Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Study in Scarlet

I'd never read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and when I saw that they were available on The Literature Network I figured it was high time. When I started to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, however, there were immediate references to A Study in Scarlet, which is how I learned that this one actually came first. I love bits of information like this!

A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887 and is the first of the Sherlock Holmes stories. It is also the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's books to be published. It is the book where Holmes and Watson meet and describes the first crime that Watson witnesses Holmes solving.

I loved the detective part of the story as much as I loved the recent Agatha Christie I read. I loved following clue by clue and seeing how Sherlock Holmes solved the crime. But I got bored with the bit in the middle, where the story went to a Mormon community in the US and where we saw how the victim and the murderer met and what happened between them. I wanted more of Watson and Sherlock!

Nevertheless, I will certainly be following this up with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Challenges: 999 Challenge, Classics Challenge, Decades Challenge, Suspense & Thriller Challenge

4 comments:

Lezlie said...

This was my first Sherlock Holmes also. And someday I'll read more of them. :-)

Lezlie

joanna said...

Hi Lezlie - ah someday... :-)

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

I've never read anything by Conan Doyle but I just finished a book that referenced him and his work quite often and got me very curious about his work. Haven't read any Agatha Christie either!! Eeeks...

joanna said...

Hi Trish - they're worth picking up! :-)