Study in Scarlet

What Hacker News says

1. anthkJan 2023
   Get into books. No, not computer related books. Narrative. Sherlock Holmes' books are now under Public Domain. Get all of them, and try reading them in chronologcal in order.

       A Study in Scarlet
   
       The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 
   
       The Sign of Four
   
       The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes
   
       The Valley of Fear
   
       The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
   
       The Return of Sherlock Holmes
   
       His Last Bow
   
       The Hound of the Baskervilles
   

   If you are a sysadmin, network engineer with vulnscanning experience, IT forensics expert or a reverse engineer, you might feel at home, because deductive reasoning it's right here.
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2. nickstinematesJun 2022
   All very good points, and if you ever want to read/listen to the books that defined the genre and formula, pick up A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (or one of the numerous short stories that accompanied his works.)

   What I like about the short stories in particular on audible is the stories are quick and digestible and novel. Perfect for a bedtime story or a quick car ride. In particular, this[1] one is worth the 1 credit if you're an audible subscriber. Stephen Fry for 68 hours. Hard to beat.

   1: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sherlock-Holmes-Audiobook/B06WLMW...

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3. pinewurstSep 2019
   A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

   North of Boston by Robert Frost

   Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

   A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (+ the other Sherlock Holmes')

   Candide by Voltaire (was reminded by other posting - this is great!)

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4. ciceroDec 2016
   A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller (recommended SF classic)

   The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis (an old favorite, recommended)

   The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (some interesting parts, but overall a disappointment)

   Theology and Sanity - Frank Sheed (recommended; a very written description of the Catholic faith; weaknesses are it's long and it's aimed to a mid 20th c. audience)

   Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensees - Peter Kreeft (recommended; a good exposition of Blaise Pascal's thought)

   Catholicism: A journey to the heart of the faith - Robert Barron (recommended; a good explanation of Catholicism for the common person)

   His Master's Voice - Stanislaw Lem (recommended; very intellectual look at the problem of first contact)

   The Industries of the Future - Alec Ross (the robotics chapter is best; other parts are more light-weight; easy read)

   Clouds of Witnesses - Dorothy Sayers (not my favorite Sayers mystery, but enjoyable)

   A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle (recommended)

   Why Gender Matters - Leonard Sax (recommended; most of the book is based on good science, but he does go out on a limb a time or two.)

   Old School - Tobias Wolff (recommended; a world before widespread TV where high school boys actually got excited about literature)

   Infinite Space, Infinite God - Karina and Robert Fabian editors (story quality varies; I enjoyed some of them)

   The Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle (recommended)

   On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers (recommended; I love Powers, but Anubis Gates and Last Call are better. Still, if you like pirates you should like this)

   The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian (interesting)

   Aquinas at Prayer: the Bible, Mysticism, and Poetry - Paul Murray (recommended; this shows a different side of Thomas Aquinas)

   Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy - Mortimer Adler (recommended; I almost think this should be required reading)

   The Pilgrim's Regress - C.S. Lewis (I enjoyed it, but the ideas Lewis argues against are somewhat dated.)

   Edit for formatting

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5. rramadassOct 2026
   This is one of my favourite Edgar Allan Poe stories. The cipher is just a simple monoalphabetic substitution one based on frequency analysis.

   The same idea was "reused" by Arthur Conan Doyle in his story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" where he used pictures of dancing men for his cipher text.

   Note that Conan Doyle indirectly acknowledged Poe's influence (via his character Auguste Dupin) on Sherlock Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet".

   Poe wrote three stories starring his detective Auguste Dupin all of which are fantastic. They are "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter". They are a must-read for all fans of detective fiction. Folks who have read Sherlock Holmes can see how much he was influenced by Dupin. The stories often have some close/clever observations/reasonings which given Poe's style of writing are a delight to read.

   For example the opening paragraph of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" reads;

   THE mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension præternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition.

   The essence of why some people love solving problems!

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6. rramadassOct 2026
   This was directly "inspired" by Poe's "The Gold-Bug". Only the cipher alphabet is different.

   Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by Poe's Auguste Dupin in his creation of Sherlock Holmes. He acknowledged this in a sort-of backhanded manner in "A Study in Scarlet";

   “It is simple enough as you explain it,” I said, smiling. “You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.”

   Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. “No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin,” he observed. “Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends’ thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour’s silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine.”

   If you read all of the Dupin stories i list here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089773 - you can see just how much Arthur Conan Doyle owed Edgar Allan Poe.

   In fact when accused of not acknowledging the above, Doyle wrote a short ditty "To an Undiscerning Critic" explaining himself - https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/To_An_Undiscerning_C...

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