ANNOTATED
By Steve Ahlquist
Book Cover
Cover Page
-Basil and the Pygmy Cats was
first published in 1971. It has
been seven years since the last book, Basil and the Lost Colony.
-Eve Titus dedicated the first book in the series, Basil
of Baker Street, to Adrian M. Conan
Doyle as well. He was the youngest
son of Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the original Sherlock Holmes novels.
-The Sherlock Holmes Museum
was created by Adrian Conan Doyle in the castle at Lucens, Switzerland in the
early 1960s. After Adrianıs death,
the contents were placed in the safekeeping of an Arthur Conan Doyle Foundation
that he had created. But the
castle passed into private hands and was closed to the public.
Now,
thanks to the local authorities, a building, known as the Red House, has been
made available, and a wealth of Conan Doyle memorabilia is once again on
show. The principle difference
between the Lucens museum and other Sherlock Holmes museums dotted around the
world is it concentrates as much on the writer as on the fictional sleuth.
The Lucens museum,
complete with a resident cat called Watson, is divided into two rooms. The first is dedicated to Conan Doyle
the writer; the second is a recreation of Holmesıs drawing room at 221B Baker
Street. Many such rooms have been
recreated around the world, at Meiringen and on Baker Street itself, for
instance. But the one at Lucens claims to be the most authentic.
Not only was it
pieced together by Conan Doyleıs son, Adrian, it was also based on the earliest
known recreation of that famous room, built for the 1951 Festival of
Britain. The windows, fireplace
and walls of the sitting room in the Lucens museum are the very same ones that
were used in that exhibition, while the furniture and fittings belonged to
Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
The museum boasts
that, ³everything in the room, except the tea and butter, is the genuine
article.² There on the table lies
Dr. Watsonıs stethoscope. There is
Holmesıs array of forensic equipment and chemicals, his violin, bullets taken
from a murder victim and a police gazette discussing the crimes of Jack the
Ripper. The sitting room is
exactly as Adrian Conan Doyle created it in the castle.
Equally fascinating
is the other room, which contains a wealth of family heirlooms and souvenirs,
which give an insight into the writer, his life and his at times troubled
relationship with his most famous creation. Here, the visitor can find first editions of all but two of
the Sherlock Holmes novels, as well as a number of rare books about the great
detective and biographies of Conan Doyle, many rarer than the first editions of
the novels themselves. The more fragile manuscripts belonging to the foundation
are kept in the archives of Lausanne University.
It was Adrian Conan
Doyleıs purpose to keep the spirit of the 1951 exhibition, which also
concentrated on his fatherıs work. You donıt really see that in the other
museums.
Among the
curiosities, one finds a small viper preserved in aspic, which reminds us of
the story, The Speckled Band. There is a deerstalker hat owned by the
illustrator Sidney Paget, whose definitive drawings of Holmes were based on his
own brother, Walter. Alongside are
several of Pagetıs illustrations, including Holmes wrestling with Moriarty at
the Reichenbach Falls.
The room is
dominated by a bust of Conan Doyle, which sits on a large wooden table that had
been in the family for generations.
Around the table are silver nameplates bearing the names of famous
people who dined at it: Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Walter Scott.
There are also
letters written and received by Conan Doyle, which demonstrate his ambivalent
attitude towards the character who brought him fame. In one letter, he tells his mother that he is ³weary of his
name,² and that Holmes ³takes my mind from better things.² The correspondence reveals how Conan
Doyle made increasingly outrageous financial requests of The Strand, which
serialised the Holmes stories, in the hope that it would refuse his demands.
But the magazine was only too happy to comply.
Approaching the
Island of Kataarh
The Mystery of the Pygmy Cats
Chapter One: The
Clue of the Golden Goblet
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-³The year is 1894.² : The
second book of the series, Basil and the Lost Colony, ends with Basil being visited by Cyril the
Stoolpigeon. Cyril tells Basil
that Ratigan sailed for the kingdom of Bengistan to make trouble for the
Maharajah. Basil decides that they
must immediately set sail for Bengistan to deal with Ratigan. This event is
said to occur in 1891.
When
this book opens, three years have passed.
We learn that Basil has been informed of Ratiganıs deeds and is
immediately setting off to confront him.
So there is a three year difference to reconcile. In fact, three years have passed. It would take some time for Ratigan to
plan and execute a plot to take over Bengistan, and it would take some time for
Basil to analyze the situation, and put his counter-revolutionary plans into
action.
Dawson,
writing at a much later period, undoubtedly sought to compress the time between
the adventures, and messed up the timing.
This would give Basil time to participate in the cases Dawson alludes to
later in this chapter.
Dawson at 221B
Baker Street.
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3
-³Did Mr. Holmes ever see his
small admirer, hidden in the corner?
I believe he did, and that it pleased him to pass his methods on to a
mouse.² : Dawson believes that at some point Holmes became aware of the existence
of intelligent mice. Itıs hard to
see how such an observant man could miss them.
-In Basil of Baker Street Basil states that the average mouse is about 4.5
inches tall or so. Here, Dawson
puts the average at 5 inches.
Basil towers above other mice, at 6 inches, though the illustrations by
Paul Galdone donıt convey this height difference.
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-Though Dawson is a busy
doctor, he always seems to have time to globetrot around the world with Basil
at the drop of a hat.
-Mystery of the Bald-headed
Mouse: In which a bald bank
director disappeared with a large sum of the banks money. Basil tracked the banker to Edinburgh,
Scotland, wearing a wig under an alias.
-Case of the Guinea-Pig Gang:
honest mice dared not venture out at night until Basil cleverly found the
gangıs hideout and had them all jailed.
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-³Basilıs hobby was
archeology.² : As a mere ³hobbyist² Basil seems to have made some rather
amazing discoveries. Many
adventurers are archeologists.
Indiana Jones and Jean Luc Picard come instantly to mind. Tarzan made a second career discovery
old ruins and lost societies. His
work in the previous book, Basil and the Lost Colony, was archeological in nature.
-Rockhenge: ancient mouse ruins
near London. The calendar stone
Basil found proved that mice perfected a 365-day calendar long before
mankind. Basil considers
archeology to be the highest form of detective work.
Often
we find references to the fact that intelligent mice have been mirroring human
society for all our history. At
times mice make discoveries before humans, such as the 365 day calendar,
penicillin, and wireless.
-Bengistan: a mouse kingdom
near India. We have seen mouse
cities, cities built by and for mice away from humans, now we have been
introduced to the concept of a mouse kingdom. This would be an entire country, mouse built and mouse
scaled.
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-³Ratigan taxed everything,
even cheese!² : Cheese tax is an especially sore point with mice. It led the Tellmice to 600 years of
isolation in the previous Basil adventure.
Cyril the
Stoolpigeon, Dr. Dawson, and Basil.
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-Dr. Edward Hagerup:
a Norwegian scientist from the British Mousmopolitan Museum. In Basil and the Lost Colony his first
name was Edvard, and he was studying at the Mousmopolitan. In the years between the adventures he
must have accepted a position at the Museum and anglicized the spelling of his
name.
-Elotona, Goddess of
Goodness: European mice worshipped
her thousands of years ago.
Elotona
is Anatole spelled backwards.
Another of Titusıs name and word games. The adventures of Anatole comprise a series of childrenıs
books by Titus.
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The Goblet of
Elotona, Goddess of Goodness.
-Oriental-looking
pygmy cats: By oriental looking does Basil mean Siamese? The illustration does little to
clarify.
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-The Goblet of Elotona: Discovered in Turkey, it proves pygmy
cats existed. The Mousmopolitan
feels that Basil is the only mouse who can solve the mystery. Pretty good for a hobbyist
archeologist.
-³A noted archeologist once
said, ³One pits oneıs wits against the past!ı² : I have not been able to
ascribe the quote. Perhaps Basil
is referring to a mouse archeologist.
Chapter 2: Off to the Orient!
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-Inspector Antoine
Cherbou: Weıve met him before, in Basil
and the Lost Colony. Cherbou joins Basil on this expedition.
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-General Garmize: A
mouse described as famous, and from France. His brother is Jacques Bernard, who teaches French in the
palace of Bengistan.
-Simplon Express: Also known as the Orient Express, this
part covers Paris to Venice. The
ultimate destination of the Orient Express, and Basil, is Instanbul, at this
time the easternmost destination of the Orient Express.
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-Lord Adrian: historian of the
ISMM (International Society of Mouse Mountaineers.) We met him in Basil and the Lost Colony. Heıs also a famed shark hunter.
-Tillary Quinn: Author and
adventurer. We met him in Basil and the Lost Colony.
-Dr. Arthur Howard: Geologist.
We met him in Basil and the Lost Colony. He is given the first name here.
-Dr. Julian Wolff: a medical
mouse. We met him in Basil and the Lost Colony. He
is given the first name here.
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-Young Richard: American
scientist. We met him in Basil and the Lost Colony.
-Dr. Singh Lha: Turkish
archeologist. It was he that
discovered a painted vase that provided a clue to the Mystery of the Pygmy
Cats.
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-³Amazing! Astounding! Astonishing!² : more mouse wordplay.
-King Elyod: ancient European
Mouse ruler. Every schoolmouse
knows about Elyod the Good.
As ruler of Euphoria his court became a center of learning where all the
great mouse minds of the times gathered.
Seeking a short route to India, Elyod, Nairda, Semloh and sixty other
mice sailed away, and never returned.
Elyod is Doyle
spelled backwards.
-Queen Nairda: ancient European
Mouse ruler. Nairda is Adrian
spelled backwards.
-Euphoria: A mouse kingdom near Athens,
Greece. Euphoria was a center of
mouse learning. Euphorians were
known as ship builders, explorers and traders.
-Semloh: Known as the poet
Prince, went missing with his parents seeking a short route to India.
Semloh
is Holmes spelled backwards.
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-Basil hypothesizes that the
lost expedition were cast ashore on an island of Pygmy cats in the Indian
Ocean.
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Chapter 3: In the Dungeon
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-³Two days later we left the
train. Hitching rides, we crossed
southern India, headed towards Bengistan.² : The team would have taken several
different trains along the southern coast of the Black Sea, in Turkey. They would then make their way across
Iran, then known as Persia, the Pakistan, before crossing into India. Traveling South to Bombay, then across
³southern India² to the east coast and the Bay of Bengal.
-I would estimate Bengistan to
be a coastal mouse nation located somewhere between Madras and Vishakhapatnam.
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Sprawled in the
back of an oxcart.
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-Faust, Charles Gounod's operatic retelling of the Faust
legend, debuted at the Théatre-Lyrique on March 19, 1859.
Charles François
Gounod (June 17, 1818 - October 18, 1893) was a French composer, best known for
his opera Faust.
Gounod was born in
Paris, the son of a pianist mother and a draftsman father. His mother was his first piano teacher,
under her tutelage Gounod first showed his musical talents. He entered the Paris Conservatoire where
he studied under Fromental Halévy. He won the Prix de Rome in 1839 for his
cantata Ferdinand. He
subsequently went to Italy where he studied the music of Palestrina.
Gounod wrote his
first opera, Sapho, in 1851, but
had no great success until Faust (1859), based on the play by Goethe. This remains his best-known work. The opera Roméo et
Juliette (based on the Shakespeare
play), premiered in 1867, is also performed and recorded regularly.
From 1870 to 1875
Gounod lived in England, becoming the first conductor of what is now the Royal
Choral Society. Much of Gounod's
music from this time is vocal or choral in nature.
Later in his life,
Gounod wrote mainly religious music, including a musical setting of Ave Maria,
which was based on the first prelude from Book I of the Well-Tempered
Clavier by J.S. Bach. Gounod died in 1893 in Saint-Cloud in
France.
Gounod's Funeral
March of a Marionette was used as
the theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
The Soldierıs Chorus
is a drinking song, Vin ou Bière, this,
and the ³lusty pirate tune² the mice sing next are songs of adventure and
conquest.
-Basil deduces that Turkish
pirates intercepted the ship sent by Elyod back to Euphoria with word of his
survival.
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-The mice enter jungle so thick
they have to use axes to clear the way.
This type of dense jungle probably protects Bengistan from human
interference.
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-Captain Doran: a London
criminal and second in command to Ratigan. He instantly recognizes Basil and Dawson, and arrests them
at once. His name is reminiscent
of Colonel Sebastian Moran, second in command to Professor Moriarity in the
human world.
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-The palace dungeons are as
dark and dismal as any Dawson has ever seen. They are lit by one candle.
King Ratigan confronts
Basil and Dr. Dawson.
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-King Ratigan makes Basil the
standard super-villain offer: ³Join up with me, Basil! I admire your great mental powers and
your genius as a detective. If you
and I should pool our brains, weıd rule the entire mouse world. What do you say?²
Basil replies, ³Never! My whole life is dedicated to fighting
the evil for which you stand. Iıll
do my best to put you and your gang in jail for the rest of your lives!²
Chapter 4: The Tunnel
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-Oddly, Ratigan either didnıt
bother to search Basil and Dawson, or he simply didnıt care that Basil had his
magnifying glass.
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-The second language of
Bengistan is English. Could
English Imperialist mice have at one point conquered Bengistan as the human
English conquered India?
-Martian: there is no special
need to understand Dawsonıs outburst as anything other than metaphorical, is
there?
-This is the second cipher
encountered in the Basil series.
This is a simple transposition cipher in which the alphabet is moved one
letter to the left. It indicates
the presence of a secret tunnel.
-Ratigan also left Dawson his
walking stick.
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Escaping the
palace dungeon.
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Chapter 5: The Mob Marches!
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-³Manyıs the scrape you rescued
me from in our college days!² :
Basil and the Maharajah went to Ratcliffe together. Basil apparently helped the Maharajah with cases and
adventures then.
-The Maharajah was unaware of a
secret passage leading from the dungeon to his private room.
-Mlle. Relda: Last seen in Basil and the Lost
Colony with Elmo the St. Bernard
taking the Professor and his gang to jail. Itıs probable that she pursued the Professor to Bengistan,
and was captured during the revolution.
The ³Mlle.² was added here, indicating she is a French mouse, or perhaps
Swiss (since we last saw her in Switzerland.)
-Ratigan is passionately fond
of opera. He forces Relda to sing
arias for him every day.
-Basil almost admits how fond
he is of Relda, but says ³we all² instead of ³I adore her.²
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-Somehow the
Maharajah still possesses a master key to the palace.
-Lucia di Lammermoor is an
opera in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti.
The libretto, by Kammerano, is based on Scott ıs novel The Bride of
Lammermoor.
The opera premiered in Naples on September 26,
1835. Its "mad scene"
contains some of the highest vocal notes of any standard opera, two E-flats.
(Mozart's often-performed singspiel "The Magic Flute" contains a
higher note, F, in its "Queen of the Night" aria) However, the E-flats are not a written
part of the music and have been omitted by some performers, most notably Maria
Callas.
For decades Lucia was considered to be a mere showpiece for
coloratura sopranos and was a little-known part of the operatic repertory. However, it was revived after World War
II by sopranos such as Maria Callas and has since earned a place in the
standard operatic repertory.
-Domenico Gaetano Maria
Donizetti (November 29, 1797 April 8, 1848) was a famous Italian opera
composer. His most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor (1835).
He was born in Bergamo into a very poor family
with no tradition of music, but in 1806 he was one of the first pupils to be
enrolled in a charity school at Bergamo founded by Simon Mayr.
Donizetti is best known for his operatic works,
but he also wrote music in a number of other forms, including some church
music, a number of string quartets, and some orchestral works.
He is also the younger brother of Giuseppe
Donizetti, who had become, in 1828, Instructor General of the Imperial Ottoman
Music at the court of Sultan Mahmud II (1808 1839).
-The "mad scene" was
re-popularized when it was featured in the film The Fifth Element in a performance by the Albanian opera singer
Inva Mula-Tchako, who voiced the diva Plavalaguna (however, Plavalaguna was
acted by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco.)
Basil and Dr.
Dawson overthrow ³King² Ratigan as Relda watches.
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³Down with
Ratigan! Long Live the Maharajah!²
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-Ratigan and Doran escaped from
the same cell that Basil and Dawson did.
A curious oversight.
-rare Oriental cheeses:
unnamed.
-veiled dancing-mice: described
as ³swaying dancers² Dawson reveals himself to be a ladies mouse.
Chapter 6: Mutiny!
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-Rosetta: An
elegant, two masted schooner, or yacht, of modern design, with auxiliary motors
for emergencies. There are a dozen
double-sized passenger cabins, captainıs quarters, officerıs quarters and space
for crew. It has a galley in the
forecastle where cooks prepare food for passengers and crew.It is a mouse ship,
mouse-scaled.
The
name Rosetta calls to mind the
famous Rosetta stone. A famous
archeological find that allowed the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics,
it is an apt name for the ship that will discover the island of the pygmy cats.
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-General Garmize stays in
Bengistan to help train the Maharajahıs army (and prevent a second revolution,
no doubt.)
-Jaques Bernard: General Garmizeıs brother, teaches
French in the palace of Bengistan.
His name is reminsicnet of Jean-Jacques Bernard born July 30, 1888,
Enghien-les-Bains, France, died
Sept. 12, 1972, Paris
French playwright and chief representative of what
became known as l'école du silence (the
³school of silence²) or, as some critics called it, the ³art of the
unexpressed,² in which the dialogue does not express the characters' real
attitudes. As in Martine (1922),
perhaps the best example of his work, emotions are implied in gestures, facial
expressions, fragments of speech, and silence.
The son of the dramatist Tristan Bernard,
Jean-Jacques began writing plays before World War I. Unconscious jealousy is
the theme of Le Feu qui reprend mal (1921;
The Sulky Fire )
and Le Printemps des autres (1924; The Springtime of Others ). In L'Âme en peine (1926; The Unquiet Spirit ), two characters who never meet feel an
inexplicable disquiet whenever they are near one another. Included among
Bernard's later plays are the more conventional À la recherche
des coeurs (1931; ³In Search of
Hearts²) and Jeanne de Pantin (1933).
Bernard's nondramatic writings include Le Camp
de la mort lente (1944; The
Camp of Slow Death ), a description
of the German concentration camp at Compiègne, in which he, as a Jew, was
interned, and Mon ami le théâtre (1958; ³My Friend the Theatre²).
-Captain Peter Black: A jolly Britisher. His name is reminiscent of the human
Peter Carey, known as Black Peter.
As described by Watson in the Holmes story Black Peter, ³you would go
far before you found a more dangerous man than Peter Carey² Captain Peter Black seems the opposite
of his human namesake.
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-The mutineers are Nagitar and
Narod, or Ratigan and Doran, spelling their names backwards. Basil foils them by revealing their
identities to the loyal Bengistani crew.
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Doran and
Ratigan, foiled by Dr. Dawson and Basil, again!
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-Ratigan and Doran
escape once more, return to London, and reorganize their gangs.
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Chapter 7: The Two-headed Sea Monster
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-Jeannie: Two headed
sea-monster, she hails from Scotland.
The Loch Ness Monster is her uncle. She has one throat, but two heads and two mouths, each mouth
moved together when she spoke.
She
became lost in the Bay of Bengal when her family of Loch ness Monsters took an
underwater trip around the world.
Oriental monsters are friendly, but she misses home.
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Dr. Dawson
gives Jeannie medicine for her cold.
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-electric catfish (Malapterurus
electricus) of the River Nile,
Egypt: Lord Adrian encountered
these. They produce enough current
to shock a human being.
The Electric Catfish
Chapter 8: The Sacred Catfish
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-Sacred Catfish: Head resembles an English tomcat. He speaks seven languages: French,
Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Danish and English. Species bagarius yarrelli, non-electric. Itıs eel-like body may attain a length of six feet. Adapted to marshes and muddy waters.
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-The fame of Basil has reached
even this remote part of the world.
The Scared Catfish is familiar with him. The Scared Catfish challenges Basil to a battle of
wits. Basil satisfies the
challenge.
-King Darius, Darius the
Great, Darius I of Persia (ca. 549 BC - 485/486 BC) "He Who Holds Firm the
Good"), was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Emperor from 521 BC to
485/486 BC.
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The Sacred
Catfish and Basil.
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-It was established in Basil
and the Lost Colony that Basil always carries catnip for emergencies.
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Jeannie says
goodbye.
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King Elyodıs
statue.
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Chapter 9: The Inscription on the Cliff
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-provolone: is an all-purpose cheese used for cooking