A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet

First edition in annual cover 1887
Author	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Language	English
Series	Sherlock Holmes
Genre	Detective, Crime, Mystery, Novel
Publisher	Ward Lock & Co
Publication date	1887 in annual (1888 in book form)
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback) and Audio book
Pages	96 (Barnes & Noble Classics Edition)
ISBN	NA
Followed by	'The Sign of the Four

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was first published in 1887. It is the first story to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, who would later become one of the most famous literary detective characters, with long-lasting interest and appeal. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his companion Doctor 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."

Conan Doyle wrote the novel at the age of 27 in less than three weeks. As a general practice doctor in Southsea, England, 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 Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, after many rejections. The author received £25 in return for the full rights (although Conan Doyle had pressed for a royalty instead). It was illustrated by D. H. Friston. The novel was first published as a book on July 1888 by Ward, Lock & Co., and featured drawings by the author's father, Charles Doyle. A second edition appeared the following year and was illustrated by George Hutchinson; a year later in 1890, J. B. Lippincott & Co. released the first American version. Numerous further editions, translations and dramatisations have appeared since.

The story, and its main character, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 are known to exist now and they 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 Four, published in 1890. A Study in Scarlet was the first work of fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.

Plot summary

The novel is split into two halves. The first is titled Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department. This part is told in first person by Holmes' friend Doctor John H. Watson and describes his introduction in 1881 to Sherlock Holmes through a mutual friend. They agree to share a flat and move in to 221B Baker Street.

One day a retired Sergeant of Marines comes to deliver to Holmes a message from Inspector Tobias Gregson. Holmes and Watson leave at once to travel to an empty house in Brixton. There he finds Inspector Gregson with his partner Inspector Lestrade. They lead Holmes and Watson into a room. In that room they find the corpse of Enoch Drebber. Above Drebber’s body Holmes finds the word "RACHE" written in blood. Holmes thinks that it must have been the assassin's blood for there were traces of it all over the place. Lestrade suggests that he was writing the female name "Rachel" but was interrupted before he could complete it. They also find a wedding ring near the body which confirms Lestrade's theory. Holmes takes the ring into his own possession for the time, and then gets the address of the Constable who found the body, John Rance (he found it when he saw a candle glowing in the empty house).

First book edition cover, 1888.

Just as Holmes and Watson are leaving, Holmes gives Lestrade and Gregson a description of the murderer and how Drebber was murdered, and how the two came there: he was poisoned, and the murderer is a man, about six feet tall, who smoked a Trichinopoly cigar, wore coarse square-toed boots, has a florid complexion and small feet for a man of his height, the fingernails of his right hand are remarkably long, and came to the house in a cab drawn by one horse with three old shoes and one new one. Then he tells Lestrade not to go looking for a woman named Rachel for the word "RACHE" is German for "revenge". Holmes then departs for John Rance’s house.

Gregson is convinced that Arthur Charpentier is Drebber’s assassin. He goes to Madame Charpentier’s Boarding House; there he finds that Enoch Drebber and his friend Joseph Stangerson stayed there for three weeks. Gregson also discovers that one day when Drebber was not sober he tried to kiss Madame Charpentier's unmarried daughter Alice, and that therefore Drebber and Stangerson were kicked out; however later in the night Drebber came back to the boarding house and told Madame Charpentier that he had left his cigar case on his dressing room table. Madame Charpentier went to retrieve it, and while she was gone Drebber once again attempted to kiss Alice and asked her to go away with him; she refused. Madame Charpentier returned and demanded that Drebber leave. He tried to grab Alice, when her brother Arthur burst into the room and began to fight. Drebber ran outside and jumped into a cab; Arthur attempted to follow but lost the trail. Gregson arrests Arthur.

When Holmes and Watson visit John Rance they learn that when he discovered the body he saw an unusual drunk man entering the house. Holmes tells Rance that this man was the murderer. When Holmes and Watson leave Rance's house they encounter Gregson who tells them of his arrest of Arthur Charpentier. Lestrade is convinced that Stangerson is Drebber's assassin and is trying to find him. Later Holmes puts an advertisement in the newspaper saying that a wedding ring was found in Brixton. Holmes tells Watson that the murderer returned to the house to reclaim the ring but was prevented by Rance's presence.

Original illustration of Holmes with magnifying glass, by D. H. Friston

Holmes is expecting his murderer to come to obtain the ring, but an elderly lady comes instead. She is allowed to take a ring, which is a dummy substituted by Holmes, who follows her out of 221B and jumps onto the back of her cab; however when it reaches its destination he finds that the woman has jumped out. Holmes returns to Baker Street and relates the story to Watson, saying that their visitor was not an elderly lady but a young man masterfully acting a part.

The next day Lestrade and Gregson come to see Holmes. Lestrade informs him that he has found Joseph Stangerson's body, stabbed through the heart. Above Stangerson's corpse was again written "RACHE". Lestrade says that a novel, a pipe, and a small box containing a couple of pills were found next to him. Holmes analyses the pills and finds that one was harmless but the other poisoned. Just then one of the Irregulars arrives and announces that he has the cabby downstairs. Holmes instructs him to be brought up. When the man arrives he is seen to have the exact appearance that Holmes had described. Holmes pretends to need help with some luggage, but handcuffs the man and announces that he is the murderer of Enoch Drebber and Joseph Stangerson.

The Mormon Nauvoo Legion, considerably overlapping with the Danites.

The second half of the story is called The Country of the Saints and takes place in what is now Utah. It is told in a third person narrative style, with an omniscient narrator. John Ferrier and young Lucy are rescued by the Mormons during their exodus to Salt Lake City, and John and Lucy are forced to convert as a condition of their rescue. Lucy becomes Ferrier's adopted child and Ferrier becomes one of the wealthiest men in the region. Many years later, Jefferson Hope and Lucy Ferrier fall in love and plan to elope after Hope returns from a journey. Because Hope is not a Mormon, John Ferrier is accosted and threatened by Brigham Young. Young says that Lucy must marry either Stangerson or Drebber within 30 days. On the last day, Jefferson Hope returns to Ferrier's house and then escapes with John and Lucy Ferrier. The three of them flee across the wilderness. One day, Hope goes out hunting and returns to find John Ferrier murdered and Lucy abducted, by a vigilante group of Mormons including Drebber and Stangerson. Narrative then returns to the scene of Watson, Holmes, and the other detectives listening to Hope's confession in 221B Baker Street.

Hope says that after the kidnapping, Drebber married Lucy. She died shortly thereafter, and Hope took the wedding ring from her finger. He swore revenge on Drebber and Stangerson. Hope says that he will soon die of an aortic aneurism. He was the cab driver who picked up Drebber at the boarding house. Drebber was so drunk that Hope was able to drive him to the house in Brixton without protest. There he offered Drebber the choice of one of two pills, one being harmless and the other poisoned. Drebber ate the poisoned one and died. Hope's excitement coupled with his heart condition caused his nose to bleed, leaving the blood Holmes found, and Hope wrote the word "Rache" to serve as a false clue. Later he broke into Stangerson's Hotel and offered him the same choice, but Stangerson tried to strangle Hope, so Hope stabbed him.

Hope is taken into custody but he dies of his heart condition before he can be brought before the magistrates.

Controversy

According to a 1994 Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organization 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". However, 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". Years after Conan Doyle's death, Levi Edgar Young, a descendant of Brigham Young and a Mormon general authority, claimed that Conan Doyle had privately apologized, saying that "He [Conan Doyle] said he had been misled by writings of the time about the Church".

Allusions in other works

In his Naked is the Best Disguise (1974), Samuel Rosenberg notes the similarity between Jefferson Hope's tracking of Enoch Drebber and a sequence in James Joyce's novel Ulysses. Several other associations between Conan Doyle and Joyce are also listed in Rosenberg's book.

The British fantasy and comic book writer Neil Gaiman adapted this story to the universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The new short story is titled "A Study in Emerald" (2004) and is modelled with a parallel structure.

Adaptations

As the first Sherlock Holmes story published, it was fittingly the first one to be adapted to the screen. In 1914, Conan Doyle authorized a silent film be produced by G. B. Samuelson. Holmes was played by James Bragington, an accountant who had never before (and never after) worked as an actor. He was hired for his resemblance to Holmes as presented in the sketches originally published with the story. Unfortunately, as early silent films were made with film which itself was made with poor materials and film archiving was rare, this is now a lost film. The success of this film allowed for a second version to be produced that same year by Francis Ford, which has also been lost.

The 1933 film entitled A Study in Scarlet, starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs Pyke, bears no plot relation to the novel, the producers having only purchased rights to the title, not the story. Aside from Holmes, Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and Inspector Lestrade, the only connections to the Holmes canon are a few lifts of character names (Jabez Wilson, etc.). The plot contains an element of striking resemblance to one used several years later in Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, that of murder victims being counted off by lines from the same nursery rhyme (though the Holmes film takes the precaution of using the phrase "ten little black boys").

A Study in Scarlet has been adapted many times, although frequently only the portions of the first section of the book in which Holmes and Watson's relationship is established are used. The Ronald Howard/H. Marion Crawford television series used that section of the book as the basis for the episode "The Case of the Cunningham Heritage". The John Gielgud/Ralph Richardson radio series combined it with details from "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" to create its "origin story". The book has rarely been adapted in full, notable instances being in the Peter Cushing/Nigel Stock television series, as an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater, by Bert Coules for the first project starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson and, in 2007 by M. J. Elliott for the American radio series The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. A surprisingly faithful animated version of the tale with Peter O'Toole voicing Holmes was produced in 1984 by Burbank Films and helmed by frequent Disney animator Alex Nicholas. Another faithful adaptation of the novel, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, was made in the Soviet Union in 1979. The BBC also loosely adapted A Study in Scarlet into A Study in Pink as part of the 2010 series Sherlock featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as a 21st century Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson

External links

Media related to A Study in Scarlet at Wikimedia Commons

• A Study in Scarlet with Original Illustrations
• A Study in Scarlet at Project Gutenberg
• From the 1906 edition of Tales of Sherlock Holmes