Mary Russell’s Bleak House
17
must be plenty o f . . . older men . . . who mightn’t normally expect to marry
again . . . Doing their part for England’s ‘surplus women’,” (111)?
Perhaps the presence of a great detective makes this slight feminist
transgression more forgivable. In looking at the larger-than-life Holmes, lines
have been drawn from him in Regiment to Jamdyce as guardian and mentor (and
eventually fiance), but his most obvious counterpart is Inspector Bucket.
Although Holmes, “has a foothold in both the amateur and private investigator
worlds . . (Ball 27) and Bucket is a professional police investigator, there are
character links that are irrefutable. Bucket is frequently described as a diviner
who seems to pull conclusions out of thin air: “This ‘magic lanthom’
performance is a fitting symbol f or . . . Bucket’s impressive visualizing
p o w e rs...” (Thomas 131). When first we meet Mr. Bucket, he isn’t seen
entering and is described as having a “ghostly manner of appearing” (Dickens
355), exemplifying his “almost magical” expertise (Bradbury xxvi).
Holmes’s eerie and inherent powers of detection are often referenced in
both the original Doyle stories and in King’s presentation. Much of the time the
context for such praise is in the form of rebuking Watson’s narration. For
example, in “Silver Blaze” Holmes remarks, “Because I made a blunder, my
dear Watson—which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone
would think who only knew me through your memoirs” (Doyle 84). Mary
Russell is immediately impressed with Holmes’s magical skills, “Two hundred
years ago you would have been burnt.. . . a person who achieves knowledge and
power . . . a sorcerer” (King Beekeeper’s 18). In addition to seemingly magical
powers of divining, the two characters share an omnipresence that is nearly
ethereal for the times: Holmes with his Baker Street Irregulars and disguises that
allow him to exercise “his all-seeing gaze” (Regiment 75) and Bucket with “his
mind an observation tower, his unlimited vision . . . ” (Thomas 143).
Much is also made of both of their hands and fingers as powerful and
enigmatic personifications of their larger characters. Bucket is always in consult
with his forefinger when he’s working over a case in his mind and about to have
an epiphany. Dickens writes, “He puts [his finger] to his ears, and it whispers
information. . . he shakes it before a guilty man, and it charms him to his
destruction” (803). Likewise Holmes’s fingers are always forming a steeple
when he is in deepest concentration. In addition to Regiment, numerous King
and Doyle stories allude to the power of Holmes’s hands as “so clever” and
“extraordinary” (King Letter 23, 24). His hands are spoken about as having
powers inherent to them independent of the man to whom they belong.
Both men’s powers are described as not merely uncanny, but otherworldly.
This otherworldliness turns out to be on the side of what’s just, but not without
some ambiguity. Bucket works in concert with Tulkinghom at first, which is
antithetical to a reader’s perception that he is an honest character given
Tulkinghom’s role (as his name suggests) as a pseudo-villain. However, we
eventually discover that Bucket is after the truth out of a sense of duty.