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A Study in Scarlet (Oxford World's Classics)
 
 
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A Study in Scarlet (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Author), Owen Dudley Edwards (Editor) "IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the..." (more)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (6 Jan 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0192837656
  • ISBN-13: 978-0192837653
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 842,766 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
The very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet was also the first of Conan Doyle's books to be published. His two creations, Holmes, the master of the science of detection and Watson, the great detective's faithful companion, are immediately in fine form. The mystery itself, its solution plucked unerringly by Holmes from the heart of Victorian London, proves to be the inevitable consequence of a tragedy of the American West. The story is harrowing in its alternating hope and despair, although Holmes himself was later to complain that the book `produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid'.

About the Author
Owen Dudley Edwards is Reader in History at thr University of Edinburgh and author of The Quest for Sherlock Holmes: A Biographical Study of Arthur Conan Doyle. Richard Lancelyn Green is the co-author of the standard Soho Bibliography of Conan Doyle (Oxford, 1983) and the author of The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes. Christopher Roden is the editor of the Journal of the Conan Doyle Society, as well as being the Society's secretary. Professor Wallace Robson is a former Emeritus David
Masson Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.
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IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Read the first page
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully entertaining, 8 Mar 2004
By Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: A Study in Scarlet (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
It is 1878 and Doctor John Watson, his health damaged by his experiences with the British Army in Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, is looking for lodgings in the great city of London. It seems fortuitous, when a mutual friend introduces him to another who needs someone to share costs on a suite on Baker Street, but this other man is quite an eccentric. Sherlock Holmes has bent his life and education towards turning himself into the premier detective.

Watson can hardly credit Holmes's claims of what a first-class detective can do. But, when a note arrives from a Scotland Yard detective, inviting Holmes to consult on a particularly mysterious murder, Watson soon finds himself carried along by Holmes, watching his new friend's powers unravel a seemingly inscrutable knot. The game is afoot, and Holmes needs to solve a murder, and bring a murderer to justice.

This fascinating book was first published in 1887, and was the very first Sherlock Holmes story. In it we get to see the first meeting of Holmes and Watson, and hear Holmes explain his methods in detail. If you are a fan of murder mysteries, then this is definitely a book that you should not miss.

The center part of this story revolves around the actions of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. Author Arthur Conan Doyle had a tendency to "wing" the details of his story, and his treatment of the Mormons shows a certain carelessness in how he presented them. Therefore, if you are a Mormon, you will most likely find this book offensive.

But, that said, this is a wonderfully entertaining story that is sure to please most every mystery fan. And, if you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes, then you must read this book! It's great.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "From a drop of water, a logician can infer...an Atlantic or a Niagara.", 7 Dec 2006
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: A Study in Scarlet (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
Published in 1878, this first Sherlock Holmes story is a delightful curiosity, rather than a finely developed novel. Here Dr. Watson, just released from the British army and recovering from serious wounds from the second Afghan war, meets Sherlock Holmes for the first time. Both have been looking for someone to share the rent--at 221B Baker Street. Holmes, without a "real" career, spends considerable time experimenting in a hospital chemistry lab and interviewing people who come to the apartment. Watson soon discovers that Holmes is a detective consultant, working with police detectives and private detectives alike.

Written before Doyle had fully developed his skills as a mystery novelist, this novel divides in half. In the first part, which begins around 1880, Holmes helps investigate the murder of Enoch J. Drebber of Cleveland, Ohio, apparently poisoned in an abandoned house. A tall stranger has been seen in the neighborhood, and some clues have been planted at the crime scene. Later, Drebber's traveling companion is killed. Holmes, however, manages to solve both cases by the halfway point in the book.

The second half of the novel flashes back to 1847. John Ferrier, one of twenty-one people in a caravan, is traveling through "an arid and repulsive desert" in the American west when the caravan runs out of food and water. Ferrier and a small girl, the only survivors, search for water until they collapse. Rescued by Brigham Young and a wagon train of Mormons on their way to found their city, Ferrier, in exchange for food and water, agrees to convert and become a good Mormon. Years later, when Ferrier is a successful rancher and Lucy has fallen in love with a Gentile, the elders of the church demand that Ferrier agree to wed Lucy to a member of the church, a decision he resists.

These seemingly unrelated stories eventually overlap, but Doyle's incomplete and inaccurate knowledge of Mormon beliefs show his deliberate attempt to capitalize on the mysteries of the "wild west" and of Mormonism for the sake of his story, now quite dated. The ending consists of Holmes simply ticking off the clues which have led him to solve the murders and capture the murderer, not a dramatic or exciting climax. Watson is seen as a soldier-hero and doctor, and not as a bumbling side-kick to Holmes, who is shown here as a decidedly odd and pompous man, less "clever" than he becomes in time. Fun to read and interesting primarily because it is the first Holmes mystery. Mary Whipple
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the world of Sherlock Holmes, 29 Dec 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes) (Paperback)
"A Study in Scarlet" is the first of the Sherlock Holmes series and therefore gives the reader the perfect opportunity to progressively befriend the famous detective at the same time as the good Dr Watson does. Throughout the course of the book you will marvel at the numerous skills that Holmes has so painfully striven to attain through arduous hard work during his life, and watch as he uses them in practice. As the mystery of the case develops, so does Dr Watson's friendship with Holmes, and the reader finds himself in the same position as Watson; baffled and confused as to how all the pieces of the puzzle which Holmes has so cleverly found, will ever fit together. After reading this book I found myself envious of all the remarkable talents that Holmes possesses, and every time he proposed a new theory, I could not rest until he explained the seemingly simple pathways he used to arrive at his conclusion. This book provides an excellent introduction to the world of Sherlock Holmes, it was the first of this series of books that I bought, and will certainly not be the last. Experience the astonishing mind of perhaps the greatest detective created by reading "A Study In Scarlet".
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5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite Holmes story
Not the best from the Conan Doyle series, but for me, this is my most cherished. Its where Holmes and Watson meet for the very first time, and upon reading we get a feel for the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Norman Cheeseworthy

4.0 out of 5 stars The First Sherlock Holmes Story
Although it's not the best written of the Holmes stories, "A Study in Scarlet" is most definitely my favorite. Read more
Published on 15 Jul 2002

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