Selflessly presented as an inspiration to authors

[resonant]

Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the mantelpiece.

--- "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb"

The agony column (not to be confused with agony aunts, a related but separate phenomenon) was a place where readers of The Times could submit messages for publication. It was where you went if you needed to get a message to the spouse who abandoned you, or the child who ran away from home, or the accomplice who couldn't be contacted directly, or the person you'd met in passing and couldn't seem to forget.

If the Lady who a Gentleman handed into her carriage from Covent Garden Theatre, on the third of this month, will oblige the advertiser with a line to Z, saying if married or single, she will quiet the mind of a young Nobleman, who has tried, but in vain, to find the Lady. The Lady was in mourning, and sufficiently cloathed to distinguish her for possessing every virtue and charm that a man could desire in a female that he would make choice of for a Wife.

I can easily see why it was the first thing Sherlock Holmes read; it almost seems like Sherlock Holmes sprang from the agony column.

FRANGIPANI -- Do not doubt me. Numbers 67, 412, 87. You will now comprehend the delay.

Well: Alice Clay collected the entire column from 1800 to 1870, and published it in a book, and the California Digital Library has it available for download or online viewing in a variety of formats: The agony column of the "Times" 1800-1870 : Clay, Alice.

MY FRIEND. -- Should you receive a letter posted possibly to-morrow, it is important that you should read it. I shall, in that case, be awaiting your answer, no, not at . . . . . , but within a very short distance. Suspend your judgment until you receive it, and then let this act speak that regard which the expression of irrepressible feelings has hitherto apparently failed to convey. I ask for nothing but confidence, faith in me. Oh, drive me not to yet more utter affliction. Why leave me to the limited resource of A's to know you are even alive, but still not to know how you are?

Surely there are a thousand stories here. I dare you to write some of them! And link me to them!

Comments

[sara]

Have I talked to you about the virtues of the David Timson readings of the Holmes stories for Naxos?

I ask this because the engineer's thumb story is a particularly well-read one which has stuck with me.

[carolyn_claire]

Oh, thank you muchly for the info and the inspiration.

[sinick]

What an amazing reference! Thank you so much!

[some_stars]

That is SO COOL. Oh my gosh, that first quote--"quiet the mind of a young nobleman who has tried, but in vain"--it's just so evocative and awesome.

[kindkit]

Oh, cool! I've downloaded and I'm looking forward to reading through them.

[movies_michelle]

Very coincidentally, I'm in the middle of reading "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb" for the first time!

Thanks for the link. That's fascinating, and I love that it's available digitally.

[isagel]

It turns out I never actually new what the agony column was, in all my years of reading Sherlock Holmes. Thank you for enlightening me!

And, wow, that would make an amazing basis for a fic challenge. Perhaps multi-fandom. Pick an entry from the column and write a story based on it. Of course, that would also be a great basis for an original fiction short story anthology.

[marycrawford]

Ooh, what a treasure trove. Thanks so much for linking to this!

[oracne]

Oh WOW that is cool!

[oracne]

In fact, I must do a blog post and inspire The World!

Would you prefer I link to your post, or not?

[myalexandria]

this is great!

I was thinking about you yesterday because I read "The Quiet Gentleman," by Heyer, and it screamed for a fix-it. Poor Theo! Poor Gervase! All that affectionately tucking hands into arms and visiting each others' bedchambers, gone to waste. I actually feel quite upset about Theo, and I pretty much never feel sorry for her characters. So I googled Quiet Gentleman slash and came up with your review on goodbooks. Hee.

[reginagiraffe]

The thing I found most interesting was that I always had the impression from the books that each day had many entries in the column, when in reality days could go by with no entries and there was seldom (if ever) more than one in any given day.

[zelempa]

What do you think is the modern equivalent? Craigslist missed connections?

[blushingflower]

There are still print versions too. There's an "I saw you" in the Washington City Paper personals (and I'm sure others as well). Mostly though, it focuses on missed romantic connections, but I'm sure if you wanted to you could use it to send coded spy messages.

Please allow customers to exit.

And I did. I stepped to the side so you could exit the sixth car on the Glenmont train at Dupont, shortly before 9PM on 12/20. We smiled at each other, I stepped on the train, turned around to see you on the escalator; taking what I hope was not your last look at me. I would like to see how much more you have to offer with your beautiful smile.

[sineala]

Thanks for the information! Add me to the list of people who had been assuming it was like an agony-aunt column, but I see now it is much more awesome than that.

[caseylane]

In the newspapers around here they are the Personal's or Personal Ads and they've been around forever. My mother used to read them to see if her ex was trying to find her. They were/are everything from kids trying to find their birthmothers to missed connections or announcing you found a blouse at the laundramat and want to get it back to it's rightful owner.

[giglet]

*I* think this is a fabulous idea! Yay! Thanks!

[rhi]

Oh, wow, that's great -- thank you!

[dorinda]

Fantastic--thanks for linking to it! You're right, it's chock-full of inspiration.

[mific]

I went through a phase in my early 20s of cutting out the most weird, inexplicable and ridiculous personals from our local paper - there were some doozies, and some were definitely code. I kept them all in a matchbox, and then lost the box when I moved flats. Damn. I've got a book here called "Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor: The Best and Worst Personals of all Time" by Laura Schaefer. A lot are American but some are English so I may be able to find some inspiration there, too. Great idea!

[delurker]

How interesting!

[nellacitta]

!!!! It fills my heart with such GLEE and happiness that not only did Victorian England have 'missed connections', they kind of did it better. Amazing.