A Study in Scarlet / Arthur Conan Doyle

 

4 out of 5 stars 

2024 Re-Read

It's been a long time since I first became acquainted with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. I have a much greater appreciation for this tale, now that I have read the full Holmes canon and also have a better sense of the historical setting. Honestly, I have to recommend The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold for a better understanding of the London of the time and the situation of regular people in that time and city. It gave me an understanding of Watson's need for economical housing during his convalescence from his war injuries and his anxiety on that matter. You can enjoy the story without that background, but how much more fun to comprehend the milieu.

So this is the origin story, the meeting of the partners. It sets up their relationship, the astute Holmes and the rather plodding but admiring Doctor. We meet Lestrade and the Baker Street Irregulars (although not yet known by that epithet). Conan Doyle refers to other fictional detectives who came before, his inspirational building materials.

Conan Doyle was a Victorian man and his writing reveals the mindset of the time. The long interlude set in Utah reminded me strongly of the romantic western novels of Zane Grey, who also used the Mormons as the bad guys in some of his plots (Riders of the Purple Sage, for instance). There were suspicions about this new religion and their polygamous leanings, some of which may be based on fact, but fact and fiction get muddled when prejudice is involved. I have to ask how much say the women in this very patriarchal religion had in the matter of plural marriage, but I also wonder how many non-Mormon women got strong armed into these marriages in reality. I wouldn't put it past entitled old white men to think it was a-okay, but this plot device may reveal the fears of non-Mormon men that they would never find wives of their own (like the incels of today believe, the Mormons were the “Chads" who were getting all the girls).

At any rate, the story returns to London and Holmes eventually. The reader gets to hear the detective's explanation of his insights, setting him up as the Great Detective figure with whom we are familiar.