A Study in Scarlet
– Arthur Conan Doyle
A former army doctor returns to Victorian London from the
war in Afghanistan. Instead of decorations and commendations, the war has given
the medical man “nothing but misfortune and disaster.” He was wounded in the
shoulder at Maiwand and suffers chronic pain from it. He caught a case of
enteric fever so terrible the doctors gave up hope he would live. But, in his
mid-twenties, he drew upon the resources of youth and did not die.
Back in London he must live on a small disability pension
while he recovers his health. He desperately needs an affordable apartment.
Another man has just rented an apartment in Baker Street and is looking for a
roommate. Out of the blue to the doc’s amazement the man says , “You have been
in Afghanistan, I perceive.” The veteran warns of his eccentricities: “My
nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am
extremely lazy,” thus listing the symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, insomnia, and
fatigue.
Their meeting marks the beginning of the most famous
partnership in detective fiction, Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. The new roomies are still getting used to each other's eccentricities when a letter
arrives from Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard about a killing near Brixton
Road. An American named Enoch J. Drebber
– now there’s a Englishman’s idea of a typical American name - was murdered,
and there are no clues but for the German word “revenge” smeared on the wall
with blood.
Holmes invites Watson to accompany him on his work as a
consulting detective. Holmes, a brilliant quirky loner, is still human enough to
get a kick out of astounding us ordinary people. Watson joins readers, clients
and the cops Gregson and Lestrade as an appreciative audience when Holmes explains
how he uses his knowledge and skill to "read" a crime scene and deduce
the commission of a crime.
This was the first Holmes story, published as a novelette
in the 1887 Beeton’s Christmas Annual. It’s not hard to understand why it was
rejected many times before the 27-year-old author finally sold it. The
successful first part introduces Holmes and Watson in a captivating style
familiar from the later stories – it’s amazing Conan Doyle seems to have found
his voice for these stories on the very first try. But the second part, set in
the United States, fails as a western or an adventure tale, though it reads
smoothly enough. It also says rude things about the Church of LDS and Native Americans. Conan
Doyle should have just made up a religion, not pandered to anti-Mormon
prejudices of his day.
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