Arthur Conan Doyle

Bibliography

Writings. Sherlock Holmes

•Conan Doyle is very well-known because of his stories about Sherlock Holmes. •He is one of the world’s most famous fictional detectives.•Considered a milestone in crime fiction.

Other writings

• Conan Doyle wrote many more works

• Professor Challenger stories• Historical novels• Other novels• Operetta• Shorts stories• Poetry• Captain Sharkey• Non-fiction works• Memoirs

Cover of the first edition of The Lost World, from Professor Challenger series

Sherlock Holmes

• Doyle narrates the life of a consulting detective, quick-witted and defined by his logical reasoning who uses forensic science to solve cases.

• Doctor Watson is Holmes’ assistant• Sherlock Holmes character was

inspired by a former Doyle’s teacher. Joseph Bell was a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for whom he had worked as a clerk.

• Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes and 4 full-length novels.

• Most of stories appeared in ‘The strand Magazine’

Sherlock Holmes

1. Study in scarlet (1887)

The first novel. Appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual .

2. The sign of the Four (1890)

3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-1902)

4. The valley of Fear (1914-1915)

Sherlock Holmes. Novels

Sherlock Holmes. Short stories

• The adventures of Sherlock Holmes (published 1891–1892 in The Strand)

• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (published 1892–1893 in The Strand as further episodes of the Adventures)

• The return of Sherlock Holmes (published 1903–1904 in The Strand)

• His last bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (published 1908–1917)

• The case-book of Sherlock Holmes (published 1921–1927)

Originally published in magazines. Later collected in five anthologies:

Sherlock Holmes. Curious facts

• The famous quote attributed to Sherlock Holmes was NEVER uttered in the stories written by Conan Doyle .

• It was coined by Clive Brook in the film The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929).

“Elementary, my dear Watson”

• Conan Doyle suffered from a love-hate relationship with his most famous character.

• Writing Sherlock Holmes “took his mind from better things”.

• In The Final Problem (1893), the detective is murdered by his archnemesis, Moriarty.

• The Strand lost 20,000 subscriptions after Doyle stopped writing Sherlock Holmes.

• The pressure of his audience made him “resurrect” the character in The Return of Sherlock Holmes’(1904).

Sherlock Holmes. Curious facts

Holmes and Moriarty fighting over the falls. Illustration by Sidney Paget.

• Sherlock Holmes stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic books and advertisement.

Sherlock Holmes. Curious facts

• Series of stories of fantasy and science-fiction.• The main character, George Edward

Challenger, (known as Professor Challenger) is a pretentious and self-righteous scientific as well as an aggressive and dominating person.

• Novels: – The Lost World (1912)– The Poison Belt (1913)– The Land of mist (1926)

• Short stories– The Disintegration Machine (1927)– When the World Screamed (1928)

Professor Challenger

Professor Challenger (seated) illustrated by Harry Rountree in The poison belt

• Micah Clarke (1889). An adventure novel set during the Monmouth Rebellion in England (in 1685). – The action takes place in the 17th century when

Jaime II tries to reinstate the catholic religion in England.

– It records the history of the Monmouth Rebellion from the point of view of a fictional character.

– It was not easy to find and editor for the book.

Historical novel

• The White Company (1890) set during the Hundred Years’ War. – It was very well sold but the critics were very merciless

• The Great Shadow (1892).– Talks about Napoleon incluence during that time.

• Conan Doyle wrote more stories about the Napoleonic era: a series of short stories entitled Brigadier Gerard; Adventures of Gerard and Uncle Bernac.

Historical novel

• The Refugees (1893)• Rodney Stone (1896)– Gothic mystery and boxing novel 1896.

• Sir Nigel (1906)– Set during the early phase

of the Hundred Year’s War. – Forerunner to The White company

Historical novel

The influence of his personal life

His personal life played an important role in some of his books.

•After his participation in a war he wrote to novels. -The Great Boer War (1900). -War in Southern Africa: Causes and Conducts (1902)Both written after he worked for a few months as a doctor at a field hospital. He defends England’s policy .

•When his son Kingsley died during the World War I, the author became attracted to spiritualism and occult topics.

-The Coming of Fairies (1922). This book contains reproductions of some famous photographs that appeared to show diminutive fairies. With this book Doyle destroyed his reputation as a writter.

• Waterloo• The Fires of Fate• The House of Temperley• The Speckled Band (1910)• A Pot of Caviare• Brigadier Gerard• Jane Annie

Works for the stage

• According to different critics, his most remarkable works are: 

• The sign of four • The adventures of Sherlock Holmes• The Hound of the Baskervilles

• Micah Clarke• The white company • Rodney Stone• Sir Nigel

His best works

He popularised the detective novels. 

He tried to be well-know because of his historical novels.