Author Profile: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
This is one in a series of posts where I focus on a particular author.
Sherlock Holmes would have sneered at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It’s ironic, really…almost like Daddy issues.
There are few clearer illustrations of an author’s ability to create a character who is in many ways superior, but certainly different, than themselves.
Can you imagine how Holmes would have approached a case where two young girls claimed to have taken photographs of fairies? It certainly wouldn’t have been with the generosity with which Conan Doyle championed it…even writing a book supporting it.
No, the detective and the author are two very different people.
No question, Holmes is one of the most popular literary characters of all time, and is repeatedly adapted into other media (not just the Basil Rathbone movies, but several TV series).
I would guess, though, that that is all that most people know of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It would certainly be enough, but it’s just the beginning.
This
Kindle store search for Arthur Conan Doyle
has 1,408 results at the time of writing. Certainly many of them are duplicates…since most of the work is in the public domain, it can be adapted, and reworked without obtaining permission (although that is arguably not true of all of it…that gets into a bit of a tricky situation).
You can find all of the Holmes books individually for free…or save yourself some trouble and for ninety-nine cents get this one:
THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE COMPLETE TALES OF TERROR AND MYSTERY (All Sherlock Holmes Stories and All 12 Tales of Mystery in a Single Volume!) … Conan Doyle | The Complete Works Collection)
It says its authorized by the estate, and it has enough reviews that I would guess it would have been pulled down by now if that wasn’t true. The estate does defend the copyright.
I’d say the next series to go to after Holmes is Professor Challenger. Bombastic and egotistical, most people know the adventuring Prof from The Lost World, but there are actually three novels in that series. Again, you can get them individually for free, or buy a one volume set:
Complete Professor Challenger Lost World Series (Pulp Lost Worlds)
In particular, The Poison Belt has somewhat of the feel for me of a Doctor Who episode…although Professor Challenger is certainly very little like Matt Smith’s Doctor Who! It’s more the reaction to an epic scale event.
As to the other works, this is a good collection:
Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated)
For $2.99 at the time of writing, you get a wide selection of works, including Holmes and Challenger, but also plays, poetry, military history, and Spiritualism.
That last one is something that many Holmes readers may find incongruous about Doyle. That’s due in part, I think, to a misunderstanding of Spiritualism. At the time, many saw it as a scientific attempt to prove life after death (and/or communication with other non-corporeal entities). People did experiments (some of the quite bizarre): it wasn’t just a matter of “believing in ghosts”.
Now, certainly, this wasn’t anything accepted by the mainstream, and there was fraud involved in some of it.
That’s a place where Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, who had a personal relationship, disagreed.
Houdini was an adamant anti-Spiritualist, on a campaign to expose what the escape artist saw as fakes exploiting the bereaved.
Conan Doyle was a supporter of the existence of the supernatural.
There has been more than one book about this odd clash of celebrities, each with a larger than life mythos. Here is a recent and well-reviewed one:
Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini
While many people nowadays would laugh it all off, thanks to Holmes, Conan Doyle was an influential figure. When test footage of the 1925 version of The Lost World was shown to The Society of American Magicians, the New York Times reported it as uncertain as to whether it was merely a fictional movie (with amazing effects) or real pictures of real dinosaurs (perhaps obtained through psychic influence…they linked them to the Cottingley Fairies):
NYT article pdf
“Whether these pictures were intended by the famous author and champion of spiritism as a joke on the magicians or as a genuine picture like his photographs of fairies was not revealed. Sir Arthurs said they were ‘psychic’ and also that they were ‘imaginative,’ and announced in a firm tone, before they were shown, that he would submit to no questions on the subject of their origin.”
That certainly says something about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Was he just being a merry prankster (the author clearly knew that these were special effects)? Was the point to prove the fallibility of the magicians, and thereby call into doubt their criticism of Spiritualism? Was all of Conan Doyle’s advocacy of Spiritualism perhaps done in a similar tone?
That’s a mystery…and the game’s afoot! 😉
Update: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reading list
I wanted to give you a few more specific recommendations…
Sherlock Holmes novel: Sign of Four
I normally like to start at the beginning of a series and go straight through, but honestly, the first Holmes book (A Study in Scarlet) has such a quirky story structure that some people think the copy they got is in error. 🙂 There’s a long flashback that people think is a different story. I’d skip it and start with the second. The Hound of the Baskervilles may be the most famous, but until you know Holmes, it doesn’t work as well.
Sherlock Holmes short story collection: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
I’d say that this really cemented the idea of Holmes, and there are some great stories in this one. A Scandal in Bohemia is important in understanding Holmes, and The Adventure of the Red-Headed League and The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb will stick with you.
Professor Challenger novel: The Lost World
This is just flat-out a rollicking adventure novel. It’s one of the most universally enjoyable of Conan Doyle’s works.
Standalone novel: The Maracot Deep
This one is philosophical…more fantasy than science fiction in feel. Holmes would hate it. 😉
History: The Great Boer War
This was non-fiction revised repeatedly…it was actually published before the war was over. You can sort of think of it as investigative journalism, with Conan Doyle actually interviewing people involved in this conflict between colonial powers in Africa.
Paranormal: The Coming of the Fairies
How could you not? 🙂 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arguing for the reality of pictures that little kids took of dancing “fairies in their garden”.
Of special interest to readers: Through the Magic Door
Conan Doyle writes about the books in his library. That can be a bit like having somebody tell you their dreams, because they never mean the same to you that they mean to someone else. Here’s the opening:
“I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more.”
Autobiography: Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure
I haven’t read this one, but Conan Doyle served as the “surgeon” (which didn’t have quite the meaning it does today) on a whaling ship.
Special note: I chose Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for today partially because I wanted an author who was also a doctor to tie into my having a minor surgery today. Should be fine…it is done under general anesthesia, though. I might be a tad less responsive for the next few days. 🙂
Update: I’m home from the surgery…everything seems to have gone well, although of course, it’s a bit too soon to be able to tell much. I’m going to be careful writing this…might say something even sillier than usual. 😉
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
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