“A Study in Scarlet” & “The Sign of the Four” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
In his essay “Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes,” from Maps and Legends, Michael Chabon discusses how the details of Doyle’s life contributed to his writing of the Holmes oeuvre. Chabon is adamant that the Holmes stories are entertaining and well done, yet shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I was reminded me the scene in The Thirteenth Tale when the doctor tells the overwrought heroine to stop reading gothic fiction, and gives her a prescription for Sherlock Holmes.
A Study in Scarlet & The Sign of the Four, two short novels, are the beginning of the Holmes canon. They are racist, sexist, anti-Mormon, and inconsistent, yet enduringly funny, engaging, and entertaining.
In A Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson meets Holmes, and they quickly are involved in a nasty murder case involving Mormons.
There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.
As for The Sign of the Four, one of the characters described it very well:
‘It is a romance!’ cried Mrs Forrester. ‘An injured lady, half a million in treasure, a black cannibal and a wooden-legged ruffian. They take the place of the conventional dragon or wicked earl.’
‘And two knights errant to the rescue,’ added Miss Morstan, with a bright glance at me
.
In addition to the stories, the characters held my attention as well. Dr Watson, on Sherlock Holmes’ mood swings:
Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night. On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant experssion in his eyes that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic had not the temperance and cleanliness of his hwole life forbidden such a notion.
In The Sign of the Four, Holmes still vacillates between depression and mania, but his drug use is acknowledged, one of the inconsistencies in the series; Chabon says these show Doyle was likely writing quickly for money, with little attention to continuity.
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time, his eyes rested thoughtfully on the sinewy forearm and wries, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had not reconciled my mind to it….
‘Which is it today,’ I asked, ‘morphine or cocaine?’
He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-leather volume which he had opened.
‘It is cocaine,’ he said, ‘a seven-percent solution. Would you like to try it?’
Inconsistencies and dated views included, these two novels, which I bought in one volume, were a lovely change after I finished Shakespeare’s Richard II. I may try to work in more Holmes throughout the rest of the year.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
What fun! I recently bought an anthology that contains all 4 of the Sherlock Holmes novels, as well as many of the short stories as well (ironically, it’s called the “Complete Works”, but is separated into 2 volumes… I only own the first). I’d definitely like to delve into them in the future, as I remember reading several of the stories when I was younger and enjoying them a good deal.
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
What I liked about them was the familiar combined with what I didn’t remember, or didn’t notice before–oh, look, Holmes is a self-medicating bipolar!
I’m trying to read them in order, since they were written in order, so I’ll probably buy the individual books, though my husband got that HUGE annotated collection recently. But it’s too big to read except on a table.