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A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet
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A Study in Scarlet

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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The astonishing debut of Sherlock Holmes and his partner in detection, Dr. Watson

Shot in the shoulder and brought to death’s door by typhoid fever, Dr. John Watson is sent home from the second Afghan war with a small income and nothing to do but recover his health. By his own account, he leads a meaningless existence in London until a chance encounter with an old friend brings news of comfortable lodgings on Baker Street. In a hospital laboratory, Watson meets his potential new roommate for the first time. “How are you?” asks Mr. Sherlock Holmes. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
 
With that remarkable feat of observation, one of literature’s greatest partnerships is born. In their first case, Holmes and Watson set off for an abandoned flat in Lauriston Gardens. An American has been found dead, his body unmarked, a mysterious word—Rache—spelled out in blood on the wall. Scotland Yard thinks the murderer meant to write the name Rachel, but Holmes knows better. When the dead man’s private secretary turns up stabbed through the heart, the same word scrawled nearby, it is up to the world’s only consulting detective and his eager companion to find a killer whose lust for revenge has spanned two continents and dozens of years.
 
This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
 
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 22, 2014
ISBN9781480489738
Author

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, most famous for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes and long-suffering sidekick Dr Watson. Conan Doyle was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.

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Rating: 3.8141025641025643 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My first ever Holmes. Wonderfully there is much of the modern understanding of Sherlock Holmes clearly laid out on the page. He is perhaps even more self aware than TV and movie adaptations allow describing his mood swings and eccentricities to Dr. Watson even before they move in together.

    There is a remarkable section in the middle where the narrative goes all Fenimore Cooper and we are transported from London to the snowy peaks of Utah. Quite unexpected. This was more fun even than I had expected. Fortunately I have already purchased further volumes.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I would have liked it better if most of part 2 didn't feel so completely separate from the rest (and maybe were more accurate and less bigoted), but the detectiving part was alright. Holmes is a bit insufferable, but interesting too.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A Study in Scarlet was the first Sherlock Holmes story published. Given its age (1886) it reads surprisingly well with crisp non-florid prose, almost like a novel written in 2017 by someone pretending to be from the 1800s. This is the first Sherlock Holmes I've read. It gives a sense that, while you may be confused, someone else understands the world and answers can be had. That is comforting, like a parent reassuring an anxious child. This is echoed in the name "Sure" as in assurance or confidence; "Lock" as in holding the key to the mystery; and "Holmes" which sounds like "Home", a reassuring feeling. The clues to the mystery are somewhat beside the point, contrived and making sense only after the explanation. Regardless, I really enjoyed it and look forward to dipping into more in a sequential fashion as they were published. Giving 5 stars as the origin story of Sherlock Holmes.For modern readers the Mormon sub-plot is weird and maybe a little offensive. However in the 1880s, they were indeed a novel, strange and exotic people who engaged in massacres and "harems". In the story they come to London, to the homes of the readers. It's a classic "invasion novel" popular at the time, similar to Dracula which saw Eastern Europeans as the invaders. The invasion of London by secretive sub-cultures is a common theme Holmes stories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an enjoyable introduction to both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and it will be interesting to see how their characters develop across the series. I particularly enjoyed the large section that took place on the American Plains (not something you expect in a Sherlock Holmes book!) and how the story unravelled that led up to events being investigated in London. This was particularly well done. I look forward to continuing with the series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the first book I have read by the famed creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A Study in Scarlet is Doyle's first book featuring the infamous Sherlock Holmes. Holmes' character has been portrayed in the movies so much that I feel like I already knew the character. Reading the original text by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is, not surprisingly, better than any other theatrical take I have seen. A Study in Scarlet is an easy read that could easily be completed in one day. The edition that I own contains illustrations by the famous caricaturist, Gris Grimly. I am not a fan of graphic novels or even illustrations in books because it distract my own imagination of how things should appear. On the other hand, the illustrations are very impressive so if you are into that kind of thing, I would recommend this edition. Holmes' first adventure in detection in A Study in Scarlet reveals to the world the detectives impeccable deductive powers. Holmes meets his sidekick Dr. Watson in Doyle's freshman detective novel, where the two rent an apartment on Baker Street. It is a widely known fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle single handedly revolutionized the science of Forensics and crime scene investigation. There is an in-depth documentary about how Sherlock Holmes' methods were used in Doyle's fiction novels before they were ever used in real life. Knowing this fact makes reading these books much more interesting and entertaining to read. I plan on chronologically reading all the books written by Doyle that feature Sherlock Holmes.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've long felt bad about never having read any of the nine books that make up the Sherlock Holmes canon, so finally I've rectified that... and what an odd little work it is.

    The first half of the book is what's important, historically, but it's the least interesting. Conan Doyle doesn't write natural dialogue, and a result the discussions between Watson and Holmes come across more like a treatise on how detective work - in the real world and in novels - is evolving and progressing. While this is all very very interesting, particularly to someone like myself who has read a lot of Christie and Poe etc, it feels like an essay that has been structured in story form, rather than the other way around.

    On top of this, I concede that I have a bias against this "one really smart quirky man always outdoes everyone" formula. Holmes started it, but it's returned in the last ten years or so to television, and personally I think it just weakens the narrative when every other character functions only as a sounding board for our god of a leading man. Sherlock is cunningly described by Watson as a seemingly paradoxical man who in fact has rational reasons for all of his education and activities, although even the great detective can't seem to fix his (bipolar?) moods. As their friendship is still embryonic at this stage, Watson can give us no insight into Holmes' life, and Holmes offers none, so he remains a cipher. But I'm treating this as a pilot episode, so that's okay. More immediately fascinating are the elements of contemporary life: street beggars working for Holmes, the necessary advantages and disadvantages that came from being a police officer in the era - thrilling stuff.

    The second half is a mixed bag also. Conan Doyle is an admirable prose writer, and his description of the events twenty years prior to the murders is captivating and gripping. On the other hand, it is filled with amazingly anti-Mormon sentiment. I'm no religious sympathiser myself, but I couldn't take it seriously when the narrator assured us that all Mormons kill or destroy anyone who attempts to leave their faith.

    An odd little novel, and I've already started the second one, since I'm very eager to see if Conan Doyle can somehow retain his marvelous leading character, whilst furthering his skills in the other required areas.

    (Two and a half stars)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've read several of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but not the novel that started it all – until now. It was interesting to find out how Holmes and Watson met, and to have Watson confide his first impression of Holmes to the reader. Although Watson was initially skeptical of Holmes's claims about his own deductive abilities, his opinion changes as events unfold that confirm Holmes's deductions. The western segment of the novel was a surprise. Readers who like both classic mysteries and westerns are in for a treat!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. How Watson met Holmes, and the intriguing case make this a great read for anyone who likes mysteries or English lit.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet does a good job of introducing new readers to the characters of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. In the 21st century, it’s hard to escape some general knowledge of Holmes so a lot of what is described won’t come as much of a surprise or a revelation to new Holmes readers.What may come as a bit of a shock is the slow pace of the story and the immense amount of exposition and in-depth description of situations and actions. Many of the descriptive segments are elegant and vibrant and just a lot of fun to take in. Other sections felt rather wordy and a drudgery to work through. In particular I found the distanced narrative of life in 1840s Western United States to be very dry and boring in spite of some interesting events presented during the narrative.I enjoy having Watson as the narrator and like the way he presents the case after the fact but in such a way that it keeps the mystery hidden until the point at which it was revealed to him. That said I felt like this particular mystery (as is potentially likely in many Holmes stories) suffers from not providing the readers with enough palpable clues to actually solve the mystery on par with the hero. When Holmes presents his revelations and conclusions he is kind enough to reveal from whence he made his deduction. However it is impossible for the reader to make the same conclusions because frankly we don’t have the same information at our fingertips. This is partly because Watson is our narrator and he doesn’t have the same eye for observation as does Holmes (“he observes but doesn’t truly see”). Honestly though the main reason for the reader being kept in the dark is that it would be even more tedious to write a descriptive mystery where the reader has all of the same information made evident to Holmes through his observation. It’s one thing to have Holmes explain how he saw a dozen clues on the scene and used them to analyze a solution. It’s another thing to have the author describe those dozen clues in such a way that they aren’t immediately obvious clues but they are still clues that the reader could use to arrive at the conclusion. In order to adequately do so, the author would have to also provide dozens of “red herring” elements in describing the scene. Beyond presenting very detailed analysis of the depth of the scrapes in the wall to make the word “Rache” or detailed description of pocket contents, he would also have to present elements about the insignificant elements observed. So if I had to choose between being kept in the dark and having all clues presented to me, I would certainly opt for the method implemented. My only hope is that subsequent novels keep even further away from the extremely dry narrative descriptions that bear no relevance on the story at hand.Overall I found the story engaging and I was definitely impressed by Holmes’ methods. His personality is abrasive and flippantly derisive and so Watson provides a good foil for the adventure and also acts to temper Holmes a bit in the presentation of the narrative. Not a bad start to the Holmes collection.***3 out of 5 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read A Study in Scarlet on the heels of Murders in the Rue Morgue. Poe paled when compared to Doyle's rich characters and superb storytelling. My only complaint was the abrupt return to North America which left me reeling as to what the heck had happened but I eventually tuned back in.

    This story is a great introduction (just as it was for the characters) to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Thought I'd give this author a try, and I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed the story. The second part was even more intriguing, and fitted well. Will be reading more from ACD.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the first story concerning that most famous detective Sherlock Holmes and the doctor Watson. It concerns the first meeting of Holmes and Watson, the the case which cements Watson's desire to record Holmes' doings.I really enjoyed this rather pulpy detective story. It is fast-paced with very little deviation from the telling of the crime and the resolution.The main delight comes from the characters. Everyone knows of Sherlock Holmes, such as his deerstalker hat and pipe, and his ability to solve crimes. Now that I have read this story, I can appreciate his dry wit, towering arrogance and slight wistfulness that he never seems to garner the credit for solving mysteries.Watson is often represented as being rather stupid, but I infer from this story that he is merely naive about what human beings are capable of and doesn't have Holmes' expert knowledge of criminology. I loved the way that Holmes was patient and exasperated by turns when explaining his deductions to Watson. You also get a sense of the fact that Holmes is just dying to show off his abilities, and Watson's faithful recording of the case fits this neatly.The story loses half a star for two reasons, both of which are probably attributable to the time and manner of when it was released.The first is the abrupt switch from the location in London to the detailed story of Jefferson Hope, who hails from America. At first I was not at all clear why this had been introduced. I believe it may have been done because of the serialised nature of many Sherlock Holmes stories, enabling both new and existing readers to enjoy the tale, but it did jar somewhat.The second is the way that Mormons and Native Americans are dealt with, although I freely admit that this is due to modern sensibilities and an environment that now decries anything deemed not politically correct. I was a little shocked to see it, but accept that this is the peril of reading anything set in this era.Altogether, a pacy read with lovely dialogue and an instantly unforgettable character in the form of Sherlock Holmes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This first of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books introduces the character quite well with several references to his peculiararities. It's funny at times, graceful with explanations of character history and short enough to enjoy in a reading or two.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've never read any Sherlock Holmes before, so I thought I ought to start at the beginning. Most of the story is told by Watson, recording events after the fact in the form of a rather formal diary. A section is more of a traditional story, recounting events that took place in America which provide the motive for the crime. I didn't enjoy this writing style nearly so much as the first. I found the facts a little thin on the ground, and Holmes supposed deductions far too obscure to form a really engaging mystery. Overall a good book, but not great.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, A Study in Scarlet starts with the arrival of Dr. Watson in London after being discharged from military service in the second Afghanistan war. Looking for a place to stay, he boards a flat with Holmes, an intriguing gentleman to say the least. Before he knows it, he’s assisting Holmes with a murder investigation.

    Overall, this is the place to start if you want to read Holmes. The story is well-told, the plot hangs together pretty well, and there are plenty of twists for the inquisitive reader to navigate through.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant from beginning to end, even the notorious extended flashback to the adventure story set in the American West. The first Sherlock Holmes book introduces Watson, depicts his first meeting with Holmes, and sets them off on a classic puzzle mystery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The quirky character of famous detective Sherlock Holmes is introduced with rapid language and ensuing hilarity in A Study in Scarlet, the first of the Holmes novels. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle engages readers in a story filled with twists, turns, and trails with dead ends. Told initially from the reminiscences of Doctor Watson, A Study in Scarlet follows the team through their first case together, a seemingly unsolvable murder. The oblivious Scotland Yard cannot find a single clue as to a potential suspect or the method of murder when Sherlock Holmes is called to assist. Witty banter allows readers to become acquainted with Holmes, and nonstop action (he seems incapable of sitting still or even sleeping) keeps the plot flowing with ease. Readers remain hooked as Conan Doyle presents new characters with perplexing additions to the case, another murder and a disguise that deceives even Holmes. Natural dialogue and picturesque descriptions bring the reader right to the streets of London, always one erratic step behind Sherlock.After Holmes abruptly and unexpectedly apprehends a suspect in the murders of Americans E.J. Drebber and Joseph Stangerson, readers are taken back many years before the crimes were ever committed and given a look into their past. Conan Doyle’s narrative here is slow and struggles without the character of Holmes to push the story along, but readers will press forward, searching for answers that seem nonexistent in this baffling mystery. Bookworms will be left searching for the next Holmes novel, eager for more stories of the witty and relentless detective.Paige
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    My first Sherlock Holmes book, so I figured I'd start from the beginning.

    Starts off with a bang - Holmes and Wattson are swiftly established and the mystery put in motion, and all of it runs nicely and without contrivances. The problem comes in halfway into the book where there is a huge shift in narration, that I can't go into due to its spoilerific nature, but that completely breaks apart the flow of the book for the proceeding 30% of it. At the end it ties back up with some good stuff, but it's unfortunate that the middle was such a drag.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mostly good or above and on task Bradley, Stabenow, Child, Tod and Winspear a cut above.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Since I was young I can always remember Sherlock Holmes portrayed as a portly older man, smoking on his pipe solving mysteries. Then I saw the 2010 Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downy, Jr. (yummmmmmy) and surprisingly enough Holmes was portrayed as an OCD bad ass mystery solver. Huh?! Naturally, I had to read the book now to figure out where they got this Holmes from.
    Turns out the movie was not far off the mark and I’ve been lied to by those old PBS shows. Holmes was a moody freakaziod retaining and using a mass amount of information to solve mysteries. He was a bit of a bad boy who could fight and even smoked cocaine. Who knew?! I’m so glad I picked this up with the encouragement of some of my GR friends, because I thought it was going to be boring but it ended up being exciting.
    I loved the mystery itself and the story behind it, but the story did slow down once the explanation of the mystery occurred. The book just took a completely different turn than what I was expecting and I almost felt like I was reading two separate books. It did come together in the end, but the explanation could have been shortened without losing the overall gist of the plot. From what I’ve been told the Holmes story gets much better with each story, so I look forward to reading more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    _A Study in Scarlet_ is an interesting book for several reasons. Here we have the first written adventure of Sherlock Holmes and get both the first introduction to the famous sleuth and his comrade Dr. Watson, as well as details of their first meeting. We are treated to a somewhat humorous précis of Watson’s first impressions of his strange room-mate (detailed in several other reviews) and even manage to see a fledgling Holmes occasionally wrong, or at least not 100% accurate, in some of his initial surmises at the mystery they become embroiled in. We also see the somewhat ambivalent and competitive relationship Holmes has with Scotland Yard and his disdain for the official investigators and their inferior methods of detection.

    The mystery itself involves the double homicide of two Americans and an embarrassment of mysterious clues at the place of the first murder. Of course both Scotland Yard detectives assigned to the case manage to make the wrong assumptions and go off in different directions, though Holmes has to grudgingly admit that they “are coming along” and even wonders at one point if they have managed to beat him to the punch when one of his own assumptions seems to have gone awry.

    The story is actually in two parts, the first of which covers the initial mystery and the very engrossing portrait of Holmes and his many quirks. Holmes ultimately proves able to solve the mystery by the end of this section in a fashion perhaps more mysterious than the murders themselves. From here we go to a flashback of events separated in both time and space by great distance in order to be given the background of the two murders in London and many readers seem to have a big problem with this. I actually found this section, while certainly a bit jarring at first, to be a well-written and entertaining story in itself. Its chief failings seem to be that a) it is not a story involving Sherlock Holmes, and b) the historicity of some of its facts can be considered somewhat questionable as it turns the early Mormons and their leaders into some kind of nefarious secret society rivalling even the Illuminati or Rosicrucians. I didn’t find either of these elements to be too great of an obstacle personally. I knew that we would return to Holmes & Watson in due course to be provided with our explanations and revelations and if I wasn’t being given a straight history lesson on the true founding of Salt Lake City, then I was certainly given an entertaining tale that was probably more interesting than the facts themselves would have been. The only part of this tale I really found questionable was that a man like Jefferson Hope would simply wait a month for Lucy to die of a broken heart after she’d been abducted and didn’t try to rescue her, even if it proved impossible and meant his death.

    The culmination of both stories as they meet in the rooms of Holmes and Watson at 221B Baker Street in London was satisfying and I highly recommend this story. Another 4, or 4.5 star book from Doyle.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'd heard great things about this book, and had high expectations after so enjoying the BBC Sherlock take - I wasn't disappointed. It's easy to appreciate why Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are such iconic, well-loved characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the work which introduced the reading public to the phenomenon that is Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr Watson, who narrates the story as he describes his first encounter with the great Holmes, when both were still young men and looking to share living quarters to accommodate restricted budgets. Watson, who has plenty of time on his hands, gladly assists Holmes in this first adventure. Holmes is pompous and very full of himself, but as it turns out, he is also never wrong, even though he comes to immediate conclusions and makes seemingly preposterous statements about details of the crimes and criminals while seemingly going on very little evidence. I had no idea what to expect with this story, and so was nicely surprised that it is made up of two parts. In the first part, there is a mysterious murder of an American man thought to have been poisoned in London. Then the narrative switches to the USA and relates the tale of a man and a little girl dying of thirst and hunger who are the last survivors of a large party of travellers heading out west across the desert in Salt Lake Valley, who are rescued by a party of Mormons, on their way to found Salt Lake City. They rescue John Ferrier and little Lucy on the condition that the pair adopt the Mormon religion, which, according to Doyle's wild imagination took draconian measures to punish those who didn't toe the line. And from there evolves the drama which unfolds years later in London. A really great story, though Holmes himself doesn't really interest me much so far.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The brilliant debut appearance of the Master of Induction!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Doyle's work is surprisingly accessible for being so old. I'm glad that a bookcrossing.com member gave me a stack of Holmes. This novelette (?) was actually one of my least favorite, though, as it got complex and boring. Start with a short story collection. (Hound of the Baskervilles was also one that dragged for me.)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is only my second foray into Sherlock Holmes, the other having been The Hound of the Baskervilles (which I read a long, long time ago). Overall, I thought this was decidely so-so. While I am a big Poe fan, I have never been particularly enthusiastic about the Dupin stories. I read this in some ways as the natural evolution of Poe’s tales, and from that perspective it felt like a significant step forward. I’m not sure I find Holmes particularly believable (more on this below), but both he Holmes and Watson are interesting and multi-dimensional characters. They play off each other effectively, and the Lestrade vs Gregson vs Holmes dynamic would also seem to offer fertile ground. I thought the contrast of the urban London scenes with the great Western US outdoors scenes was interesting. And I thought the climactic scene in which the murderer is revealed was an effective piece of theatre.Having said that, plenty of this felt to me like a first attempt at a novel length work. The scene with young Samford in Chapter 1 felt very clumsy to me. I also thought it was strange that Watson at first seems to pay little attention to his surroundings, but then suddenly gives detailed observations when we get to the murder house. I think that one of my biggest problems with the book is basic rejection of the entire premise. Holmes is famous for having said (elsewhere) “when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" and that is indeed his approach here. But in the real world what happens is that, when you have excluded the impossible you are usually left with a wide range of highly to not so highly probables. Even if you accept Holmes' assertion that he can recognize "a gentleman of a medical type, but with the air of a military man" who "has just come from the tropics" and "has undergone hardship and sickness" and whose "left arm has been injured," I don't see that Afghanistan is the only possible explanation for this confluence of facts. The most probable explanation, perhaps, but ridiculously far from the only one. (Plus, I don't particularly accept the assertion that there is a "medical type.")Also, "On the Great Alkali Plain" seems rife with inaccuracies to me. I have driven (recently) through Utah and Colorado, and while portions of it are indeed desolate and inhospitable, it's simply not true that, "from the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south, is a region of desolation and silence." Oh, and Brigham Young's band consisted fo 148 people, not 10,000. And there were a bunch of indian tribes living in the area, but you wouldn't have been likely to run across any Pawnee or Blackfoot. Does any of this really matter? It seems to me that, in a book where the hero's success depends on meticulous observation of the world around him, verisimilitude matters. And this also includes how you play the violin. My biggest problem with A Study in Scarlet was the laughably stereotypical depiction of the lecherous and avaricious Mormons, and how it is juxtoposed against Jefferson Hope as "a Christian, which is more than these folk here, in spite o' all their praying and preaching." I know that there were Mormons that did bad things (google "Mountain Meadows massacre"), but I have got to think that Doyle was either falling for or taking advantage of anti-Mormon propaganda. (In fairness, I suppose I should thank Doyle for making me curious enough about what actually happened to do a bit of research.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    audio-ed; skipped mormon part... full review after work
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Funny... I guess I read this 30 years ago when I was a kid, and compared to the short stories, I didn't remember it too well... halfway through the book and all of a sudden there are four or five chapters in Utah with Bringham Young and the Mormons? Huh? What happened to the pocket watches and the gaslights and the coach-and-fours? Still great, of course.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Before this book, I’d only read The Hound of the Baskervilles, so I’d never actually gotten to see the beginning of Holmes' and Watson’s adventures. Having read A Study in Scarlet, I now realize that I should have started with this story instead. It introduces the characters to the reader - and to each other - providing the perfect foundation for the rest of the mysteries.Watching Sherlock Holmes go about solving the case is highly entertaining. When the story suddenly shifts gears to delve into the killer’s motivations, I was a little annoyed at first. But it wasn’t long before I found myself gripped by this mini story-within-a-story. The descriptions of the American West and the Mormons are hilariously inaccurate at times (espcially with the distinctly British dialogue), but it serves to show what the attitudes and beliefs were in England at the time. I found myself just as captivated watching this drama play out as I was by the mystery itself.In short, if you’re looking for a good place to start with Sherlock Holmes, look no further than A Study in Scarlet. As much as I love the various TV and movie iterations, there’s no character quite like Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think this is the first time I've read a Sherlock Holmes story. They're so familiar from film and TV adaptations that it's good to get back to the original. I was startled by the change of pace in part two, where we're thrown out of 1880s London and into the Mormons' journey to Utah and the story of John and Lucy Ferrier. I'm guessing Conan Doyle doesn't have too many Mormon fans...

Book preview

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet

Arthur Conan Doyle

Introduction

by Otto Penzler

About one hundred years ago, Sherlock Holmes was described as one of the three most famous people who ever lived, the other two being Jesus Christ and Houdini. There are some who claim that he is a fictional character, but this notion is, of course, absurd. Every schoolchild knows what he looks like and what he does for a living, and most know many of his peculiar characteristics.

The tall, slender, hawk-nosed figure, with his deerstalker hat and Inverness cape, is instantly recognizable in every corner of the world. In addition to the superb stories describing his adventures written by his friend, roommate, and chronicler Dr. John H. Watson (with the assistance of his literary agent, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Holmes has been impersonated on the stage, television, and radio, and in countless motion pictures. More than twenty-five thousand books, stories, and articles have been written about him by famous authors, amateur writers, and scholars.

Sherlock (he was nearly named Sherrinford) was born on January 6, 1845, on the farmstead of Mycroft (the name of his older brother) in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He solved his first case (eventually titled The Gloria Scott) while a twenty-year-old student at Oxford. Following graduation, he became the world’s first consulting detective—a vocation he followed for twenty-three years.

In January 1881 he was looking for someone to share his new quarters at 221B Baker Street and a friend introduced him to Dr. John H. Watson. Before agreeing to share the apartment, the two men aired their respective shortcomings. Holmes confessed, I get in the dumps at times, and don’t open my mouth for days on end. He also smokes a vile shag tobacco and conducts experiments with loathsome-smelling chemicals. And he failed to mention an affection for cocaine. Although he ruefully noted his fondness for scratching away at the violin while in contemplation, he proved to be a virtuoso who could calm his roommate’s raw nerves with a melodious air.

Watson’s admitted faults include the keeping of a bull pup, a strong objection to arguments because his nerves cannot stand them, a penchant for arising from bed at all sorts of ungodly hours, and an immense capacity for laziness.

I have another set of vices when I’m well, he said, but those are the principal ones at present.

They became friends, and Watson chronicled the deeds of his illustrious roommate, often to the displeasure of Holmes, who resented the melodramatic and sensational tales. He believed that the affairs, if told at all, should be put to the public as straightforward exercises in cold logic and deductive reasoning.

Holmes possesses not only excellent deductive powers but also a giant intellect. Anatomy, chemistry, mathematics, British law, and sensational literature are but a few areas of his vast sphere of knowledge, although he is admittedly not well versed in such subjects as astronomy, philosophy, and politics. He has published several distinguished works on erudite subjects: Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos; A Study of the Influence of a Trade upon the Form of the Hand; Upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus; A Study of the Chaldean Roots in the Ancient Cornish Language; and, his magnum opus, The Practical Handbook in Bee Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. His four-volume The Whole Art of Detection has not yet been published. When he needs information that his brain has not retained, he refers to a small, carefully selected library of reference works and a series of commonplace books. Since Holmes cares only about facts that aid his work, he ignores whatever he considers superfluous. He explains his theory of education thus: I consider that a man’s brain originally is like an empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. … It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.

An athletic body complements Holmes’s outstanding intelligence. He seems even taller than his six feet because he is extremely thin. His narrow, hooked nose and sharp, piercing eyes give him a hawklike appearance. He often astonished Watson with displays of strength and agility; he is a superb boxer, fencer, and singlestick player. He needed all his strength when he met his nemesis, the ultimate arch-criminal Professor James Moriarty, in a struggle at the edge of the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. The evenly matched adversaries, locked in battle, fell over the cliff; both were reported to be dead. All England mourned the passing of its great keeper of the law, but in 1894, after being missing for three years, Holmes returned. He had not been killed in the fall, after all, but had seized a good opportunity to fool his many enemies in the underworld. He had taken over the identity of a Danish explorer, Sigerson, and traveled to many parts of the world, including New Jersey, where he is believed to have had an affair with Irene Adler (who will always be the woman to Holmes), and to Tibet, where he learned the secret of long life from the Dalai Lama.

When Miss Adler (the famous and beautiful opera singer Holmes first meets in A Scandal in Bohemia) died in 1903, he retired to keep bees on the southern slopes of the Sussex Downs with his old housekeeper, Mrs. Martha Hudson. He came out of retirement briefly before World War I, but his life since then has been quiet.

Holmes has outlived the people who have participated at various times in his adventures. In addition to Mycroft, Watson, Moriarty, Irene Adler, and Mrs. Hudson, the best-known auxiliary personalities in the stories include Billy the page boy, who occasionally announces visitors to 221B; Mary Morstan, who becomes Mrs. Watson; the Baker Street Irregulars, street urchins led by Wiggins, who scramble after information for Holmes’s coins; Lestrade, an inept Scotland Yard inspector; Stanley Hopkins, a Scotland Yard man of greater ability; Gregson, the smartest of the Scotland Yarders according to Holmes; and Colonel Sebastian Moran, the second most dangerous man in London.

The first story written about Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, originally appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887 and subsequently was published in book form in London by Ward, Lock & Company in 1888; the first American edition was published by J. B. Lippincott & Company in 1890. Holmes is called to assist Scotland Yard on what Inspector Tobias Gregson calls a bad business during the night at 3, Lauriston Gardens. An American, Enoch J. Drebber, has been murdered, and Yard men can point to only a single clue, the word Rache scrawled on the wall in blood. They believe it to be the first letters of a woman’s name, Rachel, but Holmes suggests that it is the German word for revenge. Soon, the dead man’s private secretary, Stangerson, is also found murdered; the same word is written in blood nearby. A long middle section of this novel, dealing with Mormons, is an unusual flashback.

The Sign of the Four first appeared simultaneously in the English and American editions of Lippincott’s Magazine for February 1890. Spencer Blacket published the first English book edition in the same year; P. F. Collier published the first American book edition in 1891. Calling at 221B Baker Street for help is Mary Morstan, a fetching young lady by whom Watson is totally charmed; ultimately, he marries her. She is the daughter of a captain in the Indian Army who mysteriously disappeared ten years earlier and has never been heard from again. Four years after the disappearance, Miss Morstan received an anonymous gift, a huge, lustrous pearl, and got another like it each year thereafter. Holmes and Watson accompany her to a tryst with the eccentric Thaddeus Sholto, twin brother of Bartholomew Sholto and the son of a major who was Captain Morstan’s only friend in London. Holmes sets out to find a fabulous treasure and is soon involved with the strange Jonathan Small and Tonga.

A Scandal in Bohemia first appeared in the Strand Magazine in July 1891; its first book appearance was in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). The first published short story in which Holmes appears features the detective in an uncharacteristic battle of wits with a lady, and with no real crime to solve. The king of Bohemia has had a rather indiscreet affair with Irene Adler, who threatens to create an international scandal when he attempts to discard her and marry a noblewoman. Holmes is hired to obtain possession of a certain unfortunate photograph before it can be sent to the would-be bride’s royal family. Holmes is outwitted, and he never stops loving Irene for fooling him.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Sir Charles Baskerville, of Baskerville Hall, Dartmoor, Devon, has been found dead. There are no signs of violence at the scene, but his face is incredibly distorted with terror. Dr. James Mortimer enlists the aid of Holmes to protect the young heir to the estate, Sir Henry Baskerville. Watson goes to the grim moor to keep an eye on Sir Henry but is warned to return to London by a neighbor, Beryl Stapleton, the lovely sister of a local naturalist, who hears a blood-chilling moan at the edge of the great Grimpen Mire and identifies it as the legendary Hound of the Baskervilles, calling for its prey.

The original stories about Holmes number sixty; more than that number have been written by other authors, however. Even Conan Doyle wrote a parody of the characters, How Watson Learned the Trick, first published in The Book of the Queen’s Dolls’ House in 1924. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1974) by Nicholas Meyer was a longtime bestseller. Among the most famous pastiches are those by H. F. Heard, whose Mr. Mycroft is a pseudonymous Holmes; the tales of August Derleth, whose Solar Pons is the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street; and The Unique Hamlet (1920) by Vincent Starrett, in which the great detective appears under his true name.

Other names (and guises) under which Holmes has appeared are Herlock Sholmes and Holmlock Shears (in Maurice LeBlanc’s The Exploits of Arsène Lupin, 1907, and The Fair-haired Lady, 1909); Picklock Holes (in R. C. Lehmann’s The Adventures of Picklock Holes, 1901); Shylock Homes (in John Kendrick Bangs’s series of short stories in American newspapers in 1903, reprinted as Shylock Homes: His Posthumous Memoirs, 1973; Bangs also wrote many parodies of Holmes using the detective’s real name, as in The Pursuit of the House-Boat, 1897; The Enchanted Type-Writer, 1899; and R. Holmes & Co., 1906, in which the hero is the son of Sherlock Holmes and the grandson of A. J. Raffles); Shamrock Jolnes (by O. Henry in two stories in Sixes and Sevens, 1911); Hemlock Jones (by Bret Harte in The Stolen Cigar-Case in Condensed Novels: Second Series, 1902); and Schlock Homes in many stories by Robert L. Fish.

Today, of course, Holmes continues to be a multimedia superstar, appearing in two internationally successful films starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes; the BBC television series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch; and Elementary, the wildly popular CBS series starring Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Watson.

PART I.

(Being a reprint from the reminiscences of JOHN H. WATSON, M.D., late of the Army Medical Department.)

CHAPTER I.

MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES.

IN THE YEAR 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy’s country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties.

The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.

Worn with pain,

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