The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

File:Coronet of a British Earl.svg]]

A Streatham banker named Mr Alexander Holder makes a loan of £50,000 (equivalent to approximately £{{Format price|{{Inflation|UK-GDP|50000|1886}}}} in {{Inflation/year|UK-GDP}}{{Inflation/fn|UK-GDP}}This calculation assumes that the story takes place in 1886, which is suggested by Leslie S. Klinger in Volume I (p. 761) of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (W.W. Norton, 2005). The year in which the story takes place is not stated in the story, and could be considered slightly different.) to a client from one of the "highest, noblest, most exalted names in England," implied to be a member of the British Royal Family and, thus, a son of Queen Victoria and an heir to the throne. The client leaves the beryl coronet, described as one of the "most precious public possessions of the empire," as collateral. Feeling his bank's personal safe is insufficient to protect such a rare and valuable piece of jewellery, he takes it home and keeps it in his dressing room. However, he and his niece Mary later find his son Arthur holding the coronet, seemingly trying to bend it, with three beryls missing from it. A panicked Holder seeks out Sherlock Holmes for help.

Despite the damning evidence against Arthur, who refuses to give a statement, Holmes is unconvinced. With the threat of Holder's reputation being besmirched and a national scandal weighing heavily on his mind, Holmes determines Arthur could not have broken the coronet on his own without making noise, notices footprints in the snow outside Holder's home, and considers Holder's servants, Mary, and Arthur's rakish friend Sir George Burnwell as potential suspects.

Eventually, Holmes concludes Burnwell is a notorious criminal who conspired with Mary, unaware of his real identity, to steal the coronet. Arthur caught the pair in the act and broke the coronet while trying to take it back from Burnwell before taking the blame for Mary out of love for her. Though Burnwell and Mary escape justice, Holmes is convinced they will receive their punishment in due time. He later buys back the missing beryls from a fence that Burnwell sold them to, receives compensation from Holder, and tells him to apologize to Arthur for assuming he was the thief.

"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" was first published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in May 1892, and in the United States in the US edition of the Strand in June 1892.Smith (2014), p. 66. The story was published with nine illustrations by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine.Cawthorne (2011), p. 71. It was included in the short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in October 1892.Cawthorne (2011), p. 54.

The 1912 short film The Beryl Coronet was released in the Éclair film series featuring Georges Tréville as Sherlock Holmes.{{cite book |last=Eyles|first=Alan|title=Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration |url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle|url-access=registration|year=1986 |publisher=Harper & Row |page=[https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/130 130] |ISBN=0-06-015620-1}}

The story was dramatised as a 1921 silent short film as part of the Stoll film series starring Eille Norwood as Holmes.{{cite book |last=Eyles|first=Alan|title=Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration |url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle|url-access=registration|year=1986 |publisher=Harper & Row |page=[https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/131 131] |ISBN=0-06-015620-1}}

The story was adapted for an episode of the 1965 television series Sherlock Holmes with Douglas Wilmer as Holmes, Nigel Stock as Watson, Leonard Sachs as Holder and Suzan Farmer as Mary. It also featured David Burke as Sir George Burnwell. Burke would later play Watson opposite Jeremy Brett in the first two seasons of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

A 2001 episode of the animated television series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, titled "The Adventure of the Beryl Board", was based on the story.{{cite book |last=Barnes |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Barnes (writer) |title=Sherlock Holmes on Screen |year=2011 |publisher=Titan Books |page=226 |isbn=978-0857687760}}

The story was used in part in the Elementary episode 'How the Sausage Is Made.'{{Cite news|url=https://www.avclub.com/when-joan-and-sherlock-fight-elementary-wins-1798189651|title=When Joan and Sherlock fight, Elementary wins|last=Valentine|first=Genevieve|work=TV Club|access-date=2018-05-21|language=en-US}}

Edith Meiser adapted the story as an episode of the radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which aired on 28 January 1932, with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr Watson.Dickerson (2019), p. 41. Other episodes adapted from the story aired on 24 March 1935 (with Louis Hector as Holmes and Lovell as Watson)Dickerson (2019), p. 64. and 26 September 1936 (with Gordon as Holmes and Harry West as Watson).Dickerson (2019), p. 76.

A dramatisation of "The Beryl Coronet" was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 30 June 1959, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson.{{cite book |last=De Waal |first=Ronald Burt |title=The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes |year=1974 |publisher=Bramhall House |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldbibliograph00dewa/page/386 386] |isbn=0-517-217597 |url=https://archive.org/details/worldbibliograph00dewa|url-access=registration}} The cast also included Frederick Treves as Arthur Holder and Ronald Baddiley as Roberts. It was adapted by Michael Hardwick.{{cite web

|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09bd5bp

|title=Sherlock Holmes

|accessdate=14 February 2018

|website=BBC iPlayer Radio}}

"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" was dramatised as a 1977 episode of the series CBS Radio Mystery Theater with Kevin McCarthy as Sherlock Holmes and Court Benson as Dr. Watson.{{cite book |title=The CBS Radio Mystery Theater: An Episode Guide and Handbook to Nine Years of Broadcasting, 1974–1982 |page=229 |last1=Payton |first1=Gordon |last2=Grams |first2=Martin Jr. |publisher=McFarland |year=2015 |orig-year=1999 |isbn=978-0786492282 |edition=Reprinted}}

The story was adapted by Vincent McInerney for BBC Radio 4 in 1991 as an episode of the 1989–1998 radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. It featured Anthony Newlands as Holder, Angus Wright as Arthur, Petra Markham as Mary, and Timothy Carlton (father of Benedict Cumberbatch, another famous Sherlock) as Sir George Burnwell.{{cite web

|url=http://merrisonholmes.com/adventures.php

|title=The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

|accessdate=12 December 2016

|website=The BBC complete audio Sherlock Holmes

|author=Bert Coules}}

A 2010 episode of the radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was adapted from the story, with John Patrick Lowrie as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.{{cite web |url=https://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/classicsh_sw.log.pdf |website=Old-Time Radio |title=The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Broadcast Log |last=Wright |first=Stewart |date=30 April 2019 |access-date=14 June 2020}}

Radio MirchiBangla adapted this story for their Sunday Suspense series on 12 September 2021.

Mir enacted as Sherlock Holmes and Deep enacted the role of Dr. Watson.

The novel The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Improbable Prisoner by Stuart Douglas is a subtle 'sequel' to this story.

;Notes

{{Reflist}}

;Sources

• {{cite book |title=A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes |last=Cawthorne |first=Nigel |author-link=Nigel Cawthorne |publisher=Running Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0762444083}}
• {{cite book |last=Dickerson |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Dickerson |title=Sherlock Holmes and His Adventures on American Radio |publisher=BearManor Media |year=2019 |isbn=978-1629335087}}
• {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Daniel |title=The Sherlock Holmes Companion: An Elementary Guide |publisher=Aurum Press |year=2014 |edition=Updated |orig-year=2009 |isbn=978-1-78131-404-3}}

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Beryl Coronet, The Adventure of the

Category:1892 short stories

Category:Short stories adapted into films

Category:Works originally published in The Strand Magazine