groucho's review
4.0
A fascinating biography of ACD using a ton of material not previously made available, including huge numbers of letters he wrote to his mother. The story traces ACD's upbringing, his schooling at an impossibly strict Jesuit college, medical school and then medical practice. It was at this time - with patients "pouring in at the rate of two a week" that Doyle found time to hone his writing technique, and to develop several characters including the great Sherlock Holmes.
The latter part of the book deals with the most inexplicable part of Doyle's later life - his obsession with spiritualism. Given his medical background and the fact that he had abandoned the church quite early in his life, it seems strange that he would take so much ridicule on the chin as he led his lecture tours all over the world.
The latter part of the book deals with the most inexplicable part of Doyle's later life - his obsession with spiritualism. Given his medical background and the fact that he had abandoned the church quite early in his life, it seems strange that he would take so much ridicule on the chin as he led his lecture tours all over the world.
librarianonparade's review
5.0
As with any great literary creation, there is always the tendency to conflate the character with his creator, to expect to find traces of the former in the latter. Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle should be the primary example of the danger of this approach - since it is often hard to square Conan Doyle's creation, all cold, hard logic and rationalism, with Conan Doyle himself, with his bonhomie, affability and credulous belief in ghosts and mediums and fairies. One can only imagine what Sherlock Holmes would have made of the Cottingley Fairies saga, for example.
Conan Doyle had very much a love-hate relationship with his most famous creation; Holmes may have paid the bills, but Conan Doyle felt the public demand for more Holmes stories diverted attention from what he believed were his much-more deserving works: his historical novels and his later Spiritualism-inspired science fiction works. Those looking for great insight into Sherlock Holmes and his creation will not find it here, as perhaps befits a biography of Conan Doyle himself - Holmes has come to be more important to posterity than he ever was to his author.
But this is a thoroughly enjoyable book, portraying Conan Doyle 'warts and all' - his impoverished childhood in Edinburgh, his early years as a doctor, his adventures on an Arctic whaler, an African steamer and his role as an army surgeon in the Boer War, his emerging literary career, his friendships with many of the great names of the day - JM Barrie, Harry Houdini, Oscar Wilde and Douglas Haig, to name but a few.
Whilst it is hard to sympathise with his gullibility and unshakeable belief in messages from the hereafter; and his falling in love with another woman whilst his first wife was dying of TB, insisting that it was platonic and elevated and harming no-one, hardly casts him in an honourable light, it is never anything less than enjoyable to spend 500+ pages in the company of Russell Miller and Arthur Conan Doyle. This is biography at its best.
Conan Doyle had very much a love-hate relationship with his most famous creation; Holmes may have paid the bills, but Conan Doyle felt the public demand for more Holmes stories diverted attention from what he believed were his much-more deserving works: his historical novels and his later Spiritualism-inspired science fiction works. Those looking for great insight into Sherlock Holmes and his creation will not find it here, as perhaps befits a biography of Conan Doyle himself - Holmes has come to be more important to posterity than he ever was to his author.
But this is a thoroughly enjoyable book, portraying Conan Doyle 'warts and all' - his impoverished childhood in Edinburgh, his early years as a doctor, his adventures on an Arctic whaler, an African steamer and his role as an army surgeon in the Boer War, his emerging literary career, his friendships with many of the great names of the day - JM Barrie, Harry Houdini, Oscar Wilde and Douglas Haig, to name but a few.
Whilst it is hard to sympathise with his gullibility and unshakeable belief in messages from the hereafter; and his falling in love with another woman whilst his first wife was dying of TB, insisting that it was platonic and elevated and harming no-one, hardly casts him in an honourable light, it is never anything less than enjoyable to spend 500+ pages in the company of Russell Miller and Arthur Conan Doyle. This is biography at its best.
More...