Translations and Pea Jackets

07/07/08 17:17 Filed in: Additional Information
“‘L’homme c’est rien — l’oeuvre c’est tout,’ as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand.”
Holmes quoted from a letter from Gustave Flaubert written to George Sand in The Red Headed League. The original quote is "l'Homme n'est Rien l'Oeuvre Tout" (the man is nothing, the work is everything), but Holmes mistakenly renders it as "l'Homme c'est rien l'Oeuvre c'est tout."
Omne ignotum pro magnifico
  • Everything unknown is taken for magnificent.
Sherlock Holmes wore a Pea Jacket:
  • A short, double-breasted overcoat of coarse woolen cloth, formerly worn by sailors.
  • ORIGIN early 18th cent.: probably from Dutch pijjakker, from pij ‘coat of coarse cloth’ + jekker ‘jacket.’ The change in the ending was due to association with jacket.

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