Wednesday, 31 December 2025

Moaning Wind

"For a while, we sat in silence, broken only by the moan of a rising wind at the casements and the short sharp panting of the dying man's breath."
-Adrian Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of Arnsworth Castle" IN Richard Lancelyn Green (Ed.), The Further Adventures Of  Sherlock Holmes (London, 1985), pp. 148-168 AT p. 164.

Pathetic Fallacy: the wind not only rises but even moans as a man is dying. Also, it underlines or emphasizes the silence that intervenes in the dialogue.

See:


- and also many other references to wind on the Poul Anderson Appreciation blog.

Adrian Conan Doyle writes a good pastiche, even including:


Happy New Year.

(The woman in our corner shop is a Hindu and told me that their New Year is some time in March.)