Classic
A Study in Scarlet
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Summary
Invalided army doctor John Watson takes rooms at 221B Baker Street with an eccentric consulting detective named Sherlock Holmes and watches him unravel a revenge murder that has baffled Scotland Yard. Doyle introduces Holmes's deductive method, his chemistry experiments, and his amused contempt for the official police, then swings the narrative back decades to the American West to explain the killer's motive. The short novel launched the most famous detective in all of fiction.
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Historical Context & Significance
Doyle sold the story outright for twenty five pounds and it appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 to little immediate notice. Holmes's later short stories turned it retroactively into one of the most important debuts in popular literature.