A Study in Scarlet (Penguin Classics)
by Arthur Conan Conan Doyle
A Staggering Introduction To A Legend
Arthur Conan Doyles Study in Scarlet is the first published story involving
the legendary Sherlock Holmes, arguably the worlds best-known
detective, and the first narrative by Holmess Boswell, the unassuming Dr.
Watson, a military surgeon lately returned from the Afghan War. Watson
needs a flat-mate and a diversion. Holmes needs a foil. And thus a great
literary collaboration begins. Watson and Holmes move to a now-famous
address, 221B Baker Street, where Watson is introduced to Holmess
eccentricities as well as his uncanny ability to deduce information about
his fellow beings. Somewhat shaken by Holmess egotism, Watson is
nonetheless dazzled by his seemingly magical ability to provide detailed
information about a man glimpsed once under the streetlamp across the
road. Then murder. Facing a deserted house, a twisted corpse with no
wounds, a mysterious phrase drawn in blood on the wall, and the buffoons
of Scotland Yard--Lestrade and Gregson--Holmes measures, observes,
picks up a pinch of this and a pinch of that, and generally baffles his
faithful Watson. Later, Holmes explains: In solving a problem of this sort,
the grand thing is to be able to reason backward.... There are few people
who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner
consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. Holmes is

in that elite group. Conan Doyle quickly learned that it was Holmess
deductions that were of most interest to his readers. The lengthy
flashback, while a convention of popular fiction, simply distracted from
readers real focus. It is when Holmes and Watson gather before the coal
fire and Holmes sums up the deductions that led him to the successful
apprehension of the criminal that we are most captivated. Subsequent
Holmes stories--The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of
Sherlock Holmes, and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes--rightly plunge
the twosome directly into the middle of a baffling crime, piling mystery
upon mystery until Holmess denouement once more leaves the dazzled
Watson murmuring, You are wonderful, Holmes! Generations of readers
agree. --Barbara Schlieper
Personal Review: A Study in Scarlet (Penguin Classics) by
Arthur Conan Conan Doyle
The authentic stories of the famed Sherlock Holmes are among my favorite
reads, and I enjoy the adventures thoroughly. Once on my travels to
London, I did visit the fictional house of Sherlock Holmes situated at 221B
Baker Street. It was a surreal experience, that's for sure...because it is a
fictional home of a fictional character, for goodness sake! Still to this day, I
am not sure what the B part signifies: a half house or an upstairs portion?
Anyway back to the story, A Study in Scarlet is the very beginning of the
famous character Sherlock Holmes and his oft neglected (and still famous)
sidekick Dr. John Watson. We can thank our lucky stars to Stamford for
introducing both to each other before settling their claims on 221B Baker
Street. From there, it began the many adventures that have encompassed
the very foundation of sleuthing and solving crimes. Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle introduced many of the concepts that were truly novel back and are
now commonplace today among law enforcement, most notably the FBI. I
find the introduction and the explanation of the techniques used by
Sherlock Holmes interesting because I wondered how prevalent and how
new they were at that time. Or perhaps I wondered if they were first
conceived by the author in the novel, or were they just portrayed as fads at
first (similar to science fiction books)? The writing by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle is very beautiful and makes A Study in Scarlet a thoroughly
pleasurable read, and there is a ton of wisdom contained within the lines
and especially from the dialogues of Sherlock Holmes. In the collection of
quotes by Sherlock Holmes, I have in A Study in Scarlet two favorites. One
is when he says, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little
empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. etc.
etc." He is absolutely correct in this manner because Sherlock Holmes is
very self-conscious about his knowledge being pure and away from
distortions, so he can maintain a sound foundation. Another is "If I show
you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion
that I am a very ordinary individual after all." Well, that's an interesting way
of putting things. It's a bit of a complaint of mine because when I am
reading the details of how Sherlock goes his business (for example,
walking along the path, checking the strides, measuring the lengths, etc.)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle frequently omits the details that would allow me to

make conjectures of how the crime could happen. So, what happens
instead is that Sherlock Holmes will explain away the conclusions and how
he arrived at them, and we, as the readers, don't get a first-hand chance to
observe the actualities of the details. Anyhow, I am not going to say that it
is a disappointing part of the tales, but rather it's just a pitiful block of the
reader's thorough experience. In A Study in Scarlet, you will automatically,
as I did, be stumped when you start reading the second part as the tale
surrounds the Alkali Plain and begin to wonder if the publisher had
somehow misplaced the part. Be rest assured, the tale will eventually
explain the entire criminal acts that transpired in the first part of the tale. A
very interesting question will appear: what if Jefferson Hope did not have
an aortic aneurism, would he have been waived from his crimes because
of the surrounding circumstances? Who knows? At the end of A Study in
Scarlet, "Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo. Ipse domi simul ac nummos
contemplar in arca." means "The public hisses at me, but I applaud myself
in my own house, and simultaneously contemplate the money in my
chest." All in all, if you want to have a totally satisfying experience of
reading, you can't go wrong with A Study in Scarlet as well as other
authentic Sherlock Holmes stories.
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