A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (narrated by Stephen Fry)
Listening to Stephen Fry’s superb reading of THE
STUDY IN SCARLET, I realised that I have never properly read the Mormon second
half of the story. At best I can be said to have skim-read it, and I’m sure
there were times when I just skipped it out completely. Moving straight – and without
guilt – to more Holmes at the end.
I’m surely not alone in this. Sherlock Holmes is
already a compulsive character from the first chapter we meet him. There is no
embryonic phase where he isn’t quite himself. And the mystery Holmes and Watson
are presented with here is so compulsive and crackling, that to leave it and
head off on a long digression with a bunch of people far less interesting is an
annoying diversion. I guarantee that I’m not the only reader who has never
given it my full attention.
Listening to it, however, I did pay attention and
– no matter how good a job Stephen Fry does with it (and he does a damn good
job) – there’s no avoiding that it really is a melodramatic slog. A tale of
evil Mormons, a beautiful young virgin and a love story snuffed out by death.
It manages to combine being both overwrought and dull. Of course, what went
before was so brilliant that virtually anything is going to suffer in
comparison, but the change here is particularly jarring.
We can perhaps see already the ambivalent tone
Conan-Doyle would cultivate towards his most famous creation. He creates
something brilliant, but would rather spend a large portion of the book writing
about something completely different. As if he didn’t really know what he had,
or didn’t really care.
Still, Sherlock Holmes is fantastic in this inaugural tale and Stephen Fry does do a great job narrating it. Without a doubt, this is a five star book, even with the longueurs.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
