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Case Study for November: 'A Study in Scarlet' (Part 1) We meet Sherlock Holmes for the first time again 11/11/2009

Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887

(If you're attending this meeting, you're encouraged -- but not required -- to read the account in advance, identify any part of the case you particularly liked and why, find a quote that you enjoyed, and bring a question for which you want an answer or that you think may stump the group.)

"A Study in Scarlet" begins our new cycle of Sherlock Holmes case studies where we will review the 60 published cases in the order of publication. We'll discuss the first seven chapters comprising Part 1 (through "Light in the Darkness") in November and the remaining chapters in December.

This account was first published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 and as a novel in July 1888 with illustrations by Arthur Conan Doyle's father, Charles. The first American edition was not published until 1890.

According to William S. Baring-Gould in his "The Annotated Sherlock Holmes," the case takes place over the four days shown above.

Quotes to Note:

-- (Watson) "I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained."

-- (Young Stamford to Watson) "You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet, perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion."

-- (Young Stamford to Watson) "Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes -- it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge."

-- (First words of Holmes to Watson) "'How are you?' he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. 'You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive'."

-- (Watson on Holmes) "His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it."

-- (Holmes to Watson) "I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: a study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon. There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."

BONUS: Here's a one-minute clip from a 1933 film version of "A Study in Scarlet" with Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Warburton Gamble as Dr. Watson:

To read the full text of this story online, go to this Web site or The Sherlockian Net.

For a Wikipedia plot summary and related links, click here.

Check out this sketch of the crime scene.

For a commentary on this account, try this essay.

For other questions to review after reading the story -- to test yourself on how well you have observed -- check out these links:

Hounds of the Internet

The Sherlockian Net

What else was happening in 1881? Click here to find out.

For information on other Sherlock Holmes stories we've recently discussed, click here.