arthur conan doyle biography book

Arthur Conan Doyle

(1859-1930)

Who Was Arthur Conan Doyle?

In 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle's novel, A Study in Scarlet introduced the character of Detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle would go on to write 60 stories about Sherlock Holmes. He also strove to spread his Spiritualism faith through a series of books that were written from 1918 to 1926. Doyle died of a heart attack in Crowborough, England on July 7, 1930.

On May 22, 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle was born to an affluent, strict Irish-Catholic family in Edinburgh, Scotland. Although Doyle's family was well-respected in the art world, his father, Charles, who was a life-long alcoholic, had few accomplishments to speak of. Doyle's mother, Mary, was a lively and well-educated woman who loved to read. She particularly delighted in telling her young son outlandish stories. Her great enthusiasm and animation while spinning wild tales sparked the child's imagination. As Doyle would later recall in his biography, "In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life."

At the age of 9, Doyle bid a tearful goodbye to his parents and was shipped off to England, where he would attend Hodder Place, Stonyhurst — a Jesuit preparatory school — from 1868 to 1870. Doyle then went on to study at Stonyhurst College for the next five years. For Doyle, the boarding-school experience was brutal: many of his classmates bullied him, and the school practiced ruthless corporal punishment against its students. Over time, Doyle found solace in his flair for storytelling and developed an eager audience of younger students.

Medical Education and Career

When Doyle graduated from Stonyhurst College in 1876, his parents expected that he would follow in his family's footsteps and study art, so they were surprised when he decided to pursue a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh instead. At med school, Doyle met his mentor, Professor Dr. Joseph Bell, whose keen powers of observation would later inspire Doyle to create his famed fictional detective character, Sherlock Holmes. At the University of Edinburgh, Doyle also had the good fortune to meet classmates and future fellow authors James Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson. While a medical student, Doyle took his own first stab at writing, with a short story called The Mystery of Sasassa Valley . That was followed by a second story, The American Tale , which was published in London Society .

During Doyle's third year of medical school, he took a ship surgeon's post on a whaling ship sailing for the Arctic Circle. The voyage awakened Doyle's sense of adventure, a feeling that he incorporated into a story, Captain of the Pole Star .

In 1880, Doyle returned to medical school. Back at the University of Edinburgh, Doyle became increasingly invested in Spiritualism or "Psychic religion," a belief system that he would later attempt to spread through a series of his written works. By the time he received his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1881, Doyle had denounced his Roman Catholic faith.

Doyle's first paying job as a doctor took the form of a medical officer's position aboard the steamship Mayumba, traveling from Liverpool to Africa. After his stint on the Mayumba, Doyle settled in Plymouth, England for a time. When his funds were nearly tapped out, he relocated to Portsmouth and opened his first practice. He spent the next few years struggling to balance his burgeoning medical career with his efforts to gain recognition as an author. Doyle would later give up medicine altogether, in order to devote all of his attention to his writing and his faith.

Personal Life

In 1885, while still struggling to make it as a writer, Doyle met and married his first wife, Louisa Hawkins. The couple moved to Upper Wimpole Street and had two children, a daughter and a son. In 1893, Louisa was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While Louisa was ailing, Doyle developed an affection for a young woman named Jean Leckie. Louisa ultimately died of tuberculosis in Doyle's arms, in 1906. The following year, Doyle would remarry to Jean Leckie, with whom he would have two sons and a daughter.

Books: Sherlock Holmes

In 1886, newly married and still struggling to make it as an author, Doyle started writing the mystery novel A Tangled Skein . Two years later, the novel was renamed A Study in Scarlet and published in Beeton's Christmas Annual . A Study in Scarlet , which first introduced the wildly popular characters Detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Watson, finally earned Doyle the recognition he had so desired. It was the first of 60 stories that Doyle would pen about Sherlock Holmes over the course of his writing career. Also, in 1887, Doyle submitted two letters about his conversion to Spiritualism to a weekly periodical called Light .

Doyle continued to actively participate in the Spiritualist movement from 1887 to 1916, during which time he wrote three books that experts consider largely autobiographical. These include Beyond the City (1893), The Stark Munro Letters (1895) and A Duet with an Occasional Chorus (1899). Upon achieving success as a writer, Doyle decided to retire from medicine. Throughout this period, he additionally produced a handful of historical novels including one about the Napoleonic Era called The Great Shadow in 1892, and his most famous historical novel, Rodney Stone , in 1896.

The prolific author also composed four of his most popular Sherlock Holmes books during the 1890s and early 1900s: The Sign of Four (1890), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) and The Hound of Baskervilles , published in 1901. In 1893, to Doyle's readers' disdain, he had attempted to kill off his Sherlock Holmes character in order to focus more on writing about Spiritualism. In 1901, however, Doyle reintroduced Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of Baskervilles and later brought him back to life in The Adventure of the Empty House so the lucrative character could earn Doyle the money to fund his missionary work. Doyle also strove to spread his faith through a series of written works, consisting of The New Revolution (1918), The Vital Message (1919), The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (1921) and History of Spiritualism (1926).

In 1928, Doyle's final twelve stories about Sherlock Holmes were published in a compilation entitled The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes .

Having recently been diagnosed with Angina Pectoris, Doyle stubbornly ignored his doctor's warnings, and in the fall of 1929, embarked on a spiritualism tour through the Netherlands. He returned home with chest pains so severe that he needed to be carried on shore and was thereafter almost entirely bedridden at his home in Crowborough, England. Rising one last time on July 7, 1930, Doyle collapsed and died in his garden while clutching his heart with one hand and holding a flower in the other.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Arthur Conan Doyle
• Birth Year: 1859
• Birth date: May 22, 1859
• Birth City: Edinburgh
• Birth Country: Scotland
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 mystery stories featuring the wildly popular detective character Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant Watson.
• Journalism and Nonfiction
• Fiction and Poetry
• Astrological Sign: Gemini
• Hodder Place, Stonyhurst
• Stonyhurst College
• University of Edinburgh
• Nacionalities
• Scot (Scotland)
• Death Year: 1930
• Death date: July 7, 1930
• Death City: Crowborough
• Death Country: United Kingdom

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Arthur Conan Doyle Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/arthur-conan-doyle
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: June 17, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• Where there is no imagination there is no horror.

Arthur Conan Doyle

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“I WAS ALREADY ONE OF HIS FASCINATED READERS”

Arthur Conan Doyle came from a family justly noted for their accomplishments in the visual arts, including his grandfather John Doyle the political caricaturist, his father Charles Altamont Doyle, an illustrator and designer, and his uncles James and Richard Doyle. Their work singly and collectively has been exhibited at the British Library and the Victoria & Albert Museum in modern times. But Conan Doyle also acquired literary and historical streaks from his mother Mary Foley, an Irishwoman unusually educated for her era, and he also took an interest as a boy in literary works illustrated by his father and his uncle Richard, a co-creator of Punch.

Even as a boy, Conan Doyle had a reputation as a story-teller among his schoolmates, and he was only twenty when he sold his first story, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” to Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal in 1879.

Conan Doyle in academic cap and gown Graduate of Edinburgh University 1881

In 1883, his story “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement” in The Cornhill, then England’s leading literary periodical, made a nationwide impression upon the British reading public. The story was published without a by-line, in Cornhill’s usual practice, and the response to it was so great that some, maybe many readers took it initially as the work of the well-established Robert Louis Stevenson, instead of a newcomer. One of Conan Doyle’s writing pens can be seen below, brought to life once again from the family’s personal collection.

Famous contemporaries Conan Doyle associated with

• J.M Barrie  
• Harry Houdini  
• Rudyard Kipling  
• Robert Louis Stevenson  
• Bram Stoker  
• H.G Wells  
• Oscar Wilde  
• P.G Wodehouse  
• A.A Milne  

Landmark works written by Conan Doyle

• Micah Clarke 1889
• The Captain of the Pole-Star 1890
• The White Company 1891
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1892
• Rodney Stone 1896
• The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard 1896
• The Hound of the Baskervilles 1902
• Sir Nigel 1906
• The Lost World 1912

His first Sherlock Holmes tale, the novel A Study in Scarlet, appeared in 1887, and the second, The Sign of Four, in 1890. They did not create much stir, but in 1891 and ’92 the first Sherlock Holmes short stories appeared in the then-new Strand Magazine and became an enormous transatlantic sensation. This soon made him one of the best-known and highest-paid writers in the world. In the end, over a forty-year period, he wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

A letter from Switzerland, September 30th 1895 “ Dear Sir, Will you allow me through your columns to warn your readers against a book called "Strange Secrets," which is being sold with my name upon the cover. Out of a large number of stories, only one is mine — a very short one in the middle of the book. Yours faithfully ” A. Conan Doyle

Can Jon help to date and comment on these please?

A Study in Scarlet is the first Sherlock Holmes novel Written by Arthur Conan Doyle and first published in the Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887.

"Don’t tell me of luck for its judgment and pluck. And a courage that never will shirk; To give your mind to it, and know how to do it And put all your heart in your work."

But he wrote much more besides: supernatural fiction, in the era of the Victorian ghost story; historical fiction of all kinds, including his superbly humorous Brigadier Gerard stories about the Napoleonic wars; early science-fiction, in The Lost World and other tales of the turbulent Professor Challenger; and more.

A letter from London, August 23rd 1912 “ My dear Smith I got the Sherlock Holmes suggestion but not the other one. I fear I can't make anything of either of them. It's too delicate and getting too near to self advertisement. I'm glad to understand that the serial has not disappointed you. Home today. Yours very sincerely ” A. Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle Windlesham 1907

January 17th 1898 “ Dear Bram Stoker I made a little melodrama out of Sherlock Holmes and I put it in the hands of Addison Bright of 89 Comeragh Road, West Kensington, to act as my agent in the matter. I had to give him a free hand, and I understand that he has approached Mr Tree, but nothing, as far as I know, has been definitely arranged, and I have told Bright that Sir Henry had shown some interest in the idea, so if there is any hitch he will submit a copy to him. With kindest regards Yours very truly ” A. Conan Doyle

He also wrote a good deal of nonfiction as well, including histories of the Boer War, and later World War I, and spiritualist works, and in 1924 his autobiography Memories and Adventures, with a second edition in 1930, the year of his death. Nearly ninety years later, Arthur Conan Doyle continues to be one of the world’s best-known and most widely read authors.

"The little pipe which conveys a tiny rill from inexhaustible reservoirs of eternal truth."

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Arthur's parents, Mary Foley Doyle and Charles Altamont Doyle, had moved to Scotland from London, hoping that Charles could advance his career in architecture. Having inherited some measure of his family's artistic talent, Charles began with every hope of success, but never realized his dreams. Plagued by depression and alcoholism, Charles was a distant father and husband, becoming so detached from reality that he ended life in an asylum. With considerable charity, his son Arthur later said of him, "My father's life was full of the tragedy of unfulfilled powers and of underdeveloped gifts."

FAMOUS AUTHORS

Arthur Conan Doyle

There are some timeless characters in the history of English literature who not only stood the test time but became even more radiant over the centuries. The list of such magnificent characters includes detective Sherlock Holmes’ name, crafted by Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. Sir Conan Doyle belonged to a Scottish family. Professionally he was a physician who later turned into a writer.

Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 22, 1859. He was raised in an austere and affluent Scottish household. The credit for developing Doyle’s creativity and vivid imagination goes to his mother as he professed once in his biography. His father was an alcoholic who couldn’t earn as much praise for his work of art as his son, though made a name for himself. It was his mother who took immense pleasure in recounting bizarre stories. Doyle spent a huge chunk of his childhood hearing these stories from his mother with great enthusiasm mutually shared.

For educational purpose Doyle was sent to England where was enrolled in Hodder Place, Stonyhurst and later at Stonyhurst College. The boarding-school experience was harsh and unpleasant for him. Eventually, he found a way to deal with the rough treatment and immersed himself in the art of storytelling. Despite having a flare for storytelling Doyle went to University of Edinburgh to study medicine, astonishing his parents. At the same university Doyle also happened to meet eminent future writers Robert Louis Stevenson and James Barrie.

While pursuing his degree he made his writing debut with a short story named, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley . Later he wrote Captain of the Pole Star inspired by his adventurous journey on a ship as a surgeon. On his return Doyle relinquished his Catholic faith as he found himself immensely invested in Spiritualism. He practiced medicine as an oculist but as it did not work out for him, he found refuge in writing. It was his studies that facilitated him to emerge as a remarkable writer.

One of his mystery novels, A Tangled Skein,  was published in 1886 after his marriage. Doyle’s other works include A Duet with an Occasional Chorus (1899), Beyond the City (1893) and The Stark Munro Letters (1895) . These works were deemed highly autobiographical by the critics. Other genres like the historical fiction were not left untouched by him as he wrote about Napoleonic Era in The Great Shadow . Moreover, he explored his experience of conversion to Spiritualism in his letters published in a weekly periodical. In fact, he worked hard to share his learning of spiritualism in his works, History of Spiritualism, The Land of Mist and The Wanderings of a Spiritualist .

He finally got the much awaited break with the release of A Study in Scarlet , introducing the phenomenal detective Sherlock Holmes . Doyle drew inspiration for this exceptional character from his professor Dr. Joseph Bell. Dr. Bell was a surgeon with an eccentric attribute of reading people by deducing telltale signs in their appearance. Doyle penned down over 50 stories based on the character of Sherlock. Late 19 th and early 20 th century marked as the height of his writing career as he continued to write Sherlock novels. In order to concentrate on his Spiritual writings he abandoned Sherlock Holmes series by killing off the character. However, later he was made to bring back the character by popular demand.

A prolific writer like Arthur Conan Doyle proved in himself in multifarious genres of writings. His genius was highlighted in his literary works which ranged from poetry, historical fiction, spiritual works, non-fictional writings to sci-fi and fantasy short stories.

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Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930). M.D., Kt, KStJ, D.L., LL.D. , Writer, Sportsman, Artist, Poet, Politician, Business man, Justicer, Inventor, Patriot, Spiritualist...

The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia is an online repository of all works written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( fictions , essays , articles , poems , plays , lectures , letters , manuscripts ...), but also any materials related to him ( newspaper articles , interviews , photos , movies ...).

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Far from elementary

A ll biographies of Conan Doyle are necessarily stop-gaps. 'Due to an ongoing and complicated legal dispute,' as a note at the front of this one puts it, Conan Doyle's private papers are still inaccessible. They were seen by early biographers, but the family controlled what was published. So we must be content for the present with Sir Arthur's established character: the bluff, generous, brave, strong, sporting (he played cricket for the MCC and once bowled out W G Grace), patriotic, tirelessly energetic, if sometimes peppery knight-errant, whose intermittently Gothic imagination and missionary zeal for spiritualism do not quite sit with his medically trained rationalism or his constant flow of practical and innovative ideas.

In 1893 he was importing skis from Norway into Switzerland and pioneering a new Swiss sport; 20 years later, as war with Germany loomed, he was warning of the dangers of airships and submarines and recommending a two-way railway tunnel under the Channel to obviate a naval blockade. Inflatable life-vests for sailors were originally his idea; so were steel helmets for soldiers.

The literary source of his Gothic streak was Edgar Allen Poe, but the Jesuit education he received and rejected was perhaps, in a soured form, at the back of his need to believe in spirits of some kind, which even at one point included fairies.

There were also skeletons in his family cupboard. His father, Charles Doyle, the unsuccessfully respectable member of a family of artists, became a sad, unemployed drunkard and spent the last 14 years of his life in a nursing home for alcoholics and, after trying to escape, a series of mental hospitals. Conan Doyle's importation of skis into Switzerland coincided not only with his disposal of Sherlock Holmes over the Reichenback Falls, but with the diagnosis of advanced tuberculosis in his wife, Louisa. Four years later he fell in love with the woman who was to become his second wife, Jean Leckie, though Booth is sure that the love affair remained platonic during the nine years when Conan Doyle went on loyally coping with his first wife's slow decline. She died in 1906 and he remarried just over a year later.

Without further evidence from the family papers, however, Booth can do little but speculate about the mysterious Dr Bryan Waller, who seems to have played as important a role in the wretched marriage of Conan Doyle's parents as Jean Leckie in Conan Doyle's own. Waller, six years older than Conan Doyle, was at first a student lodger in the parents' house in Edinburgh, but continued to live there after gaining a distinguished doctorate and becoming a lecturer and consultant. He helped support the large and virtually indigent family, whose youngest member, a daughter, was given the surprising first name of Bryan. Waller corresponded with Conan Doyle and may well have encouraged him to write, but although according to Booth a character in the novel Micah Clarke 'is a cruel but accurate description of Waller', Conan Doyle never even mentions him in his autobiography.

There is much in Conan Doyle's life that reminds one of the heroes of his best-known historical novel The White Company - the patterns of innocent, chivalrous, justice-loving, public-spirited, imperial Englishmen; but the Waller story sounds more like Sherlock Holmes's territory: dark, equivocal, painfully private. The essence of Holmes, after all, and the reason he needs decent, ordinary Dr Watson to cushion him from us and us from him, is that he is a knight-errant without innocence or illusion, an intellectual (and occasionally physical) superman, but lacking any sense of moral superiority as he seems to lack any strong sexual proclivity.

On the threshold of our Nietzschean century of scientific miracles, mass murder and mass uncertainty, Conan Doyle created the modest saviour we would all like to believe in, his small light gleaming through the darkness from a particularly unostentatious address - 221B - in Baker Street. No wonder the world could not accept Holmes's death in Switzerland, no wonder he lives on to this day, more famous than his creator and to some perhaps even more real. It is surely not so strange, either, that a man whose imagination - pricked on by whatever secret wounds the embargoed family papers may one day reveal - could envisage Holmes, could also envisage spirits communicating from other worlds.

Biographies, of course, have to dwell mostly on the mundane, Watsonian side of life and Booth's is no exception. It is not a scholarly work, offering only a general list of sources and no footnotes at all, and is marred by its author's clumsy, slapdash use of words. But the story is a good one and has not been told as a whole for some 20 years. Booth's particular strength is in relating Conan Doyle's life to his multitudinous writings - pamphlets, plays, travel books, histories of the Boer War and the first world war, as well as fiction.

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

Table of Contents

Why is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle important?,How many books did Arthur Conan Doyle write?,where was arthur conan doyle born,arthur conan doyle familySir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, a name synonymous with mystery, detective fiction, and the indomitable Sherlock Holmes, stands as a towering figure in Scottish literature. Born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Conan Doyle’s influence reaches far beyond his iconic detective stories.S ir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

Early Life and Education:

Conan Doyle hailed from an artistic Catholic family, with his father, Charles Altamont Doyle, being an artist, and his mother, Mary Foley, a vibrant storyteller. Despite financial struggles, young Arthur’s imagination thrived on the tales of chivalry spun by his mother. Educated at the Jesuit preparatory school Stonyhurst College, Conan Doyle later pursued medicine at the University of Edinburgh. His experiences at medical school significantly influenced his creation of the rational and analytical character, Sherlock Holmes.

Medical Career and Writing Beginnings:

After a brief stint as a ship’s surgeon that took him to West Africa and the Arctic Circle, Conan Doyle returned to Edinburgh to establish a medical practice. However, his love for storytelling soon eclipsed his medical career. Early attempts at writing involved contributing short stories to various magazines. In 1887, Conan Doyle achieved literary success with the publication of “A Study in Scarlet,” introducing the world to Sherlock Holmes.

The Sherlock Holmes Phenomenon:

Sherlock Holmes, with his razor-sharp powers of observation and deductive reasoning, became a global literary sensation. The serialization of Holmes’ adventures in The Strand Magazine propelled Conan Doyle to literary stardom. Despite reservations about being exclusively associated with Holmes, Conan Doyle continued to pen stories, including the celebrated novel “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1902). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

Literary Diversity and Exploits:

Conan Doyle’s literary repertoire expanded beyond detective fiction. He delved into historical novels, science fiction, and adventure tales. Works like “Micah Clarke” (1889) and “The White Company” (1891) showcased his storytelling prowess in historical settings.

The Professor Challenger series, commencing with “The Lost World” (1912), ventured into science fiction, exploring the adventures of the brilliant and eccentric scientist. Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism found expression in works like “The Land of Mist” (1926), reflecting the early 20th-century fascination with the supernatural.

Military Service and World War I:

As World War I erupted, Conan Doyle, despite being in his fifties, volunteered for military service. Serving as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps and later as a lieutenant colonel in the War Office, his experiences during the war, including the loss of his son, profoundly influenced him and impacted his later works.

Personal Life:

Conan Doyle’s personal life was marked by both tragedy and triumph. His marriage to Louisa Hawkins in 1885 resulted in two children, but tragedy struck when Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1906. Devastated, Conan Doyle remarried Jean Leckie in 1907, and the couple had three children, bringing a new chapter of happiness to his life.

Spiritualism and Controversies:

Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism intensified after the death of his son Kingsley in World War I. He became an advocate, attending seances and endorsing mediums. This interest led to controversies, with skeptics challenging his scientific background and credibility.

Later Years and Legacy:

In the later years of his life, Conan Doyle continued to write and engage in public debates. Knighted in 1902 for his contributions to literature, he passed away on July 7, 1930, at the age of 71. His legacy endures through his diverse literary contributions, with Sherlock Holmes remaining a cultural phenomenon and a symbol of detective fiction.

Major Works

• “A Study in Scarlet” (1887): The debut novel introducing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, setting the stage for a series of detective stories.
• “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1892): A collection of short stories featuring Holmes and Watson, including classics like “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and “The Red-Headed League.”
• “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1902): A standalone novel often considered one of the greatest detective stories, where Holmes investigates a legendary hound on the moors.
• “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” (1905): Another collection of short stories, marking Holmes’ return after his presumed death at the Reichenbach Falls.
• “Micah Clarke” (1889): A historical adventure novel set during the Monmouth Rebellion in the 17th century.
• “The White Company” (1891): A historical adventure set during the Hundred Years’ War, showcasing the exploits of a free company of archers.
• “The Lost World” (1912): A pioneering science fiction novel introducing Professor Challenger, who leads an expedition to a remote plateau where prehistoric creatures still exist.
• “Sir Nigel” (1906): A novel set during the Hundred Years’ War, following the adventures of Nigel Loring, a young squire.
• “The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard” (1896): A collection of short stories narrated by Brigadier Gerard, a Hussar officer during the Napoleonic Wars.
• “The Poison Belt” (1913): A science fiction novel featuring Professor Challenger and his colleagues, exploring the apocalyptic consequences of Earth passing through a belt of poisonous ether.
• “The Land of Mist” (1926): A novel delving into spiritualism and the supernatural, reflecting Conan Doyle’s personal interest in these themes.

Writing Style

• Conan Doyle’s writing style is marked by clarity and precision. His narratives are easy to follow, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the intricacies of the plot without unnecessary complexity.
• Conan Doyle excels in character development, particularly in the Sherlock Holmes series. The characters, especially Holmes and Watson, are vividly portrayed with distinct personalities, quirks, and evolving relationships.
• The author pays meticulous attention to detail, whether describing crime scenes, historical settings, or scientific concepts. This attention to detail enhances the realism of his stories and contributes to the immersive experience for the reader.
• Many of Conan Doyle’s works, especially the Sherlock Holmes series, utilize a first-person narrative, often through the perspective of Dr. John Watson. This choice allows readers to view the detective’s genius through the eyes of a close confidant.
• Conan Doyle’s versatility is evident in his exploration of various genres, from detective fiction to historical novels, science fiction, and spiritualism. His ability to adapt his writing style to suit different themes showcases his literary prowess.
• Dialogues in Conan Doyle’s works, especially those involving Sherlock Holmes, are notable for their wit and intelligence. Holmes’ deductive reasoning and sharp repartees contribute to the enduring appeal of the characters.
• Conan Doyle is adept at constructing engaging and intricate plots. The mysteries in the Sherlock Holmes stories, in particular, are carefully crafted, with twists and turns that keep readers captivated until the resolution.
• Beyond the surface-level mysteries, Conan Doyle’s works often explore deeper themes, such as justice, morality, and the human condition. This thematic depth adds layers to his stories, making them enduring and thought-provoking.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , a literary luminary of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has left an indelible mark on literature with his diverse and enduring works. From the immortal detective Sherlock Holmes to historical novels, science fiction, and explorations of spiritualism, Conan Doyle showcased remarkable versatility and literary prowess. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

His writing style, characterized by clarity, meticulous detail, and engaging plots, has transcended time, making his works accessible and enjoyable for readers across generations. The richness of his characters, particularly Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, adds depth to his narratives.

Conan Doyle’s impact extends beyond the literary realm; his legacy endures as a pioneer in detective fiction and a master storyteller who navigated various genres with finesse. Through his contributions, he has become a perennial figure in the pantheon of literary greats.Why is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle important?,How many books did Arthur Conan Doyle write?,where was arthur conan doyle born,arthur conan doyle family

1. What are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous works?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous works include the Sherlock Holmes series, with notable titles such as “A Study in Scarlet,” “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Other renowned works include “The Lost World,” “Micah Clarke,” and “The White Company.”

2. How would you describe Conan Doyle’s writing style?

Conan Doyle’s writing style is marked by clarity, precision, and meticulous attention to detail. He excels in character development, uses first-person narratives effectively, and demonstrates versatility across diverse genres. His engaging plots and thematic depth contribute to the enduring appeal of his works.

3. How did Conan Doyle’s personal experiences influence his works?

Conan Doyle’s personal experiences, including his medical career, military service during World War I, and interest in spiritualism, had a profound impact on his writings. These experiences added depth and authenticity to his characters and themes, enriching the narratives in his diverse works.

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Arthur Conan Doyle Books In Order

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Arthur Conan Doyle or Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (May 1859 – July 1930) was a Scottish writer and physician, known as one of the greatest writers of crime fiction and particularly renowned for his Sherlock Holmes series. He attended a Roman Catholic Jesuit school in Hodder Place, Stonyhurst and went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876 to 1881, where he started writing stories in his free time. Conan Doyle first published a story in a journal when he was 19.

Following his graduation, he sported a brief run as a ship doctor on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. The first Sherlock Holmes story he wrote, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887, and while his medicine career didn’t go all as planned – Conan Doyle himself writes in his autobiography that no single patient crossed the door of his ophthalmology practice, – he quickly garnered the renown and praise of readers and critics alike for his Holmes stories. His Sherlock Holmes oeuvre spans 56 short stories and 4 novels that focus on the life and adventures of the most famous resident of Baker’s Street. His other works take on different themes, including historical works on the Boer war and even esoteric books on spiritualism.

Bits of a Formidable Character

Arthur Conan Doyle can with today’s eyes be seen as a man of strong moral composition and endless fortitude. He fathered five children to two wives, but while being in love with his second wife, Jean Elizabeth Leckie, their relationship was purely platonic until his first wife, Louise Hawkins, died of tuberculosis. His religious views were controversial, him declaring himself as an agnostic despite his Catholic upbringing. Conan Doyle’s last words were directed to his wife, and are said to be: “You are wonderful.” His epitaph reads: “Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, physician & man of letters.”

The Inception of a Great Series

As mentioned earlier, the Sherlock Holmes series started in 1887 with the publication of A Study in Scarlet. Holmes’ character was partially modelled on his university teacher Joseph Bell, whom he cites as an inspiration for the deduction, inference and observation skills he transferred to Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet has Dr. Watson as the narrator and tells briefly of how he came to know Sherlock Holmes. The crime mystery starts off in a rural mansion. A man is murdered and after not too long Holmes comes to arrest the perpetrator, using his ties with a group of homeless people. The story doesn’t end here, however.

The reader is honestly unable to guess the murderer as sufficient clues are lacking (this is characteristic during the inchoate stages of crime fiction) in A Study in Scarlet. The murderer, Jefferson Hope now takes the reins and explains of the sordid past of the man he murdered, taking the reader to North America and showing perhaps the position of Arthur Conan Doyle himself in the matter of the up-and-coming Mormonism in the United States.

The Final Problem or How Sherlock Holmes Returned

It seems that Conan Doyle always saw medicine as the nobler task to undertake as opposed to writing, and thus he sought to end the series after finishing another novel, The Sign of the Four. Thus in December 1893 Conan Doyle had decided to kill off Sherlock Holmes to allow him focus on medicine more. He had Sherlock Holmes and his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty pitted in a short story, The Final Problem. Here Sherlock Holmes has at last found his intellectual equal in the criminal mastermind of Professor Moriarty, and has to play a hide-and-seek game with the Professor for most of the story, taking a train to continental Europe and finally having a mortal struggle in the Swiss Reichenbach Falls, both evidently falling to their deaths into a gorge.

The public was less than pleased with how Conan Doyle treated Holmes, prompting him to write a prequel’ named The Hound of the Baskervilles, which was published from August 1901 to April 1902 in The Strand Magazine. Incidentally, this is one of the most praised Holmes stories penned by the author. The episode about Conan Doyle killing off Holmes only to bring him back again – which he did indeed do after The Hound of the Baskervilles – seems to tell about a passionate relationship between the author and the character, as Conan Doyle evidently couldn’t keep from returning back to Sherlock Holmes.

The Legacy of Sherlock Holmes

The Sherlock Holmes series is reputed to be one of the main reasons behind the wave of crime fiction and has inspired generations of authors not only from the genre. More contemporary readers of this short overview will, however, appreciate a short list of the most recent TV shows and movies about Sherlock Holmes, as obviously listing them all – even the full-length movies – is a task a doorstopper could perhaps accomplish only partially.

The most recent series inspired by Sherlock Holmes is the British crime drama titled Sherlock. Books from the Holmes canon are used by the producers to create modern-day versions of Conan Doyle’s novels, and six 90-minute episodes have aired so far. The series are immensely popular in the United Kingdom, and have been sold to over 180 territories overall. There have been USSR adaptations as well, releasing five hugely popular films on Soviet television, with one of the actors later receiving an Order of the British Empire.

Some Sherlock Holmes movies have also been produced quite recently. Of these notable are 2009’s Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, both starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Numerous Holmes-related video games, table games and role playing games have also been released. Of course this is but a small list – the actual influence of the Sherlock Holmes series would be hard to measure. Remember the House M.D. series? House was definitely a Holmesian figure. What’s more, countless radio plays,movies – both preserved and lost – as well as books and actual people have been influenced by the splendid character created by perhaps the one most important crime fiction writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

One Response to “Arthur Conan Doyle”

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Arthur Conan Doyle

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About the author

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and died in 1930. Within those years was crowded a variety of activity and creative work that made him an international figure and inspired the French to give him the epithet 'the good giant'. He was the nephew of 'Dickie Doyle' the artist, and was educated at Stonyhurst, and later studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where the methods of diagnosis of one of the professors provided the idea for the methods of deduction used by Sherlock Holmes. He set up as a doctor at Southsea and it was while waiting for patients that he began to write. His growing success as an author enabled him to give up his practice and turn his attention to other subjects. He was a passionate advocate of many causes, ranging from divorce law reform and the Channel Tunnel to the issuing of inflatable life-jackets to sailors. He also campaigned to prove the innocence of individuals, and his work on the Edjalji case was instrumental in the introduction of the Court of Criminal Appeal. He was a volunteer physician in the Boer War and later in life became a convert to spiritualism. His greatest achievement was, of course, his creation of Sherlock Holmes, who soon attained international status and constantly distracted him from his other work; at one time Conan Doyle killed him but was obliged by public protest to restore him to life. And in his creation of Dr Watson, Holmes's companion in adventure and chronicler, Conan Doyle produced not only a perfect foil for Holmes but also one of the most famous narrators in fiction. Penguin publish all the books about the great detective, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear, His Last Bow, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes and The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes. Photo by Walter Benington (RR Auction) [US Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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The Sign of the Four

Descripción editorial.

Superb Stories is pleased to offer another book in its Sherlock Holmes Value Collection. Each book in the collection contains the text, audiobook link, and a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle. Compare this edition with others and you’ll be impressed with what you get. Our version has: •A link to the audiobook of The Sign of Four for FREE! •Links to the dramatic radio broadcast of Sherlock Holmes for FREE! (108 stories) •A detailed biography of Arthur Conan Doyle. •Clean formatting, giving you full control over fonts and font sizes. Look for other Arthur Conan Doyle books in our Sherlock Holmes Value Collection. The Sign of Four is Doyle’s second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes. The book was first published in 1890 and is the second of four full-length novels featuring Holmes. Will Holmes be able to deduce who the four are and find a stolen treasure, see for yourself. If you like our book, be sure to leave a review!

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