Arthur Conan Doyle

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published late in 1893 with 1894 date. It was the second collection featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, following The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Like the first it was illustrated by Sidney Paget. The twelve stories were originally published in The Strand Magazine from December 1892 to December 1893 as The Adventures number 13 to 24. For instance, "The Final Problem" was published under the subheading "XXIV.-The Adventure of the Final Problem." Doyle determined that these would be the last Holmes stories, and intended to kill off the character in "The Final Problem". Reader demand stimulated him to write another Holmes novel in 1901-1902, The Hound of the Baskervilles, set before "The Final Problem". Next year a new series, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, begins with the aftermath of "The Final Problem", in which it is revealed that Holmes actually survived. The sequence of stories matches that of the magazine series, December 1892 to December 1893, when "The Adventure of the Naval Treaty" was published in two parts, October and November." The Adventure of Silver Blaze""The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" - not in the first edition, nor many other eds." The Adventure of the Yellow Face""The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk""The Adventure of the Gloria Scott""The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual""The Adventure of the Reigate Squire""The Adventure of the Crooked Man""The Adventure of the Resident Patient""The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter""The Adventure of the Naval Treaty""The Final Problem"The first London edition of the Memoirs in 1894 did not include "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", although all twelve stories had appeared in the Strand Magazine. The first U. S. edition included the story, but it was very quickly replaced with a revised edition that omitted it. The reasoning behind the suppression is unclear. In Britain the story was apparently removed at Doyle's request as it included adultery and so was unsuitable for younger readers. This may have also been the cause for the rapid removal of the story from the U. S. edition, and some sources state that the publishers believed the story was too scandalous for the American public. As a result, this story was not republished in the U. S. until many years later, when it was added to His Last Bow. Even today, most American editions of the canon include it with His Last Bow, while most British editions keep the story in its original place in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

The Vital Message By Arthur Conan DoyleIt has been our fate, among all the innumerable generations of mankind, to face the most frightful calamity that has ever befallen the world. There is a basic fact which cannot be denied, and should not be overlooked. For a most important deduction must immediately follow from it. That deduction is that we, who have borne the pains, shall also learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. If we do not learn it and proclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and proclaimed, since there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing and harrowing and preparation for the seed? If our souls, wearied and tortured during these dreadful five years of self-sacrifice and suspense, can show no radical changes, then what souls will ever respond to a fresh influx of heavenly inspiration? In that case the state of the human race would indeed be hopeless, and never in all the coming centuries would there be any prospect of improvement. Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind? Surely it is a superficial thinker who imagines that the great Designer of all things has set the whole planet in a ferment, and strained every nation to exhaustion, in order that this or that frontier be moved, or some fresh combination be formed in the kaleidoscope of nations. No, the causes of the convulsion, and its objects, are more profound than that. They are essentially religious, not political. They lie far deeper than the national squabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those national results may matter little, but the religious result will rule the world. That religious result is the reform of the decadent Christianity of today, its simplification, its purification, and its reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clear knowledge of what lies beyond the exit-door of death. The shock of the war was meant to rouse us to mental and moral earnestness, to give us the courage to tear away venerable shams, and to force the human race to realise and use the vast new revelation which has been so clearly stated and so abundantly proved, for all who will examine the statements and proofs with an open mind. Consider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining the record of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare with the story of the nations during the last twenty years Think of the condition of Russia during that time, with her brutal aristocracy and her drunken democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jew baitings and her corruption.

Round the Fire StoriesArthur Conan Doyle***Round the Fire Stories is a volume collecting 17 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in 1908 by Smith, Elder &amp Co. (UK), and the same year by McClure (US). As Conan Doyle wrote in his preface, this volume include stories concerned with the grotesque and with the terrible. PrefaceIn a previous volume, "The Green Flag," I have assembled a number of my stories which deal with warfare or with sport. In the present collection those have been brought together which are concerned with the grotesque and with the terrible - such tales as might well be read "round the fire" upon a winter's night. This would be my ideal atmosphere for such stories, if an author might choose his time and place as an artist does the light and hanging of his picture. However, if they have the good fortune to give pleasure to any one, at any time or place, their author will be very satisfied. ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. WlNDLESHAM, Crowborough. My friend, Lionel Dacre, lived in the Avenue de Wagram, Paris. His house was that small one, with the iron railings and grass plot in front of it, on the left-hand side as you pass down from the Arc de Triomphe. I fancy that it had been there long before the avenue was constructed, for the grey tiles were stained with lichens, and the walls were mildewed and discoloured with age. It looked a small house from the street, five windows in front, if I remember right, but it deepened into a single long chamber at the back. It was here that Dacre had that singular library of occult literature, and the fantastic curiosities which served as a hobby for himself, and an amusement for his friends. A wealthy man of refined and eccentric tastes, he had spent much of his life and fortune in gathering together what was said to be a unique private collection of Talmudic, cabalistic, and magical works, many of them of great rarity and value. His tastes leaned toward the marvellous and the monstrous, and I have heard that his experiments in the direction of the unknown have passed all the bounds of civilization and of decorum. To his English friends he never alluded to such matters, and took the tone of the student and virtuoso but a Frenchman whose tastes were of the same nature has assured me that the worst excesses of the black mass have been perpetrated in that large and lofty hall, which is lined with the shelves of his books, and the cases of his museum. Dacre's appearance was enough to show that his deep interest in these psychic matters was intellectual rather than spiritual.

Armstrong Fragment was found in the field which is called Lower Haycock, lying one mile to the westward of the village of Withyham, upon the Kent and Sussex border. It was on the 15th September last that an agricultural labourer, James Flynn, in the employment of Mathew Dodd, farmer, of the Chauntry Farm, Withyham, perceived a briar pipe lying near the footpath which skirts the hedge in Lower Haycock. A few paces farther on he picked up a pair of broken binocular glasses. Finally, among some nettles in the ditch, he caught sight of a flat, canvas-backed book, which proved to be a note-book with detachable leaves, some of which had come loose and were fluttering along the base of the hedge.

The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard By Arthur Conan DoyleBrigadier Gerard is the comedic hero of a series of 17 historical short stories, a play, and a major character in a novel by the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. By far the most entertaining of all of Doyle's characters, Brigadier Etienne Gerard is a Hussar officer in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Gerard's most notable attribute is his vanity - he is utterly convinced that he is the bravest soldier, greatest swordsman, most accomplished horseman and most gallant lover in all France. Gerard is not entirely wrong, since he displays notable bravery on many occasions, but his self-satisfaction undercuts this quite often. Obsessed with honour and glory, he is always ready with a stirring speech or a gallant remark to a lady. Conan Doyle, in making his hero a vain, and often rather uncomprehending, Frenchman, was able to satirise both the stereotypical English view of the French and - by presenting them from Gerard's baffled point of view - English manners and attitudes. Gerard tells the stories from the point of view of an old man now living in retirement in Paris. We discover that he was born in Gascony in the early 1780s (he is 25 in "How the Brigadier Captured Saragossa"). In How the Brigadier Rode to Minsk he attends a review of troops about to depart for the Crimea (1854-5), and this is the last identifiable date in his life, although The Last Adventure of the Brigadier has a still later setting, with Gerard about to return to his Gascon homeland. He first joins the 2nd Hussars - the Hussars of Chamberan - around 1799, serving as a lieutenant and junior captain. He first sees action at Marengo in Italy in 1800. He transfers to the 3rd Hussars of Conflans in 1807 as a senior captain. He speaks somewhat idiosyncratic English, having learned it from an officer of the Irish Brigade of the French Army. By 1810 he is colonel of the 2nd Hussars. He serves in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany and Russia. He is awarded the Grand-Cross of the L gion d'honneur by Napoleon in 1814. There are various discrepancies in the accounts of his life, not the least that in none of the stories except the last is he married. Conan Doyle modelled the comedic character of Gerard on a number of real-life sources from the Napoleonic era, writing in his author's preface that "readers of Marbot, de Gonneville, Coignet, de Fenezac, Bourgogne, and the other French soldiers who have recorded their reminiscences of the Napoleonic campaigns will recognise the fountain from which I have drawn the adventures of Etienne Gerard."

The Mystery of Cloomber By Arthur Conan DoyleNear their residence, Branksome, is Cloomber Hall, for many years untenanted. After a little while it is settled in by John Berthier Heatherstone, late of the Indian Army. General Heatherstone is nervous to the point of being paranoid. As the story unfolds, it becomes evident that his fears are connected with some people in India whom he has offended somehow. People hear a strange sound, like the tolling of a bell, in his presence, which seems to cause the general great discomfort. Every year his paranoia reaches its climax around the fifth of October, after which date his fears subside for a while. After some time there is a shipwreck in the bay and among the survivors are three Buddhist priests who had boarded the ship from Kurrachee. When John Fothergill West tells the general (to whose daughter Gabriel he is engaged) about the priests, he resigns himself to his fate and refuses any help from West. One night the three Buddhist priests summon General Heatherstone and Colonel Rufus Smith (who had been together with the general in India and apparently was under the same threat that was faced by the general) out of Cloomber Hall. With their psychic powers, they have a complete hold over the two erstwhile soldiers. The priests take them through the marshes to the Hole of Cree, a bottomless pit in the centre of the marsh and either throw the soldiers in or order them to jump in. The General had given his son a parcel and instructed him to hand it over to West in case of his death or disappearance. When West opens the parcel he finds a letter and some old papers. In the letter the general tells West to read the papers, which are pages from a diary that the general had kept in his days in the army of the English East India Company. As West reads the papers he understands the mystery of Cloomber. When he was in the army forty years ago, during the First Afghan War, the general was fighting against the Afridis in the passes of the Hindu-Kush. After defeating the Afridis in a battle, he chases them to a cul de sac to slaughter them. As the general was closing in on the remnants of the enemy forces, an old man emerges from a cave and stops him from killing them. The general, together with Rufus Smith, kills the old man and proceeds with the massacre. As it turns out, the old man was an arch-adept, who had reached the zenith of Buddhist priesthood. His chelas (students) vow to avenge his death. The three chelas let the general live on for forty years to prolong his misery. The sound that appeared to emanate from above the general's head was the tolling of the astral bell by the chelas to remind him that wherever he goes, he will never escape their wrath.

The country doctor had come to 221B Baker Street, the famous lodgings of Sherlock Holmes, with an eerie tale-the legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles, the devil-beast that haunted the lonely moors around the Baskervilles' ancestral home. The tale warned the descendants of that ancient family never to venture out on the moor. But Sir Charles Baskerville was now dead-and the footprints of a giant hound have been found near his body. Would the new heir of the Baskervilles meet the same dreadful fate? Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend, Dr. Watson, are faced with their most terrifying case in this wonderful classic of masterful detection and bone-chilling suspense. The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival. One of the most famous stories ever written, in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel". In 1999, it was listed as the top Holmes novel, with a perfect rating from Sherlockian scholars of 100.

”Doyle’s modesty of language conceals a profound tolerance of the human complexity”-John Le Carré “Every writer owes something to Holmes.” -T. S. Eliot Although Sherlock Holmes is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most popular character, the introduction of Professor Challenger in The Lost World offers readers one of popular fictions most offbeat characters ever penned; In this thrilling adventure story the eccentric and ornery paleontologist leads an expedition into the deep jungle of the Amazon basin in search of prehistoric creatures. in the process they are taken prisoner by a tribe of ape-men and are caught in the middle of a conflict between their captors and a local indigenous tribe. The Lost World is narrated by the unwavering young reporter Edward Malone, who yearns for a spectacular adventure in order to attract the affections of a love interest. When the journalistic opportunity arises to cover the story of the strange expedition of Professor Challenger, Malone accepts the dangerous assignment. The scientific and professional reputation of Professor Challenger had been compromised by his insistent theory that a long extinct species of prehistoric creatures was thriving deep in the Amazon. In the interest in reclaiming his credibility, Professor Challenger enlists four men, including Malone, to prove his theory. Once in the Amazon, the expedition is joined by a flank of native guides who lead the group through the dangers of the jungle and to the remote plateau, which is completely cut off from the surroundings. When the four British explorers cross on a precarious bridge, one of the local guides destroys the overpass in an act of betrayal, trapping the four men on the mysterious plateau. Professor Challenger, Malone, and the other two men set up a camp, and in very little time discover the existence of the great beasts. Gripped in the fear of the great danger of the creatures, their bad fortunes turn worse when everyone but Malone are taken as prisoners by a strange tribe of Ape-Men who also inhibit the plateau. Still in captivity, the men are caught during a violent conflict between the Ape-men and a rival faction of indigenous inhabitants, yet they also have the opportunity for escape. The Lost World is among Sir Conan Doyle’s finest achievements, a thrilling science-fiction classic that continue to captivate readers. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Lost World is both modern and readable.

”Doyle’s modesty of language conceals a profound tolerance of the human complexity”-John Le Carré “Every writer owes something to Holmes.” -T. S. Eliot Although Sherlock Holmes is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most popular character, the introduction of Professor Challenger in The Lost World offers readers one of popular fictions most offbeat characters ever penned; In this thrilling adventure story the eccentric and ornery paleontologist leads an expedition into the deep jungle of the Amazon basin in search of prehistoric creatures. in the process they are taken prisoner by a tribe of ape-men and are caught in the middle of a conflict between their captors and a local indigenous tribe. The Lost World is narrated by the unwavering young reporter Edward Malone, who yearns for a spectacular adventure in order to attract the affections of a love interest. When the journalistic opportunity arises to cover the story of the strange expedition of Professor Challenger, Malone accepts the dangerous assignment. The scientific and professional reputation of Professor Challenger had been compromised by his insistent theory that a long extinct species of prehistoric creatures was thriving deep in the Amazon. In the interest in reclaiming his credibility, Professor Challenger enlists four men, including Malone, to prove his theory. Once in the Amazon, the expedition is joined by a flank of native guides who lead the group through the dangers of the jungle and to the remote plateau, which is completely cut off from the surroundings. When the four British explorers cross on a precarious bridge, one of the local guides destroys the overpass in an act of betrayal, trapping the four men on the mysterious plateau. Professor Challenger, Malone, and the other two men set up a camp, and in very little time discover the existence of the great beasts. Gripped in the fear of the great danger of the creatures, their bad fortunes turn worse when everyone but Malone are taken as prisoners by a strange tribe of Ape-Men who also inhibit the plateau. Still in captivity, the men are caught during a violent conflict between the Ape-men and a rival faction of indigenous inhabitants, yet they also have the opportunity for escape. The Lost World is among Sir Conan Doyle’s finest achievements, a thrilling science-fiction classic that continue to captivate readers. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Lost World is both modern and readable.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleThe Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1905 collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903-1904, by Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories were published in the Strand Magazine in Great Britain, and Collier's in the United States. The book was first published in February 1905 by McClure, Phillips &amp Co. (New York) then on 7 March 1905 by Georges Newnes, Ltd. (London) and was the first Holmes collection since 1893, when Holmes had "died" in "The Final Problem". Having published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901-1902, which was set before Holmes' "death", Doyle came under intense pressure to revive his famous character. The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891-1894, a period called "The Great Hiatus" by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories." The Adventure of the Empty House""The Adventure of the Norwood Builder""The Adventure of the Dancing Men""The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist""The Adventure of the Priory School""The Adventure of Black Peter""The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton""The Adventure of the Six Napoleons""The Adventure of the Three Students""The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez""The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter""The Adventure of the Abbey Grange""The Adventure of the Second Stain"The Return of Sherlock Holmes was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 1992-3 as part of Bert Coules' complete radio adaptation of the canon, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. Notable guest stars included Denis Quilley as Bob Carruthers in "The Solitary Cyclist", Alex Norton as Cairns in "Black Peter", Peter Vaughan as Charles Augustus Milverton, Peter Sallis as Jonas Oldacre in "The Norwood Builder", and Penny Downie as Lady Brackenstall in "The Abbey Grange". The episodes were written by Bert Coules, Michael Bakewell, Roger Danes, David Ashton, Peter Ling, and Robert Forrest, and directed by Enyd Williams and Patrick Rayner.

The Sign Of The Four By Arthur Conan DoyleThe Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective. The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan. According to Mary, in December 1878, her father had telegraphed her upon his safe return from India and requested her to meet him at the Langham Hotel in London. When Mary arrived at the hotel, she was told her father had gone out the previous night and not returned. Despite all efforts, no trace was ever found of him. Mary contacted her father's only friend who was in the same regiment and had since retired to England, one Major John Sholto, but he denied knowing her father had returned. The second puzzle is that she has received six pearls in the mail from an anonymous benefactor, one per year since 1882 after answering an anonymous newspaper query inquiring for her. With the last pearl she received a letter remarking that she has been wronged and asking for a meeting. Holmes takes the case and soon discovers that Major Sholto had died in 1882 and that within a short span of time Mary began to receive the pearls, implying a connection. The only clue Mary can give Holmes is a map of a fortress found in her father's desk with the names of Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan and Dost Akbar. Holmes, Watson, and Mary meet Thaddeus Sholto, the son of the late Major Sholto and the anonymous sender of the pearls. Thaddeus confirms the Major had seen Mary's father the night he died they had arranged a meeting to divide a priceless treasure Sholto had brought home from India. While quarrelling over the treasure, Captain Morstan-long in weak health-suffered a heart attack. Not wanting to bring attention to the object of the quarrel-and also worried that circumstances would suggest that he had killed Morstan in an argument, particularly since Morstan's head struck the corner of the chest as he fell-Sholto disposed of the body and hid the treasure. However, he himself suffered from poor health and an enlarged spleen (possibly due to malaria, as a quinine bottle stands by his bed). His own health became worse when he received a letter from India in early 1882. Dying, he called his two sons and confessed to Morstan's death and was about to divulge the location of the treasure when he suddenly cried, "Keep him out " before falling back and dying.

The White Company By Arthur Conan DoyleThe White Company is a historical adventure by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, set during the Hundred Years' War. The story is set in England, France, and Spain, in the years 1366 and 1367, against the background of the campaign of Edward, the Black Prince to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile. The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of N jera. Doyle became inspired to write the novel after attending a lecture on the Middle Ages in 1889. After extensive research, The White Company was published in serialized form in 1891 in Cornhill Magazine. Additionally, the book is considered a companion to Doyle's later work Sir Nigel, which explores the early campaigns of Sir Nigel Loring and Samkin Aylward. The novel is relatively unknown today, though it was very popular up through the Second World War. In fact, Doyle himself regarded this and his other historical novels more highly than the Sherlock Holmes adventures for which he is mainly remembered. The "White Company" of the title is a free company of archers, led by one of the main characters. The name is taken from a real-life 14th-century Italian mercenary company, led by John Hawkwood. At the age of twenty, young Alleyne, son of Edric, leaves the Catholic abbey where he has been raised-intelligent, skilled, and well-liked, though sheltered and naive-and goes out to see the world, in accordance with the terms of his father's will. The same day, the abbot banishes John of Hordle for worldly behavior: great appetite, teasing, and flirting. They meet at the Pied Merlin inn as they each rest for the night. There, they make friends with veteran archer Sam Aylward who has returned to England from France to recruit for the White Company of mercenaries. Aylward has brought a request for Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch to take command of the company. Aylward and John continue to Christchurch, while Alleyne detours to visit his older brother, the socman or landlord of Minstead, whose fierce reputation has grown to wickedness. The brothers meet for the first time since Alleyne was an infant and Alleyne finds that his brother is still furious their father gave three hides of land (80-120 acres) to the monastery for the boy's support. The socman threatens a lovely maiden, Maude, who escapes with Alleyne's aid and they flee on foot to find her horse. Maude makes a striking impression on the abbey-raised young man. When she hears that Alleyne intends to rejoin his friends to approach Sir Nigel Loring, Maude laughs and leaves him. Alleyne meets up again with Aylward and Hordle John, and the three friends meet Sir Nigel and his formidable wife Mary. There, he learns that Maude is Sir Nigel's daughter. Alleyne is taken on as squire to Sir Nigel and as tutor to Maude. When the men eventually depart for France, the young couple admit their love, but only to each other. En route to Gascony, our heroes destroy pirates, then report to the court of the Prince of Wales in Bordeaux.

”Doyle’s modesty of language conceals a profound tolerance of the human complexity”-John Le Carré “Every Writer owes something to Holmes.” -T. S. EliotWhile the controversy of Psychic Photography was gripping the early 20th Century United Kingdom, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set out to investigate the most notable cases. In The Case for Spirit Photography, he aimed to defend the validity of capturing images of spirits with a camera. The spectacle of spirit photography had become popular in the late 19th Century, but by the 1920’s The Crewe Circle, an infamous English spiritualist group had become the center of a national controversy attacking spirit photography as a hoax. Doyle, a leader of the Spiritualist movement, wrote this investigation in defense of the group, and conjointly looks at other cases of supernatural incidences. As we face current public figures dismissive of empirical scientific evidence, this is a fascinating look at the intrigue of conviction. As the writer of one of fictions most colorful and abiding detectives, Doyle’s deductions in The Case for Spirit Photography are enthralling. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Case is both modern and readable.