ancientreader: sebastian stan as bucky looking pensive (Default)
[personal profile] ancientreader posting in [community profile] 221b_recs
Title: Poets Lie
Author: A_Candle_For_Sherlock
Pairing: Holmes/Watson
Length: 5,587 words
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Verse: ACD
Author's summary: "Love was a proven irrationality for men of his kind. To say to anyone, "My heart is yours," would bring on his beloved the permanent threat of being cast off from society, safety, home--Unconscionable. He'd thought the impulse long conquered. Now he saw that time had only distilled it. It was no wild, unfocused longing now, but a concentrated need. To touch a loved face tenderly--it was such a simple thing to be so entirely out of reach."
Reccer's comments: Oh, this fic is my ACD jam. UST! Longing! Fear of the law! Suffering in silence! The slip of the tongue that Reveals All! Tropey, you may say, and so I suppose this fic is, but as you can see from the author's summary, A_Candle_For_Sherlock has an excellent ear for the tone and idiom of the period, and a gift for the beautiful, poignant turn of phrase. "Poets Lie" weaves skillfully in and out of ACD canon, as well.

An excerpt:
The streets were flooded with crowds, criminal and civilized, and Holmes watched them pass with a curious feeling in his heart, wondering who else had a wish that could never be fulfilled. It was not a common thought for him. His perceptions ordinarily extended primarily to the professions and intentions of unknown passers-by; he deduced emotions only when relevant to the case at hand. But now he studied faces for traces of discontent, longing, confusion, and found them everywhere. The sense of being alone with his treacherous heart was no less real, but the weight of it had grown less by the time they reached home.

Read on the AO3.

Date: 2016-10-02 03:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rachelindeed.livejournal.com
A beautiful rec for a beautiful story! I am so in love with this fic, so I second this like whoa. The Holmes voice is so good, and the longing so delicate.

Date: 2016-10-03 11:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] write-out.livejournal.com
I loved this story- thanks so much for the rec! I look forward to reading the rest of their fics. Finding new-to-me authors is one of the best things about this group.

Date: 2016-10-14 05:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] geneva2010.livejournal.com
I am so very, very grateful for this rec! Wow, blew me away. Poetic and romantic and superb descriptive writing.

Profile

221b_recs: (Default)
A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

November 2018

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 13th, 2026 02:58 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios