A Study in Scarlet (Illustrated

Classics): A Sherlock Holmes

Graphic Novel by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle

The Sentences I Like

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 (Illustrated Classics): A

Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet, by A. Conan Doyle

This story introduced the world to John H. Watson M.D., who was
wounded in the second Afghan war and then suffered from enteric fever.
He was invalided back to England. He is looking for reasonable lodgings. A
friend tells him about Sherlock Holmes who is also looking for someone to
share expenses. Holmes is described as cold-blooded in outlook. Holmes
is excited by his discovery of a test for old bloodstains (Chapter 1). Holmes
explains the reasoning for his deductions. Then a letter requests help. A
man was found dead in an empty house, no wound on the body, but blood
in the room. Holmes & Watson go there to inspect the scene. Holmes
explained his deductions (Chapter 4). An advertisement is placed in the
"Found" column. Watson loads his revolver to deal with the claimant. The
claimant used a cab to escape her shadow! Detective Gregson visits
Holmes to explain how he solved the murder. Lestrade arrives to tell of
another murder: Stangerson, the secretary of Drebber! Gregson's suspect
could not have done it. Holmes shows his brilliance by the surprise
introduction of the murderer!

Part 2 tells about the background of the events that resulted in the
murders. In 1847 a man and a girl were lost in a desert. They were
rescued by Mormons on their way to a new land. Years later Lucy Ferrier
was rescued by Jefferson Hope, and they fell in love. The leader of the
Mormons commanded Lucy to marry a man she did not love. John Ferrier
rejected this ruling. Jefferson Hope returned at night to lead them to
Nevada and freedom. But after going hunting Hope found Lucy was
captured and John killed and buried. Lucy's husband inherited John's
property. Poor Lucy pined away and soon died. Hope planned his cold
revenge. Chapter 6 contains Jefferson Hope's story, and his end in jail.
Chapter 7 explains Holmes' actions in reasoning backwards.

This story introduced Sherlock Holmes to an audience that never tired of

these stories. Note the intermix of dialogue followed by explanatory
comments. More modern stories used mostly dialogue to carry the story
along and bring out the facts. The solution occurs in the last chapters. The
use of exotic American locales was a way to add interest, although Doyle's
knowledge came from second hand sources (as in "The Valley of Fear").
Background descriptions are sparse. I wonder what stories from America
inspired this novel? Note how it tells the readers why a man can have a
"florid face", a medical fact.

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