Arthur Conan Doyle Books

Mystery lurks behind every corner for Dr. John Dollar, the Crime Doctor, as he is drawn into a world of criminality and vice while attempting to rescue the people under his care from their own inner demons. There is an underlining dignity to these stories that makes the noble efforts of Dr. Dollar a pleasure to read.

Resting upon my night table is a dusty stack of recently purchased thrillers from James Paterson to Lawrence Block, yet I find myself in the quiet of the night rereading THE CRIME DOCTOR. Perhaps because it transports me back to an elegant time of tuxedo-attired gentleman sleuths, and after a hectic day at work, this is a wonderful place to escape to. So if you are becoming bored with the gritty world of shoot and slash popular fiction, holster your pistol, have your butler lay out your evening wear, and by all means, give THE CRIME DOCTOR a try.

Dr. Dollar is a man on the horns of a dilemma. On one hand, he is a brilliant physician dedicated to unlocking the mysteries of the insane mind in the valiant attempt to free his patients from their criminal compulsions. On the other, he is a fearless, two-fisted war hero who was trained to stop any enemy using deadly force. His struggles, during the mysteries that engulf him, to reconcile both opposing sides of his nature prove to be enjoyable reading, and trouble for those around him.

Criminals beware! The foggy streets of London are once again under the protection of the Crime Doctor with this new edition collecting all of the adventures of Hornung most intriguing master sleuth. Because this collection was out of print for decades, the name of Dr. John Dollar has sadly been overlooked by many mystery enthusiasts. But with this new printing, I am confident that Dr. Dollar- the Crime Doctor- will capture the hearts and imaginations of a new generation.

If you prefer your mysteries to take place on the foggy streets of London, teeming with clueless Bobbies, international spies, Cockney street thugs, master criminals, and the occasional suffragette riot, look no further and focus your magnifying glass on this collection of excellent crime stories.

There is simply no better way to immerse yourself in the semifictional London Holmes' lives in. All the rich cultural refernces are listed, plus every minor inconsistency in a continuity line Doyle never did care about. Great reading; adds immensely to the already great stories of Holmes and Watson.

William S. Baring-Gould (1913-1967) was one of the greatest Sherlock Holmes scholars ever. Publishing several works on Holmes publically and privately, this two-volume annotation of the Holmes canon is perhaps his greatest work, and was his last. Published in 1967, the copyright inscription shows that it is held by his widow, Lucile M. Baring-Gould. Baring-Gould himself was a life-long devotee of Holmes in particular, and mysteries in general. He is also noted for the fictional biography of Nero Wolfe, in which he puts forward the idea that Nero Wolfe is the son of Sherlock Holmes, via THE woman, Irene Adler, of 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

Sherlock Holmes is one of the best known detectives in the world -- so famous in fact, that 221B Baker Street in London continues to get mail adddressed to this fictional character almost a century after he would have died had he been a real person. There are groups of people -- Sherlockians and Holmesians, the distinction between which is rather subtle -- who delight in retelling the tales. There are forever questions and debates about the ordering of the stories; Baring-Gould is one authority often referred to in these debates, thanks to his work on the Chronology of Holmes, used as a framework for this annotated set.

Baring-Gould breaks the time frame into the follow divisions:

- The Early Holmes (1874 - 1879)
- The Partnership with Watson to Watson's first marriage (1881 - 1886)
- Watson marriage to his wife's death (1886 - 1887)
- Partnership until Watson's second marriage (1887- 1889)
- Watson's second marriage to Holmes' disappearance (1889 - 1891)
- Holmes' return to Watson's third marriage (1894 - 1902)
- The end of the Partnership (1903)
- Sherlock Holmes in Retirement (1909)
- An epilogue (1914)

Baring-Gould introduces the series with a 12-part series of essays that look at various aspects of the Sherlock Holmes legend, including foreign translations, translation into stage and screen, and highlights of particular personalities (Watson, Moriarty). He includes a wonderful brief essay by Edgar W. Smith, an early Sherlockian, which asks (and answers) the question, 'What is it that we love in Sherlock Holmes?' In the end, beyond the setting and the culture and the chase, it is the values 'implicit and eternal in ourselves' that we recognise as manifest in Holmes that keeps him an enduring character.

The volumes are the complete texts of all short stories and novels, backed up with an almost equivalent amount of textual annotation, richly accentuated with photographs, engravings, maps, and other graphics (diagrams, coats-of-arms), often taken from Holmesian sources such as journals, playbills, early editions, and even 'The Strand' magazine.

Sherlock Holmes introduces us to a world foreign yet familiar, past yet somehow present -- the stories are very contextually bound yet timeless in almost inexplicable ways, and present mysteries beyond the face-value plots. Baring-Gould's love for his subject is very apparent throughout the over 800 pages of these volumes. Some editions of this book come with a slip-cover.

This is my favourite of all my Holmes books. It is must for any fan of Holmes.

I hope I am not the only one who loves reading Sherlock Holmes but is really annoyed by "Sherlockians" - people who take their Sherlock far too literally - a lot like Trekkies, who take Star Trek just way to seriously. Baring-Gould, it seems, was the ultimate Sherlockian, and this is his masterpiece - a 1500 page annotated, illustrated, and interpreted edition of everything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I'm sorry, Dr. John Watson - ever wrote about the subject, plus a healthy dose of his own interpretations and those of others.

I can't remember a piece of fiction recieving as much love and attention as the works of Sherlock Holmes. This edition has illustrations, maps, definitions, references - everything. Anybody who checks the actual weather and train schedules from a piece of fiction just has too much time on his hands. It truly is a work of art, marred only by an annoying habit of Sherlockians to take their subject far, far too literally. The biggest problem I have with the tome is B-G's annoying habit of inserting his own opinions as fact. My other major peeve was his organization of the work, which put everything in the author's own chronology rather than in the order in which the books were published. This makes finding anything a bit of a chore.

As far as the new Leslie Klinger three(!) volume annotated edition of Sherlock goes, I have seen it but not purchased them. Again, shelf space seems to be the major problem here, not to mention the $125 price tag. From a brief look-over, it appears to be a more subdued, up to date, better quality edition, but less exuberant and less fun than Baring-Gould.

`The Annotated Sherlock Holmes' by William S Baring-Gould is easily one of the top two or three best examples of annotated popular literature, as good as, and possibly even better than the most famous annotation efforts by Martin Gardner on the major works of Lewis Carroll.

It is not immediately evident to me that the works of Sherlock Holmes need annotation. Unlike the works of Carroll, there are very few linguistic tricks or cleverly veiled allusions to his English contemporaries. On the other hand, over the course of the last 120 years, there has been an enormous body of work dedicated to the exegesis of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. There has been probably more of this activity for works of popular fiction than for the next five cases put together. To my knowledge, there is virtually no similar activity on the mystery novels of, for example, either Agatha Christie or the mystery stories of Edgar Alan Poe, to take two authors who bracket Conan Doyle's' stories in time.

It is worth the effort to determine what it is which makes the Sherlock Holmes stories so popular. One of the easiest ways is to compare Holmes to the heroes of his greatest modern imitators, the lead characters of the CSI series, most especially Gil Grissom of the original CSI show, based in Las Vegas. Both characters are `amateur' scientists in that they apply scientific disciplines to solving crimes, and actually do original work in their respective sciences, in spite of the fact that their primary avocation is `consulting detective'. In Holmes case, this was a profession he invents out of whole cloth. In the case of Grissom and his colleagues, the `consulting detective' profession has become institutionalized in the discipline of forensics, where the crime scene investigators deal with things which are beyond the ken of the average detective.

There is an eerie similarity between Holmes and Grissom in that both are very detached from many normal human interactions. Holmes rationalizes this with his theory of the mind as an attic that can hold only so much information. To add new things, old things must be discarded. For this reason, Holmes is blissfully ignorant of the planets in the solar system, but he is an expert on over 100 different types of tobacco ash. Similarly, Grissom is very poor at office politics or romantic relations in favor of his dedication to the application of entomology (study of insects) to forensics, a subject on which he is a nationally recognized authority.

It should be no surprise if the popularity of Sherlock Holmes stories may actually be gaining in popularity, as the CSI shows go a long way to validating many of the scientific principles and techniques used by Holmes. The most famous may be his search for a very sensitive reagent for the detection of blood residues. This is what Holmes is doing when he and Dr. John Watson meet for the first time in the chemical laboratory of `Barts' (St. Bartholomew's Hospital). Holmes explanation of why such a reagent is important in the investigation of crime is verified on practically every episode of CSI, whether it be in Las Vegas, Miami, or New York City. So, not only are we taken by the fact that Conan Doyle had such a good grasp of criminal investigation, but that he was so astute as to realize that such a reagent was possible.

Holmes elevates intellectual competence almost to a level of magic, using that old chestnut that if the difference in the level of technology between two parties in an encounter is great enough, that higher technology becomes indistinguishable from magic. One major difference between Holmes and Grissom is that Holmes has no modesty about his abilities, demonstrated when he belittles' the deductive powers of Edgar Alan Poe's hero in his famous story, `Murders in the Rue Morgue'.

The value of this annotation also increases over time, as the world of Sherlock Holmes is rapidly slipping away from us. These stories were written when the sun literally never set on the great British Empire, stretching across Canada, hundreds of Pacific Islands, Hong Kong, southeast Asia, much of Africa, and that greatest `Jewel in the Crown', India, where Dr. Watson himself served as a surgeon in the British Army in India. Among other things, that meant that if anything could be found in the world at all, it could be found in London. London's scientific and intellectual centers were among the greatest in the world, so it should be no surprise that the world's greatest `consulting detective' should live in London. In many ways, Sherlock Holmes is a far more believable character than his later fictional colleague, James Bond, since England's fortunes as a mover and shaker on the world stage had fallen far between 1880 and 1950.

So, our pleasure is greatly enhanced by being given copious notes on Holmes' London as well as the science of the day. Also very satisfying are the notes that correlate events in various stories. The whole collection is laid out by the fictional chronological order of Holmes' cases.

The greatness of Holmes' character can be seen in the fact that he is probably the model for over half of the great fictional detectives of the last 100 years. While I am not a great fan of detective fiction, I am certain he was the inspiration for both Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Dorothy Sayers' detective, Lord Peter Whimsey. In fact, the greatness of Dashiell Hammett's and Raymond Chandler's detective writing may be in the fact that they escape the Sherlock Holmes prototype and create a new style of private detective.

This work of annotation is so good, I am hard pressed to appreciate how anyone can fully enjoy reading Sherlock Holmes without these notes. As with the commentary track on better DVD releases of movies, the notes literally double or more than double the pleasure and rereadability of the works.

Very highly recommended.

Awesome is the only word I can think of to describe this particular collection--there is all the novels and stories with amplifing info on particular items in the story/novel you are reading listed on the sides of the pages, ala footnotes (sidenotes?)--and the supplementary info is staggering, with bios of Doyle, Holmes, Watson AND Moriarty, the history of Holmes on stage, screen and in print, 221B Baker Street info, etc.--these sections take up at LEAST the front 3rd or 4th of the 1st volume alone! If you are a Holmes fan, you MUST find and buy this collection ASAP!

This collection of Sherlock Holmes stories & analysis is clearly one of the best biographical works published in the past 30 years. The painstaking effort and detail put into this work is something to be marveled.

Whether a new or old fan of the exploits of Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson, this product will not disappoint.

Also included in this series is some of the original artwork from the Holmes novels. If a fan, you might also consider picking up The Crime Doctor, which also bears the artwork of Frederic Dorr Steele, with stories of the medical detective by EW Hornung (also the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

Having been brought up on the edge of Dartmoor,in Devonshire, SW England,where the Hounds of the Baskervilles story was located I found the annotations to that novel to be very interesting and, more importantly, factual even to the minor details that were mentioned.
I have no doubts whatsoever that the facts connected to the other three novels are just as accurate.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any Sherlockian.

While most people have read at least one Sherlock Holmes stories others have not only read them all but have studied every detail of them. The author, Leslie Klinger, is one of the latter group. He is one of the foremost experts on the 'Canon' as devotees call the Holmes stories, and a member of The Baker Street Irregulars, the oldest and most exclusive club of Holmes scholars.

Klinger follows the accepted practice of the Irregulars in that he treats the stories as factual, rather than fictional accounts. This volume covers the four full length novels: "A Study in Scarlet"; "The Sign of Four"; "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Valley of Fear" completing his study of the Canon that had begun with his two volume treatment of all the shorter works. As with the earlier works the book is printed in two columns, one containing the text of the story and the other containing the notes from that section. The book is illustrated with engravings that accompanied the stories in the magazines that first published them. The notes that Klinger has included with the text cover a wide range of subjects from explanation of outdated slang expressions to speculations by the author and other experts on people and locations the stories were actually based upon to in depth explanations of details. In addition both in the notes and in appendices Klinger offers his own and others theories as to the dating of the events in the stories.

This is a beautiful book, one that any fan of Holmes and Watson will surely enjoy. Someone who is reading the stories for the first time might find themselves suffering from information overload but anyone familiar with at least some of the stories will delight in finally discovering what some of those odd references meant. Also it is interesting to see that at times Watson or perhaps his 'agent' Arthur Conan Doyle, made some errors in their accouts leaving the impression that the 'Master' (Holmes) made some errors.

This volume is a companion to the two-book set that covers the 56 short stories. Mr. Klinger has done an outstanding job of annotating and describing enough details in each novel to delight the casual reader or the devoted Holmes fan. Most Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts consider their annotated edition of the canon to be the centerpiece of their Holmes library. If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes, you will love this edition.

This volume completes this edition of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes. What a beautiful set of books to ponder they are!

Myself, as with many of you, have "grown up" or "lived" with the great sleuth for many years, and it is, of course, for us, wonderful to open this beautiful volume, containing the four complete novels, lovingly annotated in the margins with tons of observations, thoughts, etc., on the great man and his times, and also, of course, on his great nemesis, Moriatry. It's just wonderful to sit comfortably and re-read, ponder, and think about this great character, his creator, and perhaps just smile upon doing so.

This great set of four of the greatest detective stories, along with the two volume companion with the 56 short stories, truly does belong on the shelves of anyone who likes both great writing, and also great detective stories, especially about the "Great" Holmes, whom you'll read over and over and over, enjoying them just as much the 12th time as the first!

Do yourself a Great Favor, and add this wonderful volume to your library...You Won't Be Sorry! ~operabruin

If you a Sherlock Holmes fan this is a great book to read. I like this Volume that I order Volume II to read this summer.

Recently I finished reading E.W. Hornung's The Crime Doctor, the outstanding novel about Doctor John Dollar (both physician AND detective), and I decided to pick up a complete set of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works on Sherlock Holmes. Although this collection is a little dated, I consider it to be the best availible on the market.

There's not much left to say about this literary classic. It's great to have all of the stories and novels put together, in the order that they were published--there are references here and there to things that happened in previous stories. Of course, you don't have to read everything in order, but its worth it all the same.

Some of my all-time favorite stories in this volume of the collection are "The Red-Headed League," and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." Also worth a read are the short novels A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of Four, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. They illustrate Doyle's (and Holmes's) mastery of the art of observation. As Holmes says in a story in the second volume, "I see as much as you, but I notice what I see." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of my all-time favorite authors; this collection is highly recommended.

Immerse yourself in foggy 19th century London, following the steps of intrepid detective Sherlock Holmes. This volume will give you a very thorough introduction to the official "canon" of Sherlockian lore. Recommended reading.

This book offered some of the lesser known writings of Doyle, as well as, some of the better known stories like "The Sign of Four". My only gripe was that the font was bit small and I was feeling like a detective myself holding a magnifying glass just to make out the words.

Arthur Conan Doyle captures my interest with each little detail and surprise that awaits our true Bohenian Detective and his companion Watson. The dialogue is always fluid and natural. And the stories are so involving. I recommend anyone hoping to become a writer someday to tackle Doyle's works headon. You'll be better for it.

I read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories (short stories and novels) in a relatively short period of time (good for comparisons), and this was by FAR my favorite of them all. _Nothing_ is as it seems to be, not in the presenting murder mystery, nor in the background story. Both of them are fascinating stories in themselves; combined, it's truly amazing.

The last of the four Sherlock Holmes novels, and one of the two best. It contains more detection in its first section than The Hound of the Baskervilles, with Holmes (off-stage for much of The Hound) actively investigating the murder at Birlstone, and drawing his ever-fascinating deductions from raincoats and dumb-bells; indeed it is the only pure detective story among the four, with the reader given every opportunity to solve the crime. Although the solution is justly famous, it is but a variation on "The Norwood Builder," at much greater length. The second half of the tale concerns the doings of the Pinkerton agent Birdy Edwardes in the eponymous Valley, terrorised by the Freemasons, a gripping and powerful account which is perhaps of greater interest than the detection.

The story is a report on the actual events surrounding the arrest, conviction, and hanging of the Molly McGuyers in Schuylkill and Carbon Countys, Pennsylvania at the end of the 19th century. In the story the Mollys are like the gansters. In the Pa. coal region they are folk heros who fought and died for workers wrights. See the movie, "Molly McGuyers" staring Sean Conrey, it's an exact match.

The actual Pinkerton, McGowan, Died of old age in California.

'The Valley of Fear'. A real page turner but what makes it most memorable for me is not that Holmes is at his best, but Conan Doyle is. After reading this book I recommend you to read this book because it was a suspense story. The whole story moves around Mcginty who was a big criminal in the valley of vermisa also called the valley of fear. There was only one person who could face to that criminal and his name was Jack McMurdo. He behaved as a gangster and he had taken many risks in his life and he was not afraid to take more risks. Don't miss 'The Valley of Fear'. It's terrifying, exciting, and best of all, real.

I liked this book a lot and it's right up there behind The Sign of Four as the second best Sherlock Holmes novel. Though it's well known that Conan Doyle was growing tired of the character by this point.

The story is of a brutal murder in a mansion house in the English countryside. There's not much sense-making evidence to work on so Holmes and Watson go down to investigate along with Scotland Yard and the local police. Sure enough, Holmes solves the case rather quickly and all is revealed. But it's here that Conan Doyle uses the same split narrative he used in A Study in Scarlet. The story jumps far back in time and details the long, sinister plot leading up to the murder in the mansion. It's a good story and quite addictive. But I'm afraid I saw the plot twist coming (though it's an imaginative surprise) and only because there were no small revalations at any point, therefor I knew I big 'un was coming and deduced the logical conclusion.

And is it just me or is there a major anachronism in the story? Holmes speaks of Moriarty as if he is still alive. But didn't he chuck him of the Reichenbach falls and watch him fall to his death? Unless this story is set before then. And who is this mysterious Porlock? It was never cleared up. Perhaps in a future story eh?

This work of Sir Conan Doyle clearly shows that detective stories did not limit his interests. An excellent adventure and a well written one. What else do we need in a good book? This is very solid five stars.

This is a series of short stories that combines four rare qualities: masterful plots, superb writing, an unforgettable central character, and some of the funniest lines in literature. The central character is a retired brigadier from the cavalry of Napoleon, who is recounting his memories while drinking in a cafe. The stories he recounts are exciting and gripping adventures- indeed, just on that level they would be a pleasure to read. But what makes them extra special is the humour that stems from his extraordinarily conceitful personality- he is so full of himself, but doesn't realise it. A typical quote is the Brigadier describing a fellow cavalryman: '...he was just above the ideal height for a man, being about half an inch taller than myself.' He is also unstintingly obsessed with sex, without thinking for a moment that there is anything unusual or wrong about it..' I saved two of the pictures. One, The Crucifiction of St Benedict, I gave to my mother; the other, Nymphs Surprised while Bathing, I kept for myself.' I could read these stories again and again. I wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone who enjoys good writing, wickedly clever plots and ironic humour.

Astounding. One of the best books I've ever read. Teaming with charm and intelligence. A.C.D. is a true Master. These stories are every bit as worthy as the impeccable Holmes tales. I even believe that Doyle's writing had matured beyond Holmes by the time he penned these tales. These stories contatin all the rich characterization and masterful plots of Holmes, but are infused with deeper insightfulness, well-conveyed through poetic language. Fully satisfying.

How Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can write a character that is irritatingly arrogant yet, charmingly loyal and naive is beyond me. The depth of Gerard's character rivals even the great Sherlock Holmes. Just as with his more famous counterpart(Holmes), Gerard is not just a hero(although there can be no questioning his bravery),he can also be a clown,(without ever realizing it)a ladies man, the greatest swordsman in the Grande' Armee(or at least so he tells us). With exciting short stories we venture through Gerard's career as a cavalry officer. He quite often bumbles his way into situations an officer of his rank should never allow himself into yet, it is these situations once gotten out of(after much daring and a little bit of luck)that build not only his career but, the readers passion for his character. These stories are an excellent companion to the more famous Sherlock Holmes stories. Where have all the writers with skills like Doyle's gone?

Well now, I know you have been here: You have found a book that is so delightful that you just cannot bear to put it down. I know that we all have experienced this. But folks, I will tell you in all honesty that I became quite ridiculously attached to this book to its final page. I brought it to work to be my next " On my break read.." but found that the first night I drove home after having left it in my locker ( as is my custom ) I felt compelled to return to work and fetch it. Thanks goodness I live about 3 miles from my workplace! Well, certainly many of us carry books with us to stores and such so that we have something to read when we are caught in the "express" lane ( ! ) and this became another one of those.
But I found myself reading it at stop lights and becoming irritated when the light changed before I had a chance to really GET anywhere...Now I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would like this character Gerard as much as I do, given that, in my mind, he stood in Sherlock's shadow, but I have become quite smitten with him! I fancied myself a Doyle fan, but had never read this series, as I was too enraptured by the mysteries and dectective stories. How sad that I waited so long to try these wonderful stories! No doubt that some of you ladies out there might be thinking that a series of stories about a soldier in Napoleon's army might be as interesting as televised fishing, or that they would only appeal to a man, but nay! Not so! If you are a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock, then you will be every bit as entertained by Gerard. Doyle's style is no different, it is just as voluptuous. Only his main character has changed. He is an entirely different sort of fellow from our man Sherlock, but no less exciting in his own way...Very much like... if you were to, perhaps, put Dr. Watson's character in Gerard's place. Oh but I cannot tell you how very enjoyable these stories are, and it has been awhile since I have felt so passionate about a character...I kept longing for more..At times there would be a turn of the phrase that would make me laugh out loud, and then a bit later perhaps I would be curled on my chair with my hand across my chest, eyes wide in amazement! - as if being TOLD these stories by an old war hero! At times the events are so marvelous ( unbelieveable bits of luck and chance..) that I am reminded of Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns," when an entire escape scene is deleted and Micheal returns to the camera and exclaims, " What an AMAZING escape!" There is that gaffy quality to it...But at the same time, there are "scenes" where this character's humanity is so full and well spent that one feels a sincere warmth for him..
But I have prattled on long enough. If you are looking for a good read, with nearly everything a story depends upon to be a real page-turner, then by all means, DO check this book out! It is, as they say over the pond, " Ripping good stuff. "

If you're looking for the creative process that Conan Doyle employed in memorializing perhaps the most famous fictional character in literary history, this book will disappoint. Other than the well-known fact that Joseph Bell was the real-life model for Sherlock Holmes and that Conan Doyle needed to supplement his meager medical practice with additional funds, this book is more of the chronolgy of the life of a man who lived a rather mundane, if somewhat, typical Victorian existence.

True, his father was an alcoholic and Conan Doyle's first wife was practically an invalid the last ten years of her life causing him to initiate an adultrous affair with a woman who would later become his second wife; however, much of the book simply relates the travels, associations, business ventures, family squabbles and misunderstandings that were conventional to that period. Andrew Lycett, the biographer, admits in the Afterword that getting to know Conan Doyle up close and personal was difficult due to the heir's reluctance to release certain documents and letters. Following Conan Doyle's death, there was a real donneybrook over who got what from the estate. Greed and jealousy ruled and posterity and Conan Doyle's legacy has suffered because of it.

For my part the image of the man is forever tarnished by his obsession with the occult, paranormal, and spiritualism. Apart from Sherlock Holmes, he failed to live up to what he could have achieved in his lifetime as an author of great promise had he not been fixated with contacting the dead. His misguided intentions to divest himself of the true Christian faith marred a life that brought untold satisfaction to tens of thousands of devoted readers.

With that as a personal aside, Lycett from all accounts has written the most definitive biography to date on the life and times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Lycett takes complete advantage of recently released family papers, and although at first glance they seem largely like household account books that reveal how much money was spent on this and that in any given period, soon this accumulation of data grows a fascination of its own. We can see through a myriad of details how Conan Doyle, by his own literary labors, started out with nearly nothing and wound up one of the wealthiest writers of his day, living life in a nearly baronial fashion with everything he could dream of. Was this affluence worth the price he paid for it? In some ways, Lycett argues, he was completely happy and very much a man of his time, but his growing spiritual instincts show, some have argued, a guilt consciousness overtaking him, making his soul restless as those whose peregrinations through ectoplasm he studied night after night, the victim of some of the worst frauds the world has known.

I enjoyed the biography, though it is superlong and at the same time, rushed during the second half of Doyle's life, where so many things happened to him that Lycett's chapters devolve into mere laundry lists of "And then he," "and then he," without much analysis. But by then he has given us ample evidence with which to judge Doyle's character. I suppose no biography of the man could fail to examine his mysterious second marriage, and when the love affair between ACD and Jean Leckie began. They always put up a public front, as did their children, that no way did anything untoward occur between them while the first wife, tubercular Louise, was still alive. Lycett takes a middle ground, referring to Jean as Conan Doyle's "mistress" even while accepting that perhaps there was no sexual activity between them. It must have been a trying time for Jean, not to mention Louise! And much of ths strain fell on Louise's two children, Mary and Kingsley, whom Jean seems to have resented terribly and who she made sure were always being sent away to school or to spend their vacations far away from wherever she was. Conan Doyle comes off as sort of a man torn in two, but Jean seems just horrid in every way.

Lycett finds echoes of this central conflict in many of Conan Doyle's stories and novels, pointing to the way that the author of the Sherlock Holmes tales withdrew "The Cardboard Box" from a proposed volume of "Memoirs," even after it had been published in periodical form, because its tangle of illicit love affairs reflected too much of the lustful drives he himself was feeling but had, as a Victorian paterfamilias, to keep a dark secret.

Lycett ignores the current controversy about the authorship of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES and does not so much as refer to the possibility that Conan Doyle had Fletcher Robinson "bumped off," though he does spend a lot of time, particularly in what is otherwise a very rushed account of Doyle's final 20 years, on his putative involvement in the Piltdown Man hoax. In his analysis of the George Edalji case, he shows us rather humorously that Conan Doyle's championing of the wrongfully imprisoned Edalji had many roots, not just the simple one of wanting justice done, including the fact that a fellow clubman had managed to clear a wrongfully accused man just the previous year and perhaps ACD wanted some of the glory too! All in all, a splendid book and one that will be much discussed in the years to come.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Edinburgh Scotland to native Irish parents. His father was a minor painter who died an alcoholic in a mental asylum. His formidable mother Mary was a smart and literate woman who relished telling tales to Arthur and his siblings.
Arthur studied and graduated with a degree in medicine from Edinburgh University where his favorite teacher was Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell would be his inspiration for his famous detective creation along with Oliver Wendell Holmes. Doyle went on a ship to the Artic in his 20th year serving as the medical officer. He enjoyed travel and adventure throughout his life. He loved America and often visited our shores.
In the 1880s he set up practice in Portsmouth becoming a prominent figure in the community. He married his first wife Louise with whom he had two children: Mary and Kingsley who died of disease in World War I.
Doyle enjoyed sport all of his life indulging in cricket, skiing in Switzerland, tennis, bicycling, motoring and golf. He was a macho man's man who was also a patriot loving the British Empire. He was friendly with such writers as Kipling, Stevenson, Meredith and Hardy.
In the 1880s and 1890's he produced his first Sherlock Holmes novels:
"A Study in Scarlet" and "A Sign of Four." The Holmes short stories were produced in the Strand magazine and were wildly popular. Holmes pooh-poohed these tales wanting to write historical fiction in imitation of his idol Sir Walter Scott. In this genre the prolific doctor produced such works as "The White Company" He often sought to kill off Holmes but the last tale of the detective would not be published until late in his life due to the love the public had for the man in the deerstalker. Holmes was also played on the stage by William Gillette and was seen in silent and early talkie films.
Doyle's wife Louise died from TB in 1906. The famous and wealthy author had already begun an affair with his second wife Jean Leckie with whom he was to marry and have three children.
Doyle participated in the Boer War and visited the front in World War. His last years were spent as an evangelist for spiritualism. He died in 1930 known today almost exclusively for the Sherlock Holmes tales he so disdained in his lifetime.
Andrew Lycett has authored several literary biographies including those of Dylan Thomas, Ian Fleming and Rudyard Kipling. He has written a good book on Doyle which is illustrated and researched being based on several of the recently released letters of Doyle.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. A scientist who loved spiritualism. A married and settled family man who committed adultery. An icon to boys who often was far from home and family. An Irish heritage person who opposed the home rule of the Emerald Isle. A brilliant observer of life who was often duped by spiritualistic charlatans. A born Roman Catholic who did not like organized religion.
This book along with the recently published "The Letters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" will increase your knowledge of the genius behind the creation of Dr. John Watson and the inimitable thinking machine from Baker Street. One also gains in knowledge of the Victorian/Edwardian literary scene.

In the middle of the 19th century, the man who would create Sherlock Holmes was born Arthur Ignatius Conan. He sprang from a large family of artists --- most of whom preferred paint as their medium over written words, but creativity was in his blood from the beginning. Full of curiosity as a child, he "soaked up tales as a sponge absorbs water." He read voraciously to help quench his uncommon thirst for knowledge. His characters' names came from as far back as his school days, where he met a fellow pupil named Patrick Sherlock and came across an interesting pair, the Moriarty brothers.

Despite his vivid imagination, Arthur embarked on a career path of medicine. Fortunately for Sherlock Holmes fans, he discovered that he was a mediocre doctor but a great writer. Oddly, although a man of science, his interests took him through phases of dabbling with the occult, studying hypnotism, playing with the Ouija board and toying with spiritualism.

"Becoming a spiritualist so soon after creating the quintessentially rational Sherlock Holmes: that is the central paradox of Arthur's life." It is possible that the introduction of Dr. John Watson was necessary to balance that out. Watson is more romantic, more human, more fallible --- sometimes even to the point of naïvete --- than Holmes. Together, they round each other out.

More than a mere biography, Andrew Lycett's book is a fascinating study in how a character is conceived, groomed and shaped into someone who readers demand to see more of. Conan Doyle possessed a very active, inquiring mind, which is well used in his beloved stories. He lived in a lively time of wondrous authors: Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, to name a few. So competition was fierce, but Conan Doyle's determination carried him through.

At the same time, much was going on in the world around Conan Doyle, which influenced the direction and tenor of Holmes's adventures. Brutal wars were brewing in an age of phenomenal inventions. Providence helped Conan Doyle survive the battlefront, the vagaries of travel, the caprice of young adulthood and several serious illnesses, one that threatened him within a breath of his life. His legacy came very close to fading before it took hold.

Sherlock Holmes didn't start out a finished character. Far from it. He evolved. Starting with the bare bones of the man, he was fleshed out into a caped consulting detective with a deerstalker's cap and a meerschaum pipe through the hands of illustrators, professors and even actors. His legendary logic appeared initially and honed itself into a rare and highly entertaining skill. Soon, it leaked out that Holmes had a drug habit. And this seemingly asexual man showed a contradictory side whenever he spoke of the one woman who ever truly captured his interest: Irene Adler.

Find out where Conan Doyle got his ideas, names, personality traits, and why he grew to hate Holmes --- enough to try to kill him. Conan Doyle's mother saved Holmes once, but Sir Arthur could only abide him for so long. However, he underestimated Holmes's popularity.

Andrew Lycett had a wealth of information at his disposal, which has enabled him to present Sherlock Holmes lovers everywhere with this very comprehensive account of the life and times of the man who created him.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

A case could be made that the most famous character in fiction is Sherlock Holmes. Everybody knows him, if not from the original stories, then from the countless plays, movies, and parodies. There is an international fan club, and the great detective still gets mail at his 221B Baker Street address in London. But his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was not so enthusiastic. Surely Holmes was the making of Doyle as a literary man, but six years after Holmes first appeared, Doyle wrote in 1892, "I am weary of his name." The public enthusiasm over the detective was, in Doyle's view, keeping him from writing the better things for which he wanted to be known, among which were his books and pamphlets in defense of the new religion of spiritualism. He failed in many of his non-Sherlockian efforts, and thus his most recent biography is called _The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle_ (Free Press) by Andrew Lycett. The author has made a specialty of literary biographies (Ian Fleming, Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas) and has had a long battle with the complicated network of Doyle heirs (described here in an afterword) to produce a big and detailed portrait of a gifted and deeply conflicted author.

Doyle was born in 1859 in Scotland, of Irish parents. He was all her life devoted to his "Mam", perhaps excessively even by Victorian standards. Many of his words quoted here are from letters to her. His father was insane and an alcoholic, incarcerated for years in mental institutions. Doyle abandoned his family's Catholicism and as a young man claimed agnosticism at a time when the term and the idea was a new one, before eventually claiming spiritualism. Though Lycett covers Doyles other literary works, it is Sherlock who will always be most important. Doyle killed Holmes off and remained a popular author without him, but not as popular and not as wealthy, and the reading world rejoiced to learn that Holmes's death was only apparent, not actual, when the stories resumed. Lycett writes, "Becoming a spiritualist so soon after creating the quintessentially rational Sherlock Holmes: that is the central paradox of Arthur's life." Lycett has examined the paradox thoroughly, but probably it can never be fully explained. Doyle never mixed spiritualism into the Holmes stories. When Holmes encountered superstition, it was always with the understanding that there were rational, material explanations for what people had misinterpreted as the doings of the supernatural.

Lycett's book is excellent about Doyle's literary efforts and his eagerness to involve contemporary concerns into his fiction, even if he was careful not to mix his spiritualism with his famous detective. Lycett's extensive investigations into newly-available archives mean that we can know Doyle's whereabouts, budgets, and enthusiasms with sometimes day-to-day accuracy. Doyle was an anomaly in many ways, supporting and uprooting conservative British ideals in different spheres, and Lycett has done justice to his many non-literary interests. It is as the creator of his famous detective, however, that he must always be best remembered, and the many Sherlock fans will find a treat in this a detailed, far from elementary biography.

Haven't read any Holmes stories in years and a friend recommended this book. Briefly I was totally engaged. The characterizations are sharp and the atmosphere is thick with dread. Doyle's attempt to come to terms with "the method" based on previous(actual?) experiences makes for an interesting conflict that runs thru out the book. Can't wait to read the other 2.

Written by the screenwriter of the BBC's Murder Rooms, this mystery chronicles Arthur Conan Doyle's first meeting with the eccentric Dr. Joseph Bell. Providing the basis for Sherlock Holmes, Bell and his "method" are put to the test with a number of cases, but the series of events surrounding a beautiful patient of Doyle's is the most sinister. As a fan of the short-lived television series, I bought the book as soon as I heard about it. Surprisingly the book did not strictly follow the episodes that I had seen. Pirie's evocative writing perfectly captures the memoirs of a troubled man recalling his dark past. He also has a talent for creating an ominous, foreboding atmosphere. I'd recommend this mystery to avid Sherlock Holmes fans, but also to anyone who wants to read a dark, thrilling story.

First-time novelist David Pirie deserves kudos for doing
something a little different along the lines of a Sherlock
Holmes pastiche. His characters are Dr. Bell and Conan Doyle
themselves. On the other hand, he runs off the rails pretty
early on, with a perfervid yet elliptical style that is more
along the lines of Anna Katherine Green than Dr. Watson, and
with (oh, no, not again!) standard pastiche plot B.

There is no chemistry (or even friendship) between Dr. Bell and
Dr. Conan Doyle, and their cases--- "real life" incidents that
are close parallels to Holmes-Watson adventures such as
"The Speckled Band" and "The Solitary Cyclist"--- tend to
be more annoying or unsatisfying than interesting.

The usual problem with standard pastiche plot B is that the
behavior of a central character is necessarily totally
inconsistent with his actual aims--- here the problem is
magnified, since there are at least three and maybe four
characters whose behavior throughout the "adventure" makes no
sense whatsoever in terms of their eventually-revealed
motivations.

Conan Doyle's overheated style continually sets the reader up
for "a revelation more terrifying than mere mortal flesh can
endure," and then follows up with, more often than not,
no payoff at all, or a payoff that amounts to an empty
pay envelope. At the end of the very episodic "novel," Dr.
Conan Doyle hints that in the next adventure, we'll encounter
Jack the Ripper (whom CD and Bell have seemingly matched wits
with years before during Watson's medical school days).
It's a promising setup, but we've been burned so often in
the present book, I wonder if it is worth checking out the next
in line.

Those who have admired the cases of Sherlock Holmes and found "The 7 Percent Solution" to be a fresh look at the first great detective of popular fiction will find a different game afoot in "The Patient's Eye." The intriguing premise for David Pirie's novel is that Arthur Conan Doyle is playing the Watson role to Dr. Joseph Bell, the writer's real-life mentor in medical school at Edinburough and the model for Holmes. Doyle starts off in the role of Scully, unable to accept that the practice of medicine has anything to do with Dr. Bell's deductive reasoning from minute clues, but in due course he becomes a true believer in Bell's pioneering work in forensic medicine.

The case involves Miss Heather Grace, a young heiress who has been traumatized by an attack by a lunatic who murdered her parents. Now Miss Grace is subject to visions of a figure who follows her on her bicycle. The conceit here is that Pirie is working backwards from several of the cases from the Holmes canon, most obviously "The Solitary Cyclist," but also "The Speckled Band" and "Wisteria Lodge." The idea is that Doyle later fictionalized these stories from the "real" events contained herein. It was a good move on Pirie's part not to simply offer up the "true" story of one the original Holmes mysteries or to try and tackle one of the "biggies" in the canon. There is also more romance than you find in Doyle, what with the young doctor falling for his patient.

Most importantly, Pirie is able to present Doyle and Bell as interesting substitutes for Watson and Holmes. There is no pretense of friendship between the pair; they are teacher and student. Doyle is not as much the inept foil that Watson serves in the stories (indeed, he solves several initial mysteries before getting in over his head) and Bell is arguably more charismatic than the driven Holmes. There are times when Pirie follows the Doyle model too closely and the gallery of suspects is rather overdrawn, but as the first effort in what is clearly going to be a developing series, "The Patient's Eyes" is worth the reading. The execution is not quite up to the ambitious idea, but that is a minor concern. The one caveat is that you should read over the original Sherlock Holmes stories on which this novel is based to better appreciate how Pirie is using them in this story.

David Pirie's "The Patient's Eyes" is the first in a series of books about the collaboration between Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell. Doyle is a young medical student in Edinburgh when he meets Bell, who is both a teacher in the medical school and a forensic scientist. Doyle soon becomes Bell's clerk and the two work together on a number of cases, including the very strange one in this novel.

Doyle's patient, Heather Grace, is a lovely young woman who suffers from eye troubles and nightmares. She also believes that a man has been surreptitiously following her, and may wish to do her harm. Since Miss Grace is about to come into a great deal of money, Doyle suspects that her relatives may want to get their hands on her fortune. When Dr. Bell intercedes in the case, he uses his forensic skills, his intuition, and his uncanny powers of detection to get to the bottom of the affair.

Pirie is a superior writer and he brings all of the characters in "The Patient's Eyes" to brilliant life. Doyle is a callow and troubled young man who comes from a dysfunctional family. Bell is Doyle's mentor, and he may be the real life model for the great fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Pirie's language, settings, and even the titles he chooses for his chapters are all reminiscent of those used in the Sherlock Holmes stories. There are also puzzles galore in this book to intrigue those who love interesting ciphers.

The story is complicated yet thoroughly engrossing, and I was genuinely surprised by the developments at the end of the book. Pirie has a knack for writing satisfying mysteries and I look forward to more novels about the collaboration between Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph Bell.

Sir Nigel is the tale of the early adventures of Nigel the future commander of the White company, from his early squire hood culminating in his knighting on the battlefield and successfully winning his lady love.

In many the morals and world view of Sir Nigel clash with my own. Nigel is one of these simple strong souls who never see the relative nature of the world. To Nigel everything is black and white, good or evil without any shades of grey, Honour is all and fear is an unknown concept. Yet I enjoyed this story immensely. Why? Perhaps because it takes me back to the simplicity of childhood, that state of perfect heroes and right and just causes.

Also this is Conan-Doyle the author who bought us Sherlock Holmes so the quality of the writing is first rate as is the quality of the historical research and accuracy providing idealized visions of characters such as Prince Edward and John Chandos and events such as the Battle of Poiters.

You're a Sherlock Holmes fan, right? Yes, of course you are. Everybody is. Look at the zillions of reprints of these stories. Every year there's another one. And who is the writer? Why, Arthur Conan Doyle, of course.

Or maybe you're a science-fiction or fantasy nut. The books you love best are those in which a very imaginative author conjures up a remarkable, detailed, complex world, puts human-type characters in it, and sets them in motion, reacting to the forces around them. You'd crawl through mud to find a book like this.

So why oh why oh why don't you give this neglected masterpiece, this Sir Nigel--and with Doyle as the author--the acclaim it so richly deserves? No, it's not fantasy or science-fiction, but it begins in England in 1348, and can you possibly imagine a time and place more foreign than that?

To briefly summarize, the story is about a young squire, Sir Nigel, and his quest to perform noble deeds so that he can win the hand of his love, who waits patiently for him to complete them. If you want nothing more than adventure, this book has it. He begins by rescuing a damsel from a scoundrel who would besmirch her honor; there is a small then a large sea battle against the Spanish; there is a journey to a cruel, pirate-infested island, and the revenge exacted on its leader; there are jousts, one on one and thirty on thirty; and in final there is a large, desperate battle between huge armies of French and English where much glory and blood is to be found. Large and small, adventures abound, and I haven't even mentioned half of them. And nothing here stretches credibility. Yes, Nigel is a hero, but he suffers setbacks also--some really embarrassing--and in fact misses most of a set-piece battle he was looking forward to when he almost gets his brains bashed in at the beginning of it.

Like all of Doyle's creations, this novel is rich in small details also. For example, forks hadn't been invented yet. It was considered good manners to hold your meat with your thumb and middle finger while cutting it; to do otherwise was bad form. When you're done with the meat, you toss the bone behind you for the dogs. Once a week, the whole mess was swept out and more hay is laid on the floor. He shows a great knowledge of weaponry as well, talking about the relative merits of the bow and the arbalest, the heavy stones heaved by mangonels, and of course the use of swords and shields and lance. These are just a couple of examples. Practically every page reveals insights as to the way of life in those times, not the least of which is the portrayal of the chivalraic code by which they all lived.

Lastly, it is beautifully written, almost lyrical. Nigel comes upon the fair Edith, "whose face had come so often betwixt him and his sleep." Is there a more economical or descriptive way to put this? And later, marching in war-torn Brittany: "As the darkness deepened there came in wild gusts the howling of wolves from the forest to remind them that they were in a land of war. So busy had men been for many years in hunting one another that the beasts of the chase had grown to a monstrous degree, until [even] the streets of the town were no longer safe . . ." Descriptive? Indeed, chilling.

This is exciting, informative, first-class fiction, and warrants a much larger audience than it has apprarently been getting over the years. Do your part!

I don't have much time to write this review, but if I did, it would be a long one full of words of praise. I read this book in its Spanish language version(only about 15 times). I found it really exciting and interesting. It is the classic story of the undersized fighter who at the end gets all the glory. The story is full of surprises and it will capture anyone's imagination (it got mine). Read it! -

The book just grabbed me from the very first paragraph. I knew that Sir Arthur is an excellent writer but I didn't know that he is that good with medieval adventures.
Everything he writes is very true historically and that makes the book even more enjoyable. His sense of humor and the story made me feel almost being there with Sir Nigel. The story itself is simple but full of surprises. If you are a kid or if you are one of those grown up kids like me you will love this book.

After finishing The White Company I RAN to the library and devoured the prequal, Sir Nigel.

A magical work of historical fiction.

With the DVD remastering of the 1925 film of "The Lost World", this book makes a fascinating companion. I read the novel in my teens and it was fun to re-enter Doyle's world and remeet the fascinating Prof.

Get the book and the remastered DVD - making sure you get the restored version.

A Classic. I have to agreee that I do not think Micheal read this book. One of Doyles best with out a doubt. Challenger is as good a hero as Holmes. Thank god for America releasing the 1925 film on DVD.

This handsome (Wessex = listed here as Gasogene) edition of an enthralling yet sadly neglected masterpiece by Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, is enhanced by dozens of insightful annotations, all the original illustrations, as well as a stockpile of in-depth, illuminating essays on the origins of the work itself, its adaptation to the silent screen, and more. Five- star rating both for content and presentation. A collector's item, well worth the price.

Roy Pilot and Al Rodin have obviously spent hundreds of hours researching and gathering together material which explains, informs, and illuminates this important work. The appendix on the silent film alone is worth the price! Wessex Press is to be commended on the care and attention which is evident in the production of this gem.

A classic in the tradition of the scientific romance, in which Sir Arthur introduces the irascible Professor Challenger, discoverer of a plateau of ancient flora and fauna, living fossils. Mr. Pilot and Mr. Rodin's splendid annotated edition enhance the pleasure of the read with bits of history and other background fabric. Especially delightful are the Harry Rountree and Joseph Clement Coll illustrations from early serialized versions of the story, reprinted throughout the book. In addition to the annotations, four appendices provide further history and commentary. You'll even find Conan Doyle and friends disquised as the book's characters in old photographs prepared for the first British edition. Although a little expensive, it's well worth the price for anyone interested in something more than the casual read of this popular novel.