Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
He wasn't supposed to be.
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He's the "hero" of the whole second half of the book, regardless of whether or not he's an anti-hero or a straight-up hero. And no one calls him out for his "oh, she's not a virgin, I don't want her anymore" attitude. Since the entire book hinges around that attitude, I find it silly to the point of parody.
It's not surprising given attitudes towards women throughout the entire series. More than once, Holmes refuses to give the solution to a mystery to a woman client, saying that she wouldn't be able to handle the truth or wouldn't believe him because Women Are Emotional.
Doyle was a product of his time, I'm not going to argue otherwise. But SiS is a particularly bone-headed example of why virgin worship is stupid, to say the least. And since a good half of the book is devoted to the subject, I find it one of the weaker (read: boring) stories in the collection. Not how I'd introduce Holmes to kids -- I'd be afraid they'd never pick up the better stories.
YMMV.
@Shimarenda, fair enough that Opium != Opiates back then. But I think the point of the post referencing Holmes issues with opium/opiates was that anyone approaching Sherlock Holmes (including children) is going to have to deal with that particular problem.
