World-famous literary critic, writer and poet V.V. Nabokov did not appreciate the work of Dostoevsky, he was wary of Thomas Mann and Cam, he considered Golsworthy and Dreiser to be mediocrity. But the work of Conan Doyle was very fond of. True, he once admitted that he read books by an English writer in childhood, but over time their charm faded for him. The adventure stories of Conan Doyle are more like teenagers. But this does not mean that he was not able to create complex deep prose. Just many of the works of Conan Doyle did not receive wide popularity.
The childhood of the creator of "Sherlock Holmes"
He was born May 22, 1859 in a family of Irish Catholics. From an early age, the boy read a lot. Already at the age of six, he wrote his first work. Conan Doyle was the son of an architect who was addicted to alcohol and turned the lives of his household into hell. Unpleasant childhood memories left an imprint on the character and work of the writer.
The future master of the word lived in his father’s house for only four years. Charles Doyle was particularly cruel to his son. Sometimes she went far beyond the strict Victorian upbringing. This prompted Mary Doyle to send Arthur to a closed school. But even before entering the educational institution, the boy spent some time in the family of his mother's acquaintances.
Charlie and Mary Doyle experienced serious financial difficulties. The reason was the inappropriate behavior of the head of the family, who not only abused alcohol, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Perhaps Godder’s closed school was a salvation for little Arthur.
The unloved subject of the future prose writer was mathematics. An interesting fact from the biography of our hero: he developed a very difficult relationship with fellow practitioners of the Moriarty brothers. Later, in one of his works, Conan Doyle endowed the negative character with this name, thereby taking revenge on the offenders. Now, many fans of the writer and his famous hero Sherlock Holmes name Moriarty causes only negative associations.
First literary experience
It is difficult to list all the works of Conan Doyle. The list of books in English prose is quite extensive. It’s impossible to list everything. Some works were not completed, others the author failed to publish. Modern scholars argue that the first book was written in 1865, that is, when the author was only six years old.
Conan Doyle mentioned his debut work in the essay Juvenal. It is known that only two characters were present in it: a tiger and a traveler. The first swallowed the second, which put the young author in a quandary. How to end the story? Arthur Conan Doyle was not a romantic, he was a realist (although he was interested in paranormal phenomena). Therefore, he could not resurrect his hero. This book has not been completed. For many years she was kept in the family archive. It was extracted from there only in 2004, and later sold at Christie's auction.
Writing Doctor
For some reason, among the masters of the artistic word there are many doctors. Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Stanislav Lem and many others. Arthur Conan Doyle, like the above authors, was lucky. After all, he was born in the middle of the XIX century. If Conan Doyle was born fifty years earlier, he would have to dig up the corpses in the cemetery in order to practice anatomy, use alcohol instead of anesthesia and perform many more unpleasant manipulations. Fortunately, it was in the middle of the 19th century that medicine took a huge leap forward on the path to progress. Doyle managed to combine his studies with the literary field.
Our hero was educated at the University of Edinburgh. In choosing a profession, a certain young doctor who rented a room in the house of Mary Doyle played a significant role. Father by that time had almost completely lost his mind. The first story of a medical student was published in a university journal. This work is called "The Secret of the Sassassa Valley." It was created under the influence of the work of Edgar Allan Poe.
Travel to the Arctic
In 1880, one of Conan Doyle's acquaintances was offered the position of a doctor on a whaling ship. But that for some reason could not go. He proposed in his place the candidacy of the future creator of works about Sherlock Holmes. Arthur by this time passed the winter session and was looking for seasonal work.
To go on a long journey, he agreed with great joy. Not because of money (they paid well on a whaling ship), but also because of natural curiosity - a quality without which he would probably not have become a world famous writer.
The ship was called "Hope." He was poisoning from Peterhead to the Norwegian Sea. A student at a medical university and a novice writer spent seven months in the Arctic waters. Earned 50 pounds. Impressions of this trip formed the basis of the work "Captain of the North Star."
Literary work
Dr. Conan Doyle received his diploma in 1881. For some time he was engaged in medical practice, but already in 1891 he decided to devote himself completely to literature. The list of works by Arthur Conan Doyle published in the eighties includes “Notes by Stark Monroe,” “Message from Hebekuk Jeffson,” “Trading House Gerdleston.” "A Study in Scarlet" was written in 1886. Three years later, the writer’s third novel, The Secret of Klembert, was published.
Historical prose
Thanks to Soviet films based on the works of Conan Doyle, many in our country believe that this author composed exclusively detective stories. There are also historical novels in his bibliography. In the late eighties, Conan Doyle completed the work "The Adventures of Micah Clark." The plot of this book is based on the uprising that took place in England at the end of the 17th century.
Critics believe the writer’s first serious historical novel is The White Squad. In this work, the author reflected the realities of feudal England. The historical genre can also be attributed to "Rodney Stone" - a novel in which famous personalities, including Napoleon, are mentioned.
Sherlock Holmes
The first story in the series about the all-knowing detective was published in 1891. The prototype of Sherlock Holmes is considered Joseph Bel - professor of surgery, who taught at the university, in which Conan Doyle received his medical education. This person was able to guess to the smallest detail not only character, but also the past of his interlocutor.
For several years, the writer wrote stories about Sherlock Holmes, but eventually began to be weighed down by a hero who glorified him throughout the world. Once he even tried to end the brilliant detective by writing a story about the fight of Holmes with Moriarty. As you know, later the character had to be revived. By that time, he was very fond of readers. The final story of the series about Sherlock Holmes was The Hound of the Baskervilles, published in 1900. This work is recognized as a classic of the detective genre.