A STUDY IN SCARLET is an 1887 detective novel by British author Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. Written in 1886, the story marks the first
appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become among the
most famous characters in literature. The book's title derives from a
speech given by Holmes, an amateur detective, to his friend and
chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the
story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet" "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." (more on www.wisehouse-classics.com)
The story, and its main characters, attracted little public interest
when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of the magazine in which
the story first appeared, Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, are known
to exist now and they have considerable value. Although Conan Doyle
wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, A STUDY IN SCARLET is one of
only four full-length novels in the original canon. A STUDY IN SCARLET
was the first work of detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying
glass as an investigative tool.