Bingo 9 (Classics), and also in preparation for book club.
I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever actually read a Sherlock Holmes story exactly as it was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I remember reading some Holmes mysteries when I was younger, but the more I think about it, I’m wondering if they weren’t abbreviated version, something like Great Illustrated Classics. I’ve certainly read variations of several sorts, as well as followed Sherlock, and seen a few of the movie versions. Hound of the Baskervilles has always been a favorite of mine, and the “Red-Headed League” is one of my favorites of the short-stories.
Reading A Study in Scarlet has done nothing to change those rankings. I did wonder at how young Sherlock seems to be when he and Watson first meet. If he’s young enough to pass as a student, there’s no way he’s as old as some of the more classic film versions (ahem, Basil Rathbone) make him look and act. That was simply an interesting surprise. What also surprised me far less pleasantly was how about 40 pages of a 100 pages story was the flash-back/backstory of the culprit, and it wasn’t even in Watson’s or Holmes’s or even the culprit’s actual voice. I did not really read that part too closely. At first I wasn’t even sure what the point of it was. If it had been Holmes deducing, or the culprit confessing, it might have been more bearable, but as is, this part of the story was a dull long section that didn’t even fit into the main narrative very well. Sherlock Holmes stories are supposed to be the invention of the detective/murder mystery, not a continuation of the tragic love story melodrama tradition (which I dislike).
Sherlock himself seemed largely normal in this story. I noticed very little of the craziness or strangeness that you often see in film or re-imaginings. Yes, he has a violin and wide variety of knowledge/interests, and sometimes very strong, almost immovable opinions, but he’s not the cold un-relatable “high functioning sociopath” I remembered him as. Watson’s lists of “things Holmes is good at, and things he knows little about” was a little humorous but also more humanizing.
The other thing I didn’t realize or remember was that Gregson and Lestrade were actually both a part of the story, together. I remember them being pretty distinct, separated characters that you never saw together. A silly and probably not terribly meaningful question that remains ended up being, ‘before Watson starts consulting with Holmes, and writing stories, what did he really do for a living?” as in, how did he pay his bills once out of the army. There’s a brief note about savings or retirement something from the army, but what did Watson really expect to do for income, even if he managed to reduce expenses by finding a roomie? Anyways, I would have liked to have seen a little more on how Sherlock ends up how he does as in how-why he develops his methodology and detective consulting. I know there’s more backstory-personal history in later stories, but it would have added a little more context.