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The Red-Headed League by Sherlock Holmes, What is this about?
Alright, so for school i have to read this and i have done but i really didn't understand it. What was with the 30,000 pounds [The french Gold]? And who is John Clay? Please Help!! X
"The Red-Headed League" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It first appeared in The Strand Magazine in August 1891, with illustrations by Sidney Paget. Conan Doyle ranked "The Red-Headed League" second in his list of his twelve favorite Holmes stories. It is also the second of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in 1892.
Set in 1890, a London pawnbroker named Jabez Wilson, a man with "fiery red hair," comes to Holmes and Watson. He tells them that his young assistant, Vincent Spaulding, some weeks ago had shown him and urged him to respond to a newspaper want-ad offering work to only red-headed male applicants. The next morning, Wilson had waited in a long line of fellow red-headed men, was interviewed and was the only applicant hired, because none of the other applicants had hair to match Wilson's red locks. He was well-paid, four pounds a week, for several weeks of doing obviously useless clerical busywork in a lonely office, but finally one morning a sign on the locked office door inexplicably announced: "THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS DISSOLVED." Wilson then went to the landlord, who said that he'd never heard of Duncan Ross, the person who formed the league. The landlord did remember the tenant with scarlet hair and gives him a card which directs Wilson to an artificial knee company. He ends the story with how frustrated he is losing the four-pounds-a-week. Holmes and Watson laugh a little over the ridiculous situation, but Holmes assures that by Monday they would have the case solved. After Holmes' client Wilson leaves (having given the detective a description of Spaulding), Holmes decides to go and see Spaulding, whom Holmes notices has dirty trouser knees. Holmes then taps on the pavement in front of the pawnbroker's shop. With the case solved, he calls Inspector Jones and Mr. Merryweather. The four confront the thieves, John Clay and his helper William Morris (they were Spaulding and Ross in disguise), who had contrived the Red-Headed League rigamarole just to keep Wilson out of his shop while they did digging in the basement in order to break into the bank vault next door. Back at Baker Street, Holmes explains to Watson how he solved the case.
It has been noted that the dates given in the story do not match the characters' descriptions of time passing. The date that Wilson sees the advertisement is April 27, 1890 and he has been at work for 8 weeks (~2 months) at copying out in longhand, the Encyclopedia. However the date on the door telling of the league being dissolved is that of October 21, 1890, 6 months after the ad was placed. Dorothy L. Sayers analyzed this discrepancy and demonstrated that the dates must have been August 4 and October 4 respectively.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red-Headed_League
http://www.bookrags.com/The_Red-Headed_League
