Study in Scarlet

An army surgeon home from Afghanistan needs cheap lodgings and is introduced to a man conducting experiments in a hospital laboratory. Doyle wrote the first Holmes story in three weeks and sold it outright for twenty-five pounds - the worst bargain in publishing history. The method, the rooms in Baker Street and the friendship all arrive fully formed here. Thirty-four plates of Victorian and Edwardian painting, from Grimshaw to Barrett, catch the gaslight, moorland and market squares of the world Holmes first walked through.