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caitlin_doggos's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence and Terminal illness
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Some books become classics for a good reason.
Recovering from injury and illness sustained during the war, ex-army-doctor John Watson moves in with an eccentric flatmate: the chemistry enthusiast Sherlock Holmes. Although talented and with a steady stream of small-scale clientele, Holmes has never had the chance to prove himself against a big case. When he does, he pulls Watson along with him and the novel races off.
Fast-paced, well-written, and with characters that have remained the world's favourites for over a hundred years, A Study in Scarlet is a wonderful book.
Recovering from injury and illness sustained during the war, ex-army-doctor John Watson moves in with an eccentric flatmate: the chemistry enthusiast Sherlock Holmes. Although talented and with a steady stream of small-scale clientele, Holmes has never had the chance to prove himself against a big case. When he does, he pulls Watson along with him and the novel races off.
Fast-paced, well-written, and with characters that have remained the world's favourites for over a hundred years, A Study in Scarlet is a wonderful book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Violence, Blood, and Religious bigotry
The second part of the book involves a family's struggle to escape a Mormon camp that does not believe in personal freedom.grimviolins's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Kidnapping, Grief, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Blood and Alcohol
chalkletters's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Sherlock Holmes was the third fictional detective I was introduced to, after Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. My mum used to have the books on tape, and I remember that the first time I listen to <em>A Study in Scarlet</em>, I was absolutely riveted. Not so much by the relationship between Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes, that came later, but by the story of Jefferson Hope. As a teen, I accepted it without question or critical thought. And, though I remember it less clearly, that must have been how I've engaged with it every time since.
This time, however, the story that used to enthral me has absolutely enraged me. Which isn't to say that <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> is any less interesting or less well written since I first experienced it all those years ago. It's just that I've become a more discerning reader, and that's actually pretty cool.
If you haven't read <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> and you care about spoilers, come back to this review later, because what so angered me is pretty crucial to the murderer's motive.
Jefferson Hope claims to love Lucy Ferrier so much that he devotes his whole life to revenge on the men who forced her into marriage. Alright, that's a little old-fashioned, perhaps, but <em>A Study in Scarlet </em>is set in 1880, so that's not my problem. My problem is that after Lucy gets married, Jefferson Hope walks away and leaves her to die. He is right there on the spot, he's already attempted to rescue her once, but as soon as he hears that the marriage has already taken place, he turns around and walks off! He makes no attempt to rescue her from a situation that he's told is so bad she will probably die of grief. And she does, she dies, all while Jefferson Hope is plotting to avenge her death!
I think when I was younger, I just accepted that, of course, marriage is forever, there's no way Lucy could be saved from it. And, to an extent, that might be true. Lucy, it is implied, is a religious woman in 1880. She might not have been in favour of divorce, even were it legally possible. But nobody asks her. Jefferson Hope doesn't ask whether she'd rather run away with him and live in sin than endure life married to a man who killed her father. It's not even stated in the text that he presumes to know what her preference would be.
He's just told that she's married and he walks away. It's presented absolutely without comment or question. And it's made me angrier than anything I've read in a long time!
While I wouldn't say that this detracted from the merits of <em>A Study in Scarlet</em>, it certainly has distracted me from the rest of the story. This review probably isn't a very useful one if you want to know whether you should read the book: but that's not really what this blog is about. This blog is about recording my experience of the books I read and, this time, my experience of <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> has been profoundly shaped by my distaste for a character I formerly sympathised with.
This time, however, the story that used to enthral me has absolutely enraged me. Which isn't to say that <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> is any less interesting or less well written since I first experienced it all those years ago. It's just that I've become a more discerning reader, and that's actually pretty cool.
If you haven't read <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> and you care about spoilers, come back to this review later, because what so angered me is pretty crucial to the murderer's motive.
Jefferson Hope claims to love Lucy Ferrier so much that he devotes his whole life to revenge on the men who forced her into marriage. Alright, that's a little old-fashioned, perhaps, but <em>A Study in Scarlet </em>is set in 1880, so that's not my problem. My problem is that after Lucy gets married, Jefferson Hope walks away and leaves her to die. He is right there on the spot, he's already attempted to rescue her once, but as soon as he hears that the marriage has already taken place, he turns around and walks off! He makes no attempt to rescue her from a situation that he's told is so bad she will probably die of grief. And she does, she dies, all while Jefferson Hope is plotting to avenge her death!
I think when I was younger, I just accepted that, of course, marriage is forever, there's no way Lucy could be saved from it. And, to an extent, that might be true. Lucy, it is implied, is a religious woman in 1880. She might not have been in favour of divorce, even were it legally possible. But nobody asks her. Jefferson Hope doesn't ask whether she'd rather run away with him and live in sin than endure life married to a man who killed her father. It's not even stated in the text that he presumes to know what her preference would be.
He's just told that she's married and he walks away. It's presented absolutely without comment or question. And it's made me angrier than anything I've read in a long time!
While I wouldn't say that this detracted from the merits of <em>A Study in Scarlet</em>, it certainly has distracted me from the rest of the story. This review probably isn't a very useful one if you want to know whether you should read the book: but that's not really what this blog is about. This blog is about recording my experience of the books I read and, this time, my experience of <em>A Study in Scarlet</em> has been profoundly shaped by my distaste for a character I formerly sympathised with.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
gailbird's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Can I just say, I forgot how much I love Doyle’s writing? I think Doyle was somewhat justified in resenting Holmes’ popularity, which pressured him to continue writing the same type of "cheap," “popular” crime stories instead of exploring his range and moving on to potentially greater things. But Doyle is a good writer, and shows immense range even in the first installment of the Sherlock Holmes stories. People have complained (including myself) about how random the digression into the murderer’s backstory—in Utah of all places—is, but at the same time, it’s a really compelling addition to the narrative. Imagine the Utah episodes weren’t there, written as they are. Imagine all we got of the backstory was what the murderer confesses at the end. Wouldn’t that be dry? Even drier than the pitiless desert Doyle evokes through writing as vividly as Louis L'Amour ever did. Given that Holmes himself called the case “simple” and solved it essentially from his armchair in three days, the added narrative prevents the content of the story from feeling flat. It communicates things to the reader that Holmes could not have deduced in any amount of time with the information he had—emotion, passion, cultish fear, survival, grief. The Utah narrative is also a courtesy of the authorial hand—it is not written by Dr. John Watson, as is the rest of the story. It confuses the form a little bit, but it also places us decidedly on the side of the murderer, which is a bold move no matter how it’s done.
Another thing I didn’t remember from when I first read it is the direct reference included in conversation between Holmes and Watson of Edgar Allen Poe’s deductive reasoner, C. Auguste Dupin. Watson compares Holmes to this pioneer of detective fiction, which Holmes rather resents and, somewhat uppishly, explains why he is in fact not like Dupin. I don’t know whether to chalk this up to Doyle wanting to get out in front of possible comparisons that the audience would make, or a genuine acknowledgement of those whose works inspired and informed the creation of his own. One of the characteristics that so distinguishes Holmes’ character in this introductory story is that he is not showy (part of his criticism of Dupin), he is not dying to tell everyone his methods, and when he does upon request, he frames it in the most straightforward—dare I say it?—dullest way imaginable. He’s not concerned with the drama of discovery, he’s concerned with the truthful results. It may also be inferred that it is difficult for him to clearly convey his processes, as he has automated so many of the steps as to not notice himself taking them, in the same way someone in advanced levels of mathematics might be at a loss as to how to explain the steps of long division—they just do them automatically. And that's another argument for the intermission in ye olde Utah rather than following Holmes doing nothing in particular, which means Watson observing nothing in particular to relate, for those dozen or so pages.
Also, can we pause and appreciate the brilliant introduction of Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson? I felt for those two, and I felt for Holmes’ relationship with them. I completely forgot how much of a sense of humour Holmes has. The amount of times Holmes is said to smile or laugh is a shock to system after being accustomed to seeing him portrayed in adaptation after adaptation as some kind of uptight, pompous, obnoxious, tactless person. The way he humours the inspectors and, though momentarily righteously incensed at their being given all the credit, sees their better qualities while they somewhat rudely overlook his is just heartwarming. And Watson. He is all that a narrator should be—observant, stylish writer, but with a few revelatory emergences of his own personality to make him more than a blank slate for the readers to write their own names on. Of course, that is indeed a part of what he is—representation for the skeptical audience that is then won over to Holmes’ side along with him. It’s a common writing technique, but an essential one when you need to get a story moving quickly and communicate necessary information—have a character enter an unfamiliar environment or meet a new person and then teach the reader about it naturally by having them watch that character learning. But I feel like Watson is more, and is foreshadowed as becoming more, with his background in Afghanistan, his illness, and his honest liking for Holmes after initially being quite indifferent to or wary of him. Because, like I said, Holmes is actually likeable in the way he’s written. And I’m here for it.
Another thing I didn’t remember from when I first read it is the direct reference included in conversation between Holmes and Watson of Edgar Allen Poe’s deductive reasoner, C. Auguste Dupin. Watson compares Holmes to this pioneer of detective fiction, which Holmes rather resents and, somewhat uppishly, explains why he is in fact not like Dupin. I don’t know whether to chalk this up to Doyle wanting to get out in front of possible comparisons that the audience would make, or a genuine acknowledgement of those whose works inspired and informed the creation of his own. One of the characteristics that so distinguishes Holmes’ character in this introductory story is that he is not showy (part of his criticism of Dupin), he is not dying to tell everyone his methods, and when he does upon request, he frames it in the most straightforward—dare I say it?—dullest way imaginable. He’s not concerned with the drama of discovery, he’s concerned with the truthful results. It may also be inferred that it is difficult for him to clearly convey his processes, as he has automated so many of the steps as to not notice himself taking them, in the same way someone in advanced levels of mathematics might be at a loss as to how to explain the steps of long division—they just do them automatically. And that's another argument for the intermission in ye olde Utah rather than following Holmes doing nothing in particular, which means Watson observing nothing in particular to relate, for those dozen or so pages.
Also, can we pause and appreciate the brilliant introduction of Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson? I felt for those two, and I felt for Holmes’ relationship with them. I completely forgot how much of a sense of humour Holmes has. The amount of times Holmes is said to smile or laugh is a shock to system after being accustomed to seeing him portrayed in adaptation after adaptation as some kind of uptight, pompous, obnoxious, tactless person. The way he humours the inspectors and, though momentarily righteously incensed at their being given all the credit, sees their better qualities while they somewhat rudely overlook his is just heartwarming. And Watson. He is all that a narrator should be—observant, stylish writer, but with a few revelatory emergences of his own personality to make him more than a blank slate for the readers to write their own names on. Of course, that is indeed a part of what he is—representation for the skeptical audience that is then won over to Holmes’ side along with him. It’s a common writing technique, but an essential one when you need to get a story moving quickly and communicate necessary information—have a character enter an unfamiliar environment or meet a new person and then teach the reader about it naturally by having them watch that character learning. But I feel like Watson is more, and is foreshadowed as becoming more, with his background in Afghanistan, his illness, and his honest liking for Holmes after initially being quite indifferent to or wary of him. Because, like I said, Holmes is actually likeable in the way he’s written. And I’m here for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Rape and Torture