeper, or Professor Ratigan, Basil's arch-nemesis, have only
last names and titles. (Though later
ratigan's first name is given as Padraic.) Throughout mouse literature
we find the same sort of idiosyncratic naming patterns. This aspect of mouse society is taken
for granted in the Mouse World, just one of many differences between theirs
and ours.
-"Basil
was as famous a detective in our world as Sherlock Holmes in the world of
people." : The
mice consider their world to be apart from the human world. Humans don't often notice the intelligent
mice living among them. The two
worlds don't mix often. The affairs
on the two worlds are often parallel, as we'll see, and we'll try to figure
out how the two worlds relate to each other. In this book it's safe to say that mice
in some ways mimic human society, but also deal with special circumstances
that would try the ingenuity of the best of humanity.
-Baker Street,
Number 221B: One of the most
famous addresses in literature, and home to two of the world's greatest heroes,
Sherlock Holmes and Basil.
Page 3:
Basil
-Dr. John H.
Watson: The partner of Sherlock Holmes, and the
mouse counterpart to David Q. Dawson.
-"Mr.
Holmes was tall and thin, with sharp, piercing eyes.
And if ever a mouse may be said to resemble a man, then Basil was the
mouse!" : Basil is described
later as being tall for a mouse. He
intentionally copies the mannerisms and style of the Great Detective. His resemblence to Holmes (such as it
is) seems 10% accidental and 90% intentional.
-"He
even dressed like his hero, thanks to a clever little tailor who copied Sherlock's
wardrobe almost exactly."
: The clever little tailor is also a mouse,
and as the illustrations show, the detail and technology of the clothing is
on par with human technology of the same time period. The mouse society mimics our own, and
it seems that when great individuals within mouse society are needed, a mouse
will voluntarily emulate the human, and become the human's mouse counterpart.
This need not be a conscious decision on the part of the mice, it may
just be a naturalistic function of the "Mouse World."
Page
4:
Basil and Dr.
Dawson
-"... our crowded, dingy dwellings in the East End!":
There
is no indication given in the series as to how Dawson met Basil. They were a sleuthing team before moving
to 221B baker Street, but this was the "...strangest case of Basil's
career..."
-In The Great Mouse Detective when Dawson and Basil first
meet Basil is already a well-known detective working out of 221B Baker Street. The movie is out of continuity with the
books, but does expand upon Basil's continuity if viewed as an adaptation
and not as canon.
Page
5:
-Holmestead:
Basil conceives building a town for mice in the cellar of 221B Baker Street,
and names it for his hero (and unsuspecting host, Sherlock Holmes.) The town consists of the forty-four families
in Basil's community, presumably from the "...crowded, dingy...East End!"
Built in two weeks by mouse builders at "breakneck speed"
on an empty shelf near the front windows. Basil drew up the plans, which included
shops, a school, a library, a town hall, and other buildings. From idea to settlement took two weeks.
Mice came from all over London to view this model town.
-For
Basil, moving to the basement of 221B Baker St. made learning his skills at
Holmes feet so much easier, as instead of trekking across town, he could merely
go upstairs.
Page 6:
-"Mice
journeyed long distances to consult him, even French mice from across the
Channel." : This
is the first indication we have of mouse society existing outside London.
As we will learn as we work through the books, the mouse race has spread
as far and as wide as humanity.
-Basil has a
special connection to the mice of France, as will be revealed.
Chapter 2: Where Are the Twins?
Page 7:
-"Mr.
Holmes was telling Dr. Watson in detail exactly how he had solved a jewel
burglary that had completely baffled Scotland Yard."
: There's no case in the original Holmesian
Canon that fits this description.
Page 8:
-"... shorthand,
or perhaps I should say shortpaw."
: This highlights a basic syntactical problem for authors of intelligent mouse
fiction, be they human or mouse. Is
it a hand or a paw? There is some indication that intelligent mice (mus
sapiens) may have evolved hands
to match their evolved brains.
-"That
man will become a legend- his fame has spread to the far corners of the earth." : This is early in Holmes career he is still a relatively
unknown figure. The first Sherlock
Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, will not be published for two years, in 1887.
Basil is, of course, correct in his predictions as to Holmes legendary
status.
-Mouse World: Intelligent mice are for the most part fully aware of the existence of human beings, but human beings are seldom aware of the existence of intelligent mice. Mice tend to see the world as the humans perceive it and as they perceive it as two different worlds, though they are obviously the same world and interaction is not only possible, it's unavoidable. Mice too often are hurt in these interactions, and so tend to avoid them.
-Holmes violin:
In The Cardboard Box, Holmes
told Watson that he owned a violin made by the renowned violin maker, Antonio
Stradivarius, which he had purchased for some fifty-five shillings on Tottenham
Court Road. Its' actual value
may have been 500 guineas then, today it would be priceless. The violin is stored in a case in a corner at Baker Street.
Page 9:
Basil studying at the feet of his hero and mentor.
Page
10:
-Niccolo
Paganini (1782-1840) was a violinist and composer so talented that some thought
he had made a pact with the devil. His
music is known to be difficult to master.
-Felix
Mendelssohn (1809 1847): His best known work for the violin being Violin
Concerto in E minor, which made
extensive use of a solo violin.
-"Basil
took the E string..." : This is indicative of a peculiar predilection
of intelligent mice to make use of things that humans either lose or throwaway.
In this case Basil plans to use the E string as an E string on his
own violin. Oftentimes a mouse
will appropriate a piece of human technology and use it in a way other than
it was originally intended, such as using a thread spool as a stool or a half
a ping-pong ball as a motorcycle helmet.
I call such appropriations "Borrower Technology" after the
Mary Norton series The Borrowers in which tiny humans use cast off
and lost bits of human debris to construct objects of use.
-Mrs.
Judson: Mrs. Hudson is the name of Holmes housekeeper. This coincidence of these rhyming names
gives some credence to the idea that Eve Titus, or perhaps Dawson, changed
some or all the names in the narrative for some reason, perhaps to protect
the privacy of those involved. The
original audience for the work would have been the inhabitants of "Mouse
World," and perhaps some
information, meaningless to us humans, would be compromising there. Then again, perhaps Basil hired Mrs. Judson
precisely because her name reminded him of his hero's housekeeper's name.
-mousekeeper:
puns such as this are common in tales of intelligent mice.
Page 11:
-Proudfoot: Is this a Tolkien reference? Proudfoot
is the name of a hobbit family.
Mrs. Judson,
Basil and Dr. Dawson
Page 12:
-Mrs. Proudfoot: an attractive white mouse. Though there is no overt racism in the
texts I've examined concerning Mouse World, white mice are often said to be blessed with extra attractiveness
and beauty. Think of Miss Bianca
from The Rescuers or the French
mouse, Sophia from Ben and Me. Is
this something the highly imitative mice have also copied from us humans?
Page 13:
Mr. & Mrs.
Proudfoot, Dr. Dawson and Basil
-mousetrap: one of the many dangers of the Mouse World.
Humans set these traps for mice, not realizing they risk murdering
an intelligent species.
-"...smelling
salts from my little black bag..." :
Dawson's bag contains anything a human doctor from 1885 might have
in his bag. Mice follow closely the innovations of humans, and are quick
to imitate them.
Page 14:
-Mr. Proudfoot:
From the stoic way he holds himself, and his use of the term "sir"
I would guess Mr. Proudfoot to be retired military.
Another unfortunate thing mice have borrowed from humanity: war.
Page 15:
-Mr. Hume: The candy shop proprietor. The mouse names continue to be a mixture
of odd names like Proudfoot and Basil, and good solid English names like Dawson
and Hume.
Page 16:
-"Mystery
of the Missing Twins" : Basil
has a tendency to suggest titles to Dawson, and it's obvious that he does
so because he wishes Dawson to write stories about him the way Watson writes
about Holmes. Unlike Holmes, Basil seems to enjoy being
the object of such attention.
Chapter 3: The Telltale Footprints
Page 17:
-emergency exit:
Basil should remember the location of the emergency exit, he designed the
entire town, and the emergency exit would have been built only one month ago,
if the continuity of the story is correct.
This might be an indication that the date of the story has been changed,
and that these events took place as much as a year after the founding of Holmestead.
Page
18:
Basil and Dr.
Dawson search for clues.
Page 19:
-Unless the
timeline of the story is off, as suggested in the note to page 17, above,
then the dust disturbed by the kidnappers must have left over by the workmen
in the building of the door.
-The lesson
here, don't accept candy from strangers, is possibly inserted by Eve Titus
in an attempt to render Dawson's original writings more kid friendly. There is some evidence to suggest that the original manuscript,
only lightly edited by Titus, was deemed un-publishable. The concept was too ridiculous for adults
to accept.
-The idea that
the twins had an allowance indicates the existence of a sophisticated and
adaptable mouse economy, with all the attendant complications such an economy
entails: poverty, crime, and economic exploitation.
Page 20:
-French Chocolates:
it is believed that mice prefer chocolate to cheese, but most texts about
intelligent mice indicate that cheese is preferable.
-berrywood pipe:
it's possible that Basil doesn't smoke, there's no smoke coming from the pipe
in the picture on the next page, and the text only says, "Basil filled
his berrywood pipe..." not that he lit it.
The pipe pictured is a calabash pipe,
made famous by William Gillette's performance of Holmes on the stage.
-London Mouse
Daily: A newspaper. The existence of a mouse newspaper is predicated on the existence
of mouse reporters, editors, publishers, printing presses and a distribution
system.
Page 21:
-Holmes souvenirs:
Include scraps of paper Holmes had written on, old pen points he had used,
a torn blotter, a broken pocket lens, a whittling done by Holmes by Basil,
and other "odds and ends."
Pen points, or nibs, are used as weapons by Bernard the Mouse in the
Margery Sharpe Rescuers book Bernard Into Battle.
Basil in thought.
Page 22:
-"Dawson,
the most contemptible creatures on the face of this earth are kidnappers! They are indeed the lowest of the low!"
: This sentiment is held by Holmes about blackmailers. Some scholars think this is because Holmes,
or someone he loved, was once blackmailed and destroyed. Is it possible that Basil or someone he
loved was once a victim of kidnapping?
Chapter 4: A Day of Suspense
Page 23:
-Persian robe:
also copied from Holmes wardrobe by the "clever little tailor."
Page
24:
-whittling a
violin: Basil whittled a bust of his hero, Sherlock
Holmes, and is here whittling himself a violin. There is no indication that he is using
a knife, so I assume he is whittling with his teeth. This would be very mouse-like. Mice, even intelligent mice, use their teeth as knives.
-Mouse About
Town: a book. A
translation into mouse of Man About Town?
-Library: The
idea off public libraries most likely originated with a mouse named Amos. The idea was appropriated by Ben Franklin
in the Human World. See: Ben
and Me
Page
25:
-Basil: "I
studied the violin many years ago..."
: A rare statement about Basil's past.
-Basil attempts
the Paganini piece performed by Holmes the night before but butchers it. He is not yet the musician Holmes is.
Page 26:
-catgut: Basil
makes a cruel joke about the violin strings being made from catgut. The cat is one of the many enemies of Mouse World.
Basil plays
Paganini, badly.
Page 27:
Page 28:
Chapter 5: The Mysterious
Messenger
Page 29:
Page 30:
-old toy kitten
minus the tail: An odd toy for
a mouse.
Page 31:
Basil studies
the Mysterious Messenger.
Page 32:
-Basil here
does the Holmes' trick of deducing large quantities of information from a
smattering of clues.
-"...tiny
mermaid tattooed on his wrist." : a mouse tattoo would be difficult to
see under his fur.
-mermaid: Would a mouse mermaid be half female mouse
and half fish?
Page
33:
-nesting
place: Another curious mouse expression. Humans would not use such a term.
-"Elementary,
my dear Dawson." : The phrase
"Elementary, my dear Watson" does not occur in any of Doyle's Sherlock
Holmes stories, although Holmes does use the term "Elementary" in
The Crooked Man, and says "...my dear Watson..." in The
Cardboard Box. The first known use of the term is
in the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes (the first Holmes film with sound.)
Page 34:
Chapter 6: The Kidnappers'
Note
Page 35:
Typed on a
mouse-scale typewriter.
Page 36:
Page 37:
-low-power microscope:
more imitated mouse technology.
Page 38:
Basil at his
laboratory, with Dr. Dawson.
Page 39:
-Whitehaven:
A human city in the Northwest of England.
-Workington:
A human city in the Northwest of England.
-Maryport: A
human city in the Northwest of England.
-people's towns
: Basil makes a distinction here between
Human cities and Mouse cities. Though
Basil and Dawson live in the human city of London, maintaining a parallel,
but mostly unseen existence there, many mice have formed mouse scaled cities,
where no humans live. Many of
the cities and towns exist near bigger cities, such as Mousecliffe-on-Sea,
(one mile south of Workington, England,) and the town in which Anatole the
Mouse lives, just outside Paris, France.
-Mouse's
Atlas : This is a mouse-centric atlas describing the world
of mouse cities and towns in mouse terms.
-Mousecliffe-on-Sea
: A mouse city, one mile south of Workington, England. It has a fine harbor.
Its' population is 958 in the winter, double that in summer.
Page
40:
Basil in disguise as a sea captain.
Page 41:
-Like Holmes, Basil is a master of disguise.
-sailor's hornpipe:
A dance requiring a small space and no partner, so it's good for shipboard
use.
-railroad timetable: though the timetable is mouse-scaled,
the train is a human scale affair. One
limitation of mouse society is its dependence on humanity for long range travel.
Page 42:
Dr. Dawson
as the one-eyed first mate.
-Euston Station:
Euston Station was designed by Philip Hardwick and built in 1838 for the London
& Birmingham Railway. Built
at Euston Grove, the station was for many years the only northbound railway
exit from London. Designed in the classical style, the most notable feature
is the massive Doric Arch entrance (demolished in 1962). (The illustration
is by an unknown artist.)
Euston
Station
Chapter 7: We Travel in Disguise
Page 43:
-In the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century, London was a very dirty city as a
result of heavy industry and millions of coal fires. It was then famous for
its fogs, which were "as thick as pea-soup." They were so thick
and polluted that visibility would drop to 15 meters (50 ft) or less. As a
result, the government was forced to try and clean up the city and coal
fires were banned in the 1950s. This dramatically reduced the number of fogs
and pea-soupers are now a thing of the past!
-hansom cab:
A common mode of transportation in the Holmes stories, Basil and Dawson are
forced to stowaway.
Page 44:
-"...hurrying
humans, whose feet we took care to avoid." : Another danger of being
a mouse.
-"Our small
size served us well. Not a soul noticed us..." : A pair of mice dressed
as sailors run through a crowded train station and no one notices.
Page 45:
Stowing aboard
a hansom cab.
Page 46:
On the path
to Mousecliffe-on-Sea.
Page 47:
-Basil has been
undercover as a sailor before, and learned some sailor's lingo during his
"waterfront jaunts."
Page
48:
-pocket compass: more mouse/human tech.
-owl:
Dawson describes owls as "our age-old enemies."
-Greymouse
Inn : Greymouse is one of the oldest, most distinguished and common family
names for mice in England.
Page 49:
Captain Baker
and Mr. Street sign in at the Greymouse Inn.
Page 50:
-Basil's puckish
humor manifests itself here as he and Dawson sign in under the aliases Baker
and Street.
-Basil demonstrates
a Holmes-like ability to forestall sleep while on the case.
Chapter 8: Basil Makes Some
Deductions
Page 51:
Page
52:
-Basil
pretends to be captain of the ship Pied Piper, an ironic name for a
ship that prevents the mice from drowning.
-Basil
tells tales of fighting unfriendly natives on a South Sea isle, and of fighting
a tribe of wild Indians in New York City.
Page 53:
-Eight children: Mice tend to have large families. Amos, the mouse from Ben and Me, has twenty-five siblings. Anatole has eight children, four boys,
four girls.
-Victoria:
a yacht anchored in the harbor of Mousecliffe-on-Sea,
and owned by the Terrible Three.
Page 54:
-The Flying
Squirrel: a dockside restaurant often visited by the Terrible Three.
-cheese and chips: a traditional English mouse meal
Page
55:
The Terrible
Three
Page 56:
Page 57:
-Sam Stilton:
Could he be the grandfather of mouse adventurer Geronimo Stilton? Many mice are also named for cheeses. Sam Stilton is the proprietor of the grocer's
shop in Mousecliffe-on-sea.
Page 58:
Chapter 9: The Talkative
Shopkeeper
Page 59:
-mousewife: housewife-more mouse punnery.
Page 60:
-Clarence the
Crook: Ringleader of the Anti-Detective League.
This was an early Basil case. They would rob every detective they caught
out alone after dark. Basil joined
the league in disguise and gathered the evidence needed to jail the gang. Clarence is out of jail as of this adventure.
-Mouseland Yard:
The Mouse World equivalent of Scotland Yard.
-Inspector Vole:
A Mouseland Yard policeman who has consulted with Basil in the past. A vole is a kind of mouse.
Wanted: Clarence
the Crook!
Page 61:
-Mrs. Boswell: a Mousecliffe-on-Sea mousewife.
-Australia:
that the grocer doesn't see Australia as an unusual destination indicates
that mice navigate the oceans in mouse-scale ships, and on the sea, at least,
are the equals of humans.
Page 62:
-"You can
always tell a city mouse from a country mouse." : Basil is referring
to the Aesop fable, but he's also making a useful demarcation here.
City mice tend to be more advanced, whether they live in mouse or human
cities. Mice in the country,
in contrast, tend to use less technology, wear less clothing, and are closer
to their non-intelligent mouse cousins.
Sam Stilton,
proprietor.
Page
63:
Page 64:
Page 65:
Sam Stilton,
proprietor.
Page 66:
Page
67:
Harry Hawkins.
Page 68:
-Police Constable
Clewes: He's read about every one of Basil's cases.
Yet this is the first case Dawson saw fit to write up.
Perhaps Clewes is referring to newspapers and police reports.
-Basil is so
famous that his hand nearly cramps from signing autographs.
Page 69:
Page 70:
Chapter 10: We Steal Aboard
the Yacht
Page 71:
-"Curiosity
killed a cat...": This cautionary expression sounds like the moral of
some fable or folktale, but any such origin for it has been lost.
The first recorded use was in O. Henry's Schools and Schools (1909).
-catnap: it
apparently amuses the mice of Victorian London to make cat-centered jokes
and euphemisms.
Page 72:
Rowing to the Victoria.
Page 73:
Page 74:
-revolver: Dawson packs a handgun, mouse-scaled of
course.
-"...moon
is made of green cheese." : An old saying that may be sarcasm, the moon
is obviously not made of green cheese.
In John Heywood's Proverbes (1546):
"The moon is made of a greene cheese," greene meaning new, unaged. One can find similar quotes in the works of Francois
Rabelais and Thomas More. "You may as soon persuade some Country Peasants,
that the Moon is made of Green Cheese (as we say) as that 'tis bigger than
his Cart-wheel." (Wilkins, New World 1 , 1638) Here Wilkins says it would be as hard to
prove an untruth to an uneducated peasant as it would be to prove a non-self-evident
truth.
Page 75:
The typewriter!
Page 76:
Page 77: