The
SEXIEST LINES
in
SHERLOCKIAN CANON


All quotes are taken from the anthology, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume I, published by Bantam (1986). ISBN: 0-553-21241-9
Abbreviations are taken from Les Moskowitz's Sherlockian Connection.

Enjoy...


"His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch..."
-STUD, p.10

Hands Reference #2:
"With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirtcuff."
-SIGN, p.107

Hands Reference #3:
"On the contrary, he put his finger-tips together, and leaned his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish for conversation."
-SIGN, p.108

"My mind ran upon our late visitor - her smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the strange mystery which overhung her life."
-SIGN, p.118

"'Look here, Watson, you look regularly done. Lie down there on the sofa and see if I can put you to sleep.'
He took up his violin from the corner, and as I stretched myself out he began to play some low, dreamy, melodious air--his own, no doubt, for he had a remarkable gift for improvisation. I have a vague remembrance of his gaunt limbs, his earnest face, and the rise and fall of his bow."
-SIGN, Chapter 8

"'His hands were far from horny.'"
-Holmes, SIGN, p.138
Hm, maybe this is more of an UNsexy line.
"JJ! For God's sake, by 'horny', he meant 'calloused'!!"
"So? His hands could've been calloused... with looove."
"'Calloused with LOVE'?!?!! That makes no sense!!"
"Sure it does."


Hands Reference #4:
"'For me,' said Sherlock Holmes, 'there still remains the cocaine-bottle.' And he stretched his long white hand up for it."
-SIGN, p.205

"As I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the *Study in Scarlet*, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind."
-SCAN

"'You don't mind breaking the law?'
'Not in the least.'
'Nor running a chance of arrest?'
'Not in a good cause.'
'Oh, the cause is excellent!'
'Then I am your man.'"
-SCAN, p.221

Hands Reference #5:
"All afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music..."
-REDH, p.243

"I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of every-day life."
-REDH

"The swing of his nature took him from extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase would suddenly come upon him..."
-REDH
Lust! See! It said lust!
"Calm down, JJ."

"'You are not very vulnerable from above,' Holmes remarked as he held up the lantern and gazed about him.
'Nor from below,' said Mr. Merryweather. . ."
-REDH, p.246

"My limbs were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note of the bank director."
-REDH, p.248

"Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent as this."
-BOSC, p.281

"Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur."
-IDEN

"As I passed the tall man who say by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my skirt, and a low voice whispered, 'Walk past me, and then look back at me.'"
-TWIS, p.309

"'My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one.'"
-Holmes, TWIS, p.311
(Not as sexy as single-bedded, but those damn Victorians haveta take what they can get.)

"'Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he, 'but it's the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.'"
-SPEC, p. 347
(Y'know, in nine months, it is going to be HELL at Baker Street...)

"Between ourselves, I think Mr. Holmes had not quite got over his illness yet. He's been behaving very queerly, and he is very much excited."
-Inspector Forrester to Watson, REIG

"Come at once if convenient--if inconvenient come all the same. S.H."
-Holmes' telegram to Watson, CREE

"'I never get your limits, Watson,' said he. 'There are unexplored possibilities about you.'"
-Holmes, SUSS

"'Surely no man would take up my profession if it were not that danger attracts him.'"
-Holmes, 3GAR
Or maybe just a pair of long white hands! Woo hoo hoo!

"'I believe you are the devil himself.'
'Not far from him, at any rate,' Holmes answered with a polite smile."
-Count Negretto Sylvius to Holmes, MAZA

"'I say, Watson,' he whispered, 'would you be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?'"
-Holmes, VALL, Chap 6

"My friend has so often astonished me in the course of our adventures that it was with a sense of exultation that I realised how completely I had astonished him."
-SECO

"The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on top of natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man."
-MUSG

"'Whom would you recommend, then?'
Holmes laid his hand upon my arm. 'If my friend would undertake it there is no man who is better worth having at your side when you are in a tight place. No one can say so more confidently than I.'"
-Sir Henry Baskerville to Holmes, HOUN, Chap 5

"I am certainly developing the wisdom of the serpent, for when Mortimer pressed his questions to an inconvenient extent I asked him casually to what type Frankland's skull belonged, and so heard nothing but craniology for the rest of our drive. I have not lived for years with Sherlock Holmes for nothing."
-HOUN, Chap 10

"Now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand. Could this be my stern, self-contained friend? These were hidden fires, indeed."
-HOUN, Chap 12
Ooh, baby.

"By Jove!" I cried; "if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. I should prefer having a partner to being alone."
-SCAR

"I must have a peep through that, Watson. If you bend your back and support yourself upon the wall, I think that I can manage."
An instant later, his feet were on my shoulders, but he was hardly up before he was down again.
-PRI0

"There are the wheels, Watson. Quick, man, if you love me! And don't budge, whatever happens -- whatever happens, do you hear? Don't speak! Don't move! Just listen with all your ears."
-DYIN

Billy: "Then there is Lord Cantlemere--" Watson: "Ah!" Billy: "Yes, sir; you know what that means. He's a stiff 'un, sir" -The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone (only the dialogue)

Regarding the same story: "Billy says that Holmes has cleared off to bed because 'he is very hard at it just now'."

Holmes says, "Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generation, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable."
-A Case Of Identity

Holmes: I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a woman.
-The Five Orange Pips
Ooh la la, baby!

"In spite of his capacity for concealing his emotions I could easily see that Holmes was in a state of suppressed excitement, while I was myself tingling with that half-sporting, half-intellectual pleasure which I invariably experienced when I associated myself with him in his investigations."
-CROO
Watson just tingled.



RELATED LINKS:

Foxhound's Holmes page has a list of Sherlockian Top Ten Lists; the 23rd one on the page is the Top Ten Most Suggestion Phrases In Canon. I swear I hadn't read that one before I made this page. Or, if I had, it completely blanked out of my mind, as often happens to me with alarming frequency these days.
No, what this page was REALLY ripped off of was...




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(1) Check it out. The abbreviation for A Study In Scarlet is STUD. And we all know what that sounds like, don't we? A porn film. "Studly In Scarlet". Oh, and you thought these books were so prim and proper.