Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet is the first story in which readers meet Holmes and Watson. The novel describes society at the time of publication; in rich, vivid detail. Highlight current issues; such as religion, police authority and morality, the introduction of forensic science and its effect on society. The reader is first introduced to the protagonist as he takes a blood test in a chemical laboratory. “I found it! I found it,” he shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test tube in his hand.” With religion still the accepted paradigm and Darwin's recently published and controversial theory of evolution, this may have been a sensitive topic within society, as the introduction of a serious scientific theory may have posed a threat to society contemporary religion of the time. The subject matter of popular texts such as Sherlock Holmes is generally considered serious, dealing with moral and philosophical topics of recognized importance such as murder and why it occurs. Therefore this text should fall within the literary canon as it has many of the characteristics generally emphasized, for example complexity, aesthetic unity, literary language and subject matter. The language in the text is elegant, witty, patterned and controlled; Conan-Doyle paid a lot of attention to his choice of words, and readers appreciate this skill he displays. “In height he was just over six feet tall, and was so excessively thin that he appeared to be considerably taller… an alert and determined air.” The description of Sherlock Holmes is extremely vivid and creates explicit images, compared to Watson, who is only described when Holmes uses his deduction techniques to tell him about...... middle of paper ...... and use Sherlock Holmes to illustrate this concept. Sherlock Holmes should be in canon; it has value compared to other novels because it uses different and engaging concepts and ideas. It includes both simple and more complicated themes such as friendship and oppression due to the police which create more discussion points, which other novels in the canon do not. The novel features not only a skillfully constructed main plot, but also the coexistence of this plot with subplots that mirror and highlight the events and themes of the main plot. The novel depicts Conan-Doyle's religious and political stance, for example Sherlock uses science to find answers to his questions, which proves that Conan-Doyle was not religious and his opinion on the police highlights his social stance. He uses Sherlock as a means to reveal his views on society and its values.