#behold. i have read a book

[terramythos]

TAYLOR READS 2023: A STUDY IN SCARLET BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Title: A Study in Scarlet (1887)

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Genre/Tags: Fiction, Mystery, Murder Mystery, Western, First-Person, Third-Person

Rating: 6/10

Date Began: 01/28/2023

Date Finished: 03/04/2023

Returning from war in the Middle East, Dr. Watson finds himself in search of a roommate in London. He makes the acquaintance of a man named Sherlock Holmes, an eccentric private detective with a bold new approach to investigating crime. The duo soon find themselves at the center of a bizarre murder; a corpse with no visible wounds in an abandoned house, and the word “RACHE” written on the wall in someone else’s blood. Through his keen deductive reasoning, Holmes begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder— but not before a second body is found, and the culprit’s complicated past takes center stage.

There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.

For live reading notes, check the reblogs (warning for spoilers of... a book published in 1887).

Content warnings and review (spoiler-free and spoiler versions) under the cut.

Content Warnings: Depicted — Self-harm, drug use, death, murder, animal death, stalking/harassment, terrorism, misogyny, racism, forced marriage, terminal illness. Mentioned — Warfare, traumatic injury, colonialism, sexual harassment, sexual slavery/kidnapping, suicide.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Some disclaimers before I jump into the review. This is the first Sherlock Holmes story I’ve read, and my exposure to it in pop culture boils down to (1) about a season of Elementary and (2) the Guy Ritchie movies, of all things. Thankfully I avoided the terrible BBC show during its peak hype, so it didn’t sour me on the whole concept. While I know some of the unavoidable tropes, the stories themselves are mostly unknown to me. Second, A Study in Scarlet is actually the first Sherlock Holmes story ever published. This was a coincidence; I have a couple books I picked up at a second-hand store and grabbed this one at random. Part of me wishes I’d started with a later book, but oh well.

The first half of A Study in Scarlet, which is the bulk of the murder mystery, is an entertaining read. I genuinely enjoyed thinking over the evidence and trying to piece together the mystery, a central appeal to Sherlock Holmes. There’s a revenge narrative toward the end, and while it’s no Count of Monte Cristo, I did enjoy the themes and observations about human nature this introduced to the story. Doyle’s prose is serviceable, and there’s several lines and descriptions that really stuck out to me. A Study in Scarlet is an early work, so I’m interested to see how he develops as a writer in the later stories.

Characterization is hit or miss. Holmes is solid. Much of A Study in Scarlet is told from Watson’s perspective, and he meets Holmes for the first time in this story. As a result, both characters feel multidimensional; we get Watson’s honest impressions of Holmes (good and bad), and as a result learn about Watson’s own personality and opinions. The culprit, when revealed, is well-developed for Spoiler Reasons. Beyond that, I found the rest of the cast forgettable. Not every character needs to be deep and nuanced, but some really needed more development, or even a noteworthy trait. I didn’t get that from most.

There are some small details that made me laugh, like Holmes saying he wants his name to be famous. Mission accomplished, buddy. He creates what’s basically luminol in his introductory scene, in a book published decades before it was invented. As someone who mostly reads speculative fiction, I see this kind of thing in scifi, but to see it in a murder mystery is a fun surprise.

Obviously being written in 1887, there’s some aspects of the story that didn’t age well.  Mostly this shows in racism, colonialism, and related terminology. This isn’t a huge surprise coming from a British author in the late 19th century. For what it’s worth, there’s one footnote in this entire story, which Doyle uses to make a snarky comment about sexism. So I guess he gets a brownie point there?

Overall, the book is okay, but not amazing. I have some major criticisms of the story, but they mostly fall into the spoiler section of the review.

**SPOILER REVIEW**

So, the mystery. I was under the impression, before reading this, that Sherlock Holmes stories are fair mysteries, aka it’s possible for the reader to figure everything out on their own based on the clues provided in the story. Unfortunately A Study in Scarlet is only partially fair; you can glean the means of the crime, but not the perpetrator or their motive. During the grand reveal at the end of the story, we learn Holmes had access to information that the reader did not, and that’s how he figured out who committed the two murders. This honestly soured the whole thing for me. It might seem like a small thing, but the problem-solving aspect is what I was looking forward to most with these stories, so knowing I never had a chance makes it feel a little pointless.

My second major issue with A Study in Scarlet is its structure. The story is split into two parts. The first half is pretty much what one would expect— Holmes and Watson meet in London for the first time, we learn a little about their characters, a mysterious murder happens, and we follow the cast around as more clues present themselves. This was by far the strongest part of the story for me. So it was a little jarring when Holmes apprehends the murderer at the end of Part One, with an entire half of the novel to go.

The story then jumps back in time by around thirty years, in the United States, following a new set of characters. From here the story switches from a murder mystery to what I can only describe as a thriller Western. I guess Doyle really wanted to write a Western? Or maybe dunk on Mormonism for a while (fair enough)? To be clear, I love narrative shifts, genre muddling, and time jumps, the more experimental the better, but they have to be done well. This one is not; it feels out of place with Part One, and what it accomplishes narratively could have been done better in other ways.

It’s pretty clear from the start that Part Two exists to establish back-story for Jefferson Hope (the culprit) and why he killed Drebber and Stangerson. But Doyle spends way too long on two characters— Hope’s love interest Lucy and her adoptive father Ferrier— who only exist to get killed off. Despite them being the “focus” for several chapters, their development and personality are lacking, mostly told to the reader instead of demonstrated. “Show, don’t tell” is obviously not a hard rule, but it was much needed in this case. It takes a long time for Hope to enter this part of the story, which is a problem if he’s the protagonist. I admit it’s pretty wild to have actual real Mormons be the antagonists of a freaking Sherlock Holmes story, but other than the novelty and historical context, I didn’t find them to be compelling villains.

Maybe this leap into the past would work better if integrated into the main mystery story, or if it was pared down substantially, or even if the whole thing was told from Hope’s perspective. When Hope describes how he committed the murders toward the end, we do get his perspective… and it’s great! It made me wish all of Part Two had been told in this matter; it’s way more fascinating than what we got.

In all, A Study in Scarlet wasn’t bad, just mediocre. Had it not been attached to the most iconic character in Western canon, I doubt it would still be published and read today. But I’m sure future entries refine and improve upon the formula; I can cut a lot of slack considering this was Doyle’s first attempt at a Holmes story, and they’ve withstood the test of time for a reason. I plan to read a few later stories in the series to see how they compare to this first entry.

[noxcheshire]

Back again with Danny being adopted by other batfam members.

But this time I thought of the absolute comedy of Damian, tiny squirt and five apples tall, deciding that he is now a father to a grown ass teenage Danny.

It was an accident and had never been his intention to adopt another being.

But it had been placed into Damian’s head that in order to be a potential Batman he had to have his own Robin. And the only way to have his own Robin was to have a child, similar to the way that Father would pick up the various children and teenagers amongst them.

Damain had a very specific list of requirements for his potential child-Robin. Danny did not meet any of those requirements, and yet here Damian was having forged papers for the now Daniel Al Ghul-Wayne, and beginning the treacherous affair of introducing his son to the family.

Danny twisted his new shirt sleeve with a frown. It was a nice green silk that complimented the little green that resided in his son’s eyes. Damian wished to bring out the many carefully crafted features of Danny that could match to Damian. Having his eyes pop, wild hair brushed and losing the battle to nervous hands, would have to do.

At least until Damian taught Danny his mother tongue and began the care of his culture and soon to be heritage.

[chiropteracupola]

FINALLY! AT LAST! GRANDDAD’S HORNBLOWER BOOK COLLECTION!!

[vlagg20]

One thing about me is that if there's a book/comic that I really want to read but couldn't because I am to broke or because it doesn't exist in my country, I will resort to just going to many online shopping to search for the book/comic. Not to buy them mind you but to see if the seller's give previews/sneak peeks of the book so I can get a glimpse on what is happening in the book, even if its just a small crumb lol

BUT ITS FUN THO (for me). Like, I love the thea sisters books and it is kinda unfortune that there still so many books of theirs that haven't been translate to English (or some contexts/features in the Italian books that didn't made it to the English books). So my solution is to search them up on online shopping websites to see if there are previews of the books for me to see. Im basically just treasure hunting for the books at this point lmao

And I DO manage to find some crumbs there :D! Here, have Nicky trying her absolute best to balanced the heavy tapestry while riding on her bike in treasure seekers and her doing Tai Chi in one of their adventure back on China (its kinda blurry but oh well)

Look at her!! So silly <3 (and apparently a beast because it took two grown man to carry that tapestry while walking and here is Nicky carrying the entire thing on her bike with no help WHILE running away from the bad guys. Like, she is something else at this point)

[loxare]

IT IS DONE

I'm so happy, I've wanted to get this into print since I finished reading it. The gold spots on the cover are metallic and shiny~

It's done in legal quarto, so almost the same size as a paperback, and it fits so nicely in my pocket. I will absolutely be revisiting this one though, because I have Ideas on how to make it even better

[hella1975]

ive got an essay due at 3pm tomorrow and ive not even looked at it i am so so unserious about my degree and by the grace of some higher being i somehow keep managing to crawl through it's actually getting a bit funny

[bookshelfpassageway]

my kingdom for an affordable, existing, English language, for sale copy of the original print of Lackadaisy Vol 2

[khattikeri]

i've realized i don't actually like liu///shen as much as i like liu qingge himself and his unrequited tragically uninformed shitshow crush on shen qingqiu

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Beholder

YA horror

a boy who can rewind time when he looks in mirrors is the only survivor of a strange massacre at a party where he was hiding in the bathroom

the man responsible kidnaps his grandmother, and he and another boy investigate the supernatural murders tied to the rich art world of NYC to get her back

not to mention he can see Something when he’s looking in mirrors, and it’s getting closer

1st and 2nd person narration

pan MC, m/m

[jacksintention]

Still unwell about Rilke and PH

I love the dark hours of my being.

My mind deepens into them.

There I can find, as in old letters,

the days of my life, already lived,

and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open

to another life that's wide and timeless.

So I am sometimes like a tree

rustling over a gravesite

and making real the dream

of the one its living roots

embrace:

a dream once lost

among sorrows and songs.

[neige-leblanche]

finished les miserables btw!! thinking i should read war and peace next bc ive seen some bangin yaoi of it courtesy of die girlies auf tumblr

[queerofthedagger]

Just hunted down a physical copy of "Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914" that's in good condition, affordable, and without abhorrent shipping fees, and yes yes, having to wait three weeks until it gets here is entirely reasonable, but also I'm so excited for it, my already non-existent well of patience is a little kid waiting for presents on Christmas help

[libraryleopard]

Dual POV adult historical romance set in 1810s England

When a Gareth, London clerk, unexpectedly inherits his estranged father's baronetcy in Kent, he moves to the Romney marshes and realizes that Joss, the man who runs the local smuggling clan, is the same one who he had several clandestine assignations with–before they abruptly things ended on bad terms

The two end tangled in conflicts between rival smuggling clans and the local authorities even as they find themselves drawn back to each other

Very grounded in historical politics, setting, and language

Gay main character; biracial Black/white, gay main character; M/M romance

[hanzajesthanza]

i finished narrenturm, and strangely enough, it felt like i and the story were in sync. just when i was beginning to feel bored, it picked up. just when i was feeling overwhelmed with action, it slowed down. just as i felt i wished something magical would happen, it did, and just as when i felt a need to return to the mundane, it did. a “wish and you will receive” reading experience!

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

the vitriolic hatred most people have for things that look weird is so upsetting to me sometimes :(

[taniushka12]

6 for the reading ask game?

6) Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

i did actually!! The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, its this weird murder mystery kinda deal but with time loops & body hopping in the middle?? i've been so curious on the premise since the first time i read the back cover and its Definitely a 2023 goal to buy & read it :')

also i wanted to read some of stanisław lem's work (particularly Solaris, Tales of Pirx The Pilot, and The Cyberiad), i've heard a lot of good things abt him and i really liked the movie solaris, but it's been a busy year u_u

[end-of-year book ask!] (thank you!! ♥)