The Man with the Twisted Lip [short story]

by Arthur Conan Doyle , Arthur Conan Doyle (Author)

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In The Man with the Twisted Lip, Dr. Watson is called upon late at night by a female friend of his wife whose husband has been absent for several days. Frantic with worry, she seeks help in fetching him home from an opium den. Watson finds his friend Sherlock Holmes in the den, disguised as an old man, trying to extract information about a new case from the addicts therein. The case of double identity and potential murder presents Holmes with a task that is anything but elementary. This is show more the sixth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, originally published in 1891. show less

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Dr. Watson goes to an opium den to retrieve a patient for his distraught wife. As he is leaving with his mission accomplished, he is astonished to hear his friend Sherlock Holmes’s voice from an unfamiliar face. Of course Holmes is there working on a case, and he draws Watson into his confidence. A businessman has disappeared, and his wife claims that she last saw him in the window of the opium den. When the authorities searched for him, they found a beggar in the room with the missing man’s clothing. The conclusion was that the beggar had murdered the missing man. But where was the body?

Naturally all was not as it seemed, and it took Sherlock Holmes’s powers of observation and deduction to get to the truth. The real story is one show more of the funniest of Holmes’s cases. The beggar was the missing man. He had discovered that he could make more money from begging than he could earn as a professional man, so he had been leading a double life. He was cornered by his wife’s unexpected appearance, and he needed Holmes’s help to extract himself from a delicate situation. show less
½
Una esposa preocupada le pide a Sherlock Holmes que le ayude a encontrar a su marido, que ha desaparecido del hogar. Cree haberlo visto mirando en una ventana de fumadero de opio, pero cuando llega con la policía para investigar solo encuentra a un mendigo y al malvado Lascar.
Une collection parfaite pour ceux qui veulent progresser dans l'apprentissage d'une langue tout en se faisant plaisir à la lecture d'un bon roman de littérature étrangère. Page de gauche : le texte de l'auteur en version originale et page de droite : la traduction en français. Rien de plus simple pour améliorer son vocabulaire et sa compréhension…

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3,987+ Works 169,129 Members
The most famous fictional detective in the world is Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. However, Doyle was, at best, ambivalent about his immensely successful literary creation and, at worst, resentful that his more "serious" fiction was relatively ignored. Born in Edinburgh, Doyle studied medicine from 1876 to 1881 and received his M.D. in show more 1885. He worked as a military physician in South Africa during the Boer War and was knighted in 1902 for his exceptional service. Doyle was drawn to writing at an early age. Although he attempted to enter private practice in Southsea, Portsmouth, in 1882, he soon turned to writing in his spare time; it eventually became his profession. As a Liberal Unionist, Doyle ran, unsuccessfully, for Parliament in 1903. During his later years, Doyle became an avowed spiritualist. Doyle sold his first story, "The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley," to Chambers' Journal in 1879. When Doyle published the novel, A Study in Scarlet in 1887, Sherlock Holmes was introduced to an avid public. Doyle is reputed to have used one of his medical professors, Dr. Joseph Bell, as a model for Holmes's character. Eventually, Doyle wrote three additional Holmes novels and five collections of Holmes short stories. A brilliant, though somewhat eccentric, detective, Holmes employs scientific methods of observation and deduction to solve the mysteries that he investigates. Although an "amateur" private detective, he is frequently called upon by Scotland Yard for assistance. Holmes's assistant, the faithful Dr. Watson, provides a striking contrast to Holmes's brilliant intellect and, in Doyle's day at least, serves as a character with whom the reader can readily identify. Having tired of Holmes's popularity, Doyle even tried to kill the great detective in "The Final Problem" but was forced by an outraged public to resurrect him in 1903. Although Holmes remained Doyle's most popular literary creation, Doyle wrote prolifically in other genres, including historical adventure, science fiction, and supernatural fiction. Despite Doyle's sometimes careless writing, he was a superb storyteller. His great skill as a popular author lay in his technique of involving readers in his highly entertaining adventures. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Arthur Conan Doyle has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.

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167+ Works 672 Members

Some Editions

Macaluso, P. James (Illustrator)
Vermot, Thibault (Translator)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
The Man with the Twisted Lip [short story]
Original title
The Man with the Twisted Lip
Alternate titles
The Adventure of the Man with the Twisted Lip
Original publication date
1891-12
People/Characters
Sherlock Holmes; John H. Watson (M.D.); Mrs. Watson (first wife); Kate Whitney; Isa Whitney; Neville St. Clair (show all 8); Inspector Barton; Inspector Bradstreet
Important places
London, England, UK; Lee, Lewisham, London, England, UK (formerly in Kent); Limehouse, London, England, UK
Related movies
"The Return of Sherlock Holmes" The Man with the Twisted Lip (1986 | IMDb)
Original language
English
Canonical DDC/MDS
823.0872

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Mystery
DDC/MDS
823.0872Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish fictionBy typeGenre fictionAdventure fictionMystery fiction
LCC
PR4621 .A1Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature19th century , 1770/1800-1890/1900
BISAC

Statistics

Members
106
Popularity
304,302
Reviews
3
Rating
½ (3.62)
Languages
6 — Dutch, English, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Swedish
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
18
ASINs
8