"The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). It was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in July 1904, and was also published in Collier's in the United States in October 1904. The story was published with eight illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand, and with six illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's. It was included in the short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes,
Adaptations
Film and television
A short silent film adapted from the story was released in 1922 as part of the Stoll film series starring Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes and Hubert Willis as Watson, with Teddy Arundell as Inspector Hopkins, Norma Whalley as Anna Coram, and Cecil Morton York as Professor Coram. An extensively restored copy was scheduled to be shown during the 2024 BFI London Film Festival.
The television adaptation with Jeremy Brett, in the Granada TV television series Sherlock Holmes, differs slightly. A heavily bearded member of the Russian Brotherhood lurks in the garden, and administers final justice to the villainous Professor. Anna's key was her own original. Dr. Watson is replaced by Sherlock Holmes's brother, Mycroft Holmes, due to the unavailability of Edward Hardwicke for the episode and, instead of Sherlock Holmes dropping cigarette ash on the floor, Mycroft scatters snuff. During Holmes' brother's investigation at the crime scene with Inspector Hopkins, Sherlock Holmes mumbles about the irony that their father gave his magnifying glass to Mycroft who has always been depicted as lazy and lethargic. Also, Mycroft Holmes remarks that their father always told them, "eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". He then adds, "I forget his exact words, but those are near enough."
Audio
A radio adaptation of the story, dramatised by Edith Meiser, aired on 1 June 1931 in the American radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson.
Meiser also adapted the story as an episode of the American radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, that aired on 12 February 1940. Another episode in the same series was adapted from the story by Max Ehrlich, and aired in April 1949 (with John Stanley as Holmes and Wendell Holmes as Watson).
John Gielgud played Holmes and Ralph Richardson played Watson in a radio adaptation that aired on NBC radio in April 1955. In the radio adaptation (also known as "The Yoxley [or Yatsley] Case"), Anna kills herself with a pistol rather than by poison.
Michael Hardwick dramatised the story as a radio adaptation for the BBC Light Programme, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson, with Andreas Malandrinos as Professor Coram. The adaptation aired in August 1962.
"The Golden Pince-Nez" was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 1993 by Peter Ling as part of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, featuring Maurice Denham as Professor Coram and Maureen O'Brien as the Lady. At the end, while in custody, Anna jumps in front of a train, and Holmes remarks that this is how Anna Karenina dies.
The story was adapted as a 2010 episode of The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series on the American radio show Imagination Theatre, starring John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.
In 2023, the podcast Sherlock & Co. adapted the story in a three-episode adventure called "The Golden Pince-Nez", starring Harry Attwell as Sherlock Holmes, Paul Waggott as Dr. John Watson and Marta da Silva as Mariana "Mrs. Hudson" Ametxazurra.
References
Notes
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