The Adventure of the Speckled Band

by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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The Adventure of the Speckled Band Quotes

…working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.

Related Characters: Dr. Watson (speaker), Sherlock Holmes
Page Number: 396-397
Explanation and Analysis:

The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under a heavy mortgage.

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:

Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the family, and in my stepfather’s case it had, I believe, been intensified by his long residence in the tropics.

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 401
Explanation and Analysis:

“Tell me, Helen,” said she, “have you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of the night?”

Related Characters: Julia Stoner (speaker), Helen Stoner
Related Symbols: Swamp Adder
Page Number: 402
Explanation and Analysis:

At first I thought that she had not recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out in a voice which I shall never forget, “Oh, my God! Helen! It was the band! The speckled band!”

Related Characters: Helen Stoner (speaker), Julia Stoner
Related Symbols: Swamp Adder
Page Number: 404
Explanation and Analysis:

So tall was he that his hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

Related Characters: Dr. Watson (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 408
Explanation and Analysis:

He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone more cunning than himself upon his track.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Page Number: 411
Explanation and Analysis:

The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly caved in, a picture of ruin.

Related Characters: Dr. Watson (speaker)
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 411
Explanation and Analysis:

There are one or two very singular points about this room. For example, what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated with the outside air!

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker)
Related Symbols: Stoke Moran Manor
Page Number: 413
Explanation and Analysis:

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 417
Explanation and Analysis:

“It is a swamp adder!” cried Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”

Related Characters: Sherlock Holmes (speaker), Dr. Grimesby Roylott
Related Symbols: Swamp Adder
Page Number: 421
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.