A STUDY IN SCARLET.

Arthur Conan Doyle is unique in simultaneously bringing the curtain down on an era and raising one on another, ushering in a genre of writing that, while imitated and expanded, has never been surpassed I first encountered him through an eccentric maths teacher who would read 'The Speckled Band' and other Conan Doyle adventures to us instead of teaching fractions. He also used to balance chairs on his chin, but that's another story. I'm still fond of Holmes to this day, especially now that I can see him as the crazed, controlling junkie that he clearly was A wonderful Sherlock Holmes story from its sparkling first pages, through its vivid painting of darkest Dartmoor, its undertones of fear of the mind's depths, and on to the triumph of the rational The Times Holmes is probably the only literary creation since the creations of Dickens which has really passed into the life and language of the people A Victorian whodunnit of brooding power Guardian