This collection re-examines the works and life of Arthur Conan Doyle from multiple disciplinary perspectives. It proposes new ways of studying Conan Doyle, and considers overlooked or neglected aspects of his oeuvre, offering fresh perspectives on the multiple genres of his fiction and his relationship to contemporary writers and movements.
This groundbreaking book rescues Arthur Conan Doyle from the sub-literary category of popular fiction and from the myth of Sherlock Holmes. Instead of following new historicists and postcolonialists and asking what Conan Doyle’s fiction reveals about its author and what it tells us about Victorian attitudes to crime, class, Empire and gender, this provocative and convincingly argued literary study shifts the critical emphasis to the neglected art of the novels, tales and stories. It demonstrates through close reading that they can be read the same way as canonical literary fiction. Unapologetically polemical and written in an accessible, jargon-free style, this book will stimulate debate and provoke counterarguments, but most importantly it will send readers, both within and outside the academy, back to the fiction with heightened understanding and renewed pleasure. At a time when evaluation has virtually disappeared from literary studies, this iconoclastic book returns it to the centre.
Examines both academic and popular assessments of Conan Doyle's work, giving pride of place to the Holmes stories and their adaptations, and also attending to the wide range of his published work. Twenty-first-century readers, television viewers, and moviegoers know Arthur Conan Doyle as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the world's most recognizable fictional detective. Holmes's enduring popularity has kept Conan Doyle in the public eye. However, Holmes has taken on a life of his own, generating a steady stream of critical commentary, while Conan Doyle's other works are slighted or ignored. Yet the Holmes stories make up only a small portion of Conan Doyle's published work, which includes mainstream and historical fiction; history; drama; medical, spiritualist, and political tracts; and even essays on photography. When Doyle published - whatever the subject - his contemporaries took note. Yet, outside of the fiction featuring Sherlock Holmes, until recently relatively little has been done to analyze the reception Conan Doyle's work received during his lifetime and since his death. This book examines both academic and popular assessments of Conan Doyle's work, giving pride of place to the Holmes stories and their many adaptations for print, visual, and online media, but attending to his other contributions to turn-of-the-twentieth-century culture as well. The availability of periodicals and newspapers online makes it possible to develop an assessment of Conan Doyle's (and Sherlock Holmes's) reputation among a wider readership and viewership, thus allowing for development of a broader and more accurate portrait of Doyle's place in literary and cultural history.
“A wonderfully vivid portrait of the man behind Sherlock Holmes . . . Like all the best historical true crime books, it’s about so much more than crime.”—Tana French, author of In the Woods A sensational Edwardian murder. A scandalous wrongful conviction. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the rescue—a true story. After a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater, an immigrant Jewish cardsharp. Though he was known to be innocent, Slater was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor. Outraged by this injustice, Arthur Conan Doyle, already world renowned as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used the methods of his most famous character to reinvestigate the case, ultimately winning Slater’s freedom. With “an eye for the telling detail, a forensic sense of evidence and a relish for research” (The Wall Street Journal), Margalit Fox immerses readers in the science of Edwardian crime detection and illuminates a watershed moment in its history, when reflexive prejudice began to be replaced by reason and the scientific method. Praise for Conan Doyle for the Defense “Artful and compelling . . . [Fox’s] narrative momentum never flags. . . . Conan Doyle for the Defense will captivate almost any reader while being pure catnip for the devotee of true-crime writing.”—The Washington Post “Developed with brio . . . [Fox] is excellent in linking the 19th-century creation of policing and detection with the development of both detective fiction and the science of forensics—ballistics, fingerprints, toxicology and serology—as well as the quasi science of ‘criminal anthropology.’”—The New York Times Book Review “[Fox] has an eye for the telling detail, a forensic sense of evidence and a relish for research.”—The Wall Street Journal “Gripping . . . The book works on two levels, much like a good Holmes case. First, it is a fluid story of a crime. . . . Second, and more pertinently, it is a deeper story of how prejudice against a class of people, the covering up of sloppy police work and a poisonous political atmosphere can doom an innocent. We should all heed Holmes’s salutary lesson: rationally follow the facts to find the truth.”—Time
Winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, this is "an excellent biography of the man who created Sherlock Holmes" (David Walton, The New York Times Book Review) This fresh, compelling biography examines the extraordinary life and strange contrasts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the struggling provincial doctor who became the most popular storyteller of his age. From his youthful exploits aboard a whaling ship to his often stormy friendships with such figures as Harry Houdini and George Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle lived a life as gripping as one of his adventures. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, Daniel Stashower's Teller of Tales sets aside many myths and misconceptions to present a vivid portrait of the man behind the legend of Baker Street, with a particular emphasis on the Psychic Crusade that dominated his final years--the work that Conan Doyle himself felt to be "the most important thing in the world."
Reimagining Dinosaurs argues that transatlantic popular literature was critical for transforming the dinosaur into a cultural icon between 1880 and 1920
The Cambridge History of the English Novel chronicles an ever-changing and developing body of fiction across three centuries. An interwoven narrative of the novel's progress unfolds in more than fifty chapters, charting continuities and innovations of structure, tracing lines of influence in terms of themes and techniques, and showing how greater and lesser authors shape the genre. Pushing beyond the usual period-centered boundaries, the History's emphasis on form reveals the range and depth the novel has achieved in English. This book will be indispensable for research libraries and scholars, but is accessibly written for students. Authoritative, bold and clear, the History raises multiple useful questions for future visions of the invention and re-invention of the novel.
Sherlock Holmes, the world's “only unofficial consulting detective”, was first introduced to readers in A Study in Scarlet published by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887.It was with the publication of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, however, that the master sleuth grew tremendously in popularity, later to become one of the most beloved literary characters of all time. In this book series, the short stories comprising The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes have been amusingly illustrated using only Lego® brand minifigures and bricks. The illustrations recreate, through custom designed Lego models, the composition of the black and white drawings by Sidney Paget that accompanied the original publication of these adventures appearing in The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892.Paget's iconic illustrations are largely responsible for the popular image of Sherlock Holmes, including his deerstalker cap and Inverness cape, details never mentioned in the writings of Conan Doyle. This uniquely illustrated collection, which features some of the most famous and enjoyable cases investigated by Sherlock Holmes and his devoted friend and biographer Dr. John H. Watson, including “A scandal in Bohemia” and “The Red-Headed League”, is sure to delight Lego enthusiasts, as well as fans of the Great Detective, both old and new.
Finally, the great literary giant Sir Arthur Conan Doyle receives the scholarly Delphi Classics treatment. This comprehensive eBook offers the most complete edition possible Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works in the US. Features: * the most complete edition possible due to US copyright restrictions * annotated with concise introductions to the novels and other texts * illustrated with the original Sherlock Holmes images * images of how the books first appeared, giving your EReader a taste of the Victorian texts * ALMOST all of the Sherlock Holmes stories (due to copyright) – even the rare and unfinished THE ADVENTURE OF THE TALL MAN * the rare comic opera Conan Doyle collaborated on with Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie * ALL of the short stories and short story collections have their own unique contents tables – choose from a vast range of amazing and rare short stories * rare non-fiction texts * Conan Doyle’s historic war treatises with maps and more * scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres * features five rare plays by Conan Doyle, including SHERLOCK HOLMES - explore the Great Man's theatrical talents! * scarce non-fiction works, including the GEORGE EDALJI and OSCAR SLATER real-life crime cases that Conan Doyle helped solve! * UPDATED with rare works and stories Please visit www.delphiclassics.com for more information and to browse our exciting titles. The Sherlock Holmes Collections SHERLOCK HOLMES: AN INTRODUCTION A STUDY IN SCARLET THE SIGN OF THE 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 FIELD BAZAAR HOW WATSON LEARNT THE TRICK THE ADVENTURE OF THE TALL MAN The Sherlock Holmes Stories The Challenger Works THE LOST WORLD THE POISON BELT Historical Novels MICAH CLARKE THE WHITE COMPANY THE GREAT SHADOW THE REFUGEES RODNEY STONE UNCLE BERNAC SIR NIGEL Other Novels and Novellas THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER THE FIRM OF GIRDLESTONE THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW BEYOND THE CITY THE PARASITE THE STARK MUNRO LETTERS THE TRAGEDY OF THE KOROSKO A DUET The Short Story Collections THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR AND OTHER TALES. THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT AND OTHER TALES OF TWILIGHT AND THE UNSEEN MY FRIEND THE MURDERER AND OTHER MYSTERIES AND ADVENTURES THE GULLY OF BLUEMANSDYKE AND OTHER STORIES ROUND THE RED LAMP THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD THE ADVENTURES OF GERARD ROUND THE FIRE STORIES THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS AND OTHER TALES OF LONG AGO THE LAST GALLEY DANGER! AND OTHER STORIES TALES OF TERROR AND MYSTERY THE DEALINGS OF CAPTAIN SHARKEY AND OTHER TALES OF PIRATES THE MAN FROM ARCHANGEL AND OTHER TALES OF ADVENTURE UNCOLLECTED SHORT STORIES The Short Stories LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Opera JANE ANNIE, OR THE GOOD CONDUCT PRIZE The Plays WATERLOO SHERLOCK HOLMES THE SPECKLED BAND THE CROWN DIAMOND THE JOURNEY The Poetry SONGS OF ACTION SONGS OF THE ROAD THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH The Non Fiction THE GREAT BOER WAR THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA THROUGH THE MAGIC DOOR THE CRIME OF THE CONGO THE CASE OF MR. GEORGE EDALJI THE CASE OF MR. OSCAR SLATER THE HOLOCAUST OF MANOR PLACE THE BRAVOES OF MARKET-DRAYTON THE DEBATABLE CASE OF MRS. EMSLEY THE LOVE AFFAIR OF GEORGE VINCENT PARKER THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS VOLUMES I-VI A VISIT TO THREE FRONTS. JUNE 1916 A GLIMPSE OF THE ARMY GREAT BRITAIN AND THE NEXT WAR THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN LITERATURE THE NEW REVELATION THE VITAL MESSAGE THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
