Five-minute digest
His Last Bow
Summary
His Last Bow gathers Sherlock Holmes stories published between 1908 and 1917, ending with a tale set on the eve of the First World War. Watson's short preface reports that Holmes has retired to keep bees on the Sussex Downs and has emerged only once more to serve his country. This Gutenberg edition contains seven stories (The Cardboard Box, included in some later editions of this volume, appears here in the Memoirs). 'Wisteria Lodge' begins with a respectable Englishman who wakes to find his Spanish host vanished and ends in a revenge plot against a deposed Central American dictator. 'The Bruce-Partington Plans' finds Mycroft Holmes asking his brother to recover stolen submarine plans after a young clerk is found dead on the Underground tracks. 'The Devil's Foot', set in Cornwall, involves a poisonous African root whose fumes drive victims mad; Holmes nearly kills himself and Watson testing it, and their mutual rescue is one of the warmest moments of the friendship. 'The Red Circle' follows a mysterious lodger who never leaves her room and a Neapolitan secret society. 'The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax' sends Watson to Switzerland and ends with Holmes opening a coffin just in time to save a drugged woman from being buried alive. 'The Dying Detective' shows Holmes apparently dying of a rare tropical disease, deceiving even Watson in order to trap a poisoner. The title story, 'His Last Bow', is told in the third person. In August 1914 a German spy, Von Bork, prepares to leave England with the secrets he has bought from an Irish-American agent named Altamont, who is really Holmes in disguise. After his arrest, Holmes and Watson stand on a terrace looking at the sea, and Holmes speaks of an east wind coming that will be cold and bitter but will leave a cleaner, stronger land. The collection mixes adventure, patriotism and the affection of two old friends near the end of their careers.
Top Lessons
Friendship under strain
In The Dying Detective Holmes deceives Watson to save the case, and in The Devil's Foot each saves the other's life. Real friendship survives trials.
Duty in old age
Holmes leaves retirement to serve his country. The story honors service that is costly and unseen.
Dangerous experiments
Holmes tests the Devil's Foot on himself and nearly dies. Curiosity needs prudence.
Verified Quotes
“Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age.”
“But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.”
Medical Lens
The Devil's Foot depicts an inhaled toxin inducing terror, hallucination and death; The Dying Detective uses a feigned tropical infection; Lady Frances Carfax involves chloroform and a near-burial.
- The Devil's Foot
Holmes and Watson inhale the fumes and experience terror and hallucination.
- The Dying Detective
Holmes feigns a fatal Sumatran disease to trap Culverton Smith.