A message about Conan Doyle. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. How the son of an alcoholic became a knight of Her Majesty. Beginning of a literary career

Arthur Conan Doyle - Out of town

, children's writer, crime writer

Biography [ | ]

Childhood and youth[ | ]

Arthur Conan Doyle was born into an Irish Catholic family known for its achievements 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. Father - Charles Altemont Doyle (1832-1893), an architect and artist, on July 31, 1855, at the age of 23, married 17-year-old Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley (1837-1920), who passionately loved books and had a great talent as a storyteller. From her, Arthur inherited his interest in knightly traditions, exploits and adventures. " Real love to literature, my penchant for writing comes, I believe, from my mother,” Conan Doyle wrote in his autobiography. - “Vivid images of the stories she told me in early childhood, completely replaced in my memory memories of specific events in my life of those years.”

The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties- solely because of the strange behavior of his father, who not only suffered from alcoholism, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. School life Arthur went to preparatory school Godder. When the boy was nine years old, rich relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him to the Jesuit private college Stonyhurst (Lancashire) for the next seven years, from where future writer endured hatred of religious and class prejudices, 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 addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent as a storyteller, gathering peers around him who spent hours listening to stories made up on the go.

They say that while studying in college, Arthur's least favorite subject was mathematics, and he got it pretty bad from his fellow students - the Moriarty brothers. Conan Doyle's later memories of school years led to the appearance of the image of a “genius” in the story “Holmes’s Last Case” underworld" - Professor of Mathematics Moriarty.

In 1876, Arthur graduated from college and returned home: the first thing he had to do was rewrite his father’s papers in his name, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind. The writer subsequently spoke about the dramatic circumstances of Doyle Sr.’s imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital in the story “The Surgeon of Gaster Fell” (English: The Surgeon of Gaster Fell, 1880). Art studies (to which he was predisposed family tradition) Doyle chose a medical career - 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 to study further education. Future writers he met here included James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson.

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", created under the influence of Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Harte (his favorite authors at that time), was published by the university Chamber's Journal, where the first works of Thomas Hardy appeared. That 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, receiving a total of 50 pounds for his work. “I boarded this ship as a big, clumsy youth, and walked down the gangway as a strong, grown man,” he later wrote in his autobiography. Impressions from the Arctic journey formed the basis of the story “” (English: Captain of the Pole-Star). Two years later he made a similar voyage to the West Coast of Africa on board the Mayumba, which sailed between Liverpool and west coast Africa.

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

In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on a social and everyday novel with a crime-detective plot, “Girdleston Trading House” about cynical and cruel money-grubbing merchants. The novel, clearly influenced by Dickens, was published in 1890.

In March 1886, Conan Doyle began - and by April had largely completed - work on A Study in Scarlet (originally intended to be titled A Tangled Skin, and the two main characters were named Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker). Ward, Locke & Co bought the rights to the novel for £25 and published it in their Christmas edition. Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, inviting the writer's father Charles Doyle to illustrate the novel.

In 1889, Doyle's third (and perhaps strangest) novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, was published. The story of the “afterlife” of three vengeful Buddhist monks is the first literary evidence of the author’s interest in paranormal phenomena- subsequently made him a staunch follower of spiritualism.

Historical cycle[ | ]

Arthur Conan Doyle. 1893

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

Conan Doyle's first serious historical work 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 in 1366, when there was a lull in the Hundred Years' War and “white detachments” of volunteers and mercenaries began to emerge. Continuing the war on French territory, they played a decisive role in the struggle of contenders 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, which by that time was already in decline, in a heroic aura. "White Squad" was published in the magazine Cornhill(whose publisher James Penn declared it "the best historical novel after “Ivanhoe”), and was published as a separate book in 1891. Conan Doyle always said that he considered it one of his best works.

With some allowance, the novel “Rodney Stone” (1896) can also be classified as historical: the action here takes place in early XIX century, Napoleon and Nelson, playwright Sheridan are mentioned. Initially, this work was conceived as a play with the working title “House of Temperley” and was written under the famous British actor Henry Irving at that time. While 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 “Waterloo” and the historical play “Waterloo” were completed. main role in which the famous actor Henry Irving played in those years (who acquired all rights from the author). In the same year, Conan Doyle published the story “,” which a number of later researchers consider as one of the author’s first experiments with detective genre. This story can be considered historical only conditionally - among minor characters it features 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 field hospital surgeon he went to the Boer War. The book he published in 1902, “The Anglo-Boer War,” met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which he acquired the somewhat ironic nickname “Patriot,” which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received the title of nobility and knighthood and twice took part in local elections in Edinburgh (both times he was defeated).

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

At the end of the post-war debate, Conan Doyle launched extensive journalistic and (as they would say now) human rights activities. His attention was drawn to the so-called "Edalji case", which centered on a young Parsi who was convicted on trumped-up charges (of mutilating 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 his charge’s innocence. Beginning in June 1907, hearings on the Edalji case began in the House of Commons, during which the imperfections of the legal system, deprived of such an important instrument as the court of appeal, were exposed. The latter was created in Britain - largely thanks to the activity of Conan Doyle.

Conan Doyle's house in South Norwood (London)

In 1909, events in Africa again came into Conan Doyle's sphere of public and political interests. This time he exposed Belgium's brutal colonial policy in the Congo and criticized the British position on this issue. Conan Doyle's letters The Times this topic had the effect of a bomb exploding. The book "Crimes in the Congo" (1909) had the same 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 Rudyard Kipling, a recent like-minded person, greeted the book with restraint, noting that, while criticizing Belgium, it indirectly undermined British positions in the colonies. In 1909, Conan Doyle also became involved in the defense of the Jew Oscar Slater, who was unjustly convicted of murder, and achieved his release, albeit after 18 years.

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, Mayne Reid, Robert Ballantyne and Robert Louis Stevenson. The meeting with the already elderly Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the aspiring writer: he noted to himself that the master spoke disparagingly about his contemporaries and was delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death seriously, as a personal loss.

In the early 1890s, Conan Doyle established friendly relations with managers and staff of the magazine The Idler: Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr and James M. Barry. The latter, having awakened in the writer a passion for theater, attracted him to (ultimately not very fruitful) collaboration in the dramaturgical 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. Main character Hornunga, Raffles' "noble burglar," closely resembled a parody of Holmes's "noble detective."

A. Conan Doyle also highly appreciated the works of Kipling, in whom, 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 policies in Africa, relations between the two writers became cooler.

Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw was strained, who once described Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict without a single pleasant quality." There is reason to believe that the Irish playwright took the attacks of the former against the now little-known author Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, personally. In 1912, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public debate on 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 [ | ]

Arthur Conan Doyle. 1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published the science fiction story “The Lost World” (subsequently filmed more than once), followed by “The Poison Belt” (1913). The main character of both works was Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time humane and charming in his own way. At the same time, the last detective story, “The Valley of Horror,” 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 develop a line of conduct regarding the Red Indians European descent who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot torture the Germans at our disposal in the same way. On the other hand, calls for good-heartedness are also meaningless, for the average German has the same concept of nobility as 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 at least to some extent preserve a human face...

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 to be 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 point. If we, following a well-known recommendation taken out of context, had turned the “other cheek,” the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread across Europe, and instead of the teachings of Christ, Nietzscheanism would have been preached here,” he wrote in The Times December 31, 1917.

In 1916, Conan Doyle toured British battlefields and visited the Allied armies. The result of the trip was the book “On Three Fronts” (1916). Realizing that official reports significantly embellished 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 “The History of the Actions of British Troops in France and Flanders” began to be published. By 1920, all 6 of its volumes were published.

Doyle's brother, son and two nephews went to the front and died there. This was a great shock for the writer and left a heavy mark on all his further literary, journalistic and social activities.

1918-1930 [ | ]

At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of shocks 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 “ Human personality and her future life after bodily death" by F. W. G. Myers. Conan Doyle's main works on this topic are considered to be “A New Revelation” (1918), where he talked about the history of the evolution of his views on the question of the posthumous existence of the individual, and the novel “” (eng. The Land of Mist, 1926). The result of his many years of research into the “psychic” phenomenon was the fundamental work “The History of Spiritualism” (English: The History of Spiritualism, 1926).

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

Many people had not encountered Spiritualism or even heard of it until 1914, when the angel of death came knocking on many homes. 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 stated that the author's advocacy of Spiritualism and his friend Sir Oliver Lodge's defense of the Doctrine was due to the fact that both of them had lost sons in the 1914 war. The conclusion followed from this: grief darkened their minds, and they believed in what they would never have believed in peacetime. The author has refuted this shameless lie many times and emphasized the fact that his research began in 1886, long before the outbreak of the war.

Arthur Conan Doyle's grave at Minstead

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, visiting all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activities. 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: spring next year he spent in bed surrounded by loved ones.

At some point, there was an improvement: the writer immediately went to London to, in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior, demand the abolition of laws that persecuted mediums | ]

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

In 1907, Doyle married Jean Leckie, 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 rather powerful medium.

Doyle had five children: two from his first wife - Mary and Kingsley, and three from his second - Jean Lena Annette, Denis Percy Stewart (17 March 1909 - 9 March 1955; in 1936 he became the husband of the Georgian princess Nina Mdivani) and Adrian ( subsequently also a writer, author of a biography of his father and a number of works complementing the canonical cycle of short stories and tales about Sherlock Holmes).

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

Participation in Freemasonry[ | ]

On January 26, 1887, he was initiated into the Phoenix Masonic Lodge No. 257 in Southsea. He resigned from the lodge in 1889, but returned to it in 1902, only to retire again in 1911. diary entries, drafts and manuscripts of the writer’s unpublished works. The cost of the find was about 2 million pounds sterling.

Film adaptations of works[ | ]

The vast majority of film adaptations of the writer’s work are dedicated to Sherlock Holmes. Other works of Arthur Conan Doyle were also filmed.

In works of art[ | ]

The life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle have become an integral feature victorian era, which naturally led to the emergence works of art, in which the writer acted as a character, and sometimes in an image very far from reality.

Death Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes" (eng. Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, 2000), where young medical student Arthur Conan Doyle becomes an assistant to Professor Joseph Bell (the prototype of Sherlock Holmes) and helps him solve crimes.

The character Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appears in the British TV series Mr Selfridge and the Canadian mini-series Houdini.

The writer's life and work are recreated in Julian Barnes' novel Arthur and George, where literary father Sherlock Holmes himself is leading the investigation.

The episode of Conan Doyle's meeting with Oscar Wilde is played out in the novel "White Fire" Lincoln Child (Michael Weston) together with Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard) 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.

155 years ago, on May 22, 1859, in the family of an Irish alcoholic, a descendant of kings Henry III And Edward III, there was an addition. The baby will be destined to become an ophthalmologist, a whaler, an organizer of ski resorts in Davos, an expert in the occult sciences, a virtuoso in playing the banjo and a knight. The newborn was baptized with the name Ignatius.

Subsequently he will prefer to be called differently. Name Arthur was inherited by him. Second name, archaic Conan, he took it in honor of his father's uncle. Surname Doyle was considered one of the most ancient and venerable in Ireland and Scotland. Now she is also the most famous.

Author of the bulletproof vest

An incredible thing: almost the most important character in the books in the “Library for School and Youth” series was a drunkard, a drug addict, a dubious businessman and a heavy smoker. Who is this? Let me! After all, this is exactly what “Mr. Cherlock Holmtz” is, as the “leading British detective” was called in Russian pre-revolutionary translations. He doesn’t let the pipe out of his mouth, he regularly chokes on morphine and cocaine, and whiskey, port wine and sherry brandy sneak in even in sterile Soviet film adaptations.

Does anyone remember Sir Nigel Loring? Or a character with more than strange name Micah Clark? Hardly. But Sherlock Holmes is always with us. Even in pioneer camps. Andrey Makarevich in his memoirs he wrote: “Most often in” scary stories"Before going to bed, they talked about the adventures of a man named Sherlokhomts."

• © www.globallookpress.com
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1892
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1894
• © Flickr.com / Arturo Espinosa
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini. Work no later than 1930.
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1911
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1921

Meanwhile, if we believe the “serious” critics, it is Nigel Loring who we should remember. Because the work “The White Company”, the main character of which is this particular sir, was once called “the best historical novel in England, surpassing even “Ivanhoe” Walter Scott».

Micah Clark is not remembered at all. And completely in vain. This character is worthy kind words if only for the reason that Conan Doyle, in the novel about his adventures, sang in every possible way “light bulletproof chest armor.” During the First World War, the writer will remember this idea and begin to push it in the press. The result is a bulletproof vest that has saved many lives in our time.

“Yes, yes, of course,” answered our classic. — We also remember Professor Challenger from “ The Lost World", and foreman Gerard. But only Sherlock Holmes became a hero for our children!

And, as if in retaliation for the rebuke, Chukovsky later nailed Doyle:

- He was not a great writer...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1922 Photo: flickr.com / Boston Public Library

School Moriarty

Maybe he wasn't. However, the name Sherlock remained indelible on the tablets of history. And recognizable. And in the biographies of the author Holmes, every little detail is now carefully preserved. And the fact that in college little Arthur’s least favorite subject was mathematics—eternal colas. And the fact that in this very college he was terribly pestered by Italian immigrants, the Moriarty brothers. An excellent lesson for those who make hard labor out of their studies. And also to those who poison their comrades. Because this is exactly how the “genius of the criminal world, mathematics professor Moriarty” was born. Before the appearance Hitler he was an example of the “cruelest villain” of all times and peoples.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a field hospital during the Boer War. work not earlier than 1899. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

It is believed that the biography of a writer is his books. In the case of Sir Ignat this is not entirely true. How many writers voluntarily went to the front? And Conan Doyle, at the very beginning of the Boer War, already a forty-year-old world-famous writer, asked to go to the front line. And not just anywhere, but to South Africa.

They refuse him. And then he goes to hell at his own expense. And with his own fees, including those from the boring, hated “Mr. Holmes,” he organizes an exemplary field hospital. By the way, it is for these military works, and not at all for literature, that Arthur Conan Doyle receives a knighthood and the Order of the British Empire.

Returning from the war, Sir Doyle remains the talk of the town. Is it a joke - in your fifties, to be the strongest amateur boxer in the British Empire? And at the same time master racing cars? And draw airplane diagrams? And put forward a proposal to build a Channel Tunnel?

Then his hobbies seemed fantastic. But let's remember. The Channel Tunnel has been built after all. Even if not according to Conan Doyle's design, it was built. We now easily fly on vacation on airplanes with fantastic swept wings. But even at the dawn of aviation, it was he who proposed this wing shape.

And there remains the brilliant drug-addicted detective who never uttered the phrase “Well, this is elementary, Watson!” We owe this expression actor Vasily Livanov, who can also be called “sir”.

By the way, it’s quite official - everyone who has been awarded the Order of the British Empire is supposed to be called that way. And the Russian Holmes and the Russian Watson performed Vitaly Solomina recognized as the best in Europe. Not in all of Europe, however, but only on the continent. Well. The British traditionally do not recognize water mixers, right-hand traffic and other intricacies. They don’t really admit it either real feats one of his most illustrious sons. At least we will remember.

In the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh on Picardy Place.

As a child, Arthur read a lot, having completely varied interests. His favorite author was Myne Reed and his favorite book was Scalp Hunters.

After Arthur reached the age of nine, wealthy members of the Doyle family offered to pay for his education. Two years later he went to boarding school at Stonyhurst. Seven subjects were taught there: the alphabet, counting, basic rules, grammar, syntax, poetry, and rhetoric.

During his final year, Arthur edited the college magazine and wrote poetry. In addition, he was involved in sports, mainly cricket, in which he achieved good results. Then he went to Germany to Feldkirch to teach German, where he continued to play sports with passion: football, stilt football, sledding. In the summer of 1876, Doyle returned home.

In October 1876 he became a student at the medical university. While studying, Arthur met many future famous authors, such as James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson, who also attended the university. But his greatest influence was 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 by earning money in his free time from studying. He worked both as a pharmacist and as an assistant to various doctors.

Two years after the start of his education, Doyle decided to try his hand at literature. In the spring of 1879 he wrote short story"The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", which was published in the Chamber's Journal in September 1879.

During this time, his father's health deteriorated and he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Thus, Doyle became the sole breadwinner for his family.

In 1880, Arthur received a position as a surgeon on the whaler Nadezhda under the command of John Gray, which was sailing to the Arctic Circle. This adventure found a place in his story “Captain of the Polar Star.”

In the fall of 1880, Conan Doyle returned to university studies.

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 a place to work. The result of these searches was the position of ship's doctor on the ship "Mayuba", which sailed between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, and on October 22, 1881, its next voyage began.

In July 1882, Doyle left for Portsmouth, where he opened his first practice. Initially there were no clients, and Doyle had the opportunity to devote his free time literature. He wrote the stories “Bones”, “Bloomensdyke Gully”, “My Friend the Murderer”, which he published in the magazine “London Society” in the same 1882.

On August 6, 1885, Doyle married twenty-seven-year-old Louisa Hawkins. After his marriage, Doyle decided to pursue literature professionally.

In 1884 he wrote the book " Trading house Girdlestones." But the book did not interest publishers. In March 1886, Conan Doyle began writing a novel that would catapult him to popularity. It was originally called A Tangled Skein. Two years later the novel was published in Beaton's Christmas Weekly for 1887 under the title A Study in purple tones", which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The novel was published as a separate edition in early 1888 and was accompanied by drawings by Doyle’s father, Charles Doyle.

In February 1888, Doyle wrote the novel The Adventures of Micah Clark, which was published in February 1889 by Longman.

In January 1889, the Doyle couple had a daughter, Mary. Doyle left his practice in Portsmouth and went with his wife to Vienna, where he wanted to specialize in ophthalmology. Four months later, the Doyle couple returned to London, where Arthur opened his practice. At this time he began to write short stories about Sherlock Holmes.

In May 1891, Doyle decided to leave medical practice forever. At the end of the same year, his sixth story about Sherlock Holmes was published. At the same time, the editors of the Strand magazine ordered Doyle six more stories.

In 1892, Doyle wrote the novel Exiles. In November of the same year, his son was born, who was named Alleyn Kingeley.
At this time, Strand magazine again proposed writing a series of stories about Sherlock Holmes. Doyle set a condition - 1000 pounds for stories, and the magazine agreed to this amount.

From 1892 to 1896, Arthur traveled widely around the world with his family, while also working: during this time he lectured at various universities and began work on the novel Uncle Barnack. In May 1896 he returned to England. At the end of 1897 he wrote his first theatrical play, Sherlock Holmes.

In December 1899, the Boer War began, and Doyle volunteered there as a military doctor. Then, in 1902, he wrote the book The Great Boer War.

In 1902 by King Edward VII Conan Doyle was awarded a knighthood for services rendered to the crown during the Boer War.
Doyle then decided to enter politics and took part in local elections in Edinburgh, but was defeated. At the same time, he completed work on another major work about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes - “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

On July 4, 1906, his wife Louise died, and on September 18, 1907, Doyle married again - to Jean Leckie. The Doyle family had a daughter, Jean, and sons, Denis and Adrian.

A few years after his marriage, Doyle staged The Speckled Band, Rodney Stone (under the title The House of Terperley), Glasses of Destiny, and Brigadier Gerard.

On August 4, 1914, Doyle joined a volunteer detachment, which was entirely civilian and was created in the event of an enemy invasion of England. During the First World War, Doyle lost many people close to him, including his brother Innes, who at 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.

IN last years During his life, Doyle became interested in the teachings of spiritualism and in the spring of 1922, together with his family, he went on a trip to America to promote this teaching. During the trip, he gave four lectures at New York's Carnegie Hall. In the spring of 1923, Doyle embarked on his second tour of America, where he visited Chicago and Salt Lake City. In the autumn of 1929 he went on his last tour to Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Also in 1929, it was published last book The Maracot Deep and Other Stories.
On July 7, 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle died.

The material was prepared based on information open sources

, 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 known for its achievements 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. Father - Charles Altemont Doyle (1832-1893), an architect and artist, on July 31, 1855, at the age of 23, married 17-year-old Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley (1837-1920), who passionately loved books and had a great talent as a storyteller. From her, Arthur inherited his interest in knightly traditions, exploits and adventures. “My true love for literature, my penchant for writing, I believe, comes from my mother,” Conan Doyle wrote in his autobiography. - “Vivid images of the stories that she told me in early childhood completely replaced in my memory memories of specific events in my life of those years.”

The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the strange behavior of his father, who not only suffered from alcoholism, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Arthur's school life was spent at Godder Preparatory School. When the boy was nine years old, wealthy relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him for the next seven years to the Jesuit private college Stonyhurst (Lancashire), from where the future writer suffered 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 1,500 letters from Arthur Conan Doyle to his mother have survived:6. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent as a storyteller, gathering peers around him who spent hours listening to stories made up on the go.

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

In 1876, Arthur graduated from college and returned home: the first thing he had to do was rewrite his father’s papers in his name, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind. The writer subsequently spoke about the dramatic circumstances of Doyle Sr.’s imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital in the story “The Surgeon of Gaster Fell” (English: The Surgeon of Gaster Fell, 1880). Doyle chose a medical career over art (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 to receive further education. Among the future writers he met here were James Barry and Robert Lewis Stevenson.

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", created under the influence of Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Harte (his favorite authors at that time), was published by the university Chamber's Journal, where Thomas Hardy's first works appeared. That same year, Doyle's second story, "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, receiving a total of 50 pounds for his work. “I boarded this ship as a big, clumsy youth, and walked down the gangway as a strong, grown man,” he later wrote in his autobiography. Impressions from the Arctic journey formed the basis of the story “Captain” North Star“” (eng. Captain of the Pole-Star). Two years later, he made a similar voyage to the West Coast of Africa on board the Mayumba, which sailed between Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa.

Having received a university diploma and a bachelor's degree in medicine in 1881, Conan Doyle began practicing medicine, first jointly (with an extremely unscrupulous partner - this experience was described in The Notes of Stark Munro), then individually, in Portsmouth. Finally, in 1891, Doyle decided to make literature his main profession. In January 1884 the magazine Cornhill published the story "The Message of Hebekuk Jephson." 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 and everyday novel with a crime-detective plot, “Girdleston Trading House” about cynical and cruel money-grubbing merchants. The novel, clearly 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 Scarlet,” originally titled “A Tangled Skein”; two main characters in draft The story's names were Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker. Published by Ward, Locke and Co. bought the rights to the Study for £25 and published it in the Christmas annual 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 paranormal phenomena - 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 the story of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was released in November and was warmly received by critics. From this moment on, a conflict arose in Conan Doyle's creative life: on the one hand, the public and publishers demanded new works about Sherlock Holmes; on the other hand, the writer himself increasingly sought to gain recognition as the author of serious novels (primarily historical ones), as well as plays and poems.

Conan Doyle's first serious historical work is considered to be the novel "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 there was a lull in the Hundred Years’ War and “white detachments” of volunteers and mercenaries began to emerge. Continuing the war on French territory, they played a decisive role in the struggle of contenders for the Spanish throne. Conan Doyle used this episode for his own artistic purpose: he resurrected the life and customs of that time, and most importantly, presented knighthood, which by that time was already in decline, in a heroic aura. “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 always said that he considered it one of his best works.

With some allowance, 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, playwright Sheridan are mentioned. Initially, this work was conceived as a play with the working title “House of Temperley” and was written under the famous British actor Henry Irving at that time. While 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 “Exiles” and the historical play “Waterloo” were completed, in which the main 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 story “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 it contains 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 field hospital surgeon, he went to the Boer War. The book he published in 1902, “The Anglo-Boer War,” met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which he acquired the somewhat ironic nickname “Patriot,” which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received the title of nobility and knighthood and twice took part in local elections in Edinburgh (both times he was defeated).

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

At the end of the post-war debate, Conan Doyle launched extensive journalistic and (as they would say now) human rights activities. His attention was drawn to the so-called “Edalji case,” which centered on a young Parsi who was convicted on trumped-up charges (of mutilating 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 his charge’s innocence. Beginning in June 1907, hearings on the Edalji case began to be held in the House of Commons, during which the imperfections of the legal system, deprived of such an important instrument as the court of appeal, were exposed. The latter was created in Britain - largely thanks to the activity of Conan Doyle.

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

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 Reid, Robert Ballantyne and Robert Lewis Stevenson. The meeting with the already elderly Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the aspiring writer: he noted to himself that the master spoke disparagingly about his contemporaries and was delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death seriously, as a personal loss. Arthur Conan Doyle was greatly impressed by the storytelling style, historical descriptions and portraits in " Sketches" T. B. Macaulay: 7 .

In the early 1890s, Conan Doyle established friendly relations with the magazine's managers and staff The Idler: Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr and James M. Barry. The latter, having awakened in the writer a passion for theater, attracted him to (ultimately not very fruitful) collaboration in the dramaturgical 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, closely resembled a parody of the "noble detective" Holmes.

A. Conan Doyle also highly appreciated the works of Kipling, in whom, 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 policies in Africa, relations between the two writers became cooler.

Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw, who once described Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict without a single pleasant quality," was strained. There is reason to believe that the Irish playwright took the former’s attacks on the now little-known author Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, personally. In 1912, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public debate on 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 science fiction novel The Lost World (subsequently adapted into films), followed by The Poison Belt (1913). The main character of both works was Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time humane and charming in his own way. At the same time, the last detective story, “The Valley of Horror,” 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 develop a line of conduct regarding the Red Indians of European descent who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot torture the Germans at our disposal in the same way. On the other hand, calls for good-heartedness are also meaningless, for the average German has the same concept of nobility as 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 at least to some extent preserve a human face...

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 to be 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 point. If we, following a well-known recommendation taken out of context, had turned the “other cheek,” the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread across Europe, and instead of the teachings of Christ, Nietzscheanism would have been preached here,” he wrote in The Times December 31, 1917.

In 1916, Conan Doyle toured British battlefields and visited the Allied armies. The result of the trip was the book “On Three Fronts” (1916). Realizing that official reports significantly embellished 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 “The History of the Actions of British Troops in France and Flanders” began to be published. By 1920, all 6 of its volumes were published.

Doyle's brother, son and two nephews went to the front and died there. This was a great shock for the writer and left a heavy mark on all his further literary, journalistic and social activities.

1918-1930

At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of shocks 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 “Human Personality and Its Subsequent Life after Corporeal Death” by F. W. G. Myers. Conan Doyle's main works on this topic are considered to be “A New Revelation” (1918), where he talked 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 into the “psychic” phenomenon was the fundamental work “The History of Spiritualism” (English: The History of Spiritualism, 1926).

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

Many people had not encountered Spiritualism or even heard of it until 1914, when the angel of death came knocking on many homes. 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 stated that the author's advocacy of Spiritualism and his friend Sir Oliver Lodge's defense of the Doctrine was due to the fact that both of them had lost sons in the 1914 war. The conclusion followed from this: grief darkened their minds, and they believed in what they would never have believed in peacetime. The author has refuted this shameless lie many times and emphasized the fact that his research began in 1886, long before the outbreak of the war.

English Round the Fire Stories, 1930).

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

Last years

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, visiting 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.”

Family

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

In 1907, Doyle married Jean Leckie, 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 rather powerful medium.

Doyle had five children: two from his first wife - Mary and Kingsley, and three from his second - Jean Lena Annette, Denis Percy Stewart (17 March 1909 - 9 March 1955; in 1936 he became the husband of the Georgian princess Nina Mdivani) and Adrian ( subsequently also a writer, author of a biography of his father and a number of works complementing the canonical cycle of short stories and tales 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 appearance of works of art in which the writer acted as a character, and sometimes in an image very far from reality.

• In the series of novels by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Snigoski, The Menagerie, Conan Doyle appears as “the second most powerful magician of our world.”
• In the mystical novel “The List of Seven” by Mark Frost (author of the script for the television series “Twin Peaks”), 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 vein, the facts of the writer’s life are used in the British television series “Death Rooms: 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 solve crimes.
• The character Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appears in the British television series Mister Selfridge (2013) and the Canadian mini-series Houdini (2014).
• The writer's life and work are recreated in Julian Barnes' novel Arthur and George, where Sherlock Holmes's literary father himself leads the investigation.
Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard) investigate murders allegedly committed by a 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 - main character 13-episode television series from ORT “Memories of Sherlock Holmes” (2000). The series mentions the death of Doyle's first wife, his attempt to "kill" Holmes, and the Edalji case.