English · Intermediate
Read A Study in Scarlet in Englishwith every sentence explained
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1887
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About the book
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle was first published in 1887. In Passage you read the full text in the original English, marked intermediate and filed under mystery and crime. It runs to about 43,200 words.
A body in an empty house. A word written in blood. Enter Sherlock Holmes.
Dr John Watson has come home from the war in Afghanistan wounded, lonely and short of money. Looking for cheap lodgings in London, he is introduced to a strange young man who plays the violin at all hours, conducts chemistry experiments — and can tell where Watson has been just by looking at him.
The two take rooms together at 221B Baker Street. Soon Scotland Yard comes calling: a man has been found dead in an abandoned house in Brixton, without a wound on him, and the word RACHE is scrawled in blood on the wall. Holmes's astonishing method is about to be put to the test.
Published in 1887, this is the very first Sherlock Holmes story — the beginning of the most famous detective partnership in the world.
- Author
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- First published
- 1887
- Language
- English
- Level
- Intermediate
- Genre
- Mystery and Crime
- Length
- About 43,200 words
How it opens
In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy’s country.
Reading A Study in Scarlet in Passage
Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in English. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:
- a natural translation of that exact sentence,
- a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
- the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
- all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.
It's marked intermediate: comfortable once everyday English feels familiar, with the harder sentences one tap away. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
