A Study in Scarlet


A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would go on to become one of the most well-known detective duos in literature.
The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "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."
The story, and its main characters, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Eleven complete copies of the magazine in which the story first appeared, Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, are known to exist now, which have considerable value. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length novels in the original canon. The novel was followed by The Sign of the Four, published in 1890.
A Study in Scarlet was the first work of detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.

Plot

Part I: The Reminiscences of Watson

In 1881, Doctor John Watson returns to London after serving in the Second Anglo-Afghan War and starts looking for a place to live. An old friend of his named Stamford tells him that Sherlock Holmes is looking for someone to split the rent at a flat at 221B Baker Street but cautions Watson about Holmes's eccentricities. Holmes and Watson meet and, after assessing each other and the rooms, they move in. Holmes is a "consulting detective", and his frequent guests are clients. After a demonstration of Holmes's deductive skills, Watson's disbelief turns into astonishment.
A telegram requests a consultation in a murder case. Watson accompanies Holmes to the crime scene, an abandoned house on Brixton Road. Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade are already on the scene. The victim is Enoch Drebber of Cleveland, Ohio, and documents found on his person reveal that he has a secretary, Joseph Stangerson. On one wall, written in red, is "RACHE", which Holmes dismisses as a ploy to fool the police. He deduces that the victim died from poison and supplies a description of the murderer. Upon moving Drebber's body, they discover a woman's gold wedding ring.
Holmes places notices in several newspapers about the ring and buys a facsimile of it, hoping to draw the murderer – who has apparently already tried to retrieve the ring – out of hiding. An old woman answers the advertisement, claiming that the ring belongs to her daughter. Holmes gives her the duplicate and follows her, but she evades him in a way that leads Holmes to believe that "she" was actually a young man in disguise, an accomplice to the murderer.
A day later, Gregson visits Holmes and Watson, telling them that he has arrested a suspect. He went to Madame Charpentier's Boarding House where Drebber and Stangerson stayed before the murder. Drebber, a drunk, attempted to kiss Mrs. Charpentier's daughter, Alice, which caused their immediate eviction. He, however, came back later that night and attempted to grab Alice, prompting her older brother to attack him. He attempted to chase Drebber with a cudgel but claimed to have lost sight of him. Gregson has him in custody on this circumstantial evidence.
Stangerson is later murdered. His body is found near his hotel window, stabbed through the heart; above it was written "RACHE". The only things Stangerson had with him were a novel, a pipe, a telegram saying "J.H. is in Europe", and a small box containing two pills. Holmes tests the pills on an old and sickly Scottish Terrier in residence at Baker Street. The first pill produces no evident effect, but the second kills the terrier.
A young street urchin named Wiggins then arrives. He is the leader of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of street children Holmes employs to help him occasionally. Wiggins has summoned a cab Holmes wanted. Holmes sends him down to fetch the cabby, claiming to need help with his luggage. When the cabby comes upstairs, Holmes handcuffs and restrains him. The captive cabby is Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Drebber and Stangerson.

Part II: "The Country of the Saints"

In Utah's Salt Lake Valley in 1847, John Ferrier and a little girl named Lucy, the only survivors of a small party of pioneers, are rescued from death by a party of Latter-day Saints led by Brigham Young, but only on the condition that they adopt and live under the Mormon faith. Years later in 1860, a now-grown Lucy befriends and falls in love with Jefferson Hope. However, Young forbids her from marrying outside the faith and demands that she marry either Joseph Stangerson or Enoch Drebber, both sons of members of the church's Council of Four. Ferrier, who has adopted Lucy and sworn never to marry his daughter to a Mormon, sends word to Hope in hope of escape.
Lucy is given one month to choose between her suitors. Hope arrives on the eve of the last day, and they all escape under cover of darkness. The Mormons intercept the escapees while Hope is away hunting, as their food had run out. Ferrier is killed by Stangerson while Lucy is forcibly married to Drebber and dies less than a month later from a broken heart. Hope breaks into Drebber's house the night before Lucy's funeral to kiss her body and remove her wedding ring. He swears vengeance on Drebber and Stangerson but begins to suffer from an aortic aneurysm, causing him to leave the mountains to earn money and recuperate. After returning years later, he learns Drebber and Stangerson have fled Salt Lake City after a schism between the Mormons. Drebber is now wealthy from Lucy's estate and Stangerson has become his secretary. For over 20 years Hope pursues them; in Cleveland, Ohio, Hope recognizes Drebber who has Hope imprisoned for a few months as a "rival in love". After being released, Hope tracks them to Europe through France, Russia, Denmark and to England.
In London, Hope becomes a cabby and eventually finds Drebber and Stangerson. After the altercation with Madame Charpentier's son, Drebber gets into Hope's cab and spends hours drinking. Hope then takes him to the house on Brixton Road and forces Drebber to recognize him and to choose between two pills, one of which is harmless and the other poison. Drebber takes the poisoned pill, and as he dies Hope shows him Lucy's wedding ring. The excitement coupled with his aneurysm causes his nose to bleed; he uses the blood to write "RACHE" on the wall above Drebber to confound the investigators. Stangerson, on learning of Drebber's murder, refuses to leave his hotel room. Hope climbs in through the window and gives Stangerson the same choice of pills. However, Stangerson attacks him and Hope stabs him in the heart as an act of self-defence.
Hope dies from his aneurysm the night before he is to appear in court. Holmes reveals to Watson how he deduced the murderer's identity. In the newspapers, Lestrade and Gregson are given full credit. Outraged, Watson states that Holmes should record the adventure and publish it. Upon Holmes's refusal, Watson decides to do it himself.

Publication

wrote the novel at the age of 27 in less than three weeks. As a doctor in general practice in Southsea, Hampshire, he had already published short stories in several magazines of the day, such as the periodical London Society. The story was originally titled A Tangled Skein and was eventually published by Ward, Lock & Co. in the 1887 edition of Beeton's Christmas Annual, after many rejections. Conan Doyle had pressed for royalty but instead received £25 in return for the full rights. It was illustrated by David Henry Friston.
The novel was first published as a book in July 1888 by Ward, Lock & Co, and featured drawings by the author's father, Charles Doyle. In 1890, J. B. Lippincott & Co. released the first American version. Another edition published in 1891 by Ward, Lock & Bowden Limited was illustrated by George Hutchinson. A German edition of the novel published in 1902 was illustrated by Richard Gutschmidt. Numerous further editions, translations and dramatisations have appeared since.

Depiction of Mormonism

According to a Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organisation as being steeped in kidnapping, murder and enslavement, he said: "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that, though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest." Conan Doyle's daughter has stated: "You know, father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons." Historians speculate that "Conan Doyle, a voracious reader, would have access to books by Fannie Stenhouse, William A. Hickman, William Jarman, John Hyde and Ann Eliza Young, among others", in explaining the author's early perspective on Mormonism.
Years after Conan Doyle's death, Levi Edgar Young, a descendant of Brigham Young and a Mormon general authority, alleged that the author had privately apologised, saying that "He said he had been misled by writings of the time about the Church" and had "written a scurrilous book about the Mormons."
In August 2011, the Albemarle County, Virginia, school board removed A Study in Scarlet from the district's sixth-grade required reading list following complaints from students and parents that the book was derogatory toward Mormons. It was moved to the reading lists for the tenth-graders, and remains in use in the school media centres for all grades.

Adaptations

Film

As the first Sherlock Holmes story published, A Study in Scarlet was among the first to be adapted to the screen. In 1914, Conan Doyle authorised a British silent film be produced by G. B. Samuelson. In the film, titled A Study in Scarlet, Holmes was played by James Bragington, an accountant who worked as an actor for the only time of his life. He was hired for his resemblance to Holmes, as presented in the sketches originally published with the story. As early silent films were made with film that itself was made with poor materials, and film archiving was then rare, it is now a lost film. The film was successful enough for Samuelson to produce the 1916 film The Valley of Fear.
A two-reel short film, also titled A Study in Scarlet, was released in the United States in 1914, a day after the British film with the same title was released. The American film starred Francis Ford as Holmes and was not authorised by Doyle. It is also a lost film.
The 1933 film titled A Study in Scarlet, starring Reginald Owen as Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs Pyke, bears no plot relation to the novel. Aside from Holmes, Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and Inspector Lestrade, the only connections to the Holmes canon are a few lifts of character names. The plot contains an element of striking resemblance to one used several years later in Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None.