Watson arrives in 221B Baker Street where the page boy Billy shows him a wax effigy of Holmes placed near a curtained window in the sitting room. The effigy produces a shadow on the curtain that, when viewed from outside, is the unmistakable profile of Sherlock Holmes. Using this visual trick, Holmes aims to give a perfect target to a would-be murderer with a rifle. Holmes names his murderer as Count Negretto Sylvius, the diamond thief he has been following in disguise. He gives the criminal's address to Watson, then sends the doctor out the back for the police. As the Count arrives, Holmes has Billy invite him inside, then takes him by surprise when he attempts an assault on the effigy. Holmes then offers the Count and his helper, boxer Sam Merton, freedom if they give up the jewel, or jail if not. He invites them to discuss the deal while he plays violin in the next room. When the Count decides to double-cross Holmes and takes the stone from his secret pocket to show Sam in window light, the detective springs from the chair in place of his replica and grabs the £100K jewel. His bedroom has a gramophone and secret passage to behind the curtain. After the police take away the villains, Lord Cantlemere sweeps in. Unlike the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, he did not want Holmes. When tricked into insisting on arrest for whoever is found possessing the diamond, he finds the jewel in his pocket – where Holmes has placed it – and apologizes. Finally, Holmes can eat.
Unusual aspects
It is notable for being one of only two Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes stories, aside from a couple of humorous vignettes, to be written in third person. The other is "His Last Bow". "The Mazarin Stone" was written this way because it was adapted from a stage play, The Crown Diamond, in which Watson hardly appeared. Its adaptation from the theatre also explains why the action in this story is confined to one room. The plot twist in which Holmes reveals he had been listening to the two criminals as they spoke freely would also not have been possible using a first person narrative. In the original play, the villain was Holmes's enemy Colonel Sebastian Moran of "The Adventure of the Empty House" infamy, not Count Negretto Sylvius.
Publication history
"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" was first published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in October 1921, and in the US in Hearst's International in November 1921. The story was published with three illustrations by Alfred Gilbert in the Strand, and with four illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Hearst's International. It was included in the short story collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in the UK and the US in June 1927.
Adaptations
Film and television
A short silent film based on the story was released in 1923 as part of the Sherlock Holmes film series by Stoll Pictures, with Eille Norwood as Holmes and Hubert Willis as Watson. An episode of BBC's For the Children adapted the story for television in 1951. Featuring Andrew Osborn as Holmes and Philip King as Watson, no footage is believed to have survived. This story was heavily rewritten for Granada Television's Sherlock Holmes series. In 1994, it was merged with another story, "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs". The most noticeable change is that Holmes does not feature except in the prologue and final scene. It is Mycroft Holmes who takes up the case of the stolen diamond, while Watson is retained to look into the Garrideb mystery. "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" was adapted as "The Adventure of the Mazarin Chip" for a 2001 episode of the animated television showSherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century.
Radio
"The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" was adapted by Edith Meiser as an episode of the radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episode aired on 9 February 1931, with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson. Other dramatisations of the story, also adapted by Meiser, aired on 23 May 1936 and on the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on 5 January 1941 and 4 January 1948. Carleton Hobbs played Sherlock Holmes with Norman Shelley as Dr. Watson in two BBC radio adaptations of the story. The first aired on 2 December 1954 on the BBC Home Service and was dramatised by Felix Felton, with Ralph Truman as Count Negretto Sylvius. The second aired on 4 September 1962 on the BBC Light Programme, and was dramatised by Michael Hardwick, with Francis de Wolff as Count Sylvius. "The Mazarin Stone" was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 1994 by Bert Coules as part of his complete radio adaptation of the canon. It starred Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, and featured Anthony Bate as Lord Cantlemere and Nigel Anthony as Count Sylvius. In 2006, the story was adapted for radio as part of the Imagination Theatre radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.
