There were many notable women in the Canon. Some were heroes, some were villains, and some were caught up in unfortunate circumstances. Aside from our dear Mrs Hudson and a few appearances by Mary Watson née Morstan, there were not many reoccurring women in the stories. Like many clients and criminals, they rarely crossed paths with Holmes and Watson again.
So who is a lady from the Canon that you wished you had seen more of or learned more about?
Watson ends the Copper Beeches “As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend
Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further
interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one
of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at
Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable
success.” Like Watson, I regret that we know so little of Miss Hunter once the case was complete.
Just how did this governess with relatively little in the way of special skills become head of a school in relatively few years. Did she purchase the school or set it up herself? If so, where did she get the money? If now, how did she reach her present post?
It would have been interesting, had she settled in London or close to it, to see Miss Hunter involved, even if only peripherally, in another case or two. She certainly had brains, curiosity, and a bit of daring, all to the good in such a profession.
Like others, she might have become someone Holmes went to once in a while when special knowledge or a special situation — here, being female — made her better suited to collecting information than even Holmes himself.
In time, Holmes might have become comfortable with her as a junior member of “The Firm,” and there’s no doubt that Watson, after his Mary was out of his life, would have enjoyed working (and possibly playing) with her.
I wish we knew more about Violet Hunter.
I think Violet Hunter is a good person to want to know more about. Doyle wrote her as a gentle satire of the “New Woman”, independent, sure of her own mind, but in the end implies she lives the lonely life of spinster while Alice Rucastle gets the fairy-tale happy ending.
I’d also like to know more about Irene Adler–the one that Doyle wrote of, not the Adler that Sherlockians have created over the years. Grace Dunbar has some admirable qualities, but almost seems a cardboard saint. Kitty Winter seems more interesting in her moral ambiguities. But perhaps it’s Eugenia Ronder that I have the most sympathy for, because her story is told between the lines, plus her story could very well be told as a film noir.
I think my nom. Annie Harrison, is quite a lady, one respected by Sherlock Holmes. She is intelligent and courageous; she recognizes when something important is going on and keeps an open mind about it; she follows SH’s directions scrupulously. Now, I know that “Tadpole” doesn’t seem to be as adventurous and intelligent as she is, plus her brother is on the wrong side of life, But she is a good lady for her time and an excellent character in the canon.