Arthur Conan Doyle: works, biography and interesting facts

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The world-famous literary critic, writer and poet V. V. Nabokov did not appreciate the work of Dostoevsky, he was wary of Thomas Mann and Camus, and considered Galsworthy and Dreiser mediocrity. But the works of Conan Doyle were very fond of. True, he once admitted that he read the books of the English writer in childhood, but over time their charm faded for him. Adventure stories by Conan Doyle are more popular with teenagers. But this does not mean at all that he was not able to create complex deep prose. It's just that many of Conan Doyle's works were not widely known.

The childhood of the creator of Sherlock Holmes

He was born on May 22, 1859 to an Irish Catholic family. From an early age, the boy read a lot. Already at the age of six he wrote his first work. Conan Doyle was the son of an architect who was addicted to alcohol and turned the lives of his household into hell. Unpleasant memories from childhood left their mark on both the character and the work of the writer.

In the father's house, the future master of the wordlived to be only four years old. Charles Doyle showed particular cruelty to his son. At times, she went far beyond a strict Victorian upbringing. This prompted Mary Doyle to send Arthur to a boarding school. But even before entering an educational institution, the boy spent some time in the family of his mother's acquaintances.

Charlie and Mary Doyle experienced serious financial difficulties. The reason was the inadequate behavior of the head of the family, who not only abused alcohol, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Perhaps Godder's closed school was a salvation for little Arthur.

The unloved subject of the future prose writer was mathematics. An interesting fact from the biography of our hero: he had a very difficult relationship with fellow students, the Moriarty brothers. Later, in one of his works, Conan Doyle endowed the negative character with this name, thereby taking revenge on the offenders. Now, for many fans of the writer and his famous hero Sherlock Holmes, the name Moriarty evokes only negative associations.

First literary experience

It is difficult to list all the works of Conan Doyle. The list of books by the English prose writer is quite extensive. Absolutely everything is impossible to list. Some works were not completed, others were not published by the author. Modern researchers claim that the first book was written in 1865, that is, when the author was only six years old.

Conan Doyle mentioned his debut work in his essay "Juvenalia". It is known that there were only twocharacter: tiger and traveler. The first swallowed the second, which put the young author in a difficult position. How to end the story? Arthur Conan Doyle was not a romantic, he was a realist (although he was interested in the paranormal). Therefore, he could not resurrect his hero. This book has not been completed. For many years it was kept in the family archive. It was removed from there only in 2004, and later sold at the Christie auction.

Doctor Writer

For some reason, there are many doctors among the masters of the artistic word. Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Stanislav Lem and many others. Arthur Conan Doyle, like the above authors, was lucky. After all, he was born in the middle of the XIX century. If Conan Doyle had been born fifty years earlier, he would have had to dig up corpses in a cemetery in order to practice anatomy, use alcohol instead of anesthesia, and perform many more unpleasant manipulations. Fortunately, it was in the middle of the 19th century that a huge leap forward in medicine took place on the path to progress. Doyle managed to combine his studies with the literary field.

Our hero was educated at the University of Edinburgh. In choosing a profession, a certain young doctor who rented a room in Mary Doyle's house played a significant role. By that time, my father had almost completely lost his mind. The first medical student story was published in a university magazine. This work is called "The Secret of the Sesassa Valley". It was created under the influence of Edgar Allan Poe.

Journey to the Arctic

In 1880, one of Conan Doyle's acquaintances was offeredposition as a doctor on a whaling ship. But for some reason he could not go. He proposed instead of himself the candidacy of the future creator of works about Sherlock Holmes. By this time, Arthur had passed the winter exam and was looking for a seasonal job.

To go on a long journey, he agreed with great joy. Not because of the money (they paid well on the whaling ship), but also because of his natural curiosity - a quality without which he probably would not have become a world-famous writer.

The ship was called "Hope". He sailed from Peterhead to the Norwegian Sea. A medical student and aspiring writer spent seven months in Arctic waters. Earned 50 pounds. The impressions from this trip formed the basis of the work "Captain of the Polar Star".

Literary creativity

Conan Doyle received his doctorate in 1881. For some time he was engaged in medical practice, but already in 1891 he decided to devote himself entirely to literature. In the list of works by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in the eighties, - "Notes of Stark Monroe", "Message of Hebekuk Jephson", "Gerdleston Trading House". A Study in Scarlet was written in 1886. Three years later, the writer's third novel, The Secret of Klembert, was published.

Historical prose

Thanks to Soviet films based on the works of Conan Doyle, many in our country believe that this author wrote only detective stories. His bibliography also includes historical novels. In the late eighties, Conan Doyle completed the workover the work "The Adventures of Micah Clark". The plot of this book is based on an uprising that took place in England at the end of the 17th century.

Critics believe that the writer's first serious historical novel is The White Squad. In this work, the author reflected the realities of feudal England. Rodney Stone, a novel that mentions famous personalities, including Napoleon, can also be attributed to the historical genre.

Sherlock Holmes

The first story in the omniscient detective series was published in 1891. The prototype of Sherlock Holmes is considered to be Joseph Bel, a professor of surgery who taught at the university where Conan Doyle received his medical education. This man knew how to guess to the smallest detail not only the character, but also the past of his interlocutor.

For several years, the writer wrote stories about Sherlock Holmes, but over time he began to be weary of the hero who glorified him throughout the world. Once he even tried to put an end to the brilliant detective by writing a story about the fight between Holmes and Moriarty. As you know, later the character had to be revived. By that time, he was very fond of readers. The final story in the Sherlock Holmes series was The Hound of the Baskervilles, published in 1900. This work is recognized as a classic of the detective genre.