There is a special kind of epigram, known as the Sherlockismus, of which the indefatigable Ratzegger has collected no less than one hundred and seventy-three instances. The following may serve as examples:
‘Let me call your attention to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.’
‘The dog did nothing at all in the night-time.’
‘That was the curious incident,’ said Sherlock Holmes.
And again:
‘I was following you, of course.’
‘Following me? I saw nobody.’
‘That is what you must expect to see when I am following you,’ said Sherlock Holmes.
This is the essay that is usually credited with initiating the "Grand Game," by which one conducts scholarly investigations on the Sherlock Holmes stories on the assumption that Watson and Holmes were real people.
His A Spiritual Aeneid, his account of how he became Catholic, is also worth reading.
