On the Shelf: A Study in Scarlet

A STUDY IN SCARLET | ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE | 1887

When Dr John Watson takes rooms in Baker Street with amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, he has no idea that he is about to enter a shadowy world of criminality and violence. Accompanying Holmes to an ill-omened house in south London, Watson is startled to find a dead man whose face is contorted in a rictus of horror. There is no mark of violence on the body yet a single word is written on the wall in blood. Dr Watson is as baffled as the police, but Holmes's brilliant analytical skills soon uncover a trail of murder, revenge and lost love...

I always put off reading any of the books from the Sherlock Holmes series because I had convinced myself that it was written with stuffy language and that surely the visual adaptations were a hundred times better. Well, I was wrong.

I purchased this book because I fell in love with the cover design (I know, I know -- never judge a book by its cover). It's part of the Penguin "Red Classics" set and I intend on collecting the entire Holmes series in this edition. You can see an excerpt of the cover above -- it mimics a vintage pulp crime look that looks wonderful on a bookshelf (face out, of course).

I want to make it clear that this book is no longer just a pretty image on my bookshelf. After reading, A Study in Scarlet quickly made its way onto my "favourites" shelf. I'm so glad that I gave this classic a chance. 

Sherlock Holmes is hilarious. His analytical skills may seem larger than life, but he explains his cases with a clarity that makes his solutions seem obvious. Watson is a great sidekick and is just as baffled as the reader at Holmes' intelligence. The two have a great chemistry, whether or not you're on board with the "Watson is gay" theory.

Even if you usually shy away from the classics (I don't blame you --  I have an English literature degree and I usually stay away as much as I can now that I'm done school), I highly recommend that you give this one a try. Arthur Conan Doyle's prose is actually quite simple and the book is a quick, light read that will have you laughing and falling in love with the main characters all while solving a mystery.

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"It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two made four, you might find some difficulty, and yet you are quite sure of the fact."