The last chronological story (‘His Last Bow’) was published in 1917, but set in 1914. The last-written story (‘The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place’) was published in 1927 but set much earlier. Conan Doyle went on to write three more novels and fifty-six short stories using Sherlock Holmes as the central character. A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887, and is set somewhere between 18 (more on the author’s offhand approach to dates in a moment). These are the words that Arthur Conan Doyle uses at the start of his novel A Study in Scarlet to introduce us to narrator Dr John Watson, and to set the scene for Watson’s later meeting with the eccentric consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air - or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. You can order it direct from the publishers by clicking here. This article appears in the book London Fictions, edited by Andrew Whitehead and Jerry White – and published by Five Leaves.
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