7:25 p.m. Okay, so the last two chapters were letters, and this (10th) chapter's called "Extract from the Diary of Dr Watson." 10 pages of it.
7:27 p.m. "The house is banked in with rolling clouds ..." Verbs are God :) "... the distant boulders are gleaming when the light strikes upon their wet faces."
7:29 p.m. I'll never finish if I get caught up in the diction. Reading on.
7:31 p.m. Conan Doyle keeps reminding the reader that the warning letter "... might have been the work of a protecting friend as easily as an enemy." :)
7:39 p.m. There seems to be a structure to the diary entries: First describe the weather (in poetic terms), then the events (in chronological order). Quote dialog, even though it's a diary entry. Here's someone with 100 per cent recall of conversation (Truman Capote had 94 per cent recall).
7:43 p.m. But Conan Doyle really pays a lot of attention to setting as well (in addition to paying attention to dialog). The setting is where he has most of his metaphors (even though he doesn't use metaphors for much beyond creating atmosphere).
7:51 p.m. Done. I find it odd that the reader's not met Dr. Mortimer's wife yet. Must be 19th century English custom or something.
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