The Adventure of the Cardboard Box - Definition and Overview

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box is one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the second of the twelve Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in most British editions of the canon, and second of the eight stories from His Last Bow in most American editions. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1892.

Synopsis

Inspector Lestrade has asked Sherlock Holmes to help him discover why a cardboard box containing two severed human ears was sent to Miss Susan Cushing, a respectable, elderly spinster from Croydon. The investigation reveals some unpleasant family secrets.

Trivia

When the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were published in the USA for the first time, the publishers believed "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" was too scandalous for the American public, since it dealt with adultery. As a result, this story was not published in the USA until many years later, when it was added to His Last Bow.

Even today, most American editions of the canon include it with His Last Bow, while most British editions keep the story in its original place in the Memoirs.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

• Full text of The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (http://www.bakerstreet221b.de/canon/card.htm)
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Box (http://sherlock-holmes.classic-literature.co.uk/the-adventure-of-the-cardboard-box/) - in easy to read HTML format.
• Free eBook of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9555) at Project Gutenberg (including The Adventure of the Cardboard Box)