View source for Pett Ridge's poem


''Pett Ridge's poem'' is an article published in [[The Sketch]] on 9 april 1902. 


== Pett Ridge's poem ==

[[File:the-sketch-1902-04-09-p462-pett-ridge-s-poem.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[The Sketch]] (9 april 1902, p. 462)]]

It is by this time perfectly clear that. we shall have a quiet spring in  the literary and publishing worlds. The publishers think that the months during which spring books sell best will this year be monopolised by the Coronation. There need be little hesitation in predicting that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Dr. Conan Doyle]]'s "[[HOUN|Hound of the Baskervilles]]" will be the book of the season. Many of us can repeat the affecting lines of Mr. Pett Ridge—

: I could not love thee, [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Doyle]], so much,
: Loved I not [[Sherlock Holmes|Sherlock]] more.

The one possible fault to be found with "[[HOUN|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]" is that we have too much [[Dr. Watson|Watson]] and too little [[Sherlock Holmes|Sherlock]]. I am sure that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Dr. Doyle]] did not intend to represent Watson as an amiable idiot, but the contrast between him and Sherlock is so strong as to leave this impression. And so we find Watson managing affairs in "[[HOUN|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]" for several chapters. We are oppressed with the feeling that everything is going wrong. Happily, Sherlock reappears, but, alas, at that stage there are few pages of the book left. It is easy, however, to make criticisms. The striking and undeniable fact is [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Dr. Doyle]]'s un-approachable supremacy in this kind of work. "[[HOUN|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]" might conceivably have been clone better, but no living man except the author could have done it at all, or come within sight of doing it. 






----
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]