What Remains by Kristophine (PG-13)

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

The "Sherlock Holmes" books have been a favorite of mine since childhood and I'm pleased that the fandom is featured this month.  The originnal stories have lasted through time and Sherlock Holmes was an inspiration for writers long before "fanfiction" was a word. 

The stories can be divided arbitrarily into four groups:
     1.  canon tales which are a continuation of the books (like "The Seven Percent Solution")
     2.  parodies and pastiches (Schlok Holmes)
     3.  Holmes/Watson slash 
     4.  Holmes/Mary Russell het.  (based on Laurie R. King's books)
I will select a few stories from each group.

Fandom: SHERLOCK HOLMES
Pairing: Homes/Watson
Subcategory: First time
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: unknown


Holmes is searching Watson's room to find the cocaine bottle that Watson has hidden. Instead he finds something so unexpected that his whole world suddenly totally realigns. He travels to the seedier side of town to learn more and ends up totally confused, as well as hurt by the thought that he didn't know Watson well at all.  When he returns home, he is unable to face Watson.

Kristophine does a good job of writing in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's style and Holme's and Watson's voice read true.  She also keeps the Victorian setting intact without any anachronisms creeping in.

Holmes?"

"Yes?"

"Holmes, you have been reading the same page for the last ten minutes. Are you quite all right?"

Counterfeiting my usual tone of aggrieved tolerance, I replied, "My dear Doctor, I assure you as to my excellent health. I am merely wrestling with an intellectual problem that distracts my attention from my immediate surroundings."

What a lie, oh, what a lie. I wondered if he would see through it at once. I dared not let my eyes linger on his face too long, lest I betray the agitation of my thoughts. Disregarding my will, my eyes wandered spitefully to his lips. Those lips, I thought, have kissed a man. I felt at a loss for balance, and at once brutally dragged my gaze back to my book, praying he had not noticed my lapse.

He seemed not to, raising one eyebrow and replying, "Indeed. Then I shall cease to draw your attention back to them."

Ah, Watson, you could not do that were you to cease breathing.


What Remains

Comments

[bkm5191.livejournal.com]

I think I knew in my head somewhere there was Mary Russell fic but, how fabulous! Are there any communities or sites that you could recommend to me?

Not sure about Mary Russell fics, but there are some nice H/W ones out there

[meishali.livejournal.com]

http://www.hwslash.net/home.html
-old, not updated anymore

http://cotillion.slashcity.org/efic/index.php
-listed under Literature--Sherlock Holmes

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Your icon, is that Wukoki or Wupatki in Northern Arizona?

[bkm5191.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I don't know. A friend of mine made a bunch of icons and this is one I lifted.

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

I don't want to rec specific stories yet and tip my hand -- ask me at the end of the month. In the meantime, check out:

Mary Russell on MySpace http://www.myspace.com/maryrussell (really! It's not a joke)

Laurie R kIng's site: http://www.laurierking.com/

Laurie's blog: http://laurierking.blogspot.com/

The RUSS-L mailing list: http://rja.mirrordance.net/russell/ -- you get announcements of new stories and Laurie has a representative in the list who forwards questions to her.

Hope that helps.

[bkm5191.livejournal.com]

I'll ask again, dont worry and thank you for those links. They don't have any of Laurie King's books on the shelves here, so that is quite good news.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tips. I am curious about these novels, though with mixed feelings. I am able to figure Holmes having pleasure to talk with an intelligent woman, but in love and marrying her! Perish the thought. I remember having imagined long series of dialogues between Holmes and...a little niece of Watson. But it was after the death of his friend and completely focused about him (and also frankly slash, I must say).

[madmogs.livejournal.com]

Mary Russell feh! I still think her middle name was Sue, and the fact that people write fanfiction on someone else's Sue is more incredible to me than that King got it published in the first place.

*goes hunting for the h/w slash instead.*

[bkm5191.livejournal.com]

I can't help myself!

Just the thought that Holmes would be as good in bed as he is at everything else... these books are the ultimate pepperjack cheese, and they are crack to me.

Crack! Also I found some on the christmas challenge group. Its somewhat better than Laurie King's :) Oh fandom, never stop.

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I can buy into the premise. Remember when Holmes first meets her he is attracted to her deductive abilities and doesn't evven realize she's a girl because of her clothing. I look upon Russ as a substitute for Watson in that she gives Holmes a person to explain things to, thus including us in his thinking. But she is much sharper than Watson and can sometimes outthink Holmes. The stories aresn't heavily romantic, nut more cerebral.

Think of her as Irene Norton but on the side of the good guys.

[madmogs.livejournal.com]

But she is much sharper than Watson and can sometimes outthink Holmes.
You're not exactly disproving her Sueishness, I'm afraid -- especially as most of the charm of Irene Adler was the fact that she was a woman, not a girl, and on nobody's side but her own.

I must admit I still found those books far too romancey for my liking, with a love interest who was far too modern (I'd go almmost so far as to say anachronistic) for the day. I also remember thinking (it's a while since I read them) that homes was out of character in how demonstrative he was towards her.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

May I interfere here and ask what it is about? What are these books and characters? Are they well known? I feel I have lost the thread of my Holmesian interests since my collection has been destroyed.

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you'd say "well known" but they've sold well in the States. The premise is that Mary is an unhappy 14 year old girl who bumps into Holmes while he's tracking bees and he is stunned at her astuteness so he takes her as an apprentice, and when she turns 21 they marry. She keeps her maiden name and is a bit of a flapper, whereas Holmes stays the proper Victorian gentlemen.
See http://www.laurierking.com/mary_russells_world.php
and http://rja.mirrordance.net/russell/

and the links I posted in the omment above

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

I see I replied to the wrong post, though dealing with the same topic...Same comment; why to look for a girl when you have Watson at hand? I always imagined Holmes retiring with Watson eventually, in spite of canon. After all Watson, who wrote to be published in Victorian and Edwardian times, was not obliged to tell the truth. And, as for Napoleon and Illya, I cannot separate them; in my mind they form a whole and single entity. It's still truer with Holmes and Watson who were seen that way by the very respectable Bristish gentlemen who were the first Strand Magazine's readers. They were, I think, a little disappointed by their heroe's solitary retirement.

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

I'm lukewarm about Mary, but I'll read anything Holmes -- the stories are set before and after World War I, which would have also been the time of the final Watson adventure. It's pretty clear in "His Lasr Bow" that Watson does not retire with him: ... But you, Watson" -- he stopped his work and took his old friend by the shoulders -- "I've hardly seen you in the light yet. How have the years used you? You look the same blithe boy as ever. " "I feel twenty years younger, Holmes. I have seldom felt so happy as when I got your wire asking me to meet you at Harwich with the car. But you, Holmes -- you have changed very little -- save for that horrible goatee." which leaves the door open for a new character.

[jasmasson.livejournal.com]

Yay! Looking forward to your recs!

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[orwhoeveriam.livejournal.com]

am i the only person who completely isn't into sherlock holmes slash? i like everything else holmesian, and i like slash. but it's totally never clicked for me. though, i think it's less the slash part and more the idea of holmes having sex. that just seems weird.

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

I prefer stories involving cases myself and have never really gotten into the slash. But I figure I should feature everything in the one moneth I have.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

I think Sherlock Holmes may well have been my first love; I took my first English lessons at 8 with my Italian piano teacher (as a language teacher as well) and the S.H. short stories as exercises book! And I immediately "slashed", if I dare say, and long before the time of slash, Holmes with Watson.I am going to enjoy a lot this series of recs...

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

You and I pop up everywhere, don't we? You should put in to do recs on Holmes sometimes.

I never slashed him because all of my stories as a kid were Mary Sue. Holmes was one of my first crushes.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Sure, I was a Holmes/Watson lover for ages and I had gathered a wide collection of about everything Holmesian, including most of the literary studies published upon the topic, and even some original issues of the Strand Magazine, a collection which was destroyed by a fire in 1999 and which I still mourn. However I can't do recs for the very simple reason I have never read a single fanfiction story until now! I intend to start now.

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

"Slash" here is just a way of speaking; I mean I was strongly focused on the "exclusive and intimate friendship" aspect of the stories, as much as I was thrilled by the mystery solving one. And the various plots I imagined then were only in my head. I never experienced the Mary Sue stage; I always tended to identify with both the halves of a pairing and moreocer I believed I was a boy!

[soagnostic.livejournal.com]

I am so happy that Sherlock Holmes is being featured! I adore the Laurie R. King books (though it's hard to find people who agree with me) so I will be looking forward to those recs especially, as well as the gen/canon fics.

[periwinkle27.livejournal.com]

Do you have any favorites among the books? I really like "Beekeepers Apprentice"

[soagnostic.livejournal.com]

I do really like that one, since it was what made me love the books, but my favourite is either "O Jerusalem" or "Justice Hall".