Outside of a Dog: Doyle, Arthur Conan: (01) A Study in Scarlet

Trent

Trent wrote on October 24, 2002 at 12:21 PM:

I haven't actually read A Study in Scarlet, but I understand it's a fairly lurid hatchet job on the early Mormon church. I recall a professor at BYU writing in an essay somewhere that his family used to read that section on road trips solely for its amusement value.

It used to be really difficult to get anything approaching a balanced history of the early Church; it was either frothing denunciation on the one side, or reverent hagiography on the other. I think that's changed somewhat in recent years, as more objective historians have entered the fray, but there's still plenty of both the earlier type material around. And I have to concede that for writers like Doyle (and Twain, who also had plenty of fun taking cracks at the Mormons), the scenario of the glowering, fanatic, bearded Elders of Zion, with their scandalous, secretive, polygamous harems, was probably irresistable.

Kate

Kate wrote on October 24, 2002 at 6:32 PM:

It was more on the fanatic elders, though Doyle clearly disapproved of polygamy as well. I am perfectly willing to believe that the early members of a religion would be particularly enthusiastic about that religion, but this pushed my suspension of disbelief a bit too hard...

Trent

Trent wrote on October 25, 2002 at 11:01 AM:

Oh, I'd be the first to acknowledge that early Church members were, shall we say, extremely dedicated to their religion...

By the way, your new "subscribe to thread" feature doesn't seem to be working; at least, I checked the box and haven't had any e-mail notification of your subsequent comment. Just FYI.

Pam

Pam wrote on October 25, 2002 at 12:11 PM:

If you want to see more of Watson, read
The Hound of the Baskervilles; it's very Watson-centric. Holmes isn't even in half of it.

Kate

Kate wrote on October 25, 2002 at 6:04 PM:

Trent: I have no idea why, since your e-mail address seems to be stored in the correct place. Sorry. (It worked when I tried it.)

Pam: I intend to, but I'm reading in published order, so it will be a while.

Kate

Kate wrote on October 25, 2002 at 6:14 PM:

I've found the problem with the subscription feature and it should work now. Bug report submitted.

Also, if you subscribed once to the thread, you don't have to check the box again. (It won't hurt anything if you do, but it's not necessary.)

Trent

Trent wrote on October 25, 2002 at 6:50 PM:

It's working now for me, too.

Holger

Holger wrote on October 26, 2002 at 12:43 PM:

thanks for the report and suggestions ... i checked the original version and it worked ... so i leave into the weekend ...

eileenlufkin

eileenlufkin wrote on October 31, 2002 at 7:47 PM:

Charles Dickens wrote a nice little essay about watching a boatload of Mormon Emigrants embark from a London dock.