interpretation challenge - greatest

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http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Arthur_Conan_Doyle/The_Adventure_of_the_Red_Circle/The_Adventure_of_the_Red_Circle_p7.html

"Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?"

"What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. I suppose when you doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?"

"For my education, Holmes."

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last. This is an instructive case. There is neither money nor credit in it, and yet one would wish to tidy it up. When dusk comes we should find ourselves one stage advanced in our investigation."
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1. art...: Sherlock Holmes wants to finish the case for fun, regardless of money.

2. series of lesson...:
-The case has the greatest fun at the last moment.
-To the greatest detective, he finds fun when he solves it at last.
-The case teaches people the greatest things(??) in life when a person is at the last moment of his life=death.

Do you agree?

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@WBYeats,

Not necessarily--he is not saying that he wants to finish the case for fun, although he may get some "fun" out of it, the only certain implication of his remark is that he wants to finish the case for sake of getting to the bottom of the problem it presents.

You need to stop saying "fun" and substitute satisfaction.

Holmes has not described himself s the greatest detective, although such a conceit would not be out of character for Doyle's fictional character, he has not in fact said that here. You need to drop your obsession with the word "fun."

You are also missing an essential idea when Doyle writes: "It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last." The greatest lesson is one that cannot be known until one dies--is there life after death. It is to that unanswerable question (unanswerable by the living) that Doyle refers.

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@WBYeats,

WBYeats wrote:

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Arthur_Conan_Doyle/The_Adventure_of_the_Red_Circle/The_Adventure_of_the_Red_Circle_p7.html

"Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?"

"What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. I suppose when you doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?"

"For my education, Holmes."

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last. This is an instructive case. There is neither money nor credit in it, and yet one would wish to tidy it up. When dusk comes we should find ourselves one stage advanced in our investigation."
================
1. art...: Sherlock Holmes wants to finish the case for fun, regardless of money.

2. series of lesson...:
-The case has the greatest fun at the last moment.
-To the greatest detective, he finds fun when he solves it at last.
-The case teaches people the greatest things(??) in life when a person is at the last moment of his life=death.

Do you agree?

Holmes, in his reply, actually answers your question. He says that the matter is “an instructive case.”

It appears to me he is saying that he will get something (a learning experience) out of it…as opposed to money or credit (from other detectives or the police) and that the instructive element should be enough to encourage pursuing it and tidying it up. (In fact, it appears as though Holmes was saying that the instructive element was worth more than money or credit.)

Good observation on the part of Doyle.

Would that more of us pursue problems and other elements of our lives for the sake of what the pursuit can teach us rather than in chase of money, fame, or approbation.

Watson, as usual, served his purpose with his question. He gave Holmes the chance to show how much further evolved he was than the ordinary bloke.

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Thank you~

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interpretation challenge - greatest

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