Marina

And this is one of the most famous passages in the book.

Tabby, since you're the great dramatic performer, would you like to read this excellent passage?

A gigantic hound.

Wow.

So the guy who wrote The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles, great novelist, he said that the title of the next chapter, which is The Problem, must be the least read chapter title in all literature.

Because basically, people are so desperate to skip on to find out what happens next, they ignore the heading at the top and they move straight on to the text.

And you are.

I mean, when you see that, the footprints of a gigantic hound, you are hooked.

Because it's the perfect, it's one of the things about the Sherlock Holmes stories, there's always this element of the weird and the kind of a possibility of the supernatural or something utterly inexplicable.

That's the hook that draws you in.

Even at this moment, you know, the cogs are turning in Holmes' mind and he's probably figured it all out.

But of course we haven't.

That's it.

But that's because he's a hardy sort of stalwart soul who's been in North America, hasn't he?

He's been in the US and in Canada.

Yes.

And so he's another, as you said, he's a very familiar figure in the sort of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle world of the sort of the guy who's gone out to the British Empire or to, you know, similar parts and has been outdoors.

He's got a ruddy face.

He's a man's man.

He's young and he's vigorous and all of this kind of thing.