rowyn | "A Study in Scarlet", by Arthur Conan Doyle

I'm not sure if I've read any Holmes stories before now. I decided to read one now because Lut and I have been watching the new BBC "Sherlock" TV show. I was aware that there's a certain amount of arrogance and alienation that doesn't generally make it into the popular conception of Holmes, but I couldn't imagine that Doyle's Holmes had been a complete jerk in the mode of the BBC's latest incarnation. (Spoiler: he's not.) Also, reading Doyle seems like the sort of thing I ought to do at some point in my life.

I started the story on Thursday and didn't finish it until today, and it's only 103 pages, so not the most engaging story I've read. Part of this comes from the curious narrative structure:

Pages 1-17: Watson meets Holmes
Pages 18-52: Murder mystery
Pages 53-87: Western
pages 88-103: Resolution of original mystery

Yes, halfway through, the narrative takes a sharp right turn, ditching both London and the first person narrator in favor of a third person limited omniscient story set in Utah. For a good ten pages I was going "what the heck is this even still a Holmes story WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NARRATOR?" Then a couple of names come up that were mentioned in the "mystery" portion earlier, so I'm like "okay, I assume this will all connect EVENTUALLY." Which, in fairness, it does. But this may be the first time I've ever seriously considered that maybe the story I was reading had accidentally been concatenated with some completely unrelated tale.

The embedded Western is surprisingly engaging, although the hate-on for Mormons is frankly offensive. Holmes's methodology in solving the murder comes across as reasonable, and one can follow both how he comes to his conclusions and why the police investigators pursue the wrong ones without feeling like either (a) the police are complete idiots or (b) it's nothing more than authorial bias that makes Holmes right and the others wrong. I've read classics that I loved a lot more, but this was still a good read: I'll give it a 7 and will probably read some more. In fact, I'll go download some now, while I'm thinking about it. Because it was a lot harder than I expected to successfully download the first Holmes story, given that it's a popular series in the public domain.

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I'd forgotten that twist in Study. I remember, now, feeling that this was a pastiche of America written by one who'd never been there. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable.

I've got one for you: An Exchange of Hostages by Susan Matthews.

The main character is, indeed, a brooding young man. But from that point, your expectations will be utterly trounced then ignored. It is hard to even describe the concept without giving too much away — but the upshot is, you will find yourself caring about Andrej, and amazed that you do, considering.

Many, many people were harmed in the making of this book. And there is a sequel, Prisoner of Conscience, which is even worse, and which I think you will also enjoy as I did. Two later ones in the Jurisdiction series I've not yet read, but will.

Yes, this is an odd sort of recommendation, but I think that it is justified.

===|==============/ Level Head

I've actually read both Exchange and Prisoner, and I did enjoy them at the time, in fact. :) Lut once described the protagonist as 'a man who lacks the courage of his convictions', which I thought was rather apt. I don't think I liked them enough to read the new ones, though, at least not at the present time. But I appreciate the recommendation!

I have read so many pastiches of other countries by American authors who've never been there that I was rather charmed by Doyle's pastiche of my own. Kind of a "wow, someone who isn't from here cared enough to write about us anyway!" moment. I could've done without the wholesale slander of Mormons, though. :/

The Mormon prejudice bit was all too common. I recall an old saying: "We're so broad-minded, we've even got a Jack Mormon in town." These were tolerated, generally, only after blacks and Catholics had become acceptable.

Back then, they'd even have newspapers raising issues about a person simply because he was Mormon. Imagine that. People would make fun of their "Garmies" (sacred undergarments), based on writings like this from 1890:

“This garment protects from disease, and even death, for the bullet of an enemy will not penetrate it. The Prophet Joseph carelessly left off this garment on the day of his death, and had he not done so, he would have escaped unharmed.”

We are so civilized now, of course, that the idea of making fun of someone's religion-specific garments would not even occur to us.

===|==============/ Level Head

I haven't read that story in ages. It was much better than its follow-ups (disappointingly).

Oddly, it has a furry connection: the author thanks Steve Gallacci, author of Albedo, in the dedication!

I found the Sherlock Holmes short stories all more readable than the novels. :)

The novels are pretty short themselves! I didn't realize "Study" was considered a novel until I was looking up the chronology of publication on wikipedia.

To be fair, A Study in Scarlet was the very first Holmes story written. The Sign of Four and Hound of the Baskervilles were better, in my opinion. I do agree with the Jaguar that the short stories were the best of the Holmes stories; "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League" are my particular favorites.

All the Holmes' novels do that. The short stories generally don't. ACD shared the prejudices of his time, and the fascination with, the 'othering', of the exotic. Yes, Utah was exotic - imagine that! ACD had no idea that Holmes the character and Holmes/Watson the pairing would become so popular in their own right, so the novels generally contain a section of exotic background plot that's sometimes challenging to slog through. The exception is Hound of the Baskervilles, which is nearly all Watson and Holmes throughout. The background is taken care of right up front in a letter read to Holmes. That's probably the reason Hound is adapted into movies so much more often than any other of the novels.

In Sign of Four the background is somewhat more engaging on its own, and the Holmes adventures are more active and fun, so I can recommend that. I also recommend the short stories. I read the whole series as a teen and found them addictive and engaging.

Nowadays the fun is in picking out the details that BBC Sherlock twists in their own use - there's an amazing amount, often done in amusing ways :-)

Yes, halfway through, the narrative takes a sharp right turn, ditching both London and the first person narrator in favor of a third person limited omniscient story set in Utah.

Then you may wish to skip "The Valley of Fear." It does much the same thing - first part, Holmes and Watson, second part, sudden left turn into United States coal-mining country, last part, resolution of the mystery.

Fortunately, of the four Holmes novels, "The Sign of Four" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" are more enjoyable. And no detours, as far as I can recall. :)

In retrospect, I don't mind the sudden switch so much. It just caught me off guard at first, because you just Don't Do That in a story. It's not allowed! And then the fact that he did it anyway makes me kind of like it. Like yeah, you go, screw narrative conventions. :D

I read the novel six months ago (got it off of Guttenberg, read it off my Kindle,) and had pretty much the same reaction. I did some checking to make sure noone messed with the file or anything like that.

"A Study in Scarlet", by Arthur Conan Doyle

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