A Study in Scarlet

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Sherlock Holmes has a very peculiar place in modern culture. While almost everyone has heard of Sherlock Holmes, very few have read the original source material and, as a result, have a skewed view of the famous detective. While the majority of Doyle’s Sherlock stories are in the form of collections of short tales, the first few novels are unique in that a far more robust background is built up for each crime. This results from Arthur Conan Doyle’s obscure works prior to his imagining of Sherlock Holmes, which were all historical fictions. Having not fully grown out of his passion for the subject of history, half of A Study in Scarlet is taken up by a plodding tale about the duality of Mormon evangelism’s softness and cruelty. 

With a sacrificial love story and a revenge plot, it would have been sufficient for its own novel, but as it takes place after a mystery that has already been solved, the shift is jarring. Despite this odd distraction, if you wish for a pure and mysterious Holmes experience, then this novel delivers in its first half, which includes his first meeting with Watson and one of his most famous displays of observation. Watson himself is in peak form, with a strong personality that has been shaped by his military service in India. It is engaging to see him emerge from this slump in order to aid Holmes in a case concerning a curious murder. After merely a moment of observation, Holmes can make statements like, “The murderer’s nails on his left hand are longer than those of his right,” with the utmost confidence, mystifying both the reader and Watson as he witnesses this feat of ingenuity for the first time, which ultimately becomes a staple in Doyle’s formula. 

By getting the facts straight quickly, Doyle can take more time to tackle the more interesting task of discerning what those clues mean without leading the story to exceed the restrictions placed on him. What restrictions, you may ask? A little-known fact is that all Holmes stories were originally published in the Strand magazine, which limited the page count and ultimately improved the quality, as only poignant concepts were covered. However, there are some negatives to discuss in order to dispel the idea that this novel is of a similar caliber to And Then There Were None. The dialogue is not impactful, with very few memorable quotes (The common phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” is notably not present, nor is it found in any of Doyle’s original publications). It also fails to generate any tension due to Holmes’ supreme confidence, which disillusions any notions of failure, and it also contains multiple tropes that detract from a sense of originality. 

The Chase Verdict is that though much can be learned about Holmes’ original nature by reading this book, that knowledge is better learned outside of the text because the writing is not of a quality equal to Arthur Conan Doyle’s later works.