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Of course, when the name of Arthur Conan Doyle is heard, most immediately recall the image of the famous Sherlock Holmes, who was created by one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, few people know that there was a whole confrontation between the author and the hero, fierce competition, during which the brilliant detective was mercilessly destroyed several times with a pen. Also, many readers are unaware of how varied and full of adventures Doyle's life was, how much he did for literature and society as a whole. The unusual life of a writer named Arthur Conan Doyle, interesting biography facts, dates, etc. are presented in this article.

The childhood of the future writer

Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in the family of an artist. Place of birth - Edinburgh, Scotland. Despite the fact that the Doyle family was in poverty due to the chronic alcoholism of the head of the family, the boy grew up smart and educated. The love of books was instilled from early childhood, when Arthur's mother Mary spent many hours telling the child various stories drawn from literature. A variety of interests from childhood, a lot of books read and erudition determined the further path that Arthur Conan Doyle took. A brief biography of an outstanding author is presented below.

Education and career choice

The education of the future writer was paid for by wealthy relatives. He studied first at the Jesuit school, then was transferred to Stonyhurst, where the education was quite serious and was famous for its fundamental nature. At the same time, the high quality of education did not compensate for the severity of staying in this place - cruel practices were actively practiced in the educational institution, which all children were subjected to indiscriminately.

The boarding school, despite the difficult living conditions, became exactly the place where Arthur realized his craving for the creation of literary works and his ability to do this. At that time, it was too early to talk about talent, but even then the future writer gathered around him companies of peers, eager for a new story from a talented classmate.

By the end of his college years, Doyle had achieved some recognition - he published a magazine for students and wrote many poems, which were consistently praised by students and teachers. In addition to his passion for writing, Arthur successfully mastered cricket, and then, when he moved to Germany for a while, other types of physical activity, in particular football and luge.

When he had to make a decision about what profession to get, he faced misunderstanding from members of his family. Relatives expected that the boy would follow in the footsteps of his creative ancestors, but Arthur suddenly became interested in medicine and, despite the objections of his uncle and mother, entered the Faculty of Medicine. It was there that he met the teacher of medical science Joseph Bell, who served as a prototype for creating the image of the famous Sherlock Holmes in the future. Bell, Ph.D., had a complex disposition and amazing intellectual abilities, which allowed him to accurately diagnose people by their appearance.

The Doyle family was large, and in addition to Arthur, six more children were brought up in it. By that time, there was practically no one to earn money, since the mother was completely and completely immersed in the upbringing of offspring. Therefore, the future writer studied most of the disciplines at an accelerated pace, and devoted the freed up time to part-time work as an assistant to the doctor.

Having reached the age of twenty, Arthur returns to writing attempts. Several stories come out from under his pen, some of which are accepted for publication by well-known magazines. Arthur is inspired by the opportunity to earn money through literature, and he continues to write and offer the fruits of his labor to publishers, often with great success. The first printed stories by Arthur Conan Doyle were "Sesassa Valley Secrets" and "The American's Tale".

Medical Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle: Writer and Physician

Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, family, environment, diversity and unexpected transitions from one occupation to another are very exciting. So, having received an offer in 1880 to take the position of an onboard surgeon on a ship called the Hope, Arthur sets off on a journey that lasted more than 7 months. Thanks to a new interesting experience, another story is born, called "Captain of the North Star".

The craving for adventure was mixed with a craving for creativity and a love for the profession, and after graduating from the university, Arthur Conan Doyle got a job as an on-board doctor on a ship plying between Liverpool and the West African coast. However, as attractive as the seven-month trip to the Arctic turned out to be, so repulsive was hot Africa for him. Therefore, he soon left this ship and returned to the measured work in England as a doctor.

In 1882, Arthur Conan Doyle began his first medical practice in Portsmouth. At first, due to a small number of clients, Arthur's interests shifted again towards literature, and during this period such stories as "Bloomensdyke Ravine" and "April Fools" appeared. It is in Portsmouth that Arthur meets his first great love - Elma Welden, whom he is even going to marry, but due to prolonged scandals, the couple decides to leave. All subsequent years, Arthur continues to rush between two activities - medicine and literature.

Marriage and literary breakthrough

Fateful was the request of his neighbor Pike to see one of the patients with meningitis. He turned out to be hopeless, but watching him was the reason for meeting his sister named Louise, with whom already in 1885 Arthur got married.

After the marriage, the ambitions of the aspiring writers began to grow steadily. He had few successful publications in modern magazines, he wanted to create something big and serious that would touch the hearts of readers and enter the world of literature for centuries. One such novel was A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887 and introducing Sherlock Holmes to the world for the first time. According to Doyle himself, writing a novel turned out to be easier than getting his publisher. It took almost three years to find those willing to publish the book. The fee for the first large-scale creation was only 25 pounds.

In 1887, Arthur's rebellious temper draws him into a new adventure - the study and practice of spiritualism. A new direction of interest inspires new stories, in particular about the famous detective.

Rivalry with a self-created literary hero

After A Study in Scarlet, a work called The Adventures of Micah Clark, as well as The White Squad, saw the light of day. However, Sherlock Holmes, sunk into the soul of both readers and publishers, asked to be returned to the pages. An additional impetus for continuing the story of the detective was an acquaintance with Oscar Wilde and the editor of one of the most popular magazines, who persistently persuade Doyle to continue writing about Sherlock Holmes. So on the pages of Lippincots Magazine, the "Sign of Four" appears.

In subsequent years, throwing between professions becomes even more ambitious. Artur decides to take up ophthalmology and travels to Vienna to study. However, after four months of effort, he realizes that he is not ready to master professional German and spend time in the future on a new direction in medical practice. So he returns to England and publishes several more short stories dedicated to Sherlock Holmes.

Final career choice

After a serious illness with the flu, as a result of which Doyle almost died, he decides to stop medical practice forever and devote all his time to literature, especially since the popularity of his stories and novels at that time reached its peak. So the medical biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose books were becoming more and more famous, came to an end.

The Strand publishing house asks to write another series of stories about Holmes, but Doyle, feeling tired and annoyed by the annoying hero, asks for a fee of 50 pounds in the sincere hope that the publisher will reject such terms of cooperation. However, the Strand signs a contract for the appropriate amount and receives its six stories. Readers are delighted.

Arthur Conan Doyle sold the next six stories to a publisher for £1,000. Tired of "buying" for high fees and being offended by Holmes for the fact that his more significant creations are not visible behind his back, Doyle decides to "kill" the detective beloved by everyone. While working for the Strand, Doyle writes for the theater, and this experience inspires him much more. However, Holmes' "death" did not bring him the expected satisfaction. Further attempts to create a worthy play were defeated, and Arthur seriously thought about the question, can he even create something good, except for the story of Holmes?

In the same period, Arthur Conan Doyle is fond of lecturing on the topic of literature, which are very popular.

Arthur's wife Louise was ill a lot, in connection with this, traveling with lectures had to be stopped. In search of a more favorable climate for her, they ended up in Egypt, a stay in which was remembered for a carefree game of cricket, walks in Cairo and an injury sustained by Arthur as a result of a fall from a horse.

Resurrection of Holmes, or Deal with conscience

Upon returning from England, the Doyle family is faced with financial problems due to the realized dream - building their own home. To get out of his financial predicament, Arthur Conan Doyle makes a deal with his own conscience and resurrects Sherlock Holmes in the pages of a new play, which is enthusiastically accepted by the public. Then, in many of Doyle's new works, the presence of an unloved detective is almost invisibly noticeable, with whose right to exist the writer still had to come to terms.

Late love

Arthur Conan Doyle was considered a man of high morals and principles, and there is much evidence that he never cheated on his wife. However, he could not avoid a vicious love for another girl - Jean Lekki. At the same time, despite a strong romantic attachment to her, they got married only ten years after they met, when his wife died of an illness.

Jean inspired him to new hobbies - hunting and music, and also influenced the further literary activity of the writer, whose plots became less sharp, but more sensual and deep.

War, politics, social activity

Doyle's later life was marked by participation in the Anglo-Boer War, where he went to study the war in real life, but he was an ordinary field doctor who saved the lives of soldiers not from fatal combat wounds, but from typhus and fever that raged then.

The writer's literary activity marked itself with the release of a new novel about Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, for which he received a new wave of reader love, as well as accusations of stealing ideas from his friend Fletcher Robinson. However, they have never been supported by solid evidence.

In 1902, Doyle received a knighthood, according to some sources - for his services in the Boer War, according to others - for literary achievements. In the same period, Arthur Conan Doyle made attempts to realize himself in politics, which were suppressed by rumors about his religious fanaticism.

An important direction of Doyle's social activity was participation in trial and post-trial processes as a defender of the accused. Based on the experience gained while writing stories about Sherlock Holmes, he was able to prove the innocence of several people, which made a significant contribution to the popularity of his name.

The active political and social position of Arthur Conan Doyle was expressed in the fact that he predicted many steps of the greatest powers in the framework of the First World War. Despite the fact that his opinion was perceived by many as the fruit of a writer's fantasy, most of the assumptions were justified. It is also a historically recognized fact that it was Doyle who initiated the construction of the Channel Tunnel.

New Landmarks: Occult Science, Spiritualism

In World War I, Doyle took part in a volunteer detachment and continued to make his proposals to improve the military readiness of the country's troops. As a result of the war, many people close to him were killed, including a brother, a son from his first marriage, two cousins ​​and nephews. These losses led to the return of a lively interest in spiritualism, to the promotion of which Doyle devoted the rest of his life.

The writer died on July 7, 1930 from an attack of angina pectoris, this was the end of an impressive biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, full of surprises and incredible life turns. A photo of the writer adorns one of the walls of the famous London Library, perpetuating his memory. Interest in the life of the creator of the image of Sherlock Holmes has not faded to this day. A short biography of Arthur Conan Doyle in English is regularly included in British literature textbooks.

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, in the family of an artist and architect.

After Arthur reached the age of nine, he went to boarding school Hodder, a preparatory school for Stonyhurst (a large closed Catholic school in Lancashire). Two years later, Arthur moved from Hodder to Stonyhurst. It was during those difficult years at boarding school that Arthur realized he had a talent for storytelling. In his senior year, he publishes a college magazine and writes poetry. In addition, he played sports, mainly cricket, in which he achieved good results. Thus, by 1876 he was educated and ready to face the world.

Arthur decided to take up medicine. In October 1876, Arthur became a student at the Medical University of Edinburgh. While studying, Arthur was able to meet many future famous authors such as James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson, who also attended the university. But he was most influenced by one of his teachers, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was a master of observation, logic, inference, and error detection. In the future, he served as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes.

Two years after starting his studies at the university, Doyle decides to try his hand at literature. In the spring of 1879 he writes a short story, "The Secret of the Sesassa Valley", which is published in September 1879. He sends out a few more stories. But only The American's Tale gets published in the London Society. And yet he understands that this is how he, too, can make money.

Twenty years old, in his third year at university, in 1880, a friend of Arthur offered him a position as a surgeon on the whaler Hope under the command of John Gray in the Arctic Circle. This adventure found a place in his first story concerning the sea ("Captain of the North Star"). In the autumn of 1880, Conan Doyle returned to work. In 1881 he graduated from the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master of Surgery, and began to look for work. The result of these searches was the position of a ship's doctor on the Mayuba ship, which sailed between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, and on October 22, 1881, its next voyage began.

He leaves the ship in mid-January 1882, and moves to England in Plymouth, where he works together with a certain Kallingworth, whom he met in his last years of study in Edinburgh. These first years of practice are well described in his book Stark Monroe Letters, which, in addition to describing life, presents in large numbers the author's reflections on religious issues and forecasts for the future.

Over time, disagreements arise between former classmates, after which Doyle leaves for Portsmouth (July 1882), where he opens his first practice. Initially, there were no clients, and therefore Doyle has the opportunity to devote his free time to literature. He writes several stories, which he publishes in the same 1882. During 1882-1885 Doyle was torn between literature and medicine.

On a March day in 1885, Doyle was invited to give advice on the illness of Jack Hawkins. He had meningitis and was hopeless. Arthur offered to put him in his house for constant care, but a few days later Jack died. This death made it possible to meet his sister Louise Hawkins, to whom they became engaged in April, and on August 6, 1885 they were married.

After his marriage, Doyle actively engaged in literature. One after another in the magazine "Cornhill" his stories "Message of Hebekuk Jephson", "A Gap in the Life of John Huxford", "The Ring of Thoth" are published. But stories are stories, and Doyle wants more, he wants to be noticed, and for this you need to write something more serious. And so, in 1884, he wrote the book Girdlestone Trading House. But the book did not interest publishers. In March 1886, Conan Doyle began writing a novel that brought him popularity. In April, he finishes it and sends it to Cornhill to James Payne, who in May of the same year speaks very warmly of him, but refuses to publish it, since, in his opinion, he deserves a separate publication. Doyle sends the manuscript to Arrowsmith in Bristol, and in July a negative review of the novel arrives. Arthur does not despair and sends the manuscript to Fred Warne and K0. But their romance was not interested either. Next come Messrs. Ward, Locky, and K0. They reluctantly agree, but set a number of conditions: the novel will be released no earlier than next year, the fee for it will be 25 pounds, and the author will transfer all rights to the work to the publisher. Doyle reluctantly agrees, as he wants his first novel to be given to the readers. And so, two years later, in Beaton's Christmas Weekly for 1887, the novel A Study in Scarlet was published, which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes. The novel was published as a separate edition in early 1888.

The beginning of 1887 marked the beginning of the study and research of such a concept as "life after death." Doyle continued to study this question throughout his later life.

As soon as Doyle sends A Study in Scarlet, he starts a new book, and at the end of February 1888 he finishes the novel Micah Clark. Arthur has always been drawn to historical novels. It is under their influence that Doyle writes this and a number of other historical works. Working in 1889 on a wave of positive reviews of "Micah Clark" on "The White Company", Doyle unexpectedly receives an invitation to dinner from the American editor of Lippincots Magazine to discuss writing another work about Sherlock Holmes. Arthur meets with him, and also meets Oscar Wilde and eventually agrees to their proposal. And in 1890, the "Sign of Four" appears in the American and English editions of this magazine.

The year 1890 was no less productive than the previous one. By the middle of this year, Doyle is finishing The White Company, which James Payne takes up for publication at Cornhill and declares it to be the best historical novel since Ivanhoe. In the spring of 1891, Doyle arrived in London, where he opened a practice. The practice was not successful (there were no patients), but at that time stories about Sherlock Holmes were being written for the Strand magazine.

In May 1891, Doyle falls ill with influenza and is dying for several days. When he recovered, he decided to leave the practice of medicine and devote himself to literature. Towards the end of 1891, Doyle becomes a very popular person in connection with the appearance of the sixth story about Sherlock Holmes. But after writing these six stories, the editor of the Strand in October 1891 requested six more, agreeing to any conditions on the part of the author. And Doyle requested, as it seemed to him, such an amount, 50 pounds, having heard about which the deal should not have taken place, since he no longer wanted to deal with this character. But to his great surprise, it turned out that the editors agreed. And the stories were written. Doyle begins work on The Exiles (finished in early 1892). From March to April 1892, Doyle rests in Scotland. Upon his return, he began work on The Great Shadow, which he completed by the middle of that year.

In 1892, the Strand again offered to write another series of stories about Sherlock Holmes. Doyle, in the hope that the magazine will refuse, puts up a condition - 1000 pounds and ... the magazine agrees. Doyle was already tired of his hero. After all, every time you need to come up with a new story. Therefore, when at the beginning of 1893 Doyle and his wife go on vacation to Switzerland and visit the Reichenbach Falls, he decides to put an end to this annoying hero. As a result, twenty thousand subscribers unsubscribed from the Strand magazine.

This frantic life may explain why the former doctor did not pay attention to the serious deterioration in his wife's health. And over time, he finally learns that Louise has tuberculosis (consumption). Although she was given only a few months, Doyle begins a belated departure, and he manages to delay her death by more than 10 years, from 1893 to 1906. Together with his wife, they move to Davos, located in the Alps. In Davos, Doyle is actively involved in sports, starting to write stories about Brigadier Gerard.

Due to the illness of his wife, Doyle is very burdened by constant traveling, and also by the fact that for this reason he cannot live in England. And suddenly he meets Grant Allen, who, ill like Louise, continued to live in England. Therefore, Doyle decides to sell the house in Norwood and build a luxurious mansion in Hindhead in Surrey. In the autumn of 1895, Arthur Conan Doyle travels with Louise to Egypt, and during the winter of 1896 is where he hopes for a warm climate that will be good for her. Before this trip, he is finishing the book "Rodney Stone".

In May 1896 he returned to England. Doyle continues to work on "Uncle Bernac", which was started in Egypt, but the book is difficult. At the end of 1896, he began to write "The Tragedy with" Korosko ", which was created on the basis of impressions received in Egypt. In 1897, Doyle came up with the idea to resurrect his sworn enemy Sherlock Holmes to improve his financial situation, which had deteriorated somewhat due to the high costs of building a house. At the end of 1897 he writes the play Sherlock Holmes and sends it to Beerbom Tree. But he wanted to significantly remake it for himself, and as a result, the author sent it to New York to Charles Froman, who, in turn, handed it over to William Gillet, who also wished to remake it to his liking. This time, the author waved his hand at everything and gave his consent. As a result, Holmes was married, and a new manuscript was sent to the author for approval. And in November 1899, Hitler's Sherlock Holmes was well received in Buffalo.

Conan Doyle was a man of the highest moral standards and did not cheat on Louise during their life together. However, he fell in love with Jean Lecky when he saw her on March 15, 1897. They fell in love. The only obstacle that kept Doyle from a love affair was the state of health of his wife Louise. Doyle meets Jean's parents, and in turn introduces her to his mother. Arthur and Jean often meet. Having learned that his beloved is fond of hunting and sings well, Conan Doyle also begins to get involved in hunting and learns to play the banjo. From October to December 1898, Doyle wrote the book "Duet with a Random Chorus", which tells the story of the life of an ordinary married couple.

When the Boer War began in December 1899, Conan Doyle decided to volunteer for it. He was considered unfit to serve in the army, so he goes there as a doctor. On April 2, 1900, he arrives at the scene and sets up a field hospital with 50 beds. But the number of wounded is many times greater. For several months in Africa, Doyle saw more soldiers die of fever, typhus than of war wounds. After the defeat of the Boers, Doyle sailed back to England on 11 July. About this war he wrote the book "The Great Boer War", which underwent changes until 1902.

In 1902, Doyle finished work on another major work about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes (The Hound of the Baskervilles). And almost immediately there is talk that the author of this sensational novel stole his idea from his friend journalist Fletcher Robinson. These conversations are still going on.

Doyle was knighted in 1902 for services rendered during the Boer War. Doyle continues to be weary of stories about Sherlock Holmes and Brigadier Gerard, so he writes "Sir Nigel", which, in his opinion, "is a high literary achievement."

Louise died in Doyle's arms on July 4th, 1906. After nine years of secret courtship, Conan Doyle and Jean Leckey marry on September 18, 1907.

Before the outbreak of the First World War (August 4, 1914), Doyle joins a detachment of volunteers, which was completely civilian and was created in case the enemy invaded England. During the war, Doyle lost many people close to him.

In the autumn of 1929, Doyle went on his last tour of Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. He was already sick. Arthur Conan Doyle died on Monday, July 7, 1930.

, autobiographer, librettist, screenwriter, science fiction writer, children's writer, crime writer

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Biography

Childhood and youth

Arthur Conan Doyle was born into an Irish Catholic family, noted for their accomplishments in the arts and literature. The name Conan was given to him in honor of his mother's uncle, artist and writer Michael Edward Conan (eng. Michael edward conan). Father - Charles Oltemont Doyle (1832-1893), architect and artist, on July 31, 1855, at the age of 23, he married 17-year-old Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley (1837-1920), who passionately loved books and had a great talent for storytelling. From her, Arthur inherited his interest in chivalric traditions, deeds and adventures. “A real love of literature, a penchant for writing comes from my mother, I believe,” wrote Conan Doyle in his autobiography. - "The vivid images of the stories that she told me in early childhood completely replaced in my memory the memories of specific events in my life of those years."

The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the odd behavior of his father, who not only suffered from alcoholism, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Arthur's school life was spent at the Godder Preparatory School. When the boy was nine years old, rich relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him to the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst (Lancashire) for the next seven years, from where the future writer took out a hatred of religious and class prejudice, as well as physical punishment. The few happy moments of those years for him were associated with letters to his mother: he retained the habit of describing current events to her in detail for the rest of his life. In total, about 1500 letters from Arthur Conan Doyle to his mother have been preserved: 6. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent for storytelling, gathering around him peers who listened to stories they made up on the go for hours.

They say that while studying in college, Arthur's least favorite subject was mathematics, and he pretty much got it from fellow students - the Moriarty brothers. Later, Conan Doyle's memories of his school years led to the appearance in the story "The Last Case" of Holmes, the image of the "genius of the underworld" - professor of mathematics Moriarty.

In 1876, Arthur graduated from college and returned home: the first thing he had to do was to rewrite in his name the papers of his father, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind. The writer subsequently told about the dramatic circumstances of the conclusion of Doyle Sr. in a psychiatric hospital in the story The Surgeon of Gaster Fell, 1880). Doyle chose to pursue a medical career rather than the arts (to which his family tradition predisposed him), largely under the influence of Brian C. Waller, a young doctor to whom his mother rented a room in the house. Dr. Waller was educated at the University of Edinburgh: Arthur Doyle went there for further education. Among the future writers he met here were James Barry and Robert Lewis Stevenson.

The beginning of a literary career

As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at the literary field. His first story, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Garth (his favorite authors at the time), was published by the university Chamber's Journal where the first works of Thomas Hardy appeared. In the same year, Doyle's second story "American History" (Eng. The American Tale) appeared in the magazine London Society .

From February to September 1880, Doyle spent seven months as a ship's doctor in Arctic waters aboard the whaling ship Hope (Eng. Hope - “Hope”), receiving a total of 50 pounds for his work. "I boarded this ship as a big, clumsy youth, and walked down the gangplank as a strong adult," he later wrote in his autobiography. Impressions from the Arctic journey formed the basis of the story "The Captain of the Pole Star" (Eng. Captain of the Pole-Star). Two years later, he made a similar voyage to the West Coast of Africa aboard the steamer Mayumba (eng. Mayumba), plying between Liverpool and the West coast of Africa.

Having received a university diploma and a bachelor of medicine degree in 1881, Conan Doyle took up medical practice, first jointly (with an extremely unscrupulous partner - this experience was described in Stark Munro's Notes), then individual, in Portsmouth. Finally, in 1891, Doyle decided to make literature his main profession. In January 1884 the magazine Cornhill published the story "Hebekuk Jephson's Message". During those same days, he met his future wife, Louise "Tuya" Hawkins; the wedding took place on August 6, 1885.

In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on a social-everyday novel with a crime-detective plot "Trading House Girdlestone" about cynical and cruel money-grubbers. The novel, obviously influenced by Dickens, was published in 1890.

In March 1886, Conan Doyle began - and already in April basically completed - work on the story "A Study in Crimson", originally called "A Tangled Skein" (eng. A Tangled Skein); the two main characters in the first draft of the story were named Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker. Publishing house "Ward, Locke and Co." bought the rights to "Etude" for £25 and printed it in the Christmas yearbook Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, inviting the writer's father, Charles Doyle, to illustrate the story.

In 1889, Doyle's third and perhaps most unusual major work of fiction was published - the novel The Mystery of Cloomber. The story of the "afterlife" of three vengeful Buddhist monks - the first literary evidence of the author's interest in the paranormal - subsequently made him a staunch follower of spiritualism.

Historical cycle

In February 1888, A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel The Adventures of Micah Clark, which told of the uprising of Monmouth (1685), the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was published in November and was warmly received by critics. From that moment on, a conflict arose in the creative life of Conan Doyle: on the one hand, the public and publishers demanded new works about Sherlock Holmes; on the other hand, the writer himself was increasingly striving to gain recognition as the author of serious novels (primarily historical ones), as well as plays and poems.

The first serious historical work of Conan Doyle is considered to be the novel The White Squad. In it, the author turned to a critical stage in the history of feudal England, taking as a basis a real historical episode of 1366, when a lull came in the Hundred Years' War and "white detachments" of volunteers and mercenaries began to appear. Continuing the war in France, they played a decisive role in the struggle of pretenders for the Spanish throne. Conan Doyle used this episode for his artistic purpose: he resurrected the life and customs of that time, and most importantly, presented chivalry in a heroic halo, which by that time was already in decline. "White Squad" was published in the magazine Cornhill(whose publisher James Penn declared it "the best historical novel since Ivanhoe"), and was published as a separate book in 1891. Conan Doyle has always said that he considers it one of his finest works.

With some assumption, the novel Rodney Stone (1896) can also be classified as historical: the action here takes place at the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon and Nelson, the playwright Sheridan are mentioned. Initially, this work was conceived as a play with the working title "The House of Temperley" and was written under the then famous British actor Henry Irving. In the course of working on the novel, the writer studied a lot of scientific and historical literature (“History of the Navy”, “History of Boxing”, etc.).

In 1892, the “French-Canadian” adventure novel “The Exiles” and the historical play “Waterloo” were completed, in which the leading role was played by the then-famous actor Henry Irving (who acquired all rights from the author). In the same year, Conan Doyle published the novel "Doctor Fletcher's Patient", which a number of later researchers consider as one of the author's first experiments with the detective genre. This story can be considered historical only conditionally - among the minor characters in it are Benjamin Disraeli and his wife.

Sherlock Holmes

At the time of writing The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1900, Arthur Conan Doyle was the highest paid author in world literature.

1900-1910

In 1900, Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a surgeon in a military field hospital, he went to the Boer War. The book The Anglo-Boer War, published by him in 1902, met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which the somewhat ironic nickname “Patriot” was established behind him, which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received a noble and knighthood and twice in Edinburgh took part in local elections (both times he was defeated).

On July 4, 1906, Louise Doyle died of tuberculosis, from whom the writer had two children. In 1907 he married Jean Lecky, with whom he had been secretly in love since they met in 1897.

At the end of the post-war debate, Conan Doyle launched a broad journalistic and (as they would now say) human rights activities. His attention was drawn to the so-called "Edalji case", in the center of which was a young Parsi, who was convicted on a trumped-up charge (injuring horses). Conan Doyle, taking on the "role" of a consulting detective, thoroughly understood the intricacies of the case and - with just a long series of publications in the London Daily Telegraph newspaper (but with the involvement of forensic experts) proved the innocence of his ward. Beginning in June 1907, hearings on the Edalji case began to take place in the House of Commons, during which the imperfection of the legal system, devoid of such an important tool as the court of appeal, was exposed. The latter was created in Britain - largely due to the activity of Conan Doyle.

In 1909, events in Africa again fell into the sphere of public and political interests of Conan Doyle. This time he exposed the cruel colonial policy of Belgium in the Congo and criticized the British position on this issue. Conan Doyle's letters The Times on this topic produced the effect of an exploding bomb. The book Crimes in the Congo (1909) had an equally powerful resonance: it was thanks to her that many politicians were forced to become interested in the problem. Conan Doyle was supported by Joseph Conrad and Mark Twain. But a recent like-minded Rudyard Kipling met the book with restraint, noting that, by criticizing Belgium, it indirectly undermines the British position in the colonies. In 1909, Conan Doyle also took up the defense of the Jew Oscar Slater, who was unjustly convicted of murder, and secured his release, albeit after 18 years.

Relationships with fellow writers

There were several undoubted authorities in literature for Conan Doyle: first of all, Walter Scott, on whose books he grew up, as well as George Meredith, Mine Reed, Robert Ballantyne and Robert Lewis Stevenson. The meeting with the already aged Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the novice writer: he noted for himself that the master spoke disparagingly of his contemporaries and was delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death hard, as a personal loss. Arthur Conan Doyle was greatly impressed by the storytelling style, historical descriptions and portraits in " Etudes» T. B. Macaulay :7 .

In the early 1890s, Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and staff of the magazine. The Idler Story by: Jerome K. Jerome , Robert Barr and James M. Barry . The latter, having awakened in the writer a passion for the theater, attracted him to (not very fruitful in the end) cooperation in the dramatic field.

In 1893 Doyle's sister Constance married Ernst William Hornung. Having become relatives, the writers maintained friendly relations, although they did not always see eye to eye. Hornung's protagonist, the "noble burglar" Raffles, was very reminiscent of a parody of the "noble detective" Holmes.

A. Conan Doyle also highly appreciated the works of Kipling, in which, moreover, he saw a political ally (both were fierce patriots). In 1895, he supported Kipling in disputes with American opponents and was invited to Vermont, where he lived with his American wife. Later, after Doyle's critical publications on England's African policy, relations between the two writers became cooler.

Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw was strained, who once referred to Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict who has not a single pleasant quality." There is reason to believe that the attacks on the now little-known author Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, were taken personally by the Irish playwright. In 1912, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public controversy in the pages of newspapers: the first defended the crew of the Titanic, the second condemned the behavior of the officers of the sunken liner.

1910-1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Lost World, a science fiction story (subsequently filmed many times), followed by The Poisoned Belt (1913). The main character of both works was Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time human and charming in his own way. Then the last detective story "The Valley of Terror" appeared. This work, which many critics tend to underestimate, is considered by Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr to be one of his strongest.

1914-1918

Doyle becomes even more embittered when he becomes aware of the torture that English prisoners of war were subjected to in Germany.

... It is difficult to work out a line of conduct in relation to the red-skinned Indians of European origin who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot similarly torture the Germans at our disposal. On the other hand, appeals to good-heartedness are also meaningless, because the average German has the same concept of nobility that a cow has of mathematics ... He is sincerely incapable of understanding, for example, what makes us speak warmly of von Müller of Weddingen and our other enemies who are trying to at least to some extent retain a human face ...

Doyle soon calls for the organization of "retribution raids" from the territory of eastern France and enters into a discussion with the Bishop of Winchester (the essence of whose position is that "it is not the sinner who is condemned, but his sin"): "Let the sin fall on those who force sin us. If we wage this war, guided by Christ's commandments, there will be no sense. If we, following the well-known recommendation taken out of context, turned the “second cheek”, the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread across Europe, and instead of the teachings of Christ, Nietzscheanism would be preached here, ”he wrote in The Times December 31, 1917.

In 1916, Conan Doyle traveled through British battlefield positions and visited the Allied armies. The trip resulted in the book On Three Fronts (1916). Realizing that official reports greatly embellish the real state of affairs, he nevertheless refrained from any criticism, considering it his duty to maintain the morale of the soldiers. In 1916, his work "History of the actions of the British troops in France and Flanders" began to appear. By 1920, all 6 of its volumes were published.

Brother, son and two nephews of Doyle went to the front and died there. This was a strong shock for the writer and left a heavy seal on all his subsequent literary, journalistic and social activities.

1918-1930

At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of upheavals associated with the death of loved ones, Conan Doyle became an active preacher of spiritualism, which he had been interested in since the 1880s. Among the books that shaped his new worldview was The Human Personality and Its Later Life After Bodily Death by F. W. G. Myers. The main works of Conan Doyle on this topic are considered "New Revelation" (1918), where he told about the history of the evolution of his views on the question of the posthumous existence of the individual, and the novel "The Land of Mists" (eng. The Land of Mist, 1926). The result of his many years of research on the "mental" phenomenon was the fundamental work "History of Spiritualism" (Eng. The History of Spiritualism, 1926).

Conan Doyle refuted claims that his interest in spiritualism arose only at the end of the war:

Many people did not encounter or even hear about Spiritualism until 1914, when the angel of death knocked on many houses. Opponents of Spiritualism believe that it was the social cataclysms that shook our world that caused such an increased interest in psychic research. These unprincipled opponents claimed that the author's defense of Spiritualism and his friend Sir Oliver Lodge's defense of the Teaching were explained by the fact that both of them lost sons who died in the war of 1914. From this followed the conclusion: grief clouded their minds, and they believed in what they would never have believed in peacetime. The author refuted this shameless lie many times and emphasized the fact that his research began in 1886, long before the start of the war.

English Round the Fire Stories, 1930).

In 1924, Conan Doyle's autobiographical book Memoirs and Adventures was published. The last major work of the writer was the science fiction novel The Maracot's Abyss (1929).

Last years

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Having come to England only briefly in 1929 to celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle went to Scandinavia with the same goal - to preach "... the revival of religion and that direct, practical spiritualism, which is the only antidote to scientific materialism" .

A family

In 1885, Conan Doyle married Louise "Tue" Hawkins; she suffered from tuberculosis for many years and died in 1906.

In 1907, Doyle married Jean Lecky, with whom he had been secretly in love since they met in 1897. His wife shared his passion for spiritualism and was even considered a fairly strong medium.

Doyle had five children: two by his first wife, Mary and Kingsley, and three by his second, Jean Lena Anette, Denis Percy Stuart (March 17, 1909 - March 9, 1955; in 1936 he became the husband of the Georgian princess Nina Mdivani) and Adrian ( later also a writer, author of a biography of his father and a number of works that supplement the canonical cycle of stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes).

In works of art

The life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle became an integral feature of the Victorian era, which naturally led to the emergence of works of art in which the writer acted as a character, and sometimes in a way that was very far from reality.

• In the cycle of novels by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Snigoski The Menagerie, Conan Doyle appears as "the second most powerful magician in our world."
• In the mystical novel by Mark Frost (the scriptwriter of the television series "Twin Peaks") "The List of Seven" Doyle helps the mysterious stranger Jack Sparks in the fight against the forces of evil, trying to seize power over the world.
• In a much more traditional way, the facts of the writer's life are used in the British television series “Rooms of death: Mysteries of the real Sherlock Holmes" (2000), where a young medical student Arthur Conan Doyle becomes an assistant to Professor Joseph Bell (the prototype of Sherlock Holmes) and helps him investigate crimes.
• The character Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is present in the British television series Mr. Selfridge (2013) and the Canadian mini-series Houdini (2014).
• The life and work of the writer are recreated in Julian Barnes' novel Arthur and George, where the literary father of Sherlock Holmes is investigating himself.
Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) works with PC Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddyard) to investigate murders allegedly committed by the paranormal. The series depicts Doyle's family and his return to the character of Sherlock Holmes, influenced by the events of the series.
• Arthur Conan Doyle is the main character in the 13-episode ORT television series Memories of Sherlock Holmes (2000). The series also mentions the death of Doyle's first wife, and his attempt to "kill" Holmes, and the Edalji case.

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Picardy Place. His father Charles Altamont Doyle, an artist and architect, married at the age of twenty-two Mary Foley, a young woman of seventeen, in 1855. Mary Doyle had a passion for books and was the main storyteller in the family, which is probably why Arthur later remembered her very touchingly. Unfortunately, Arthur's father was a chronic alcoholic, and therefore the family was sometimes poor, although the head of the family was, according to his son, a very talented artist. As a child, Arthur read a lot, having completely diverse interests. His favorite author was Mine Reed, and his favorite book was The Scalp Hunters.

After Arthur was nine years old, wealthy members of the Doyle family offered to pay for his education. For seven years he had to attend a Jesuit boarding school in England at Hodder, a preparatory school for Stonyhurst (a large boarding school in Lancashire). Two years later, Arthur moved from Hodder to Stonyhurst. Seven subjects were taught there: alphabet, counting, basic rules, grammar, syntax, poetry, rhetoric. The food there was quite poor and did not have a wide variety, which, nevertheless, did not affect health. Corporal punishment was severe. Arthur at that time was often exposed to them. The instrument of punishment was a piece of rubber, the size and shape of which resembled a thick galosh, with which they beat on the hands.

It was during these difficult years at boarding school that Arthur realized he had a talent for storytelling, so he was often surrounded by a collection of admiring young students listening to the amazing stories he made up to entertain them. On one of the Christmas holidays, in 1874, he went to London for three weeks, at the invitation of his relatives. There he visits: theater, zoo, circus, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. He remains very pleased with this trip and speaks warmly of his aunt Annette, his father's sister, as well as uncle Dick, with whom, later, he will not be on friendly terms, to put it mildly, due to the mismatch of views on his, Arthur, place in medicine, in particular, whether he will have to become a Catholic doctor But this is a distant future, and for now he still has to finish university
In his senior year, Arthur publishes a college magazine and writes poetry. In addition, he plays sports, mainly cricket, in which he achieves good results. He goes to Germany in Feldkirch to learn German, where he continues to play sports with passion: football, football on stilts, sledding. In the summer of 1876, Doyle goes home, but on the way he stops by Paris, where he lives with his uncle for several weeks. Thus, in 1876, he was educated and ready to meet the world, and also wished to make up for some of the shortcomings of his father, who by that time had become insane.

The traditions of the Doyle family dictated to follow an artistic career, but still Arthur decided to go into medicine. This decision was influenced by Dr. Brian Charles, a sedate young lodger whom Arthur's mother had taken in to make ends meet. This doctor was educated at the University of Edinburgh and so Arthur chose to study there as well. In October 1876, Arthur became a student at the medical university, before which he faced another problem - not getting the scholarship he deserved, which he and his family needed so much. While studying, Arthur met many future famous authors, such as James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson, who also attended the university. But he was most influenced by one of his teachers, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was a master of observation, logic, inference, and error detection. In the future, he served as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes.

While studying, Doyle tried to help his family, which consisted of seven children: Annette, Constance, Caroline, Ida, Innes and Arthur, who earned money in his spare time, through accelerated study of disciplines. He worked both as an apothecary and as an assistant to various doctors. In particular, in the early summer of 1878, Arthur was hired as an apprentice and pharmacist to a doctor from the poorest quarter of Sheffield. But three weeks later, Dr. Richadson, that was his name, parted ways with him. Arthur does not leave attempts to earn extra money while there is an opportunity, there are summer holidays, and after a while he gets to Dr. Elliot Hoare from the village of Reyton from Shronshire. This attempt turned out to be more successful, this time he worked for 4 months until October 1878, when it was necessary to start classes. This doctor treated Arthur well, and so he spent the next summer with him again, working as an assistant.

Doyle reads a lot and two years after the start of education decides to try his hand at literature. In the spring of 1879 he wrote a short story, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, which was published in the Chambers Journal in September 1879. The story comes out badly cut, which upsets Arthur, but the 3 guineas received for him inspire him to write further. He sends out a few more stories. But only The American's Tale gets published in the London Society magazine. And yet he understands that this is how he, too, can make money. His father's health deteriorates and he is committed to a psychiatric hospital. Thus, Doyle becomes the sole breadwinner for his family.

In 1880, at the age of twenty, in his third year at university, Arthur's friend, Claude Augustus Courrier, invited him to accept the position of surgeon, which he himself applied for, but could not accept for personal reasons, on the whaler "Hope" under the command of John Gray , which departed in the area of ​​the Arctic Circle. First, the Nadezhda stopped near the shores of the island of Greenland, where the brigade turned to seal hunting. The young student was appalled at the brutality of this. But at the same time, he enjoyed the camaraderie on board the ship and the subsequent whale hunt fascinated him. This adventure found a place in his first story touching the sea, the chilling tale The Captain of the Pole-star. Without much enthusiasm, Conan Doyle returned to his studies in the autumn of 1880, having sailed for a total of 7 months, earning about 50 pounds.

In 1881 he graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master of Surgery and began looking for a job, again spending the summer working for Dr. Hoare. The result of these searches was the position of a ship's doctor on the Mayuba ship, which sailed between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, and on October 22, 1881, its next voyage began.

While swimming, he found Africa as revolting as the Arctic seductive.

Therefore, he leaves the ship in mid-January 1882, and moves to England in Plymouth, where he works together with a certain Cullingworth (Arthur met him in his last courses in Edinburgh), namely from the end of spring to the beginning of summer 1882, during 6 weeks. (These first years of practice are well described in his book The Stark Munro Letters. In which, in addition to describing life, the author’s reflections on religion and forecasts for the future are presented in large numbers. One of these predictions is the possibility of building a united Europe, and also the unification of English-speaking countries around the United States.The first prediction came true not so long ago, but the second is unlikely to come true.Also, this book talks about the possible victory over diseases through their prevention.Unfortunately, the only country, in my opinion, which went to this, changed its internal structure (meaning Russia).)
Over time, disagreements arise between former classmates, after which Doyle leaves for Portsmouth (July 1882), where he opens his first practice, settling in a house for 40 pounds per annum, which began to generate income only by the end of the third year. Initially, there were no clients, and therefore Doyle has the opportunity to devote his free time to literature. He writes stories: "Bones" (Bones. The April Fool of Harvey's Sluice), Blumensdyke ravine (The Gully of Bluemansdyke), My friend killer (My Friend the Murderer), which publishes in the London Society magazine in that same 1882. Living in Portsmouth, he meets with Elma Welden, whom he promised to marry if he earns 2 pounds a week. But in 1882, after repeated quarrels, he broke up with her, and she left for Switzerland.

In order to somehow help his mother, Arthur invites his brother Innes to live with him, who brightens up the gray everyday life of a novice doctor from August 1882 to 1885 (Innes leaves to study at a boarding school in Yorkshire). During these years, our hero is torn between literature and medicine.

On a March day in 1885, Dr. Pike, his friend and neighbor, invited Doyle to consult on the illness of Jack Hawkins, the son of the widow Emily Hawkins of Gloucestershire. He had meningitis and was hopeless. Arthur offered to put him in his house for constant care, but a few days later Jack dies. This death made it possible to meet his sister Louise (or Tui) Hawkins, aged 27, to whom they became engaged in April and married on August 6, 1885. His income at that time was about 300, and hers 100 pounds a year.

After his marriage, Doyle is actively involved in literature and wants to make it his profession. It is published in Cornhill magazine. One after another, his stories come out: "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", John Huxford's Hiatus, "The Ring of Thoth". But stories are stories, and Doyle wants more, he wants to be noticed, and for this you need to write something more serious. And in 1884, he wrote the book The Firm of Girdlestone: a romance of the unromantic. But to his great regret, the book did not interest the publishers. In March 1886, Conan Doyle began writing a novel that brought him popularity. At first it was called A Tangled Skein. In April, he finishes it and sends it to Cornhill to James Payne, who in May of the same year speaks very warmly of him, but refuses to publish it, since, in his opinion, he deserves a separate publication. Thus began the ordeal of the author, who is trying to attach his offspring. Doyle sends the manuscript to Arrowsmith in Bristol, and while waiting for a response to it, he participates in political events, where he successfully speaks to an audience of thousands for the first time. Political passions fade, and in July a negative review of the novel comes. Arthur does not despair and sends the manuscript to Fred Warne and K 0 . But their romance was not interested either. Next come Messrs. Ward, Locky and K 0 . They reluctantly agree, but set a number of conditions: the novel will be released no earlier than next year, the fee for it will be 25 pounds, and the author will transfer all rights to the work to the publisher. Doyle reluctantly agrees, as he wants his first novel to be given to the readers. And so, two years later, this novel was published in Beetons Christmas Annual (Beaton's Christmas Weekly) for 1887 under the title A Study in Scarlet (A Study in Scarlet), which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes (prototypes: Professor Joseph Bell, writer Oliver Holmes) and Dr. Watson (prototype Major Wood), who soon became famous. The novel came out in a separate edition in early 1888 and was supplied with drawings by Doyle's father, Charles Doyle.

The beginning of 1887 marked the beginning of the study and research of such a concept as "life after death." Together with their friend Ball from Portsmouth, they hold a séance in which an elderly medium, whom Doyle saw for the first time in a trance, advised young Arthur not to read the book Comedyographers of the Restoration, which he was thinking about buying at that time. . What it was: an accident or a deceit, it is now difficult to say, but this event left a mark on the soul of this great man and eventually led to spiritualism, which, it must be said, was almost always accompanied by deception, in particular, the founder of this movement, Margaret Fox in 1888 confessed to the deception. This didn't happen very often, but it did happen.

As soon as Doyle sends A Study in Scarlet, he starts a new book, and at the end of February 1888 he finishes the Adventures of Micah Clarke (Micah Clarke), which does not appear until the end of February 1889 by Longman. Arthur has always been drawn to historical novels. His favorite authors were: Meredith, Stevenson and, of course, Walter Scott. It is under their influence that Doyle writes this and a number of other historical works. In 1889, working on a wave of positive reviews of "Mickey Clark" on "The White Company" (The White Company), Doyle unexpectedly receives an invitation to dinner from the American editor of Lippincots Magazine to discuss writing another story about Sherlock Holmes. Arthur meets him and also meets Oscar Wilde. As a result, Doyle agrees to their proposal. And in 1890, The Sign of Four appears in the American and English editions of this magazine.

Despite his literary success and a flourishing medical practice, the harmonious life of the Conan Doyle family, enhanced by the birth of his daughter Mary (born January 1889), was restless. 1890 was no less productive than the previous one, although it began with the death of his sister Annette. By the middle of this year he is finishing The White Company, which is taken up for publication by James Payne of Cornhill and declared to be the best historical novel since Ivanhoe. By the end of the same year, under the influence of the German microbiologist Robert Koch and even more Malcolm Robert, he decides to leave the practice in Portsmouth, and travels with his wife to Vienna, where he wants to specialize in ophthalmology in order to find work in London in the future. During this trip, Arthur's daughter Mary is staying with her grandmother. However, when faced with a specialized German language and after studying for 4 months in Vienna, he realizes that time is wasted. During his studies, he wrote The Doings of Raffles Haw, which Doyle called "not a big deal". In the spring of the same year, Doyle visits Paris and hastily returns to London, where he opens a practice on Upper Wimpole. The practice was not successful (there were no patients), but at that time short stories about Sherlock Holmes were being written for the Strand magazine. And with the help of Sidney Paget, the image of Holmes is created.

In May 1891, Doyle fell ill with influenza and was dying for several days. When he recovers, he decides to leave the practice of medicine and devote himself to literature. This takes place in August 1891. By the end of 1891, Doyle had become very popular with the appearance of the sixth Sherlock Holmes story, The Man with the Twisted Lip. But after writing these six stories, the editor of the Strand in October 1891 requested six more, agreeing to any conditions on the part of the author. Doyle names, as it seemed to him, such an amount, 50 pounds, having heard about which, the deal should not have taken place, since he no longer wanted to deal with this character. But to his great surprise, it turned out that the editors agreed. And the stories were written. Doyle begins work on The Refugees (The Refugees. A tale of two continents) (finished in early 1892) and unexpectedly receives an invitation to dinner from the magazine "Idler" (lazy), where he meets Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr, with whom subsequently became friends. Doyle continued his friendship with Barry from March to April 1892, vacationing with him in Scotland. Having been on the way to Edinburgh, Kirrimmuir, Alford. Upon his return to Norwood, he begins work on the Great Shadow (the era of Napoleon), which he finishes by the middle of that year.

In November of the same 1892, while living in Norwood, Louise gave birth to a son, whom they named Alleyn Kingely. Doyle writes the story Veteran of 1815 (A Straggler of 15). Under the influence of Robert Barr, Doyle remakes this story into a one-act play, Waterloo, which is successfully staged in many theaters (Bram Stoker bought the rights to this play.). In 1892, the Strand again offered to write another series of stories about Sherlock Holmes. Doyle, in the hope that the magazine will refuse, puts up a condition of 1,000 pounds and the magazine agrees. Doyle was already tired of his hero. After all, every time you need to come up with a new story. Therefore, when at the beginning of 1893 Doyle and his wife go on vacation to Switzerland and visit the Reichenbach Falls, he decides to put an end to this annoying hero. ( Between 1889 and 1890. Doyle is writing a three-act play, Angels of Darkness (based on the plot of A Study in Scarlet). The main character in it is Dr. Watson. Holmes is not even mentioned in it. The action takes place in the USA in San Francisco. We learn many details about his life there, as well as the fact that at the time of his marriage to Mary Morstan, he was already married! This work was not published during the author's lifetime. However, then it nevertheless came out, but it has not yet been translated into Russian!) As a result, twenty thousand subscribers unsubscribed from The Strand magazine. Now freed from a medical career and a fictional character ( The only parody of Holmes, The Field Bazaar, was written for the Edinburgh University magazine The Student to raise funds for the reconstruction of the croquet field.), which oppressed him and overshadowed what he considered more important, Conan Doyle devotes himself to more intense activities. This frantic life may explain why the former doctor did not pay attention to the serious deterioration in his wife's health. In May 1893, an operetta was staged at the Savoy Theatre. "Jane Annie, or the Prize for Good Behavior"(Jane Annie: or, the Good Conduct prize (with J. M. Barrie)). But she failed. Doyle is very worried and begins to wonder if he is capable of writing for the theater? In the summer of the same year, Arthur's sister Constance marries Ernest William Horning. And in August, together with Tui, he goes to Switzerland to give a lecture on the topic "Fiction as part of literature." He liked this and he did it more than once before, and even after that. So when, on his return from Switzerland, he was offered a lecture tour of England, he took it up with enthusiasm.

But unexpectedly, although everyone was waiting for this, Arthur's father, Charles Doyle, dies. And over time, he finally learns that Louise has tuberculosis (consumption) and again goes to Switzerland. (There he writes The Stark Munro Letters, which is published by Jerome K. Jerome in The Lazy Man.) Although Louise was given only a few months, Doyle begins a belated departure and manages to delay her death by more than 10 years, from 1893 to 1906. Together with his wife, they move to Davos, located in the Alps. In Davos, Doyle was actively involved in sports, starting to write stories about Brigadier Gerard, based mainly on the book "Reminiscences of General Marbo".

Being treated in the Alps, Tui is getting better (this happens in April 1894) and she decides to go to England for a few days to their Norwood home. And Doyle, at the suggestion of Major Pond, makes a tour of the United States reading excerpts from his works. And at the end of September 1894, together with his brother Innes, who by that time was finishing a closed school in Richmond, the Royal Military School in Woolwich, became an officer, they went on the Elba liner, Norddeylcher Lloyd, from Southchampton to America. They visited over 30 cities in the United States. His lectures were successful, but Doyle himself was very tired of them, although he received great satisfaction from this trip. By the way, it was to the American public that he first read his first story about Brigadier Gerard, "The Medal of Brigadier Gerard." At the beginning of 1895, he returned to Davos to his wife, who by that time was feeling well. At the same time, The Strand magazine began publishing the first stories from The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, and immediately the magazine's subscriber base increased.

Due to the illness of his wife, Doyle is very burdened by constant traveling, and also by the fact that for this reason he cannot live in England. And suddenly he meets Grant Allen, who, ill like Tuya, continued to live in England. So he decides to sell the house in Norwood and build a luxurious mansion in Hindhead in Surrey. In the autumn of 1895, Arthur Conan Doyle travels to Egypt with Louise and his sister Lottie, and during the winter of 1896 is where he hopes the warm climate will be good for her. Before this trip, he is finishing a book by Rodney Stone. In Egypt, he lives near Cairo, having fun with golf, tennis, billiards, horseback riding. But one day, during one of the horse rides, the horse throws him off, and even hits him in the head with a hoof. To commemorate this trip, he receives five stitches over his right eye. There, together with his family, he takes part in a trip on a steamer to the upper reaches of the Nile.

In May 1896, he returns to England to find that his new home has not yet been built. Therefore, he rents another house in "Greywood Beaches" and all further construction is under his vigilant control. Doyle continues to work on Uncle Bernac (A Memory of the Empire), which was started back in Egypt, but the book is difficult. At the end of 1896, he begins writing The Tragedy Of The Korosko, which is created on the basis of impressions received in Egypt. And by the summer of 1897, he settles in his own house in Surrey, in Undershaw, where Doyle has his own office for a long time, in which he can work quietly, and it is in it that he comes to the idea of ​​resurrecting his sworn enemy Sherlock Holmes, to improve his financial situation, which worsened somewhat due to the high costs of building a house. At the end of 1897 he wrote a play "Sherlock Holmes" and sends it to Beerbom Tree. But he wanted to significantly remake it for himself, and as a result, the author sends it to New York to Charles Froman, who, in turn, handed it over to William Gillet, who also wants to remake it to his liking. This time, the long-suffering author waved his hand at everything and gave his consent. As a result, Holmes was married, and a new manuscript was sent to Doyle for approval. And in November 1899, Hitler's Sherlock Holmes was well received in Buffalo.

In the spring of 1898, before going to Italy, he finishes three stories: The Bug Hunter, The Clock Man, The Missing Emergency Train. In the last of them, Sherlock Holmes is invisibly present.

The year 1897 was significant in that the diamond jubilee (70 years) of Queen Victoria of England was celebrated. In honor of this event, an all-imperial festival is held. In connection with this event, about two thousand soldiers of all colors, from all over the empire, are gathered in London, who on June 25 marched through London to the jubilation of the inhabitants. And on June 26, the Prince of Wales hosted a fleet parade in Spinhead: in the roadstead, in four lines, warships stretched for 30 miles. This event caused an explosion of frenzied enthusiasm, but the approach of war was already felt, although the victories of the army were not at all a wonder. On the evening of June 25, the Lyceum Theater hosted a screening of Waterloo by Conan Doyle, taken in the ecstasy of loyal feelings.

It is believed that Conan Doyle was a man of the highest moral standards, who did not cheat on Louise during their life together. However, this did not prevent him from falling, he fell in love with Jean Lecky as soon as he saw her on March 15, 1897. At the age of twenty-four, she was a strikingly beautiful woman, with blond hair and bright green eyes. Her many achievements were very unusual: she was an intellectual, a good athlete. They fell in love with each other. The only obstacle that kept Doyle from a love affair is the health of his wife Tui. Surprisingly, Jean turned out to be a smart woman and did not demand what was contrary to his knightly upbringing, but nevertheless, Doyle meets the parents of his chosen one, and she, in turn, introduces her mother, who invites Jean to stay with her. She agrees and lives for several days with her brother with Arthur's mother. A warm relationship develops between them Jean was adopted by Doyle's mother, and became his wife only 10 years later, only after Tui's death. Arthur and Jean often meet. Having learned that his beloved is fond of hunting and sings well, Conan Doyle also begins to get involved in hunting and learns to play the banjo. From October to December 1898, Doyle wrote the book Duet with an Occasional Chorus (A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus), which tells about the life of an ordinary married couple. The publication of this book was perceived ambiguously by the public, who expected something completely different from the famous writer, intrigue, adventure, and not a description of the life of Frank Cross and Maud Selby. But the author had a special affection for this particular book, which describes simply love.

As the Boer War breaks out in December 1899, Conan Doyle announces to his terrified family that he is volunteering. Having written relatively many battles, with no opportunity to test his skills as a soldier, he felt that this would be his last opportunity to credit them. Not surprisingly, he was considered unfit for military service due to his somewhat overweight and forty years of age. Therefore, he goes there as a military doctor. The sailing for Africa takes place on February 28, 1900. On April 2, 1900, he arrives at the scene and sets up a field hospital with 50 beds. But the number of wounded is many times greater. There is a shortage of drinking water, leading to an epidemic of intestinal diseases, and so instead of fighting markers, Conan Doyle had to fight a fierce battle against microbes. Up to a hundred patients died per day. And this went on for 4 weeks. Fighting followed, allowing the Boers to get the upper hand, and on July 11 Doyle sailed back to England. For several months he was in Africa, where he saw more soldiers die of fever, typhus than from war wounds. His book, The Great Boer War (under revision until 1902), a five hundred page chronicle published in October 1900, was a masterpiece of military scholarship. It was not only a report on the war, but also a highly intelligent and knowledgeable commentary on some of the organizational shortcomings of the British forces at the time. After that, he threw himself headlong into politics, running for a seat in Central Edinburgh. But he was falsely accused of being a Catholic fanatic, remembering his boarding school education by the Jesuits. So he was defeated, but he rejoiced in this more than if he had won.

In 1902, Doyle completed work on another major work about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (The Hound of the Baskervilles). And almost immediately there is talk that the author of this sensational novel stole his idea from his friend journalist Fletcher Robinson. These conversations continue to this day. (A little later, Doyle was accused of stealing the idea that formed the basis of the “Poisoned Belt” from J. Roni Sr. (the story “Mysterious Power”, 1913).)

In 1902, King Edward VII knighted Conan Doyle for services rendered to the Crown during the Boer War. Doyle continues to be weary of stories about Sherlock Holmes and Brigadier Gerard, so he writes "Sir Nigel Loring" (Sir Nigel), which, in his opinion, "is a high literary achievement" Literature, caring for Louise, wooing Jean Lecky as carefully as possible, golfing, driving cars, flying into the sky in balloons and early, archaic airplanes, wasting time on developing muscles did not bring Conan Doyle satisfaction. He again goes into politics in 1906, but this time he is defeated.

After Louise died in his arms on July 4th, 1906, Conan Doyle was depressed for many months. He is trying to help someone who is in a worse position than he is. Continuing the stories about Sherlock Holmes, he gets in touch with Scotland Yard to point out the errors of justice. This justifies a young man named George Edalji, who was convicted of slaughtering many horses and cows. Conan Doyle argues that Edalji's eyesight was so bad that he physically would not have been able to accomplish this terrible deed. The result was the release of the innocent, who managed to serve part of the term assigned to him.

After nine years of secret courtship, Conan Doyle and Jean Lecky marry in public in front of 250 guests on September 18, 1907. With their two daughters, they move to a new home called Windlesham, in Sussex. Doyle lives happily with his new wife and actively begins to work, which brings him a lot of money.

Immediately after his marriage, Doyle tries to help another convict, Oscar Slater, but fails. And only many years later, in the fall of 1928 (he was released in 1927), he ends this case with success, thanks to the help of a witness who initially slandered the convict. But, unfortunately, he broke up with Oscar himself in a bad relationship on financial grounds. This was due to the fact that it was necessary to cover Doyle's financial expenses and he suggested that Slater pay them out of the £6,000 compensation given to him for his years in prison, to which he replied that let the Justice Department pay, since it was to blame.

A few years after his marriage, Doyle puts on the stage the following works: "The Motley Ribbon", "Rodney Stone" (Rodney Stone), published under the name "House of Terperley", "Points of Fate", "Foreman Gerard". After the success of The Speckled Band, Conan Doyle wants to retire from work, but the birth of his two sons, Denis in 1909 and Adrian in 1910, prevents him from doing so. The last child, their daughter Jean, was born in 1912. In 1910, Doyle published The Crime of the Congo, a book about the atrocities committed in the Congo by the Belgians. The works he wrote about Professor Challenger (The lost world (Lost World), The Poison Belt (Poison Belt)) were no less successful than Sherlock Holmes.

In May 1914, Sir Arthur, along with Lady Conan Doyle and the children, went to inspect the National Wildlife Refuge at Jessier Park in the northern part of the Rocky Mountains (Canada). On the way, he calls in New York, where he visits two prisons: Toombs and Sing Sing, in which he examines the cells, the electric chair, and talks with prisoners. The city was found by the author to be unfavorably altered from his first visit twenty years earlier. Canada, where they spent some time, was found charming and Doyle lamented that her original grandeur would soon be gone. While in Canada, Doyle gives a number of lectures.

They arrived home a month later, probably because for a long time, Conan Doyle had been convinced of the coming war with Germany. Doyle reads Bernardi's book "Germany and the Next War" and understands the seriousness of the situation and writes a response article "England and the Next War", which appeared in the Fortnightly Review in the summer of 1913. He sends numerous articles to the newspapers about the upcoming war and military readiness for it. But his warnings were judged as fantasies. Realizing that England provides only 1/6 of itself, Doyle proposes to build a tunnel under the English Channel in order to provide himself with food in case of blockade of England by German submarines. In addition, he proposes to supply all sailors in the fleet with rubber circles (to keep their heads above the water), rubber vests. His proposal was not heeded, but after another tragedy at sea, the mass implementation of this idea began.

Before the start of the war (August 4, 1914), Doyle joined the volunteer detachment, which was completely civilian and was created in case the enemy invaded England. During the war, Doyle also makes suggestions for the protection of soldiers and offers something similar to armor, that is, shoulder pads, as well as plates that protect the most important organs. During the war, Doyle lost many people close to him, including his brother Innes, who by his death had risen to the rank of Adjutant General of the Corps and Kingsley's son from his first marriage, as well as two cousins ​​and two nephews.

On September 26, 1918, Doyle travels to the mainland to witness the battle that took place on September 28 on the French front.

After such an amazingly full and constructive life, it is difficult to understand why such a person retreated into the imaginary world of spiritualism. And yet it can be understood. The death of loved ones, the desire to “delay” their departure from everyday life at least for a short time wasn’t this the main thing in Doyle’s new faith?

Conan Doyle was a man who was not satisfied with dreams and wishes; he needed to make them come true. He was manic and did it with the same stubborn energy he showed in everything he did when he was younger. As a result, the press laughed at him, the clergy did not approve of him. But nothing could stop him. His wife does it with him. After 1918, due to his deepening involvement in the occult, Conan Doyle wrote little fiction. Their subsequent trips to America (April 1, 1922, March 1923), Australia (August 1920) and Africa, accompanied by their three daughters, were also like psychic crusades.

In 1920, chance introduced Arthur Conan Doyle to Robert Houdini, who, however, was eager to make an acquaintance while on tour in England, sending a copy of the book The Revelations of Robert Houdini as a gift, after which they began a correspondence, which resulted two weeks later to their meeting on April 14, 1920. They met at Doyle's at Windlesham in Sussex. It was very difficult for the staunch materialist Houdini to hide his true views on matters of spiritualism, but he steadfastly held on and it was this circumstance, as well as the fact that Doyle considered Houdini a medium, that allowed a friendship to arise between them that lasted several years. It is thanks to Doyle that Houdini begins to study the world of mediums more closely and realizes that in fact they are scammers.

In the spring of 1922, Doyle and his family made a trip to the United States to promote the "new doctrine", where four lectures were planned at New York's Carnegie Hall. A huge number of visitors come to the lecture due to the fact that Doyle conveys his thoughts to the audience in a simple, accessible language with a demonstration of various photographs confirming the existence of the other world. Upon Doyle's arrival in New York, Houdini invites him and his family to stay with him, but he refuses, preferring a hotel. Nevertheless, he visits Houdini's house, and after that he goes with his lectures on the Nome of England and the Midwest. In addition to lectures, Doyle visits various mediums in the United States, spiritist circles, as well as memorable places in this direction. In particular, in Washington, he meets with the family of Julius Zanzig (Julius Jorgenson, 1857 1929) and his second wife Ada, who, like his first wife, read minds from a distance; Boston, where in 1861 a certain Mumler received the first "extra" on plasticine; Rochester in the state of New York, where the home of the Fox sisters was located, where spiritualism actually came from

In June of the same year, he returns to New York and attends, at the invitation of Houdini, the annual banquet of the Society of American Magicians. On June 17-18, Houdini, together with his wife Bess, visit the Doyle couple in Atlantic City, where the first teaches Conan Doyle's children to swim, dive, and on Sunday (June 18) attends a seance organized by the Doyle family, where he receives a "message" from her mother, Cecilia Weiss. In fact, this led to the beginning of the break between Doyle and Houdini, which was discussed in New York 2 days later. And a few days later (June 24) Doyle sailed for England. Well, then, on the rise! In October 1922, Houdini published an article in the New York Sun, “It’s Pure in the Powder of Spirits,” in which he smashes the spiritualist movement to smithereens, since he studied them well enough and therefore knows what he is writing about. And in March 1923, both publish incriminating articles against each other, which leads to the final break in their relationship.

). In Russia, Doyle's works have been translated before, but this time there was some inconsistency, apparently for ideological reasons.

In 1930, already bedridden, he made his last journey. Arthur got up from his bed and went into the garden. When he was found, he was on the ground, one of his hands was squeezing it, the other was holding a white snowdrop.

Arthur Conan Doyle died on Monday, July 7, 1930, surrounded by his family. His last words before his death were addressed to his wife. He whispered, "You are wonderful." He is buried in Minstead Hampshire Cemetery.

On the grave of the writer are carved the words bequeathed by him personally:

"Do not remember me with reproach,
If carried away by the story at least a little
And a husband who has seen enough of life,
And a boy, before whom else is dear "

Name

Young years

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born into an Irish Catholic family, noted for their accomplishments in the arts and literature. Father Charles Altamont Doyle, an architect and artist, married 17-year-old Mary Foley at the age of 22, a passionate love of books and a great talent for storytelling.

From her, Arthur inherited his interest in chivalric traditions, deeds and adventures. “The real love for literature, the penchant for writing comes from me, I think, from my mother,” wrote Conan Doyle in his autobiography. “The vivid images of the stories that she told me in early childhood completely replaced in my memory the memories of specific events in my life of those years.”

The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the odd behavior of his father, who not only suffered from alcoholism, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Arthur's school life was spent at the Godder Preparatory School. When the boy was 9 years old, rich relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him to the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst (Lancashire) for the next seven years, from where the future writer took out hatred of religious and class prejudice, as well as physical punishment. The few happy moments of those years for him were associated with letters to his mother: he did not part with the habit of describing in detail to her the current events of his life for the rest of his life. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent for storytelling, gathering around him peers who listened to stories they made up on the go for hours.

As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at the literary field. His first story "The Secret of the Sesas Valley" ( The Mystery of Sasassa Valley), influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Hart (his favorite authors at the time), was published by the University Journal Chamber's Journal where the first works of Thomas Hardy appeared. In the same year, Doyle's second short story "American History" ( The American Tale) appeared in a magazine London Society.

In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on Girdlestone Trading House, a social-life novel with a crime-detective story (written under the influence of Dickens) about cynical and cruel money-grubber merchants. It was published in 1890.

A year later, Doyle's third (and perhaps most bizarre) novel, The Clumber Mystery, came out. The Mystery of Cloomber. The story of the "afterlife" of three vengeful Buddhist monks is the first literary evidence of the author's interest in the paranormal, which subsequently made him a staunch follower of spiritualism.

Historical cycle

In February 1888, A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel "Micah Clark", which told about the "Monmouth Mutiny" of 1685, the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was published in November and was warmly received by critics. From that moment on, a conflict arose in the creative life of Conan Doyle: on the one hand, the public and publishers demanded new works about Sherlock Holmes; on the other hand, the writer himself was increasingly striving to gain recognition as the author of serious novels (primarily historical ones), as well as plays and poems.

The first serious historical work of Conan Doyle is considered the novel The White Squad. In it, the author turned to a critical stage in the history of feudal England, taking as a basis a real historical episode of 1366, when a lull came in the Hundred Years War and "white detachments" of volunteers and mercenaries began to appear. Continuing the war in France, they played a decisive role in the struggle of pretenders for the Spanish throne. Conan Doyle used this episode for his artistic purpose: he resurrected the life and customs of that time, and most importantly, presented chivalry in a heroic halo, which by that time was already in decline. The White Squad was published in Cornhill magazine (whose publisher James Penn declared it "the best historical novel since Ivanhoe"), and was published as a separate book in 1891. Conan Doyle has always said that he considers it one of his best works.

With some assumption, the novel “Rodney Stone” (1896) can also be classified as historical: the action here takes place at the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon and Nelson, the playwright Sheridan are mentioned. This work was originally conceived as a play with the working title The House of Temperley and was written under the well-known British actor Henry Irving at the time. In the course of working on the novel, the writer studied a lot of scientific and historical literature (“History of the Navy”, “History of Boxing”, etc.).

In 1892, the "French-Canadian" adventure novel "The Exiles" and the historical play "Waterloo" were completed, in which the leading role was played by the then-famous actor Henry Irving (who acquired all rights from the author).

Sherlock Holmes

1900-1910

In 1900, Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a military field hospital surgeon, he went to the Boer War. The book The War in South Africa, published by him in 1902, met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which he was given the somewhat ironic nickname "Patriot", which, however, he himself was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received a noble and knighthood and twice in Edinburgh took part in local elections (both times losing).

Relationships with fellow writers

In literature, Conan Doyle had several undoubted authorities: first of all, Walter Scott, on whose books he grew up, as well as George Meredith, Mine Reed, R. M. Ballantyne and R. L. Stevenson. The meeting with the already aged Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the novice writer: he noted for himself that the master spoke disparagingly of his contemporaries and was delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death hard, as a personal loss.

In the early 90s, Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and employees of the magazine "Idler": Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr and James M. Barry. The latter, having awakened in the writer a passion for the theater, attracted him to (not very fruitful in the end) cooperation in the dramatic field.

In 1893, Doyle's sister Constance married Ernst William Hornung. Having become relatives, the writers maintained friendly relations, although they did not always see eye to eye. Hornung's protagonist, the "noble burglar" Raffles, was very reminiscent of a parody of the "noble detective" Holmes.

A. Conan Doyle highly appreciated the works of Kipling, in which, in addition, he saw a political ally (both were fierce patriots). In 1895, he supported Kipling in disputes with American opponents and was invited to Vermont, where he lived with his American wife. Later (after Doyle's critical publications on England's African policy), relations between the two writers became cooler.

Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw was strained. There is reason to believe that the attacks on the first (now little-known author) Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, were taken personally by the Irish playwright. In 1911, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public altercation in the newspapers: the first defended the crew of the Titanic, the second strongly condemned the behavior of the officers of the sunken liner.

Conan Doyle, in his article, calls on the people to express their protest in a democratic way, during the elections, noting that not only the proletariat is experiencing difficulties, but also the intelligentsia with the middle class, for whom Wells does not feel sympathy. Agreeing with Wells on the need for land reform (and even supporting the creation of farms on the sites of abandoned parks), Doyle rejects his hatred of the ruling class and concludes:

Our worker knows that he, like any other citizen, lives in accordance with certain social laws, and it is not in his interests to undermine the well-being of his state by sawing the branch on which he himself sits.. .

1910-1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Lost World, a science fiction story (subsequently filmed many times), followed by The Poison Belt (1913). The protagonist of both works was Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time human and charming in his own way. At the same time, the last detective story "Valley of Terror" appeared. A work that many critics tend to underestimate, Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr considers it one of his strongest.

The main themes of Conan Doyle's journalism in 1911-1913 were: Britain's failure at the 1912 Olympics, Prince Henry's motor race in Germany, the construction of sports facilities and preparations for the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin (which never took place). In addition, sensing the approach of war, Conan Doyle, in his newspaper speeches, called for the revival of the yeoman settlements, which could become the main force of the new motorcycle troops (Daily Express 1910: "The Yeomen of the Future"). He was also preoccupied with the urgent retraining of the British cavalry. In 1911-1913, the writer actively spoke out in favor of the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland, formulating his "imperialist" creed more than once during the discussion. .

1914-1918

Doyle becomes even more embittered when he becomes aware of the torture to which British prisoners of war were subjected in Germany.

... It is difficult to work out a line of conduct in relation to the red-skinned Indians of European origin who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot similarly torture the Germans at our disposal. On the other hand, appeals to good-heartedness are also meaningless, because the average German has the same concept of nobility that a cow has of mathematics ... He is sincerely incapable of understanding, for example, what makes us speak warmly of von Müller of Weddingen and our other enemies who are trying to at least to some extent retain a human face .... The Times, April 13, 1915.

Soon Doyle calls for the organization of "retribution raids" from the territory of eastern France and enters into a discussion with the Bishop of Winchester (the essence of whose position is that "it is not the sinner who is condemned, but his sin"):

Let sin fall on those who force us to sin. If we wage this war, guided by Christ's commandments, there will be no sense. If we, following the well-known recommendation, taken out of context, turned the “second cheek”, the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread over Europe, and instead of the teachings of Christ, Nietzscheanism would be preached here.. — The Times, December 31, 1917, "On the Benefits of Hatred."

1918-1930

At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of upheavals associated with the death of loved ones, Conan Doyle became an active preacher of spiritualism, which he had been interested in since the 80s of the XIX century. Among the books that shaped his new worldview was The Human Personality and Its Later Life After Bodily Death by H. F. Myers. The main works of K. Doyle on this topic are considered " New Revelation" (1918), where he told about the history of the evolution of his views on the question of the posthumous existence of the individual, and the novel "The Land of Mists" ("The Land of Mist", 1926). The result of his many years of research on the "psychic" phenomenon was the fundamental work "The History of Spiritualism" ("The History of Spiritualism",).

Conan Doyle refuted claims that his interest in spiritualism arose only at the end of the war:

Many people did not encounter or even hear about Spiritualism until 1914, when the angel of death knocked on many houses. Opponents of Spiritualism believe that it was the social cataclysms that shook our world that caused such an increased interest in psychic research. These unprincipled opponents claimed that the author's defense of Spiritualism and his friend Sir Oliver Lodge's defense of the Teaching were explained by the fact that both of them lost sons who died in the war of 1914. From this followed the conclusion: grief clouded their minds, and they believed in what they would never have believed in peacetime. The author refuted this shameless lie many times and emphasized the fact that his research began in 1886, long before the start of the war.. - ("History of Spiritualism", chapter 23, "Spiritualism and War")

Among the most controversial works of Conan Doyle in the early 1920s is The Apparition of the Fairies ( The Coming of the Fairies, 1921), in which he tried to prove the truth of the photographs of the Cottingley fairies and put forward his own theories regarding the nature of this phenomenon.

Family life

In 1893, the famous writer of the early 20th century, Willie Hornung, became a relative of Conan Doyle: he married his sister, Connie (Constance) Doyle.

Last years

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Having visited England only briefly in 1929 to celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle went to Scandinavia with the same goal - to preach "... the revival of religion and that direct, practical spiritualism, which is the only antidote to scientific materialism." This last trip undermined his health: he spent the next spring in bed, surrounded by loved ones. At some point, there was an improvement: the writer immediately went to London in order to demand the repeal of the laws that persecuted mediums in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior. This effort proved to be the last: in the early morning of July 7, 1930, at his home in Crowborough, Sussex, Conan Doyle died of a heart attack. He was buried near his garden house. On the tombstone, at the request of the widow, only the name of the writer, date of birth and four words were engraved: Steel True, Blade Straight("True as steel, as straight as a blade").

Some works

Sherlock Holmes

Cycle about Professor Challenger

• The Poison Belt ()
• The Land of Mists ()
• The Disintegration Machine ()
• When the World Screamed ()

Historical novels

• Micah Clark ( Micah Clarke) (), a novel about the Monmouth (Monmouth) rebellion in 17th-century England.
• big shadow ( The Great Shadow) ()
• Exiles ( The Refugees) (published, written), a novel about the Huguenots in France in the 17th century, the development of Canada by the French, Indian wars.
• Rodney Stone ( Rodney Stone) ()
• Uncle Bernac ( Uncle Bernac) (), a story about a French emigrant during the French Revolution.

Poetry

• Action songs ( Songs of Action) ()
• Songs of the Road ( Songs of the Road) ()
• (The Guards Came Through and Other Poems) ()

Dramaturgy

• Jane Annie, or the Good Behavior Prize ( Jane Annie, or the Good Conduct Prize) ()
• Duet ( A Duet. A duologue) ()
• (A Pot of Caviare) ()
• (The Speckled Band) ()
• Waterloo ( waterloo. (A drama in one act)) ()

Works in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle

Screen versions of works

• The Lost World (silent film by Harry Hoyt,