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Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May, 1859, in
Edinburgh, Scotland. He studied medicine at the
Edinburgh University, and qualified as a doctor in 1885,
and so began his not-so-thriving practice, until by 1891
he had become a full time writer. The adventure stories,
written in his spare time gave birth to the inimitable
Sherlock Holmes, a private detective by profession,
residing in 221B Baker Street. By 1920, Doyle was one of
the most highly paid writers in the world. The
characterisation of Holmes was so compelling, that when
Conan Doyle decided to kill him in the "The Final
Problem," (1893) the public outcry made him resurrect
his hero again. Arthur Conan Doyle lived a varied and
adventurous life. A historian, whaler, athlete, war
correspondent and a spiritualist, he was knighted in
1902 for his work in a South African field Hospital
during the Boer War. He died on 7 July, 1930.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
Since his appearance in November 1887 in Beeton's
Christmas Annual, Sherlock Holmes has had a special
place in the heart of fiction readers worldwide. This
much loved detective along with his companion Dr.
Watson, was introduced to the world in A Study in
Scarlet, which was written in a span of three weeks in
1886. With his trademark deerstalker cap, pipe and his
cape-backed overcoat, he has captured the fancy of
generations of readers, old and young.
These two volumes contain all the four novels and
fifty-six short stories, which made Holmes a famous
name. In this first volume, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John
H. Watson come together for the first time as boarders
in A Study in Scarlet, (1887). In The Sign of Four,
which appeared in the Lippincott's Magazine in 1890,
they solve the mystery of Ms. Mary Morstan's missing
father. This volume also has some of Holmes's famous
cases like "The Adventure of The Speckled Band," (1892)
"The Boscombe Valley Mystery," (1891) and "The Five
Orange Pips," (1891). Sherlock Holmes bids adieu in "The
Final Problem" (1893), when he falls down the
Reichenbach Falls while confronting his arch rival,
Professor Moriarty, only to surface back in "The
Adventure of The Empty House" (1903).
This second volume starts with the widely acclaimed
novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, (1902), where the
murder weapon is an animal. In The Valley of Fear
(1915), Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson unravel the
mystery surrounding the death of one Mr. John Douglas,
previously Mr. Birdy Edwards of the famous Pinkerton
Agency of the States. This novel is followed by the two
collections, His Last Bow (1917) and The Case Book of
Sherlock Holmes (1927), having some of his famous cases. |
