| rdfs:comment | - A Study in Scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes book written by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, though it was at the time not very popular, and later reissued in novel format.
- The entire novel, with accompanying illustrations by David Henry Friston, was first published in November 1887 as part of Beeton's Christmas Annual, a magazine which came out once a year each year between 1860 and 1898. Only thirty-three copies of the 1887 issue of Beeton's Christmas Annual are known to still exist and only eleven of those are complete. A copy of the magazine, which was originally priced at one shilling, was sold at auction in 2007 for US$156,000. There have been numerous adaptations of A Study in Scarlet to other media.
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| abstract | - The entire novel, with accompanying illustrations by David Henry Friston, was first published in November 1887 as part of Beeton's Christmas Annual, a magazine which came out once a year each year between 1860 and 1898. Only thirty-three copies of the 1887 issue of Beeton's Christmas Annual are known to still exist and only eleven of those are complete. A copy of the magazine, which was originally priced at one shilling, was sold at auction in 2007 for US$156,000. A Study in Scarlet was first published in book form in July 1888 with illustrations by Charles Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's father. A second edition, with illustrations by George Hutcinson, was published in 1889. Neither A Study in Scarlet nor its 1890 sequel The Sign of the Four aroused much public interest when they were first published. It was only after Doyle's short stories about the detective began appearing in The Strand magazine, starting with "A Scandal in Bohemia" in June 1891, that Sherlock Holmes became a household name. A Study in Scarlet is divided into two parts. The first part is subtitled "Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson M.D., late of the Indian Army Medical Department". It describes how Dr. Watson first meets and comes to share an apartment with Sherlock Holmes and Watson's initial impressions of his housemate. Watson soon realizes that Holmes is extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, although he is shocked by some of the things that Holmes does not know. For some time, Watson does not know what Holmes does for a living. Holmes eventually reveals that he is a consulting detective. People come to him with problems that other private detectives and the police have been unable to solve. The police themselves often come to Holmes to ask for assistance. Watson accompanies Holmes when Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard asks for help. The body of a dead man has been found in an empty house. It is soon established that the dead man was an American named Enoch J. Drebber. There are no signs of violence to his body. The German word for "revenge" is written in blood on one of the walls of the room where Drebber's body is found. Another American named Joseph Stangerson is found dead in similar circumstances soon afterwards. Holmes soon discovers the murderer's identity, while Gregson and Lestrade, another Scotland Yard detective, are following false leads. The second part of the novel, which is subtitled "The Country of the Saints", describes events which began in the American West some forty years earlier that eventually brought about the murders in London. The first part of the novel is entirely narrated by Dr. Watson. The second part is mostly written from the point of view of an all-knowing third person narrator, although Watson returns as the narrator for the final two chapters. Some readers are likely to find the manner in which the Latter Day Saint movement and Brigham Young are depicted in the novel to be offensive. There have been numerous adaptations of A Study in Scarlet to other media.
- A Study in Scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes book written by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, though it was at the time not very popular, and later reissued in novel format.
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