A Study in Scarlet (Modern Library Classics) (Paperback)

Staff Reviews
Sherlock Holmes’s first appearance in print
introduces the canny detective to Dr. Watson.
Holmes wants to rent Baker Street but his purse will not stretch. Watson is home from Afghanistan nursing a war
wound, he also needs affordable housing. The two men pool their resources and
create one of the most famous duos in the history of literature. Watson is intrigued by his solitary roommate;
he readily accepts the opportunity to tag along when the police turn to the
detective for help with a most unusual case.
The parts of the story set in the southwest tell a sorry tale of love
and betrayal
Description
Introduction by Anne Perry
Includes newly commissioned endnotes
In 1887, a young Arthur Conan Doyle published A Study in Scarlet, creating an international icon in the quick-witted sleuth Sherlock Holmes. In this very first Holmes mystery, the detective introduces himself to Dr. John H. Watson with the puzzling line “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive,” and so begins Watson’s, and the world’s, fascination with this enigmatic character. In A Study in Scarlet, Doyle presents two equally perplexing mysteries for Holmes to solve: one a murder that takes place in the shadowy outskirts of London, in a locked room where the haunting word Rache is written upon the wall, the other a kidnapping set in the American West. Picking up the “scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life,” Holmes demonstrates his uncanny knack for finding the truth, tapping into powers of deduction that still captivate readers today.
About the Author
Anne Perry is the Edgar Award–winning author of more than thirty novels. Her most recent books include A Sunless Sea and A Christmas Garland. She lives in Scotland.
Praise For…
“[Holmes] is probably the only literary creation since the creations of Dickens which has really passed into the life and language of the people.”—G. K. Chesterton