The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader: From Sherlock Holmes to Spiritualism

by Jeffrey Meyers (Editor), Valerie Meyers (Editor)

Overview

Best known as the creator of the consulting detective par excellence Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a man of wide-ranging interests and talents, and his literary output went far beyond his Holmes and Watson stories. The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader collects works from all the genres in which he wrote, including mysteries, historical adventure tales, science fiction stories, ghost stories, plays, memoirs, essays on spiritualism (in which he was a dedicated believer) and reports on the Boer War and World War I. This collection features the account of Watson's first meeting with Holmes from A Study in Scarlet, an account of the dinosaurs inhabiting The Lost World, tales of Doyle's Napoleonic hero Brigadier Gerard, a condemnation of Belgium's exploitation of the Congo, and the complete text of his apocalyptic book The Poison Belt, in addition to several other stories and excerpts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815412021
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/08/2002
Edition description:	1ST COOPER
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 9.18(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jeffrey Meyers is the author of Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography, Gary Cooper: American Hero, and Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation. Valerie Meyers is the author of a book on Orwell's fiction and articles on Wyndham Lewis, Hemingway and Barbara Pym. The Meyers live in Berkeley, California.

Editorial Reviews

Here, in a single volume, is a first-class introduction to the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle. The introduction provides a superb critical summing up of a very complex personality and outlines some of the major aspects of his work. The addition of the selections themselves, many long out of print, makes this an essential volume: a book to gain knowledge from as well as to enjoy.

Peter Tremayne

For all the much-deserved fame and respect accorded him for his creation of the cocaine-addicted sleuth of Baker Street, it is perhaps Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s non-Holmes work which best displays the author's literary talent and virtuosity. Now, with their perceptive and thoughtful The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader, editors Jeffrey and Valerie Meyers provide a single home for an impressive cross-section of the author’s fiction and non-fiction, giving ample proof of Conan Doyle’s storytelling skills and the dizzying diversity of his ideas and styles. [Included are] Holmes mysteries, horror, science fiction and adventure yarns, historical and sporting stories, plus excerpts from some of Conan Doyle’s hard-to-find volumes of non-fiction and letters... Essential, my dear Watson, quite essential!

Peter Crowther

...readers unfamiliar with anything but the Sherlock Holmes stories will be seeking out Conan Doyle's other books after sampling some of the material collected in this handsome volume. Particularly appealing to this reader were the Errol Flynn-like escapades of Brigadier Etienne Gerard—an officer in Napoleon's army with a rather high opinion of himself—or the clever and entertaining adventures of Professor Challenger and his companions in The Lost World or the doomsday scenario as depicted in The Poison Belt.

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Collections that seek to represent the full array of an author's oeuvre delight by allowing access to little-known works yet frustrate by excluding many full-text selections. The Meyerses, who between them have written many books and articles on a wide variety of literary figures, have created a nice mix here. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes novels and for The Lost World. More obscure are his historical novels on the Middle Ages and the 17th and 18th centuries, his Napoleonic Wars adventures, his works of horror and science fiction, and his plays. Also overshadowed by Holmes are Doyle's many nonfiction works among the highlights of this volume which range from articles on the Boer War and World War I to political statements on the Congo and writings on spiritualism. Also worthy of note are the Brigadier tienne Gerard stories; an epistolary novel, The Stark Munro Letters, which is highly autobiographical; and the full text of the sequel to The Lost World, titled The Poison Belt. While this is predominantly a grouping and reprinting of Doyle's work, the Meyers's introduction is detailed, informative, and enjoyable. This reader will be well received by Doyle's fans and perhaps even earn him some new fans who never knew that he created worlds outside of Holmes. Recommended for all libraries. Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield P.L., VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Collections that seek to represent the full array of an author's oeuvre delight by allowing access to little-known works yet frustrate by excluding many full-text selections. The Meyerses, who between them have written many books and articles on a wide variety of literary figures, have created a nice mix here. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes novels and for The Lost World. More obscure are his historical novels on the Middle Ages and the 17th and 18th centuries, his Napoleonic Wars adventures, his works of horror and science fiction, and his plays. Also overshadowed by Holmes are Doyle's many nonfiction works among the highlights of this volume which range from articles on the Boer War and World War I to political statements on the Congo and writings on spiritualism. Also worthy of note are the Brigadier tienne Gerard stories; an epistolary novel, The Stark Munro Letters, which is highly autobiographical; and the full text of the sequel to The Lost World, titled The Poison Belt. While this is predominantly a grouping and reprinting of Doyle's work, the Meyers's introduction is detailed, informative, and enjoyable. This reader will be well received by Doyle's fans and perhaps even earn him some new fans who never knew that he created worlds outside of Holmes. Recommended for all libraries. Neal Wyatt, Chesterfield P.L., VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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