Sherlock Holmes : A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet is an 1887 detective novel by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Written in 1886, the story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become two of the most famous characters in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, an amateur detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.

Author	Arthur Conan Doyle
Country	United Kingdom
Series	Sherlock Holmes
Genre	Detective Novel
Publisher	Ward Lock & Co
First Publication Date	1887
Page	208

Part I: The Reminiscences of Watson

Part I leads with a heading which establishes the role of Dr. Watson as narrator and sets up the narrative stand-point that the work to follow is not fiction, but fact: "Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, MD, Late of the Army Medical Department."

The story begins in 1881, when Dr. Watson, having returned to London from Afghanistan, runs into an old friend Stamford at the Criterion Restaurant, who had been a dresser under him at St. Bartholomew's Hospital . Watson confides in Stamford that, due to a shoulder injury that he sustained in the Anglo-Afghan War at the Battle of Maiwand, he has been forced to leave the armed services and is now looking for a place to live. Stamford mentions that an acquaintance of his, Sherlock Holmes, is looking for someone to split the rent at a flat at 221B Baker Street, but he cautions Watson about Holmes's eccentricities.

Stamford takes Watson back to St. Bartholomew's where, in a laboratory, they find Holmes experimenting with a reagent, seeking a test to detect human haemoglobin. Holmes explains the significance of bloodstains as evidence in criminal trials. After Stamford introduces Watson to Holmes, Holmes shakes Watson's hand and comments, "You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive?" Though Holmes chooses not to explain why he made the comment, Watson raises the subject of their parallel quests for a place to live in London, and Holmes explains that he has found the perfect place in Baker Street. At Holmes's prompting, the two review their various shortcomings to make sure that they can live together.

After seeing the rooms at 221B, they move in and grow accustomed to their new situation.

Watson is amazed by Holmes, who has profound knowledge of chemistry and sensational literature, very precise but narrow knowledge of geology and botany; yet knows little about literature, astronomy, philosophy, and politics. Holmes also has multiple guests visiting him at different intervals during the day.

After much speculation by Watson, Holmes reveals that he is a "consulting detective" and that the guests are clients. Facing Watson's doubts about some of his claims, Holmes casually deduces to Watson that one visitor, a messenger from Scotland Yard is also a retired Marine sergeant. When the man confirms this, Watson is astounded by Holmes' ability to notice details and assemble them.

Holmes reads the telegram requesting consultation in a fresh murder case. He is reluctant to help because credit would go entirely to the officials. Watson urges him to reconsider so Holmes invites him to accompany him as he investigates the crime scene, an abandoned house off the Brixton Road.

Holmes observes the pavement and garden leading up to the house before he and Watson meet Inspectors Gregson and Lestrade. The four observe the crime scene, Holmes using a magnifying lens and tape measure. The male corpse, he's told, has been identified as Enoch Drebber. Blood has been found in the room but there is no wound on the body. They also learn from documents found on his person that he was in London with his secretary, Joseph Stangerson. On one wall, written in blood, is "RACHE". Correcting an erroneous theory of Lestrade's, Holmes remarks that it is the German word for "revenge." He goes on to deduce that the victim died from poison and supplies a description of the murderer: six feet tall, disproportionately small feet, florid complexion, square toed boots, and smoking a Trichinopoly cigar. His right-hand fingernails are long and he came in a cab whose horse had three old shoes and a new one. Holmes says "RACHE" was a ploy to fool the police. Upon moving Drebber's body, the pair discover a woman's gold wedding ring.

Soon, Holmes and Watson visit the home of the constable who had first discovered the corpse, paying him a bit for disturbing his nocturnal sleep cycle. They get little information Holmes didn't already know, other than that a seemingly drunk loiterer had attempted to approach the crime scene. Holmes chastises the officer for not realising that this was the murderer himself in disguise. They leave and Holmes explains that the murderer returned on realising that he'd forgotten the wedding ring.

Holmes dispatches some telegrams including an order for a newspaper notice about the ring. He also buys a facsimile of it. He guesses that the murderer, having already returned to the scene of the crime for it, would come to retrieve it. The advertisement is answered by an old woman who claims that the ring belongs to her daughter. Holmes gives her the duplicate, follows her, and returns to Watson with the story: she took a cab, he hopped onto the back of it, he found that she had vanished when it stopped. This leads Holmes to believe that it was the murderer's accomplice in disguise.

A day later, Gregson visits Holmes and Watson, telling them that he has arrested a suspect. He had gone to Madame Charpentier's Boarding House where Drebber and Stangerson had stayed before the murder. He learned from her that Drebber, a drunk, had attempted to kiss Mrs Charpentier's daughter, Alice, which caused their immediate eviction. Drebber, however, came back later that night and attempted to grab Alice, prompting her older brother to attack him. He attempted to chase Drebber with a cudgel but claimed to have lost sight of him. Gregson has him in custody on this circumstantial evidence.

Lestrade then arrives revealing that Stangerson has more recently been murdered. He had gone to interview Stangerson after learning where he had been rooming. His body was found dead near the hotel window, stabbed through the heart. Above his body was again written “RACHE”. The only things Stangerson had with him were a novel, a pipe, and a small box containing two pills. The pillbox Lestrade still has with him. Holmes tests the pills on an old and sickly Scottish terrier in residence at Baker Street. The first pill produces no evident effect, the second kills the terrier. Holmes deduces that one was harmless and the other poison.

Just at that moment, a very young street urchin named Wiggins arrives. He's the leader of the “Baker Street Irregulars”, a group of similar homeless children Holmes employs to help him occasionally. Wiggins states that he's summoned the cab Holmes wanted. Holmes sends him down to fetch the cabby, claiming to need help with his luggage. When the cabbie comes upstairs and bends for the trunk, Holmes handcuffs and restrains him. He then announces the captive cabby as Jefferson Hope, the murderer of Drebber and Stangerson.

Part II: "The Country of the Saints"

The Mormon Nauvoo Legion, considerably overlapping with the Danites.

The story flashes back to the Salt Lake Valley (in modern Utah) in 1847, where John Ferrier and a little girl named Lucy, the only survivors of a small party of pioneers, lie down near a boulder to die from dehydration and hunger. They are discovered by a large party of Latter-day Saints led by Brigham Young. The Mormons rescue Ferrier and Lucy on the condition that they adopt and live under their faith. Ferrier, who has proven himself an able hunter, adopts Lucy and is given a generous land grant with which to build his farm after the party constructs Salt Lake City. Years later, a now-grown Lucy befriends and falls in love with a man named Jefferson Hope.

Lucy and Hope become engaged to be married, scheduled after Hope's return from a three-month-long journey for his job. However, Ferrier is visited by Young, who reveals that it is against the religion for Lucy to marry Hope, a non-Mormon. He states that Lucy should marry Joseph Stangerson or Enoch Drebber—both sons of members of the church's Council of Four—though Lucy may choose which one. Ferrier and Lucy are given a month to decide.

Ferrier, who has sworn to never marry his daughter to a Mormon, immediately sends out word to Hope for help. When he is visited by Stangerson and Drebber, Ferrier is angered by their arguments over Lucy and throws them out. Every day, however, the number of days Ferrier has left to marry off Lucy is painted somewhere on his farm in the middle of the night. Hope finally arrives on the eve of the last day, and sneaks his love and her adoptive father out of their farm and away from Salt Lake City. However, while he is hunting for food, Hope returns to a horrific sight: a makeshift grave for the elder Ferrier. Lucy is nowhere to be seen. Determined to devote his life to revenge, Hope sneaks back into Salt Lake City, learning that Stangerson murdered Ferrier, and that Lucy was forcibly married to Drebber. Lucy dies a month later from a broken heart; Drebber, who inherited Ferrier's farm, is indifferent to her death. Hope then breaks into Drebber's house the night before Lucy's funeral to kiss her body and remove her wedding ring. Swearing vengeance, Hope stalks the town, coming close to killing Drebber and Stangerson on numerous occasions.

Hope begins to suffer from an aortic aneurysm, causing him to leave the mountains to earn money and recuperate. When he returns several years later, he learns that Drebber and Stangerson have fled Salt Lake City after a schism between the Mormons. Hope searches the United States, eventually tracking them to Cleveland; the pair then flees to Europe, eventually landing in London.

Holmes manages to lure Hope, in his role as cabdriver, to his Baker Street room, where he claps handcuffs on him, and with the help of Lestrade, Gregson, and Watson, manages to subdue and restrain him. Hope then willingly tells his story to his captors. In London, Hope became a cabby and eventually found Drebber and Stangerson at the train station in Euston about to depart to Liverpool. Having missed the first train, Drebber instructs Stangerson to wait for him at the hotel and then returns to Madame Charpentier's house. He is attacked by her son, and after escaping, he gets drunk at a liquor store. He is picked up by Hope and is led to the house on Brixton Road, which Drebber drunkenly enters with Hope. He then forces Drebber to remember who he is and to take a pill out of a small box, allowing God to choose which one dies, for one was harmless and the other poison. Drebber takes the poisoned pill, and as he dies, Hope shows him Lucy's wedding ring. The excitement coupled with his aneurysm had caused his nose to bleed; he used the blood to write “RACHE” on the wall above Drebber.

Hope realised, upon returning to his cab, that he had forgotten Lucy’s ring, but upon returning to the house, he found Constable Rance and other police officers, who he evaded by acting drunk. He then had a friend pose as an old lady to pick up the supposed ring from Holmes's advertisement.

Hope then began stalking Stangerson's room at the hotel; but Stangerson, on learning of Drebber's murder, refused to come out. Hope climbed into the room through the window and gave Stangerson the same choice of pills, but he was attacked by Stangerson and forced to stab him in the heart.

After being told of this, Holmes and Watson return to Baker Street; Hope dies from his aneurysm the night before he was to appear in court, a smile on his face. One morning, Holmes reveals to Watson how he had deduced the identity of the murderer and how he had used the Irregulars, whom he calls "street Arabs," to search for a cabby by that name. He then shows Watson the newspaper; Lestrade and Gregson are given full credit. Outraged, Watson states that Holmes should record the adventure and publish it. Upon Holmes's refusal, Watson decides to do it himself.

Question :

1. Who is the main character in "sherlock holmes : a study in scarlet?"
a. Sherlock Holmes
b. Dr. Watson
c. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
d. Stamford and Sherlock Holmes
e. Stamford and Sherlock Holmes

2. How Sherlock Holmes and dr. Watson met?
a. Stamford was introducing Sherlock to dr. Watson
b. They met in a cafe accidentally
c. They have the same hobby
d. They are brother
e. They are doctors in england

3. Why is dr. Watson amazed by Sherlock Holmes?
a. Holmes is a kind person
b. Holmes has amazing knowledge
c. Holmes is an opened-person
d. Holmes never lying
e.  Holmes has the same hobby with him

4. Why is this novel categorize as detective novel?
a. Because this novel is thrilling
b. Because this novel is full of mistery
c. Because the story tells the reader about a detective who solve a criminal case
d. Because this novel is famous
e. Because this novel has a sadist story

5. How is the atmosphere of this novel?
a. Touching
b. Romantic
c. Curious
d. Funny
e. Horror

Movie Review : The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 2013 American comedy-drama adventure film written by Steve Conrad and directed, produced (with Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., John Goldwyn and Stuart Cornfeld) and starring Ben Stiller. The film also stars Kristen Wiig, Shirley MacLaine, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, and Sean Penn. Gore Verbinski served as executive producer.

This is the second film adaptation of James Thurber's 1939 short story of the same name. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 5, 2013. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was theatrically released by 20th Century Fox, Samuel Goldwyn Films and New Line Cinema on December 25, 2013 in North America and December 26, 2013 in Australia & United Kingdom, to generally mixed reception, and was a moderate box office success. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 15, 2014 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Plot

Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager at Life magazine who daydreams of adventures and has a crush on a coworker named Cheryl. Mitty works with photojournalist Sean O'Connell, whose images are highly regarded. O'Connell has sent Mitty his latest negatives and a wallet as a gift in appreciation of Mitty's work. O'Connell believes negative #25 captures the "quintessence" of Life and that it should be used for the cover of the magazine's final print issue as it converts to online status. The negative is missing, however, and Walter is forced to stall for time with corporate transition manager Ted Hendricks, who is handling the downsizing. While viewing the other negatives outside Life's offices, Cheryl approaches Mitty and suggests that he think of the negatives as clues to Sean's location. They look at three of them, including one of a person's thumb with a unique ring on it, and another of a curved piece of wood. A third picture of a boat leads Mitty to determine that O'Connell is in Greenland. Mitty promptly flies there to find him.

A bartender in Greenland explains that O'Connell left on a ship. To find him, Mitty would need to go on the postal helicopter, and the pilot is drunk. Mitty recognizes the pilot's thumb with the unique ring and realizes he is on the right track. He at first declines to fly with the intoxicated pilot, but imagines Cheryl singing "Space Oddity", gains a new confidence and boards the helicopter. Nearing the ship, Mitty learns the helicopter cannot land upon it. Misunderstanding the pilot, instead of jumping into a dinghy boat nearing to catch him, Mitty aims for the main vessel and misses and falls in the ocean. He splashes down into ice-cold, shark-infested waters, losing a box of ship-to-shore radio components before being brought aboard.

Mitty learns that O'Connell departed the ship earlier. The crew offers him some cake O'Connell left behind; Mitty discovers O'Connell's destinations in the wrapping paper. The itinerary directs Mitty to Iceland, where O'Connell is photographing the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, and he arrives at the local village of Skógar near the volcano using a longboard, and notices O'Connell on the plane flying near the volcano. An eruption forces Mitty to flee, and as there is nothing left for him to do, he obeys a text message recalling him to New York.

For failing to recover the negative, his first failure in a long career with the magazine, Mitty is fired. He learns that Cheryl, who was let go earlier, seems to have reconciled with her estranged husband. Mitty returns home discouraged, throwing away the wallet when he visits his mother. To his surprise, Mitty recognizes the curve of the piano in his mother's house while looking at the last photograph. When asked, Mitty's mom mentions having met O'Connell. She had told Mitty before but he was daydreaming and failed to hear her.

Mitty discovers O'Connell is in the Himalayas, and finds him photographing a rare snow leopard. When asked about the negative, O'Connell explains that the message on the gift wrapping to "look inside" was literal; the negative was in the wallet. When pressed to reveal the image on the negative, O'Connell dismisses the question and joins in a high-altitude soccer game with some locals. Mitty flies to Los Angeles but is detained by airport security during a misunderstanding. Mitty calls the only person he knows in Los Angeles: Todd Maher, a representative at eHarmony who has kept in contact during Mitty's adventures.

While helping his mother sell her piano, Mitty recounts his story but mentions he does not have the wallet anymore. His mother says she always keeps his knickknacks and gives him the wallet that she retrieved from the trash. An emboldened Mitty delivers the negative to Life magazine, tells management that it was the photograph O'Connell wanted for the final issue, and berates Hendricks for disrespecting the staff that made the magazine so honored before walking away from the office.

Mitty reunites with Cheryl and learns that Cheryl's ex-husband was only at her house to repair the refrigerator. Mitty tells Cheryl of his adventures and admits that he still does not know what negative #25 shows. Mitty and Cheryl see the final issue of Life at a newsstand, with its cover dedicated to the staff. It is accompanied by the photograph from negative #25, showing Mitty sitting outside of the Life building, examining a contact sheet. Mitty and Cheryl continue their walk down the street holding hands.

Cast

Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty, a negative asset manager at Life

Kristen Wiig as Cheryl Melhoff, Walter's love interest and co-worker

Shirley MacLaine as Edna Mitty, Walter's mother

Adam Scott as Ted Hendricks, Walter's new boss

Kathryn Hahn as Odessa Mitty, Walter's sister

Patton Oswalt as Todd Maher, an eHarmony customer service representative

Adrian Martinez as Hernando, Walter's understudy and co-worker

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as a Greenlandic helicopter pilot

Sean Penn as Sean O'Connell, a photojournalist

Jon Daly as Tim Naughton, one of Walter's co-workers

Terence Bernie Hines as Gary Mannheim, one of Walter's co-workers

Kai Lennox as Phil Melhoff, Cheryl's ex-husband
Conan O'Brien as himself
Andy Richter as himself
Joey Slotnick as a retirement home administrator
Marcus Antturi as Rich Melhoff

Filming locations

Vatnajökull National Park, Afghanistan scene

Grundarfjörður, Erkigsnek docking scene

Seyðisfjörður, Longboarding scene

Höfn, Air Greenland landing at Nuuk scene.

Stykkishólmur, bar and helicopter take off scene.

Time-Life Building, Life building scenes

  (Obligated from : Wikipedia)

Moral Values

I believe this movie has a chance to be a long-term classic. It will become a classic if people figure out what the movie is really about. I feel that the purpose of ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is not to thrill people; the purpose is much more internal. So, I’ve listed some themes that I found to be powerful messages within the film. 

Don’t judge a book by its cover

When we first meet Walter Mitty, he seems to be a very insignificant figure. This guy is about as unimposing a person as you’d ever want to see. He doesn’t have any apparent virtue that would make you think that he would be gracing the cover of an important magazine. There is already a simple lesson in this: don’t judge a book by its cover. We all have the potential for greatness.

You can’t find your soul mate until you have found your own soul.

Walter does have one thing that turns out to be a fabulous jewel. He has an eye for beauty. He has a consistent appreciation for his co-worker Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig). But the fact is, he has nothing to offer her in the beginning of the film. He has no prestige, no profoundness, he’s not developed. He doesn’t really know who he is, so how can he offer anyone anything?

Fantasy is a bridge to reality.

What he does have is a vivid imagination. Walter’s daydreams serve a higher purpose — I like to call them “practice sessions”. These fantasies plant his ideas in very fertile soil. I believe fantasy in this circumstance played a key role in his ultimate self-discovery.

A great life is a life of search.



It isn’t long before Walter gets presented with a challenge; to play the game of life. I don’t think you can find your soul until you get out in the sunlight — until you do something, become someone, and connect with others. Walter didn’t search to become a hero; his searches lead him to figure out who he was. Search for the realness of who you are.



The answers to life’s dilemmas are already there, within us.



Don’t search outside of yourself. The movie is really about what you already have. He’s got the negative in his own wallet. It hardly ever helps you to search for something of great value that is outside of yourself. You can make billions of dollars, or search to be the best race car driver that ever lived. Will that help you find your authentic self? No. It doesn’t do you any good to be a great anything, unless you have found your own soul. I also believe you find yourself when you give yourself away. Walter trades his prized childhood possession, Stretch Armstrong, for a skateboard to give to Cheryl’s son – whom he had only met once.



Don’t assume anything.



We all have those moments when we think we’ve lost the prize, but we haven’t lost it. Walter thought Cheryl got back together with her ex-husband just because he answered the door at her home. This clearly wasn’t the case. Be terribly suspicious of assumptions. Don’t try to be God, let God be God. Don’t overanalyze things too much.



One of the greatest traits one can have is humility.



Through his whole experience, Walter rises to every challenge and overcomes them all, but remains humble. He overcomes his adversaries by living a full life. Living well really is the best revenge. Walter doesn’t even look at the negative he had risked his life to find, because through his journey he found himself and contentment.



This movie deserves to be seen forever. It has the right virtues. It’s pursuing the right values. It is profound. It’s a relentless search to realize values. It’s also a movie about being, the consciousness of being – and until you get your being into consciousness, you don’t get to fully enjoy it. Ben Stiller has made a movie which tries to help us understand the ways of the human spirit — the soul. For that, I am very grateful.