Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #5. Gary Lovisi
For instance, Matthew Bunson’s Encyclopedia Sherlockiana (1984) avers that “The Sussex Vampire” … “was his only encounter with vampires in the Canon, an investigation that proved to be very un-supernatural indeed.”
Doyle’s admiration of Edgar Allan Poe and his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson are well documented. Hence, it is not surprising that many of his science fiction, fantasy and horror stories contain supernatural elements. In fact, he described the protagonists of “The Winning Shot” (1893), “John Barrington Cowles” (1884), and “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” (1824) as vampires, while the stories “The Captain of the Polestar” (1883), “The American’s Tale” (1888), and “The Parasite” revolve around vampire-like monsters.*
[* “John Barrington Cowles” and “The Parasite” have been included in a number of vampire anthologies, while Doyle’s Vampire Stories includes nine of his tales that contain traces of vampirism.]
Since Dracula went out of copyright in 1962, dozens of writers have speculated about what would happen if, in Loren D. Estleman’s words, the “Sleuth” met the “Tooth.” In 1978, Estleman’s novel, Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, opens with the discovery of the “battered tin dispatch-box” in which Dr Watson stored the records of a number of unpublished cases. Later that year, the second book in Fred Saberhagen’s long-running Dracula series, The Holmes-Dracula File, told us about the hitherto unacknowledged role Holmes and Watson played in driving Dracula from England. Many years later, David Stuart Davies inserted the Count into his sequel to Holmes’s most famous adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles. There have also been light-hearted attempts to prove that Professor Van Helsing was, in fact, Sherlock Holmes or that Moriarty was Dracula.
Despite thousands of studies, stories, comic books and movies about Dracula and Sherlock Holmes, one of the most important parodies in popular literature has never received the recognition it deserves.
Numerous similarities between Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897) and Arthur Conan Doyle’s tale “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” (1924) leave no doubt that the story is a rationalized version of the novel. Both tales have the same plot: A wealthy European nobleman comes to London* where he ruins one unfortunate woman and threatens a second woman with a fate worse than death.** Her friends try to wrest her from the villain’s clutches. When all seems lost, they consult an expert with exceptional intellectual and moral qualities — be it Professor Abraham Van Helsing or Sherlock Holmes — who leads them into battle. Their quest is guided by a woman who was “seduced” by the fiend and, consequently, has special knowledge about him. (In Doyle’s rational parody, Kitty Winter’s awareness of the Baron’s “lust diary” replaces Mina Harker’s telepathic link to Count Dracula.) The heroes are forced to plot a new course of action when they learn that the monster has left — or plans to leave — London by ship. After a series of twists and turns that include a confrontation in which one of the protagonists escapes through a window, evil is defeated. The champions halt Mina’s transformation into one of Dracula’s “Brides” and convince Violet de Merville to call off her engagement to Baron Gruner. Life returns to normal.
[*Dracula is commonly associated with Transylvania, but most of the novel takes place in London.]
[**Kitty Winter warns Violet de Merville, “I am one of a hundred that he has tempted and used and ruined and thrown into the refuse heap, as he will you also. Your refuse heap is more likely to be a grave, and maybe that’s the best.”]
All good detective stories offer readers more than one clue. In this case, it is not surprising that there are scattered hints that Baron Gruner is a vampire* and the story is a parody of Dracula.** Descriptions such as: “The mouth… was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth” (from Dracula) and “There was a gleam of teeth from between those cruel lips” (from “The Illustrious Client”) are interchangeable. When Holmes refers to Gruner as “a real aristocrat of crime with a superficial suggestion of afternoon tea and all the cruelty of the grave behind it,” who is he describing? Doyle also describes his foe as a “beastman” with “paws” who emits a “howl of rage.” His Baron does not have supernatural powers but, like the Count, he is a master hypnotist who “collects women.” The fact that “He is said to have the whole sex at his mercy and to have made ample use of the fact” parodies Dracula’s speech in chapter 23 when the vampire turns on his pursuers and taunts them: “Your girls that you all love are mine already. And through them you and others shall yet be mine… .”
[*In 1978, Brad A. Keefauver pointed out that Gruner can be seen as a vampire. ]
[**Bill Mason found eighteen points of similarity between Dracula and “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.”]
Dracula is an erotic horror novel. In a similar fashion, as Christopher Redmond points out, “The dark side of sex dominates… ‘The Illustrious Client.’” It follows that Violet’s awareness of “… three passages in my fiancé’s life in which he became entangled with designing women” may be an oblique reference to the well-known episode in chapter 3 of the novel where Jonathan Harker is “seduced” by a trio of ghostly vampire women. This scene — which opens with “I was not alone … In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner” — is the only part of the novel that appears in every important adaptation of Dracula. The story does not contain any vampires per se, but both Violet and the “she-devil” Kitty are “pale” and “white.” Kitty’s remark “What I am, Adelbert Gruner made me” forces the question of what she is and what the Baron made her.
Sherlock Holmes assumes many of Abraham Van Helsing’s duties. His belief that their forthcoming case “may be a matter of life and death” echoes the Professor’s realization that Lucy’s mysterious, wasting illness “… is no jest, but life and death, perhaps more.” Both men lead the other vampire hunters and plan the campaign against the monster, while both of them refer to their adventure as a “game” in which they must respect their opponent’s intelligence and cunning.
The names of principal characters provide another layer of evidence:
> “Adelbert Gruner” contains all but one of the letters in the name “Dracula.” Adelbert furnishes the D, R, A and L; Gruner the U.
> In the novel, Dracula uses the pseudonym “Count de Ville.” In the story, the family name of the damsel in distress is “de Merville.” If we drop one “e,” de Merville becomes an anagram of “Mr de Ville.” A play on one of the Count’s names could be attributed to happenstance, but imitations of both names cannot be chalked up to coincidence.
> The Baron is likened to “A purring cat who thinks he sees prospective mice.” Like the Count, his association with lower forms of life such as bats, rats and wolves symbolizes a primitive state of consciousness.
> In a similar vein, Kitty Winter’s given name serves the same function while branding her as the monster’s progeny. Calling her “Miss W.” may be a nod to Miss Lucy Westenra, who was also the “vampire’s” first victim in England.
Any overt reference to Transylvania, the Carpathian Mountains, the Borgo Pass or, perhaps, even a castle, could have given the game away too easily. However, Gruner resides in a “large house” which, like Dracula’s castle, is approached by “… a long winding drive.” In conjunction with other clues, Doyle’s curious association of the Splûgen Pass (which runs between Switzerland and Italy) with Prague may be a cipher for the Borgo Pass. His “error” reflects Jonathan Harker’s remark that he “… was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula.”
Another set of clues point to Bram Stoker. Like Dracula, “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client” is presented by an Irishman. Sir James Damery inaugurates Holmes’s and Watson’s adventure by pleading for their help. His “Irish eyes” and “… large, bluff, honest personality” could be a description of Bram Stoker, but Doyle took pains to conceal his bearded friend’s identity by transforming him into a “cleanshaven” aristocratic dandy. Like Stoker, who travelled extensively, Damery is “…a man of the world.” The mention