In his introduction to this squib in The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, editor Otto Penzler says that “To describe it as trivial overpraises it. It is included here as a curiosity – nothing more.”
Small praise indeed! But understandable, given how slight a story it is. Its main claim to fame is that it was written by Winnie the Pooh author A. A. Milne, who was also a mystery writer himself. It was first published in October 1903, making it contemporary with Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Empty House,” which was the story that brought Holmes back from the dead. So here we have Holmes appearing to Watson like a ghost and explaining that he’d been in hiding since apparently falling from the Reichenbach Falls. The title has no relation to anything, not even Pope’s poem. As for Moriarty, “There is no such man. It is merely the name of a soup.”
That’s not much of a punchline, and it’s not much of a story. I include it here only as a curiosity.
Alex Good 
What was the point?
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It’s just a short story taking the form of a gag, playing on the characters. No real point.
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So, Sherlock rapes a bowl of soup? I’m very confused here.
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The title is a take off of Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. But the story has nothing to do with the poem or with a rape. As for the soup . . . I don’t know any Moriarty soup. Don’t try to read too much into any of this.
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Title has to be some ancient form of clickbait
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Haha! Probably.
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I’ve got Milne’s mystery novel (The Red House Mystery) and I’ve *almost* read it several times, the last being only a couple weeks ago. Maybe one day…..
As for this, you said it was short so I read it. You have to admit the checkbook joke is good. : -)
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I haven’t read The Red House Mystery but after reading this I felt a bit curious considering how it’s quite highly regarded. But it’s now among a list of works that are hard to track down, at least in physical form.
I wasn’t on the right wavelength for the checkbook joke the first time I read it and it just confused me. Then I groaned a little.
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