A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet, originally published serially in a British magazine in 1887, became Arthur Conan Doyle’s first novel and the first work to feature the now-famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner and diarist Dr. John Watson. The character of Sherlock Holmes was likely inspired by Conan Doyle’s medical school professor, Dr. Joseph Bell, who also possessed keen abilities in observation, logic, and deduction. The character’s popularity led to a second Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of Four, which made Holmes a household name and Conan Doyle a world-renowned author.