Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Autograph manuscript signed ("A Conan Doyle"), of  "The Adventure of the Three Gables," a Sherlock Holmes story from The Case Book, 31 pages (8 x 6 1/4 in.; 20x 160 mm), Crowborough, [1926]; in dark ink on 31 ruled pages (rectos of leaves only), with numerous revisions; bound for Doyle as usual in vellum by Spealls, upper cover gilt-lettered "The Adventure | of the | Three Gables | A Sherlock Holmes Story"

Sixth Marquis of Donegall; purchased from the Donegall Estate by  — Lew David Feldman, House of El Dieff, Inc. (December 1975) — by descent to the present owner

De Waal, The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson 880

"I don't think that any of my adventures with Mr. Sherlock Holmes opened quite so abruptly or so dramatically, as that which I associate with The Three Gables."  The story of Doyle's intriguing tale of thievery, deception, and deduction begins with a visit to 221B Baker Street from a cowardly ruffian looking to intimidate Holmes. Ironically, Holmes secures the ruffian's cooperation, by threatening to tell what he knows about a suspicious death, and the twists and turns of the story ensue. Holmes receives a message about some strange happenings from an elderly woman, Mrs. Mary Maberley, whose son has recently died in Rome. Holmes makes a visit to Three Gables, Mrs. Maberley's home at Harrow Weald, the first time to collect information and then a second time to investigate a burglary. Intruders had chloroformed Mrs. Maberley and then stole a manuscript from her son's belongings. During the tussle, Mrs. Maberley managed to retain a portion of one of the pages of the manuscript. Holmes deduces the manuscript fragment is from a rather lurid novel in the hand of Mrs. Maberley's son, Douglas. Noticing the abrupt change in the usage of the third person to the first person in the text of the manuscript,  Holmes further deduces Mrs. Maberley's son was writing a thinly veiled account of an affair he had with one Isadora Klein. After Klein broke off the relationship, the young Douglas Maberley decided to seek revenge by putting pen to paper. Klein found out about the manuscript, knew it would have tremendous repercussions if published, and decided she had to get the manuscript by any means—even if it meant she had to resort to crime. She hired various unsavory characters to steal the manuscript and by the time Holmes figures all this out, Klein has already burned the manuscript. To remedy the situation, Holmes compounds the illegal activities by committing extortion. He forces Isadora Klein to pay Mrs. Marberly a handsome sum for a first-class trip around the world, something she always wanted, in return for his silence about the whole sordid affair.

The manuscript contains over one hundred revisions by Doyle: pure deletions (nearly all of which are still readable), deletions replaced by new text (ranging from a word to a full sentence), and insertions of new text altogether (from a word to a long phrase). Some revisions appear to be made as Doyle was writing the draft; others, in a markedly darker ink and in pencil, were executed when the author read through the manuscript once and then once again.

The story first appeared in the October 1926 issue of Strand Magazine. It was collected in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) where it is the fourth of twelve stories.

Complete manuscripts of Sherlock Holmes stories with such extensive emendations are of the utmost rarity.