I wasn’t sure how to label in Google Fusion tables(oops), but in my graphs the X axis represents the publication year and the Y axis represents theme frequency. Overall, I liked thinking about the graph results and musing over what the data might represent.

Gun: There was a large increase in this topic from December 1^st 1893 to October 12^th 1893. In 1893, The Final Problem was published. Although Holmes dies (insert massive question mark here) in the story, it isn’t gun related. He plummets to his death (insert another massive question mark here) at Reichenbach Falls with Moriarty. However, he is beaten with a police baton, so maybe my topic is faulty. The topic drops the next year, rises again in 1904, and then falls until 1911. After this, the graph experiences spikes in 1917, 1922, and 1925. I looked up guns in Victorian London using victorianlondon.org, and found an entry detailing a gun involved murder from 1876. Given the later dates, and presuming that I didn’t mess up to topic, maybe it’s that guns became more available, and recognized in crime stories.

Continue reading →