The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Encyclopedia
"The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes
short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes
.
Inspector Lestrade
of Scotland Yard
brings Holmes a seemingly trivial problem about a man who shatters plaster bust
s of Napoleon. One was shattered in Morse Hudson’s shop, and two others, sold by Hudson to a Dr. Barnicot, were smashed after the doctor’s house and branch office had been burgled
. Nothing else was taken. In the former case, the bust was taken outside before being broken.
Holmes knows that Lestrade’s theory about a Napoleon-hating lunatic
must be wrong. The busts in question all came from the same mould
. Why is he breaking them?
The next day, Lestrade calls Holmes to a house where there has been yet another bust-shattering, but there has also been a murder
. Mr. Horace Harker found the dead man on his doorstep after investigating a noise. His Napoleon bust was also taken by a burglar entering through a window. It, too, was from the same mould. Also, a photograph
of a rather apish-looking man is found in the dead man’s pocket.
The fragments of Harker's bust are in the front garden of an empty house up the street. Obviously the burglar wanted to see what he was doing, for there is a streetlamp here, whereas the bust could have been broken at another empty house nearer Harker’s, but it had been dark there.
Holmes tells Lestrade to tell Harker, a journalist
for the Central Press Syndicate, that he is convinced that the culprit is a lunatic. Holmes knows that this is not true, but it is expedient to use the press to convince the culprit that this is what the investigators believe.
Holmes interviews the two shopkeeper
s who sold the busts and finds out whom they were sold to, and where they were made, Gelder & Co. A couple of his informants also recognize the apish man in the picture. They know him as Beppo, an Italian
immigrant. He even worked in the shop where the first bust was broken, having left his job there only two days earlier.
Holmes goes to Gelder & Co. and finds out that the busts were part of a batch of six, but other than that, the manager can think of no reason why they should be special, or why anyone would want to destroy them. He recognizes Beppo’s picture, and describes him as a rascal. He was imprisoned for a stabbing
a year earlier, but has likely been released now. He once worked at Gelder & Co., but has not been back. His cousin still works there. Holmes begs the manager not to talk to the cousin about Beppo.
That evening, Lestrade brings news that the dead man has been identified as Pietro Venucci, a Mafioso. Lestrade believes that Venucci was sent to kill Beppo, but wound up dead himself. Why is the Mafia after Beppo?
After sending an express message, Holmes invites Dr. Watson and Lestrade to join him outside a house in Chiswick
where apparently Holmes is expecting another bust-breaking. Lestrade by now is exasperated with Holmes’s preoccupation with the busts, but comes. They are not disappointed. Beppo shows up, enters the house, and comes back out of the window minutes later with a Napoleon bust, which he proceeds to shatter. He then examines the pieces, quite unaware that Holmes and Lestrade are sneaking up behind him. They pounce, and Beppo is arrested. He will not talk, however.
The mystery is at last laid bare after Holmes offers £10 to the owner of the last existing bust, making him sign a document transferring all rights and ownership of the bust to Holmes. After the seller has left, Holmes smashes the bust and among the plaster shards is a gem, the black pearl
of the Borgias. Holmes was aware of the case of its disappearance from the beginning. Suspicion fell on the owner’s maid, whose name was Lucretia Venucci — the dead man’s sister. Beppo then somehow got the pearl from Pietro Venucci, and hid it inside a still-soft plaster bust at the factory where he worked, moments before he was arrested for the stabbing.
After his release, when the six busts had been sold, he found out from his cousin who bought the busts, and through his own efforts and confederates’, even found out who the end buyers were. He then proceeded to seek the busts out, smashing them one by one to find the pearl.
This story was dramatized in the popular Granada Television
series starring Jeremy Brett
. This version is faithful to the original story — although there is a twist. In the original story Beppo is captured after killing Venucci and his punishment is left unsaid for the audience to conjecture; in the TV drama, Beppo had gone to prison for a year after wounding Venucci in a brawl; at the end Beppo is hanged.
The Pearl of Death
is a 1944
Sherlock Holmes
film that is loosely based on "The Six Napoleons".
The basic plot element of "The Six Napoleons" is similar to that in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
", whose mystery proceeds from a thief having hid a precious stone in the belly of a one of several similar-looking geese.
SIXN, as it is abbreviated in the canon
is one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes stories Doyle wrote. It is also one of the most popular episodes of the Granada Television
series, in part because Lestrade is able to demonstrate his ultimate respect for Holmes, as described in the Inspector Lestrade
page.
Lestrade does better as a detective in this story than he does in most of his appearances, as his identifying the murdered man is what makes Holmes realize why Beppo is after the busts. A more subtle point holds in Lestrade's favor: he recognizes a "Catholic emblem" on the murdered man, and uses it to divine his identity despite his ignorance of saint's medallions.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle skillfully and subtly draws comparisons between the methods of conventional crime solving (using Inspector Lestrade
) with the police
and Scotland Yard
and how he believes a case should be approached, using Sherlock Holmes
to represent his ideal methodology. Between the two stands Doctor Watson, observing and commenting when the case demands. Lestrade, for example, cannot allow himself to get interested in what seems to be a trivial matter with a madman, and yet something about it bothers him. Sherlock Holmes
, who claims to understand the limitations of Lestrade's thinking, knows at once something is amiss and draws it out of him. Throughout the adventure, neither man works against the other, but they are each seeking the truth according to their own methods. Lestrade's focus turns to what he sees is the crux
of the case, which is murder. Holmes has a better idea of that the crux truly is, and does not get himself distracted by the trifle of Venucci's death in light of the missing pearl.
Sherlock Holmes
leads the law to the truth by bringing Lestrade to Beppo's criminal actions. Lestrade has the power and authority to arrest him on the spot, which Holmes cannot do. Both men are needed to come to this conclusion.
Throughout the Sherlock Holmes canon
, Watson records Holmes' ongoing criticisms of the police, but when Lestrade praises Holmes for his work, calling it "workmanlike" as if it is the highest compliment he can think of, Holmes is "visibly moved". This is one of the rare instances when another person can conjure an emotional reaction from the stoic
Holmes. When Lestrade assures him that Scotland Yard was proud, not jealous of him, his composure genuinely wavers.
Although he appears in later published works, this is one of Lestrade's last appearances within the canon. After this he is only mentioned by Holmes or Watson, in "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
" and "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
" as a working member of the Yard.
The Adventures of Superman TV show, episode #4, "The Mystery of the Broken Statues" (1952) is based on the story.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903-1904, by Arthur Conan Doyle.-History:...
.
Synopsis
Inspector Lestrade
Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade....
of Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
brings Holmes a seemingly trivial problem about a man who shatters plaster bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
s of Napoleon. One was shattered in Morse Hudson’s shop, and two others, sold by Hudson to a Dr. Barnicot, were smashed after the doctor’s house and branch office had been burgled
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
. Nothing else was taken. In the former case, the bust was taken outside before being broken.
Holmes knows that Lestrade’s theory about a Napoleon-hating lunatic
Lunatic
"Lunatic" is a commonly used term for a person who is mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, unpredictable; a condition once called lunacy. The word derives from lunaticus meaning "of the moon" or "moonstruck".-Lunar hypothesis:...
must be wrong. The busts in question all came from the same mould
Molding (process)
Molding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern....
. Why is he breaking them?
The next day, Lestrade calls Holmes to a house where there has been yet another bust-shattering, but there has also been a murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. Mr. Horace Harker found the dead man on his doorstep after investigating a noise. His Napoleon bust was also taken by a burglar entering through a window. It, too, was from the same mould. Also, a photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
of a rather apish-looking man is found in the dead man’s pocket.
The fragments of Harker's bust are in the front garden of an empty house up the street. Obviously the burglar wanted to see what he was doing, for there is a streetlamp here, whereas the bust could have been broken at another empty house nearer Harker’s, but it had been dark there.
Holmes tells Lestrade to tell Harker, a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
for the Central Press Syndicate, that he is convinced that the culprit is a lunatic. Holmes knows that this is not true, but it is expedient to use the press to convince the culprit that this is what the investigators believe.
Holmes interviews the two shopkeeper
Shopkeeper
A shopkeeper is an individual who owns a shop. Generally, shop employees are not shopkeepers, but are often incorrectly referred to as shopkeepers. Today, a shopkeeper is usually referred to as a manager, though this term could apply to larger firms .*In many south asian languages like Hindi, Urdu,...
s who sold the busts and finds out whom they were sold to, and where they were made, Gelder & Co. A couple of his informants also recognize the apish man in the picture. They know him as Beppo, an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
immigrant. He even worked in the shop where the first bust was broken, having left his job there only two days earlier.
Stabbing
A stabbing is penetration with a sharp or pointed object at close range. Stab connotes purposeful action, as by an assassin or murderer, but it is also possible to accidentally stab oneself or others.Stabbing differs from slashing or cutting in that the motion of the object used in a stabbing...
a year earlier, but has likely been released now. He once worked at Gelder & Co., but has not been back. His cousin still works there. Holmes begs the manager not to talk to the cousin about Beppo.
That evening, Lestrade brings news that the dead man has been identified as Pietro Venucci, a Mafioso. Lestrade believes that Venucci was sent to kill Beppo, but wound up dead himself. Why is the Mafia after Beppo?
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
where apparently Holmes is expecting another bust-breaking. Lestrade by now is exasperated with Holmes’s preoccupation with the busts, but comes. They are not disappointed. Beppo shows up, enters the house, and comes back out of the window minutes later with a Napoleon bust, which he proceeds to shatter. He then examines the pieces, quite unaware that Holmes and Lestrade are sneaking up behind him. They pounce, and Beppo is arrested. He will not talk, however.
The mystery is at last laid bare after Holmes offers £10 to the owner of the last existing bust, making him sign a document transferring all rights and ownership of the bust to Holmes. After the seller has left, Holmes smashes the bust and among the plaster shards is a gem, the black pearl
Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
of the Borgias. Holmes was aware of the case of its disappearance from the beginning. Suspicion fell on the owner’s maid, whose name was Lucretia Venucci — the dead man’s sister. Beppo then somehow got the pearl from Pietro Venucci, and hid it inside a still-soft plaster bust at the factory where he worked, moments before he was arrested for the stabbing.
After his release, when the six busts had been sold, he found out from his cousin who bought the busts, and through his own efforts and confederates’, even found out who the end buyers were. He then proceeded to seek the busts out, smashing them one by one to find the pearl.
Commentary
The setting date is inferred from the reference in the story to May 20 as a payday “last year”. If one assumes that this was a Friday, then it is likely that it was May 20, 1898, and therefore the story is set in 1899.This story was dramatized in the popular Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
series starring Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett , born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.-Early life:...
. This version is faithful to the original story — although there is a twist. In the original story Beppo is captured after killing Venucci and his punishment is left unsaid for the audience to conjecture; in the TV drama, Beppo had gone to prison for a year after wounding Venucci in a brawl; at the end Beppo is hanged.
The Pearl of Death
The Pearl of Death
The Pearl of Death is a 1944 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. The story is loosely based on Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" but features some additions, such as Evelyn Ankers as an accomplice of the villain, played...
is a 1944
1944 in film
The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
film that is loosely based on "The Six Napoleons".
The basic plot element of "The Six Napoleons" is similar to that in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
"The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the seventh story of twelve in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...
", whose mystery proceeds from a thief having hid a precious stone in the belly of a one of several similar-looking geese.
SIXN, as it is abbreviated in the canon
Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Traditionally, the canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this context, the term "canon" is an attempt to distinguish between Doyle's original works and subsequent works by other authors using the same...
is one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes stories Doyle wrote. It is also one of the most popular episodes of the Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
series, in part because Lestrade is able to demonstrate his ultimate respect for Holmes, as described in the Inspector Lestrade
Inspector Lestrade
Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade....
page.
Lestrade does better as a detective in this story than he does in most of his appearances, as his identifying the murdered man is what makes Holmes realize why Beppo is after the busts. A more subtle point holds in Lestrade's favor: he recognizes a "Catholic emblem" on the murdered man, and uses it to divine his identity despite his ignorance of saint's medallions.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle skillfully and subtly draws comparisons between the methods of conventional crime solving (using Inspector Lestrade
Inspector Lestrade
Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character, a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle used the name of a friend from his days at the University of Edinburgh, a Saint Lucian medical student by the name of Joseph Alexandre Lestrade....
) with the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
and Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
and how he believes a case should be approached, using Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
to represent his ideal methodology. Between the two stands Doctor Watson, observing and commenting when the case demands. Lestrade, for example, cannot allow himself to get interested in what seems to be a trivial matter with a madman, and yet something about it bothers him. Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, who claims to understand the limitations of Lestrade's thinking, knows at once something is amiss and draws it out of him. Throughout the adventure, neither man works against the other, but they are each seeking the truth according to their own methods. Lestrade's focus turns to what he sees is the crux
Crux
Crux is the smallest of the 88 modern constellations, but is one of the most distinctive. Its name is Latin for cross, and it is dominated by a cross-shaped asterism that is commonly known as the Southern Cross.-Visibility:...
of the case, which is murder. Holmes has a better idea of that the crux truly is, and does not get himself distracted by the trifle of Venucci's death in light of the missing pearl.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
leads the law to the truth by bringing Lestrade to Beppo's criminal actions. Lestrade has the power and authority to arrest him on the spot, which Holmes cannot do. Both men are needed to come to this conclusion.
Throughout the Sherlock Holmes canon
Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Traditionally, the canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this context, the term "canon" is an attempt to distinguish between Doyle's original works and subsequent works by other authors using the same...
, Watson records Holmes' ongoing criticisms of the police, but when Lestrade praises Holmes for his work, calling it "workmanlike" as if it is the highest compliment he can think of, Holmes is "visibly moved". This is one of the rare instances when another person can conjure an emotional reaction from the stoic
STOIC
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
Holmes. When Lestrade assures him that Scotland Yard was proud, not jealous of him, his composure genuinely wavers.
Although he appears in later published works, this is one of Lestrade's last appearances within the canon. After this he is only mentioned by Holmes or Watson, in "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
"The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of the eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow.-Synopsis:...
" and "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
"The Adventure of the Three Garridebs", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes....
" as a working member of the Yard.
The Adventures of Superman TV show, episode #4, "The Mystery of the Broken Statues" (1952) is based on the story.