Book Report: A STUDY IN SCARLET, BOOK I, Sherlock Holmes' Birth

Sherlock Holmes portrayed in MAD comicbook by artist Will Elder

A STUDY IN SCARLET by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The first Sherlock Holmes Story

In school I read a few of Sherlock Holmes short stories; probably because I had to.  I vaguely remember one about a red headed man and another one concerning a peachpit.  However, they both might be in the same story for all I know.

With ebooks,, on line, countless of classics are offered either free or very cheaply, and some things I have been meaning to read I have taking advantage of some of the on-line ebook deals.

I just finished reading A STUDY IN SCARLET, BOOK I, by Sir  Arthur Conan Doyle.   If you haven't read a Sherlock Holmes book but would like to know what  all the fuss is about, to have a little basics, I suggest this book.  It introduces the eccentric Sherlock Holmes and his close friend Dr. John H.  Watson and you learn how they met and how they became close friends.  It also gives a little biography on Dr. Watson,  and why he was in London.

One thing about Holmes, he is full of himself, and sort of brags how his deductible powers figured everything out each time he arrives at a conclusion or solves a crime.  He walks you through that, which makes you want to use deductable powers also.

Which reminds me back when we were in  high school my late friend Sam Carsley was reading Sherlock Holmes and would try to train his deductable skills.  I remember one time he showed me  a picture in PLAYBOY Magazine of a nude girl.  He asked me did I think she just took her clothes off or was about to put them on.  I studied the picture and had no idea but had an enjoyable study of  the picture.  He said she just took them off - although her blouse and skirt was neatly folded, her stockings were in two wads.

See how fun deductible reasoning can be?

Back to the book.  About halfway through it Sherlock Holmes suddenly grabs a cabby* and say, "Here is the murderer!!  With no explanation and apparently the story was over.  Another story started on the next page about the wild west and the Mormons in America.  Which was written  by somebody who seemed to know all about the west and Utah and other western states.  I'm not sure Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had even been out west, but apparently was  a good researcher.  What really surprised me was the way he made the Latter Day Saints - he portrayed them as an evil religion with its leader with dictator traits, Brigham Young.

Near the end of the Western part, Holmes and Watson appear and tie in all the loose strings about the cabby being arrested, he brought us to date.

I think it was a good book that forces you to utilize your brain, which is a good tihing.

*Back then Cabby did not drive a Taxi Cab.  They had a horse and buggy.

By the way, Tomorrow's post will be MAD comicbook's lampoon of Sherlock Holmes.