Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet

My first time reading Sherlock Holmes -- and I can now understand why it has been such a renowned series! 🙏

Sherlock Holmes is formidable for a number of reasons. For one, the books were published in the 1890s, a period when we did not have nearly as many technological advancements that we have today.

As Holmes himself states: "I have a turn both for observation and for deduction." He is able to solve crimes simply by "reasoning backwards, or analytically."

"In the every day affairs of life it is more useful to reason forwards, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically. ... Most people, if you describe a train of events to them, will tell you what the results would be. ... There are few people, however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve ... what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean when I talk of reasoning backwards, or analytically."

(All image created using an AI art generator on NightCafe)

With this power of observation, Holmes is able to come to simple, yet pivotal conclusions. All of the evidence is presented to the reader, so they may come to their own conclusion, yet I was still astonished when Holmes would state facts, such as the suspect's height: "When a man writes ... to write about the level of his own eyes. Now that writing was just over six feet from the ground."

Or, how he managed to distinguish tracks in the mud: "... I saw clearly the marks of a cab ... and not a private carriage by the narrow gauge of the wheels."

Or, how Holmes knew the murder weapon was not only poison, but that it was forced upon the victim: "Having sniffed the dead man's lips I detected a slightly sour smell ... he had poison forced upon him. ... it had been forced upon him from the hatred and fear expressed upon his face."

This book is also formidable due to the fact that Sherlock Holmes is possibly who inspired our favorite lovable Stewie Griffin with his "what the deuce?!" references.

"'What the deuce is it to me?' he interrupted impatiently."

This story, A Study in Scarlet, was especially interesting in how it was unraveled. Halfway through the book, the murderer is arrested, and then the next half of the book magically teleports the reader to 1850s Utah in order to learn more about the lore. I have no problem with flashbacks, but if not for the Part 2 plastered onto the page, I would have had NO idea what was happening! There was no transition, no indication to let the reader know that they were in the past.

For me, there were a few miscellaneous passages that I really found beautiful. For example, there is a part where Holmes brings up a topic that I had LITERALLY just discussed with my husband only a day before picking up this book!

"'I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

"'A fool takes in all the lumber ... so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out ... he has difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools ... for every addition of knowledge, you forget something that you knew before.