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Name: Arthur Conan Doyle

Age: 71 years old

Place of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland

A place of death: Crowborough, Sussex, UK

Activity: English writer

Family status: was married

Arthur Conan Doyle - Biography

Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective that ever existed in literature. And then all his life he unsuccessfully tried to get out of the shadow of his hero.

Who is Arthur Conan Doyle to us? Author of The Sherlock Holmes Tales, of course. Who else. A contemporary and colleague of Conan Doyle, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, demanded that a monument be erected to Sherlock Holmes in London: “The hero of Mr. Conan Doyle is, perhaps, the first literary character since Dickens, who entered the life and language of the people, becoming on a par with John Bull ". A monument to Sherlock Holmes was opened in London, and in the Swiss Meiringen, not far from the Reichenbach Falls, and even in Moscow.

Arthur Conan Doyle himself was hardly enthusiastic about this. The writer did not consider stories and stories about a detective to be either the best, or even more so, his main works in his literary biography. He was burdened by the glory of his hero largely because, from a human point of view, Holmes was not sympathetic to him. Conan Doyle valued nobility above all else in people. This is how he was brought up by his mother, Irish Mary Foyle, who came from a very ancient aristocratic family. True, to XIX century the Foyle family was completely ruined, so all that remained for Mary was to tell her son about the past glory and teach him to distinguish the coats of arms of the families that were related to their family.

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, who was born on May 22, 1859 in a family of doctors in Edinburgh, in the ancient capital of Scotland, had the right to be proud of his aristocratic origin and on the side of his father, Charles Altamont Doyle. True, Arthur always treated his father with compassion rather than pride. In his biography, he mentioned the cruelty of fate, which placed this "man with a sensitive soul in conditions that neither his age nor nature were ready to resist."

Speaking without lyrics, then Charles Doyle was unlucky, although - perhaps - talented artist. In any case, as an illustrator, he was in demand, but not enough to feed his rapidly growing family and provide his aristocratic wife and children with a decent standard of living. He suffered from unsatisfied ambitions and drank more and more every year. His older brothers, who were successful in business, despised him. Arthur's grandfather, graphic artist John Doyle, helped his son, but this help was not enough, besides, Charles Doyle considered the very fact that he was in need humiliating.

With age, Charles turned into an embittered, aggressive, man suffering from bouts of uncontrollable rage, and Mary Doyle was at times afraid for the children so much that she transferred Arthur to be raised in the prosperous and wealthy home of her friend Mary Barton. She visited her son often, and the two Marys joined forces to turn the boy into a model gentleman. And both of them encouraged Arthur in his passion for reading.

True, young Arthur Doyle clearly preferred Mine Reed's novels about the adventures of American settlers and Indians to Walter Scott's chivalric novels, but since he read quickly and a lot, he simply devoured books, he found time for all the authors of the adventure genre. “I don’t know joy so complete and selfless,” he recalled, “like that experienced by a child who has snatched time from lessons and huddled in a corner with a book, knowing that no one will disturb him in the next hour.”

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first book in his biography at the age of six and illustrated it himself. It was called The Traveler and the Tiger. Alas, the book turned out to be short, because the tiger ate the traveler immediately after the meeting. And Arthur did not find a way to bring the hero back to life. “It is very easy to put people in difficult situations, but it is much more difficult to extricate them from these situations” - he remembered this rule for his entire long creative life.

Alas, the happy childhood did not last long. At the age of eight, Arthur was returned to his family and sent to school. “At home we led a Spartan way of life,” he later wrote, “and at the Edinburgh school, where our young existence was poisoned by an old school teacher waving a belt, it was even worse. My comrades were rude boys, and I myself became the same.

Arthur hated mathematics most of all. And most often it was the teachers of mathematics who flogged him - in all the schools where he studied. When the worst enemy of the great detective, the criminal genius James Moriarty, appeared in the stories about Sherlock Holmes, Arthur made the villain not just anyone, but a professor of mathematics.

Arthur's successes were followed by wealthy relatives from his father's side. Seeing that the Edinburgh school did not bring any benefit to the boy, they sent him to Stonyhurst, an expensive and prestigious institution under the auspices of the Jesuit order. Alas, in this school, children were also subjected to corporal punishment. But the training there was really carried out at a good level, besides, Arthur could devote a lot of time to literature. The first fans of his work appeared. Classmates, impatiently awaiting new chapters of his adventure novels, often solved math problems for the young writer.

Arthur Conan Doyle dreamed of becoming a writer. But he did not believe that writing could be a profitable profession. Therefore, he had to choose from what was offered to him: the rich relatives of his father wanted him to study as a lawyer, his mother wanted him to become a doctor. Arthur preferred the choice of his mother. He loved her very much. And sorry. After his father finally lost his mind and ended up in an asylum for the mentally ill, Mary Doyle had to rent out rooms for gentlemen and take on canteens - the only way she could feed the children.

In October 1876, Arthur Doyle was admitted to the first year of medical school at the University of Edinburgh. During his studies, Arthur met and even became friends with many young men who were passionate about writing. But the closest friend who had a huge influence on Arthur Doyle was one of the teachers, Dr. Joseph Bell. He was a brilliant man, fantastically observant, able to easily figure out both falsehood and error with the help of logic.

Sherlock Holmes' deductive method is actually Bell's method. Arthur adored the doctor and kept his portrait on his mantel all his life. Many years after graduation, in May 1892, already a famous writer, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote to a friend: “My dear Bell, it is to you that I owe my Sherlock Holmes, and although I have the opportunity to represent him in all sorts of dramatic circumstances, I I doubt that his analytical abilities are superior to yours, which I have had the opportunity to observe. Based on your deduction, observation and logical conclusions, I tried to create a character that will bring them to the maximum, and I am very glad that you were satisfied with the result, because you have the right to be the most severe of critics.

Unfortunately, while studying at the university, Arthur did not have any opportunities for writing. He constantly had to earn extra money to help his mother and sisters, either as a pharmacist or as a doctor's assistant. Need usually hardens people, but in the case of Arthur Doyle, chivalrous nature always won out.

Relatives recalled how one day a neighbor came to him, Herr Gleiwitz, a scientist of European renown, forced to leave Germany for political reasons and now in desperate need. On that day, his wife fell ill, and in desperation he asked his friends to lend him money. Arthur didn't have any cash either, but he immediately pulled a watch and chain out of his pocket and offered to pawn it. He just couldn't leave a man in trouble. For him, this was the only possible action in that situation.

The first publication that brought him a fee - as much as three guineas, took place in 1879, when he sold the story "The Secret of the Sesas Valley" to the Chamber's Journal. Although the novice author was upset that the story came out greatly reduced, he wrote a few more and sent it to In fact, this is how the creative biography of the writer Arthur Conan Doyle began, although at that time he saw his future connected exclusively with medicine.

In the spring of 1880, Arthur received permission from the university to practice on the whaling ship Hope, which set off for the shores of Greenland. They didn’t pay much, but there was no other opportunity to get a job in the future in the specialty: in order to get a doctor’s job in a hospital, patronage was needed to open a private practice - money. After graduating from university, Arthur was offered a position as a ship's doctor on the Mayumba steamer, and he happily accepted.

But as much as the Arctic fascinated him, Africa seemed just as disgusting. What he just did not have to endure during the voyage! “Everything is fine with me, but I had African fever, I was almost swallowed by a shark, and to top it all off, there was a fire on the Mayumba on the way between the island of Madeira and England,” he wrote to his mother from another port.

Returning home, Doyle, with the permission of his family, spent all his ship's salary on opening a doctor's office. It cost 40 pounds a year. Patients were reluctant to go to a little-known doctor. Arthur involuntarily devoted a lot of time to literature. Oa wrote stories one after another, and it would seem that it was then that he should come to his senses and forget about medicine ... But his mother dreamed of seeing him as a doctor. And patients eventually fell in love with the delicate and attentive Dr. Doyle.

In the early spring of 1885, Arthur's friend and neighbor, Dr. Pike, invited Dr. Doyle to consult on the illness of fifteen-year-old Jack Hawkins: the teenager had suffered meningitis and now had terrible seizures several times a day. Jack lived with his widowed mother and 27-year-old sister in a rented apartment, the owner of which demanded that the apartment be vacated immediately, because Jack was disturbing the neighbors. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the patient was hopeless: he would hardly have lasted even a few weeks ... Dr. Pike simply did not dare to tell the grief-stricken women himself and wanted to shift the burden last explanation for a young colleague.

But he was simply shocked by the incredible decision that Arthur made. Having met the patient's mother and his sister, the tender and vulnerable Louise, Arthur Conan Doyle felt such compassion for their grief that he offered to move Jack to his apartment so that the boy would be under constant medical supervision. It cost Arthur several sleepless nights, after which he had to work during the day. And what's really bad - when Jack died, everyone saw how the coffin was taken out of Doyle's house.

Bad rumors spread about the young doctor, but Doyle did not seem to notice anything: the boy's sister's ardent gratitude grew into passionate love. Arthur already had several unsuccessful short novels, but not a single girl seemed to him so close to the ideal of a beautiful lady from a chivalric romance as this quivering young lady, who decided to get engaged to him already in April 1885, without waiting for the end of the period of mourning for her brother .

Although Tui, as Arthur called his wife, was not a bright personality, she managed to provide her husband with home comfort and completely save him from domestic problems. Doyle suddenly freed up a huge amount of time that he spent writing. The more he wrote, the better it got. In 1887, his first story about Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, was published, which immediately brought real success to the author. Then Arthur was happy...

He explained his success by the fact that, thanks to a lucrative agreement with the magazine, Doyle finally stopped needing money and could write only those stories that were interesting to him. But he had no intention of writing only about Sherlock Holmes. He wanted to write serious historical novels, and he created them - one after another, but they never had such reader success as stories about a brilliant detective ... Readers demanded from him Holmes and only Holmes.

The story "A Scandal in Bohemia", in which Doyle, at the request of readers, spoke about Holmes's love, turned out to be the last straw - the story turned out to be forced. To his teacher Bell, Arthur wrote candidly: "Holmes is as cold as Babbage's analytical engine, and has the same chance of finding love." Arthur Conan Doyle planned to beat his hero until the hero destroyed him. The first time he mentioned it was in a letter to his mother: "I'm thinking about finally killing Holmes and getting rid of him, because he distracts me from more worthwhile things." To this, the mother replied: “You can’t! Don't you dare! In no case!"

And yet Arthur did it by writing the story "The Last Case of Holmes." After Sherlock Holmes, grappling with the final fight with Professor Moriarty, fell into the Reichenbach Falls, all of England was plunged into grief. "You scoundrel!" - this is how many letters to Doyle began. Nevertheless, Arthur felt relieved - he ceased to be, as readers called him, "the literary agent of Sherlock Holmes."

Soon Tui bore him a daughter, Mary, then a son, Kingsley. Childbirth was difficult for her, but, like a true Victorian lady, she hid her torment from her husband as much as she could. He, carried away by creativity and communication with fellow writers, did not immediately notice that something was wrong with his meek wife. And when he noticed, he almost burned with shame: he, the doctor, did not see the obvious - progressive tuberculosis of the lungs and bones in own wife. Arthur gave up everything to help Tui. He took her to the Alps for two years, where Tui became so strong that there was hope for her recovery. The couple returned to England, where Arthur Conan Doyle fell in love with young Jean Lecky.

It would seem that his soul was already covered with a snowy veil of age, but a primrose broke out from under the snow - Arthur presented this poetic image, along with the snowdrop, to the charming young Jean Lecky a year after their first meeting, on March 15, 1898.

Jean was very beautiful: contemporaries claimed that not a single photograph conveyed the charms of her finely drawn face, large green eyes, both penetrating and sad ... She had luxurious wavy dark blond hair and a swan neck, smoothly turning into sloping shoulders: Conan Doyle was crazy about the beauty of her neck, but for many years he did not dare to kiss her.

In Jean, Arthur also found those qualities that he lacked in Tui: a sharp mind, a love of reading, education, the ability to keep up a conversation. Jean was a passionate nature, but rather reserved. Most of all, she was afraid of gossip ... And for her sake, as well as for Tui, Arthur Conan Doyle preferred not to talk about his new love even with those closest to him, vaguely explaining: "There are feelings too personal, too deep to be expressed in words."

In December 1899, when the Boer War began, Arthur Conan Doyle suddenly decided to go to the front as a volunteer. Biographers believe that in this way he tried to force himself to forget Jean. The medical commission rejected his candidacy - because of his age and health, but no one could prevent him from going to the front as a military doctor. However, it was not possible to forget about Jean Leki. Pierre Norton, a French scholar of the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote of his relationship with Jean:

“For almost ten years she was his mystical wife, and he was her faithful knight and her hero. Over the years, an emotional tension arose between them, painful, but at the same time becoming a test of the chivalrous spirit of Arthur Conan Doyle. Like no other of his contemporaries, he was suitable for this role and, perhaps, even desired it ... Physical contact with Jean would become for him not only a betrayal of his wife, but also an irreparable humiliation. He would have fallen in his own eyes, and his life would have turned into a dirty affair.

Arthur immediately told Jean that a divorce in his circumstances was impossible, because the reason for the divorce could be the betrayal of his wife, but certainly not the cooling of feelings. Although, perhaps, he secretly thought about it. He wrote: “The family is not the basis of social life. The basis of social life is a happy family. But with our outdated divorce rules, just happy families and it doesn't happen." Subsequently, Conan Doyle became an active member of the Divorce Reform Alliance. True, he defended the interests of not husbands, but wives, insisting that in a divorce, women receive equal rights with men.

Nevertheless, Arthur resigned himself to his fate and kept marital fidelity until the end of Tui's life. He struggled with his passion for Jean and with the desire to change Tui and was proud of each successive victory: "I fight the forces of darkness with all my might and win."

However, he introduced Jean to his mother, whom he still trusted in everything, and Mrs. Doyle not only approved of his friend, but even offered to keep them company during their joint trips to the countryside: in the company of an elderly matron, ladies and gentlemen could spend time, without violating the rules of decency. Jean was so fond of Mrs. Doyle, who herself drank grief with her sick husband, that Mary gave Miss Leckie a family jewel - a bracelet that belonged to her beloved sister, soon Arthur's sister, Lottie, became friends with Jean. Even Conan Doyle's mother-in-law knew Jean and did not oppose her relationship with Arthur, because she was still grateful to him for the kindness shown to the dying Jack, and understood that any other man in his place would not behave at all so noble, and even I certainly would not spare the feelings of a sick wife.

Only Tui remained in the introduction. “She is still dear to me, but now a part of my life, previously free, turned out to be busy,” Arthur wrote to his mother. - I do not feel anything for Tui, except respect and affection. For all of our family life we never quarreled, and henceforth I also do not intend to hurt her.”

Unlike Tui, Jean was interested in Arthur's work, discussed plots with him and even wrote a few paragraphs in his story. In a letter to his mother, Conan Doyle admitted that the plot of The Empty House was suggested to him by Jean. This story was included in the collection in which Doyle "reanimated" Holmes after his "death" in the Reichenbach Falls.

Arthur Conan Doyle held on for a long time: for almost eight years, readers waited new meeting with your favorite character. The return of Holmes produced the effect of an exploding bomb. All over England they were talking only about the great detective. Rumors spread about a possible Holmes prototype. Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the first to guess about the prototype. "Is this my old friend Joe Bell?" he asked in a letter to Arthur. Soon journalists flocked to Edinburgh. Conan Doyle, just in case, warned Bell that now he "will be pestered with his crazy letters by fans who will need his help in rescuing unmarried aunts from boarded up attics where they were locked up by villainous neighbors."

Bell reacted to the first interviews with calm humor, although later journalists began to annoy him. After Bell's death, his friend Jessie Saxby was indignant: "This dexterous, insensitive hunter of people, who hunts down criminals with the stubbornness of a hound, was not much like a good doctor, always pitying sinners and ready to help them." Bella's daughter was of the same opinion, stating: “My father was not at all like Sherlock Holmes. The detective was callous and stern, while my father was kind and gentle.”

Indeed, with his habits and behavior, Bell did not at all resemble Sherlock Holmes, he kept his things in order and did not take drugs ... But outwardly tall, with an aquiline nose and graceful features, Bell looked like a great detective. In addition, fans of Arthur Conan Doyle simply wanted Sherlock Holmes to exist in reality. “Many readers consider Sherlock Holmes to be a real person, judging by the letters addressed to him, which come to me with a request to pass them on to Holmes.

Watson also receives many letters in which readers ask him for the address or autograph of his brilliant friend, Arthur wrote to Joseph Bell with bitter irony. -When Holmes retired, several elderly ladies volunteered to help him around the house, and one even assured me that she was well versed in beekeeping and could “separate the queen from the swarm.” Many also suggest that Holmes investigate some family secret. Even I myself have received an invitation to Poland, where I will be assigned such a fee as I wish. On reflection, I wished to stay at home.

However, Arthur Conan Doyle nevertheless revealed several cases. The most famous of these was the case of the Indian George Edalji, who lived with his family in the village of Great Whirley. The villagers did not like the foreign visitor, and the poor fellow was bombarded with anonymous threatening letters. And when a series of mysterious crimes took place in the district - someone inflicted deep cuts on cows - suspicion first of all fell on a stranger. Edalji was accused not only of animal abuse, but also of allegedly writing letters to himself. The sentence was seven years hard labor. But the convict did not lose heart and achieved a review of the case, so that he was released three years later.

To whitewash his reputation, Edalji turned to Arthur Conan Doyle. Still, because his Sherlock Holmes solved things more complicated. Conan Doyle enthusiastically took up the investigation. After noticing how close Edalji brought the newspaper to his eyes while reading, Conan Doyle came to the conclusion that he was visually impaired. And how, in that case, could he run through the fields at night and cut cows with a knife, especially since the fields were guarded by watchmen? The brown stains on his razor turned out not to be blood, but rust. A handwriting expert hired by Conan Doyle proved that Edalji's anonymous letters were written in a different handwriting. Conan Doyle described his discoveries in a series of newspaper articles, and Edalji was soon cleared of all suspicions.

However, participation in investigations, and attempts to run for local elections in Edinburgh, and bodybuilding, which ended in a heart attack, and car racing, ballooning and even the first planes - all this was just a way to escape from reality: a slow death wives, secret romance with Jin - all this bothered him. And then Arthur Conan Doyle discovered spiritualism.

Arthur was fond of the supernatural even in his youth: he was a member of the British Society for Psychical Research, which studied paranormal phenomena. Nevertheless, he was initially skeptical about communicating with spirits: “I will be glad to receive enlightenment from any source, I have little hope for spirits that speak through mediums. As far as I can remember, they were just talking nonsense.” However, the familiar spiritualist Alfred Drayson explained that in the other world, as in the human world, there are many fools - they must go somewhere after death.

Surprisingly, Doyle's fascination with spiritualism returned to the church, in which he had become disillusioned during his years of study at the Jesuit institution. Conan Doyle recalled: “I have no respect for the Old Testament, and also the confidence that the churches are so necessary ... I want to die as I lived, without the intervention of the clergy and in a state of that peace that stems from honest deeds in accordance with the principles of life.

The more Conan Doyle was shocked by the meeting with the spirit of a young girl who died in Melbourne. The spirit told him that he lives in a world consisting entirely of light and laughter, where there are neither rich nor poor. The inhabitants of this world do not experience physical pain, although they may experience anxiety and longing. However, they drive away sadness through spiritual and intellectual pursuits- For example, music. The picture was a comforting one.

Gradually, spiritualism became the center of the writer's universe: "I realized that the knowledge given to me was intended not only for my comfort, but that God gave me the opportunity to tell the world what it so needed to hear."

Once established in his views, Arthur Conan Doyle, with his characteristic stubbornness, adhered to them to the very end: “Suddenly I saw that the topic with which I had been flirting for so long was not just the study of some force that lay outside science, but something great and capable of destroying the walls between the worlds, an undeniable message from the outside, giving hope and a guiding light to mankind.

On July 4, 1906, Arthur Conan Doyle was widowed. Tui died in his arms. For several months after her death, he was in a state of extreme depression: he was tormented by shame for the fact that in recent years he seemed to be waiting for deliverance from his wife. But the very first meeting with Jean Lecky gave him back hope for happiness. After waiting for the prescribed period of mourning, they got married on September 18, 1907.

Jean and Arthur really lived very happily. Everyone who knew them spoke about it. Jean gave birth to two sons - Denis and Adrian, and a daughter, who was named after her - Jean Jr. Arthur seemed to have found a second wind in literature. Jean Jr. said: “At dinner, my father often announced that he had an idea early in the morning and had been working on it all this time. He then read a draft to us and asked us to critique the story. My brothers and I rarely acted as critics, but my mother often gave him advice, and he always followed them.

Jean's love helped Arthur bear the losses the family suffered in the First world war: Doyle Kingsley's son, his younger brother, two died at the front cousins and two nephews. He continued to draw consolation in spiritualism - he evoked the ghost of his son. He never evoked the spirit of his dead wife...

In 1930, Arthur fell seriously ill. But on March 15 - he never forgot the day he first met Jean - Doyle got out of bed and went out into the garden to fetch a snowdrop for his beloved. There, in the garden, Doyle was found immobilized by a stroke, but clutching Jean's favorite flower in his hands. Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930, surrounded by his entire family. The last words he uttered were addressed to his wife: "You are the best ..."

, children's writer, crime writer

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. - " Vivid images 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 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, wealthy relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him to the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst (Lancashire) for the next seven years, from where future writer endured 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 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 during his college years, Arthur's most unloved 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" of 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 the papers of his father, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind, in his name. 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 career in medicine rather than art (to which his family tradition predisposed him), largely under the influence of Brian C. Waller, 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. Future writers he met here included James Barry and Robert Lewis Stevenson.

The beginning of a literary career[ | ]

As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at 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 "" (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's degree in medicine 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 and everyday novel with a crime-detective plot, The Girdlestone Trading House, 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 A Study in Scarlet (the title was originally intended A Tangled Skein, and the two main characters were named Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker). Ward, Locke & Co bought the rights to the novel for £25 and printed it in a 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 most bizarre) novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, came out. Story " posthumous life"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[ | ]

Arthur Conan Doyle. 1893

In February 1888, A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel The Adventures of Micah Clark, which told of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), the purpose of which was the overthrow of 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 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 heroic halo chivalry, by then already in decline. "White detachment" 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 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 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 "" and the historical play "Waterloo" were completed, the main role in which 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 "", 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 secondary 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 military field hospital surgeon, he went to the Boer War. The book The 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", which centered on a young Parsi who was convicted on a trumped-up charge (of 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.

Conan Doyle's house in South Norwood (London)

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[ | ]

In literature, there were several undoubted authorities 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.

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. Main character Hornunga, 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 spoke of Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict with no pleasant qualities." 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 [ | ]

Arthur Conan Doyle. 1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Lost World, a science fiction story (subsequently filmed more than once), 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. A work that many critics tend to underestimate, Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr considers it 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 ...

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 the sin fall on those who force sin us. If we wage this war, guided by Christ's commandments, there will be no sense. Were we, following the well-known recommendation taken out of context, to turn 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 Actions" began to appear. English troops in France and Flanders. 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 severe 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 future 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 "" (Eng. The Land of Mist, 1926). The result of his many years of research on the “mental” phenomenon was the fundamental work The 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.

Arthur Conan Doyle's grave in Minstead

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Arriving in 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 abolition of the laws that persecuted mediums in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior | ]

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 1893, the famous writer of the early 20th century, Willie Hornung, became a relative of Conan Doyle: 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 left the lodge in 1889, but returned to it in 1902, only to retire again in 1911, diary entries, drafts and manuscripts of unpublished works of the writer. The cost of the find was about 2 million pounds sterling.

Screen versions of works[ | ]

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

He happened to be a doctor, an athlete, participate in the war, seek the release of innocently convicted people, fight for vaccination, test new drugs, write scientific works, historical and science fiction novels, lectures... And all this - in addition to creating an immortal image of Sherlock Holmes. Own convictions and honor have always been dearer to this knight without fear and reproach. public opinion. "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a man of great heart, great stature and great soul," Jerome K. Jerome said of him.

Eight thousand people - men in evening suits and women in long strict dresses - gathered on July 13, 1930 at the Royal Albert Hall in London to honor the memory of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died 5 days ago. Over the past few days there have been many articles in the newspapers under catchy headlines: “Lady Doyle and her children await the return of the spirit of Conan Doyle”, “The widow is sure that she will soon receive a message from her husband”, the Daily Herald wrote about a secret code that before by death, the writer gave to his wife in order to avoid being deceived by a medium who came into contact with him. There were many in the public who did not understand how the famous author of Sherlock Holmes adventures, M.D. and materialist, could become one of the world's most famous propagandists of the "spiritual religion." And today Sir Arthur had to come into this crowded hall and resolve the contradiction of his life.

The rustling of silk and excited whispers ceased as Lady Conan Doyle appeared. She walked with her head raised majestically, surrounded by her sons Adrian and Denis, her daughter Jean and her adopted daughter Mary. Jean sat next to the children on stage, but one of the chairs between her and Denis was left empty. It had a sign saying "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle". Mrs. Roberts entered the stage, a frail woman with huge brown eyes, a well-known medium. The session began - squinting her eyes and peering into the distance, like a sailor on the deck of a ship guessing the horizon line during a storm, Mrs. Roberts broke into a monologue, conveying messages to the people sitting in the hall from the spirits that had come into contact with her. Before pointing out to whom exactly the spirit is addressing, she described the clothes of the departed, their habits, family ties, facts and little things that could be known only to relatives. But when the indignant skeptics began to leave the hall, Mrs. Roberts exclaimed: “Ladies and gentlemen! Here he is, I see him again!” In the ringing silence, all eyes were again riveted to the empty chair. And the medium, in a state of trance, in a quick choking voice, shouted out: “He was here from the very beginning, I saw him sit in a chair, he supported me, gave me strength, I heard his unforgettable voice!” Finally, Mrs. Roberts turned to Lady Jean, "Darling, I have a message for you." Mrs. Doyle's eyes had a distant, radiant expression, and a smile of satisfaction flickered across her lips. The message from Doyle was drowned out by the noise and the roar, the excited screams and the sounds of the organ - someone decided to interrupt this scene with musical chords. Lady Doyle refused to divulge the words that her husband gave her that evening, she only repeated: "Believe me, I saw him as clearly as I see you now."

Code of honor

“Arthur, do not interrupt me, but rather repeat it again: who was your relative Sir Denis Pack to Edward III? When did Richard Pack marry Mary of the Irish branch of the Northumberland Percy, bringing our family into the royal family for the third time? And now look at this coat of arms - this is the weapon of Thomas Scott, your great uncle, who was related to Sir Walter Scott. Don't forget it, my boy," during these heraldry lessons and mother's stories about family tree of their ancient Irish family, Arthur's heart sank sweetly with delight and excitement. ... Mary Foyley married at the age of 17 Charles Doyle, the youngest son of the famous artist, the first English cartoonist John Doyle. Charles came from London to Edinburgh to work in one of the government offices and stayed as a guest at her mother's house. He went far from secular life the capital of Scotland to finally emerge from the shadow of his father and two successful brothers. One of them, James, was the chief artist of the humor magazine Punch, published his own magazine and illustrated the works of William Thackeray and Charles Dickens. Henry Doyle became director of the National art gallery Ireland.

For Charles, fate was less favorable. In Edinburgh, he received a little over 200 pounds a year, was engaged in routine paper work and did not even really know how to properly sell his watercolor paintings, talented and full of bizarre imagination.

Of the 9 children his wife bore him, seven survived, Arthur appeared in 1859 and was their first son. Mother of all mental strength spent on instilling in him concepts of chivalrous behavior and a code of honor. The real picture in the Doyle house was far from so lofty. Charles, melancholy by nature, passively watched as his wife struggled unsuccessfully with poverty. After the visit of a friend of the London Doyles - Thackeray, when Charles could not properly receive the guest of honor, he finally fell into depression and became addicted to Burgundy. Fortunately, his wealthy relatives sent money so that Mary could send her 9-year-old son to England, to a closed Jesuit school in Stonyhurst, away from the unlucky father - an unlikely role model.

Family portrait. 1904 Arthur Conan Doyle top row fifth from the right. Mary Foyley, the writer's mother, in the center of the front row.

Universities

At school, and then at the Jesuit College, Arthur spent 7 years. Severe discipline, meager food and cruel punishments, and the dogmatism and dryness of the teachers turned any subject into a set of dull and boring platitudes. The love of reading and sports instilled by the mother helped out. After graduating with honors, Arthur returned home and, under the influence of his mother, decided to get medical education- The doctor's noble mission is the best fit for a man whose intentions include the worthy fulfillment of his duty. Especially now, when my father was sent to a hospital for alcoholics, and then - to an even more woeful institution - an asylum for the insane ...

The University of Edinburgh, looking like a gloomy medieval castle, was famous for its medical faculty. James Barry (the future author of Peter Pan) and Robert Lewis Stevenson studied here with Doyle. Among the professors shone James Young Simpson, who first used chloroform, Sir Charles Thompson, who recently returned from the famous zoological expedition on the Challenger ship, Joseph Lister, who gained fame in the fight for antiseptics and headed the Department of Clinical Surgery. One of the strongest impressions of university life was the lectures of the famous surgeon Professor Joseph Bell. An aquiline nose, close-set eyes, eccentric mannerisms, a resolute sharp mind - this man would become one of the main prototypes of Sherlock Holmes. “Come on, gentlemen, students, use not only your scientific knowledge, but also your ears, nose and hands ...” - Bell said and invited another patient to the huge audience. “So, before you is a former sergeant of the Highland Regiment, recently returned from Barbados. How do I know? This respected gentleman forgot to take off his hat, because this is not accepted in the army, and he had not yet had time to get used to civil manners. Why Barbados? Because the fever symptoms he complains about are typical of the West Indies. The deductive method of identifying not only the disease, but also the profession, origin and personality of the patient, astounded students who were ready to undernourish, just to get to Bell for his almost magical performance.

For each lecture at the university, you had to pay money, and a lot of it. Due to their absence, Arthur had to halve each of the four years of study, and during the holidays to do the most boring and thankless work - pouring and packaging potions and powders. Without a moment's hesitation, in his third year of study, he agreed to take the place of a ship's surgeon on the whaling ship Nadezhda, bound for Greenland. He did not have to apply his medical knowledge, but, along with everyone else, Arthur participated in catching whales, deftly wielded a harpoon, exposing himself to mortal danger along with other hunters. "I became a grown man at 80 degrees northern latitude", - Arthur will proudly say upon his mother's return and give her the earned 50 pounds.

Dr. Doyle

It seemed that even from the bright fire in the fireplace, it suddenly blew cold. James and Henry Doyle - Arthur's uncles - froze with faces petrified with disappointment and resentment. Just now the nephew not only refused the help offered out of the best of intentions, but also offended their religious feelings in an incredible way. They were ready to find him a place as a doctor in London, using their extensive connections, with only one condition - he would become a Catholic doctor. “You yourself would consider me the worst villain if I, being an agnostic, agreed to treat patients and not share their beliefs with them,” Arthur told them with completely inappropriate vehemence. The rebellion against religious education in the Jesuit school, the study of medicine in one of the then most progressive universities in Europe, a careful reading of the works of Charles Darwin and his followers - all this influenced the fact that by the age of 22, Arthur ceased to consider himself a believing Catholic.

... On the steps of a brick house, a tall man in a long raincoat, in the faint bluish light of a small gas lamp, was rubbing a brand new copper plate with the inscription "Arthur Conan Doyle, M.D. and Surgeon." Arthur came to the port city of Portsmouth to start a settled life here and try to establish his own practice. He could not afford to hire a maid, and therefore only under cover of darkness did household chores: it is not good if future patients see a doctor sweeping dirt from the porch or buying food in the poor port shops of the city. For several months in the city, the only patient was a heavily drunk sailor - right under the windows of his house he tried to beat his wife. Instead, he himself had to dodge the strong fists of the angry doctor who jumped out at the noise. The next day the sailor came to him for medical help. In the end, Arthur realized that it was pointless to watch patients all day long. No one will knock on the door of an unknown doctor, you need to become a public person. And Doyle became a member of a bowling club, a cricket club, played billiards in a nearby hotel, helped organize a football team in the city, and most importantly, joined the Literary and Scientific Society of Portsmouth. Often at this time his diet consisted of bread and water, and he learned how to save gas by frying thin slices of bacon in the flame of a gas lantern. But things went uphill. Patients slowly began to arrive. And the short stories "My Killer Friend" and "Captain of the North Star", composed in passing, were bought by one of the Portsmouth magazines for 10 guineas each. Inspired by the first success, the newly minted writer created at a crazy speed, then folded the sheets of paper into cardboard cylinders and sent them to various magazines and publishing houses - most often these literary “parcels” returned to the author like a boomerang. But one day in 1883, the prestigious Cornhill Magazine (who prided themselves on printing not cheap pulp fiction, but real samples of literature) published (albeit anonymously) Doyle's essay "The Message of Hebekuk Jephson" and paid the author as much as 30 pounds. Detractors attributed the writing to Stevenson's pen, while critics compared it to Edgar Allan Poe. And this, in fact, was a confession.

Tui

Once a doctor friend asked Arthur to see a patient suffering from severe attacks of fever and delirium. Doyle confirmed the diagnosis - young Jack Hawkins was dying of cerebral meningitis. His mother and sister could not find an apartment - no one wanted to accept a sick tenant. Doyle invited them to take a few rooms in his house. The death of Jack, for whom he did everything he could, had a hard effect on the impressionable doctor. The only outlet was the gratitude in the sad eyes of his sister Louise. A thin 27-year-old girl with a surprisingly calm and gentle disposition awakened in him a desire to protect her, to take her under his wing. After all, he was strong, and she was helpless. Knightly intentions also underlay the feelings that Arthur sincerely took for love for Tui (as he would call Louise). In addition, it is much easier for a married doctor in a provincial society to win the trust of patients, and it was high time for Arthur to get a wife - because, due to his upbringing and principles, temperamental and full of vitality, he could only afford gallant courtship in a women's society. Mary Doyle approved of her son's choice, and the wedding took place in May 1885. After the marriage, the pacified Arthur began to combine medical practice and writing even more actively. Even then, a public figure and propagandist woke up in him: Doyle was not too lazy to write letters, articles and pamphlets to newspapers, discussing the value of American medical diplomas, the construction of a city recreation area, or the benefits of vaccination. He submitted articles to medical journals on serious medical issues. But it was not the desire to make a scientific career, but only the desire to achieve the truth and protect it that forced Arthur to study thick volumes and even volunteer to act as a guinea pig: he tested drugs several times that were not yet listed in the British Pharmacological Encyclopedia.

How to end Holmes

The idea to write a detective story came to Conan Doyle when he re-read his beloved Edgar Allan Poe, because it was he who first introduced the word "detective" into everyday life (in 1843 in the story "The Gold Bug"), but also made his detective Dupin the main actor storytelling. Arthur went further than Poe, his Sherlock Holmes was perceived not as literary character but how real an existing person, made of flesh and blood, "a detective with a scientific approach, who relies only on his own abilities and deductive method, and not on the errors of the criminal or the case." His hero will investigate the crime with the same methods by which Dr. Joseph Bell identified the disease and made a diagnosis. "Study in Scarlet" first experienced the fate of many early stories Doyle - the postman regularly returned to him slightly frayed cardboard cylinders. Only one publisher agreed to publish the story just because the publisher's wife liked it. However, the Strand magazine, which recently appeared in London, shortly after this publication in 1887, ordered the writer 6 more stories about the detective (they appeared between July and December in 1891) and did not fail. The circulation of the magazine with 300,000 copies increased to half a million. From early morning on the day of the release of the next issue, huge queues gathered near the editorial building. On the Channel ferry, the English were now recognizable not only by their plaid mackintosh but also by the Strand magazines tucked under their arms. The editor ordered Doyle 6 more stories about Holmes. But he refused. His mind was completely different - he was writing a historical novel. Through his agent, he decided to demand 50 pounds for the story, convinced that this was too high a price, but received an immediate consent and was forced to take up Sherlock Holmes again. But all his life Conan Doyle will consider the genre of the historical novel to be the most important in his life. literary career. Micah Clark (about the struggle of the English Puritans of the times of King James II), The White Company (a romantic epic from the times of medieval England of the 14th century), Sir Nigel (the historical sequel to The White Company), The Shadow of a Great Man (about Napoleone). The most good-natured critics were perplexed: did Conan Doyle really think he was a historical novelist? And for himself, the grandiose success of laconic stories about Holmes was only the work of an artisan, but not a real writer ...

In May 1891, Conan Doyle hovered between life and death for a week. In the absence of antibiotics, influenza was a real killer. When his mind cleared up a little, he thought about his future. What poor Louise took for another bout of fever was actually a moment of crisis, not only in the medical sense. After recovering, Arthur informed Louise that they were leaving Portsmouth for London and that he was becoming a professional writer.

Now only Sherlock Holmes interfered with him, the one who brought him fame and fortune, allowed him to become the head and support of the family. “He is taking me away from much more important things, I intend to end him,” Doyle complained to his mother. Mother, a passionate admirer of Holmes, begged her son: “You have no right to destroy him. You can not! You do not have to!" And the editors of the Strand demanded more stories. Arthur again refused, just in case, asking for a thousand pounds for a dozen - an unheard-of fee in those days. The conditions were accepted, and he could not let the publisher down.

special gift

In August 1893, Louise began to cough and complain of chest pains. The husband invited a doctor friend, and he unequivocally stated - tuberculosis, and the so-called galloping, which meant that she had no more than 3-4 months to live. Looking at his haggard, pale wife, Doyle went crazy: how could he, a doctor, not recognize the signs of the disease himself much earlier? Guilt catalyzed energy and a passionate desire to save his wife from certain death. Doyle dropped everything and took Louise to a pulmonary sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. Thanks to proper care and the colossal funds that he spent on her treatment, Louise lived for another 13 years. The illness of his wife coincided with the news of the lonely death of his father in a private department of a hospital for the insane. Conan Doyle went there to collect his belongings, and found among them a diary with notes and drawings that shocked him to the core. Perhaps this was the second turning point in his life. Charles turned to his son and sadly joked that only an Irish sense of humor could attribute an insane diagnosis to him just because he "hears voices."

Meanwhile, in London, the people were seething with indignation - in the "Strand" appeared "The Last Case of Holmes." The detective died in a fight with Professor Moriarty over the Reichenbach Falls, which Doyle recently admired in Switzerland when he visited his wife. Some especially radical readers tied black mourning ribbons to their hats, and the editorial office of the magazine was constantly bombarded with letters and even threats. In a sense, the murder of Holmes psychologically relieved Doyle's state of mind a little, as if, along with Holmes, who was so obsessively mistaken for his alter ego, part of the heavy burden that Arthur was carrying fell into the abyss. It was a kind of unconscious suicide. One of the critics at the end of the writer's life, not without bitter insight, noted that after the murder of Holmes, Conan Doyle himself will never be the same ... Even after he brings him back to life again.

Jean Lecky. Photo from 1925

Defeat the demons

In the meantime, fate has prepared for him another test. On March 15, 1897, 37-year-old Doyle met 24-year-old Jean Lecky, the daughter of wealthy Scots from an ancient family, dating back to the famous Rob Roy, at his mother's house. Huge green eyes, a wave of dark blond curls shimmering with gold, a thin delicate neck - Jean was a real beauty. She studied singing in Dresden and possessed a wonderful mezzo-soprano, was an excellent equestrian and sportswoman. They fell in love with each other at first sight. But the situation was hopeless and therefore especially painful - the conflict between a sense of duty and passion had never tormented his soul with such destructive force. He had no right to even think about divorcing his disabled wife, nor could he become Jean's lover. “I think you attach too much importance to the fact that your relationship can only be platonic. What difference does it make if you don't love your wife anyway?" the sister's husband asked him one day. Doyle shouted back, "That's the difference between innocence and guilt!" He already reproached himself too much and fought more and more fiercely with the demons who tried to make a hole in his knightly chain mail of loyalty. Louise did not bother her husband, she stoically endured suffering, but Arthur could not bring himself to inhale the smell of medicines for a long time, he rushed about like a tiger in a cage, healthy, overflowing with energy, voluntarily dooming himself to abstinence.

To get rid of depression, he filled everything free time various affairs. What he was doing in those years, it seems, would be more than enough for several lives. When he was approached by a certain George Edalji, sentenced to life imprisonment for damaging livestock, Conan Doyle managed to prove his innocence. And then he took up another business - Oscar Slater. A gambler and adventurer, he was in vain, as shown by the investigation conducted by Doyle, together with his lawyer, accused of killing an elderly lady. Arthur made dangerous climbing expeditions, in the company of the same desperate daredevils set off in search of an ancient monastery in Egyptian desert, flew in a balloon, judged boxing matches. In the meantime, wrote a play about Holmes, love story"Duet", which critics smashed to smithereens for sentimentality. He became interested in motorsport - a brand-new sports car "Wolseley" of dark red color with red tires appeared in his stable. He drove it at crazy speed, rolled over several times and miraculously escaped death. He took part in the parliamentary elections, but lost - Doyle did not consider it necessary to talk with voters about their interests, while England entered the war with the Boers. A few years later, Lord Chamberlain himself would ask Doyle to take part in the elections again, although he had vowed never to engage in politics again. Chamberlain knew how to persuade him: England ceases to be great empire, its own colonies are becoming more powerful, it is necessary to increase taxes on imported goods and protect the domestic market. But, having agreed, he again lost. Imperial sentiments, even economically justified ones, were not in fashion, however, could the risk of being branded as a radical and harming one's reputation really stop him?

Sir Arthur

He was lucky - one of the many attempts to get into the war with the Boers in South Africa was successful, and Arthur went there as a surgeon. Death, blood, human suffering and his own fearlessness completely overshadowed his personal problems for several months. King Edward VII granted him a knighthood and the title of sir. Arthur, filled with patriotism, wanted to refuse, believing it immodest to receive a reward for serving his country. But his mother and Jean persuaded him - he doesn't want to offend the king, does he? Envious writers sarcastically remarked that the king granted him the title not at all for services to England, but because, according to rumors, he had not read a single book in his life, except for stories about Sherlock Holmes.

He was forced to continue the adventures of the detective by inflation and the ever-increasing expenses for the treatment of his wife. 100 pounds for 1,000 words - the Strand editor, as usual, did not skimp. Never before have newsstand sellers faced such pressure, literally attacked, to get their hands on the coveted issue featuring the first of a dozen new Holmes stories, The Adventure in the Empty House. The plot was suggested to Arthur by Jean, she also figured out how to believably resurrect Holmes. Baritsu - the techniques of Japanese wrestling, which, it turns out, the detective owned, helped him avoid death ...

Suddenly Louise's health took a turn for the worse and she died in July 1906. And in September 1907, Conan Doyle married Jean Lecky. They bought a house in Windelsham, one of the most picturesque corners County of Sussex. Jean had planted a rose garden in front of the façade, and Arthur's office had a splendid view of the green valleys leading straight to the strait...

Sometime in early August 1914, when it became clear that war was inevitable, Conan Doyle received a note from the village plumber, Mr. Goldsmith: "Something must be done." On the same day, the writer began to create a detachment of volunteers from nearby villages. He asked to be sent to the front as well, but the War Department responded to the private of the 4th Royal Volunteers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (he, of course, refused a higher rank) with a polite, decisive refusal.

Last trip

The first to die in the war was Jean's beloved brother Malcolm Leckie, then the brother-in-law and two nephews of Conan Doyle. A little later - the eldest son of Arthur Kingsley and brother Innes. Arthur wrote to his mother: “The only thing that pleases me is that from all these loved ones and dear people I get clear evidence of their posthumous existence…”

His belief in the existence of the souls of the dead and the possibility of communicating with them was strengthened by Jean, a convinced spiritualist. That is why a young and beautiful woman has been waiting for him for so long. After all, she believed that even death could not separate them, which means that one should not be afraid of the transience of earthly life. She discovered the abilities of a medium for automatic writing (writing under the dictation of spirits in a state of meditative trance) in herself shortly before the war. And then one day, behind the tightly curtained windows of the office, something happened that Conan Doyle had hoped for for many years, studying the occult sciences and looking for evidence. During one of the sessions, his wife contacted the spirit, first of his deceased sister Annette, then of Malcolm, who died in the war. Their messages contained details that even Jean could not have known. For Conan Doyle, this was a long-awaited and indisputable proof, primarily because it was provided to him by his wife, whom he considered an ideal and purest woman in her thoughts.

In October 1916, an article by Conan Doyle appeared in a magazine devoted to the occult sciences, where he publicly and officially admitted that he had acquired a "spiritual religion." Since then, Sir Arthur's last crusade began - he believed that there was no more important mission in his life: to alleviate the suffering of people, convincing them of the possibility of communication between the living and those who had gone to another world. In the writer's office, another (except military) card appeared. Arthur marked with flags the cities in which he gave lectures on spiritualism. Australia, Canada, South Africa, Europe, 500 talks in one US lecture tour alone. He knew that only his name could attract people, and he did not spare himself. Crowds gathered to hear the great Conan Doyle, although often the elderly giant, whose once athletic figure of an athlete grew fat and clumsy, and his gray drooping mustache gave a resemblance to a walrus, at first did not recognize the famous Englishman. Conan Doyle was aware that he was bringing reputation and glory to the altar of his faith. Journalists mercilessly quipped: “Conan Doyle is crazy! Sherlock Holmes lost his clear analytical mind and believed in ghosts." He received threatening letters, close friends begged him to stop, return to literature and stories about the detective, instead of paying for the publication of his spiritualistic works. The famous magician Harry Houdini, who had been friends with Arthur for many years, publicly slandered him and accused him of charlatanism after attending a session conducted by Jean ...

Early on the morning of July 7, 1930, 71-year-old Conan Doyle asked to be seated in a chair. Next to him were the children, and Jean held her husband's hand. "I am embarking on the most exciting and glorious journey that has ever been in my full of adventure life,” whispered Sir Arthur. And he added, already moving his lips with difficulty: "Jin, you were gorgeous."

He was buried in the garden of their house in Windelsham, not far from his wife's rose garden. A memorial service was also held in the rose garden, which was conducted by a representative of the spiritualist church. A special train brought telegrams and flowers. Flowers carpeted a huge field next to the house. Jean was wearing a bright dress. During the funeral, according to eyewitnesses, there was no grief at all. The Strand magazine sent a telegram: "Doyle did an excellent job - in whatever field it may concern!" Another telegram read: "Conan Doyle is dead, long live Sherlock Holmes."

...After the requiem at the Albert Hall, mediums all over the world reported: a ray appeared in the "country" of spirits, sparkling like a diamond of pure water. Jean constantly came into contact with her husband, heard his voice and received from him advice and wishes for herself, children and his remaining faithful friends. Arthur asked her to urgently see a doctor: Jean had indeed been diagnosed with lung cancer. Ironically, in his earthly incarnation, he failed to warn his first wife in time. After the death of Lady Doyle in 1940, their children told Arthur that she, in turn, transmitted her messages to them through mediums ... After the sale of the house in Windelsham, the spouses were reburied. On Arthur's tombstone, his now-adult children asked him to engrave the words: Knight. Patriot. Doctor. Writer.

In the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, on Picardy Place.

As a child, Arthur read a lot, having completely diverse interests. His favorite author was Mine Reid 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. Two years later he went to boarding school in Stonyhurst. Seven subjects were taught there: alphabet, counting, basic rules, grammar, syntax, poetry, rhetoric.

In his senior year, Arthur published a college magazine and wrote poetry. In addition, he played sports, mainly cricket, in which he achieved good results. Then he went to Germany in Feldkirch to teach German, where he continued to play sports with enthusiasm: football, football on stilts, sledding. In the summer of 1876 Doyle returned home.

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

Two years after the start of education, Doyle decided 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 Chamber's Journal in September 1879.

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

In 1880, Arthur received a position as a surgeon on the whaler "Hope" under the command of John Gray, which went to the Arctic Circle. This adventure found a place in his story "Captain of the North Star".

In the autumn 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 looking for a job. 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.

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

On August 6, 1885, Doyle married twenty-seven-year-old Louise Hawkins. After his marriage, Doyle decided to take up 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 brought him popularity. At first it was called A Tangled Skein. Two years later this novel was published in Beaton's 1887 Christmas Weekly under the title A Study in Scarlet, which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The novel was published as a separate edition in early 1888 and was supplied with drawings by Doyle's father, Charles Doyle.

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

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

In May 1891, Doyle decided to leave the practice of medicine for good. At the end of that year, his sixth Sherlock Holmes story came out of print. At the same time, the editors of the magazine "Strand" ordered Doyle six more stories.

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

From 1892 to 1896, Arthur traveled the world extensively with his family, not forgetting to work at the same time: 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, Conan Doyle was knighted by King Edward VII for his services to the crown during the Boer War.
Then Doyle decided to enter politics, 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 Lecky. The Doyle family had a daughter, Jean, and sons, Denis and Adrian.

A few years after his marriage, Doyle staged The Ribbon of Colors, Rodney Stone (under the name The House of Terperley), Points of Destiny, Brigadier Gerard.

On August 4, 1914, Doyle joined the volunteer detachment, which was completely civilian and was created in case the enemy invaded England. During the First World War, Doyle lost many people close to him, including his brother Innes, who by his death had risen to Adjutant General of the Corps and Kingsley's son from his first marriage, as well as two cousins ​​and two nephews.

In the last years of his life, Doyle became interested in the teachings of spiritualism and in the spring of 1922, together with his family, 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 recovered 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 of Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Also in 1929, his last book, The Maracot Deep and Other Stories, was published.
On July 7, 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle died.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

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

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, wealthy 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 during his college years, Arthur's most unloved 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" of 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 the papers of his father, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind, in his name. 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 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 for further education. Future writers he met here included 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 "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's degree in medicine 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 and everyday novel with a crime-detective plot, The Girdlestone Trading House, 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 Scarlet, originally called 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, the third and perhaps the most unusual major piece of art Doyle - novel " The Mystery of Cloomber» (Eng. 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

Arthur Conan Doyle. 1893

In February 1888, A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel The Adventures of Micah Clark, which told of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685), the purpose of which was the overthrow of 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 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 detachment" 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 takes place here 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 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 Patient of Dr. Fletcher, 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 secondary 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 military field hospital surgeon, he went to the Boer War. The book The 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", which centered on a young Parsi who was convicted on a trumped-up charge (of 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.

Conan Doyle's house in South Norwood (London)

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

In literature, there were several undoubted authorities 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 spoke of Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict with no pleasant qualities." 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

Arthur Conan Doyle. 1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Lost World, a science fiction story (subsequently filmed more than once), 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. A work that many critics tend to underestimate, Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr considers it 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 ...

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 the sin fall on those who force sin us. If we wage this war, guided by Christ's commandments, there will be no sense. Were we, following the well-known recommendation taken out of context, to turn 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 severe 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 " Land of mist" (eng. The land of mist, 1926). The result of his many years of research on the “mental” phenomenon was the fundamental work The 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.

Arthur Conan Doyle's grave in Minstead

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Arriving in 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 her last: she contracted tuberculosis in the early morning 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 1893, the famous writer of the early 20th century, Willie Hornung, became a relative of Conan Doyle: he married his sister, Connie (Constance) Doyle.

» No. 257 in Southsea. He left the lodge in 1889, but returned to it in 1902, only to retire again in 1911. Theodore Roosevelt, 1925)" (2000), where a young medical student, Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes an assistant to Professor Joseph Bell (a prototype of Sherlock Holmes) and helps him investigate crimes. Murdoch's Investigation" (2000). The series also mentions the death of Doyle's first wife, and his attempt to "kill" Holmes, and the Edalji case.