On Conan Doyle

by Michael Dirda

A passionate lifelong fan of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda is a member of The Baker Street Irregulars--the most famous and romantic of all Sherlockian groups. Combining memoir and appreciation, On Conan Doyle is a highly engaging personal introduction to Holmes's creator, as well as a rare insider's account of the curiously delightful activities and playful scholarship of The Baker Street Irregulars.

Because Arthur Conan Doyle wrote far more than the mysteries involving Holmes, this book also introduces readers to the author's lesser-known but fascinating writings in an astounding range of other genres. A prolific professional writer, Conan Doyle was among the most important Victorian masters of the supernatural short story, an early practitioner of science fiction, a major exponent of historical fiction, a charming essayist and memoirist, and an outspoken public figure who attacked racial injustice in the Congo, campaigned for more liberal divorce laws, and defended wrongly convicted prisoners. He also wrote novels about both domestic life and contemporary events (including one set in the Middle East during an Islamic uprising), as well as a history of World War I, and, in his final years, controversial tracts in defense of spiritualism.

On Conan Doyle describes all of these achievements and activities, uniquely combining skillful criticism with the story of Dirda's deep and enduring affection for Conan Doyle and his work. This is a book for everyone who already loves Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and the world of 221B Baker Street, or for anyone who would like to know more about them, but it is also a much-needed celebration of Arthur Conan Doyle's genius for every kind of storytelling.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Books About Books, Essays, History, Literary Criticism, Literature

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Michael Dirda (born 1948), a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning critic. After earning a PhD in comparative literature from Cornell University, the joined the Washington Post in 1978.

Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published: Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-253-33824-7) and Bound to Please (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005; ISBN 0-393-05757-7). He has also written Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2005; ISBN 0-8050-7877-0), Classics for Pleasure (Orlando: Harcourt, 2007; ISBN 0-151-01251-2), critical biographical study On Conan Doyle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011; ISBN 0-691-15135-0), which received a 2012 Edgar Award, and the autobiographical An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003; ISBN 0-393-05756-9).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely review a book I loathe, because I believe criticism becomes more honest and accurate the closer it approaches to a form of appreciation. By my own standards then, I should admire Michael Dirda’s On Conan Doyle, for, aging literary critic though he may be, Dirda has kept alive his boyish enthusiasm for Sherlock Holmes, an enthusiasm which inspires this entertaining combination of biography criticism and memoir, making it a fitting tribute to the Great Detective’s creator, Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle.

Perhaps the finest thing about this book are Dirda’s boyhood memories of his first encounters with Holmes Here is a taste of Dirda’s memories, as he prepares for his first reading of The Hound of the Baskervilles:

With a dollar clutched in my first, I pedaled my red Roadmaster bike to Whelan’s drugstore, where I quickly picked out two or three candy b, ars, a box of Cracker Jack, and a cold bottle of Orange Crush. After my family had driven off in our new 1958 Ford, I dragged a blanket from my bed, spread it one the reclining chair next to the living room’s brass floor lamp, carefully arranged my provisions near to hand, turned off all the other lights in the house, and crawled expectantly under the covers with my paperback of The Hound—just as the heavens began to boom with thunder and the rain to thump against the curtained windows . . . [Holmes and Watson’s] informant Dr. Mortimer pauses, then adds, hesitantly, that near the body he had spotted footprints on the damp ground. A man or a woman’s? eagerly inquires the great detective, to which question he receives the most thrilling answer in all of twentieth century literature” “Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!” I shivered with fearful pleasure, scrunched further down under my thick blanket, and took another bite of my Baby Ruth candy bar, as happy as I will ever be.

I’m sure many of us possess similar memories. (Mine involves my bedroom, a bottle of Tab, and a breeze through the window on a balmy summer. I was proud of myself, for I had figured out my first grown-up mystery clue: why the thief returned Lord Baskerville’s new unworn boots, and stole his old boots instead!)

But Dirda is good on other things too: Doyle’s biography, his influences, his other literary works (he is particular good on Professor Challenger, Brigadier Girard, and Doyle’s tales of the weird and supernatural), his own adventures in collecting Sherlockiana, and his description of the Baker Street Irregulars, the celebrated group of Holmes enthusiasts that Dirda has since joined himself. Every prospective member must compose and read an original essay, illuminating some aspect of Holmes and his circle . . . who are—contrary to common belief—real people after all. (Unfortunately, Dirda enclosed what seems to be almost the whole text of his freshman essay “A Case for Langdale Pike”—a minor character in the tale “The Three Gables.” It is twenty pages long, too clever by half, and I could have done done without it entirely.)

All in all, though, this is a most entertaining book, and I recommend it highly, particularly to other dedicated Holmes fans, but also to every reader who remembers vividly the books of childhood on those stormy nights or balmy days when reading was an uncomplicated pleasure.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was 12 I cooked a whole tray of Rice Krispie Candy Treats and carried it back to my room, where it sustained me over the days required to read The Complete Sherlock Holmes in a small print, cheap edition. I suspect there are several thousand other readers who could tell a similar story – the adolescent discovery of and addiction to the archetypal detective. Dirda's short study of Conan Doyle brought that pleasure back to me.

Dirda's book is worthy not only for its musings on the history of Sherlock Holmes, but for its interest in Conan Doyle's other bits of fiction (although I doubt he meant his books on spiritualism to count as such). I particularly appreciated Dirda's list of favorite tales, the kind of passionate annotated bibliography I always hope to find in a book critic's book. (The master in this mode is, of course, Alberto Manguel, to whom I owe hundreds of hours of happy reading.)

Unfortunately, On Conan Doyle derails midway when Dirda gives us way too much information about the various Sherlock Holmes societies and his starring role within. The last third of the book reads like an after-dinner speech that didn't know when to stop.

This turned out to be an expensive book for me. Before I'd finished, Dirda had incited my purchase of the hefty, handsome 3-volume The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, edited by Leslie Klinger. I started off with the Christmas goose tale, "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to Sherlock Holmes in a burst of proto-feminism.

The library at my elementary school, a dimly-lit space whose shelves were tightly compressed into the back half of its single room, offered a very limited collection, over which I regularly ran a voracious eye. So it happened at the age of ten I came across a fat, red book labeled The Boys’ Sherlock Holmes. I’d already learned that things segregated off for the boys were generally more fun (see: scouting, where the male half of the species got to tie knots and handle knives, while I was left to learn to bake a cake in a foil-lined box), so I immediately checked out this Boys’ toy and took it home to read. It’s a mark of both my determination and the charisma of Doyle’s creation that I managed to make it through the volume, which started with A Study in Scarlet,, the story that introduced Holmes to the world back in 1887 but which, to a ten year old, seemed slow and somewhat oddly preoccupied with Mormonism. But there followed The Sign of the Four and The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and, just like that, I was hooked on Holmes.

I’m far from the only one. Sherlock Holmes is the Champs Elysees of literature: Eventually, everyone comes to him. Anyone foolishly inclined to doubt his perennial popularity need only look at the wild success of the BBC’s modern-day reboot, Sherlock, the second series of which premieres on PBS May 6th. (Or at the two Guy Ritchie films starring Robert Downey Jr., or at the series called Elementary in development over at CBS, starring Johnny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Watson – but, really, why should you, when the BBC does it best?) I’ll admit to counting the days until I get to watch the Great Detective, as interpreted by Benedict Cumberbatch, in the act again. Thankfully for me and others with a similar Sherlockian addiction to feed, there’s Michael Dirda’s On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling (Princeton University, $19.95) to help pass the time while we wait.

Dirda, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book columnist for The Washington Post, also met Holmes at a young age, a story he recounts with beautiful nostalgia in his slim tome before launching into a wider exploration of the life and works of Doyle, the Scottish doctor who gave the world one of its best-loved literary creations. Famously, Doyle was so underwhelmed with his character that he tried to kill him off in 1893, having the detective go over a cliff at Reichenbach Falls while locked in a death-struggle with his nemesis Moriarty, only to be forced by popular demand to bring Holmes back from the dead ten years later. Dirda respects Doyle’s estimation of his own works and gives attention to what the author considered his best material – his historical novels and eerie supernatural tales, as well as his writings on spiritualism – but leaves plenty of room for discussion of everyone’s favorite consulting detective, including a fascinating insider’s look at The Baker Street Irregulars, the first and most well-known of all Sherlockian societies. (And one which, it’s clear from Dirda’s text, has a fantastic sense of humor about themselves and their subject matter.)

Perhaps the best part of On Conan Doyle is the appendix, which provides a lavish catalog of essential reads for any Holmes or Doyle fan. I was particularly pleased to see Dirda chose to include Michael Dibdin’s The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, which is, to my mind, the best of the tales wherein London’s most famous detective takes on her most famous serial killer, Jack the Ripper. I’ve added the rest of his suggestions to my reading list, to help while away the long hours until (and between) the new episodes of Sherlock. Because no matter how a reader first comes to Holmes, once you’ve met him, the game’s always afoot.

[Elderberrywine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly charming.

Time for true confessions. When I was 13, I received a package of Modern Library volumes for Christmas (not the normal sort of gift at all) that consisted of The Brother Karamazov, Dostoevsky, Seven Gothic Tales, Dinesen, The Autobiography of Benito Cellini, Stories of Modern Italy, Tales of Terror and the Supernatural pace Lovecraft, my last review, and the Complete Sherlock Holmes. Best. Christmas. Ever. Guess which was my favorite. Courtesy of Scholastic books, Tolkien arrived a year later, and thus I met the twin pillars of my literary landscape.

Dirda is more or less my contemporary, and ran across Holmes somewhat younger, but in bits, so we pretty much ended up at the same place at the same time (he also had help from our beloved Scholastic Books), and I would wager everything that there is no impact like that of Holmes (or Tolkien!) on the right young mind at the right time.

This is not a biography, but a celebration, not only of Holmes, but the rest of Doyle's writings as well, not to mention those of his contemporaries and influences. I suspect Powell's and Abe's will being seeing the result of my reading this in the near future.

And such a delightful writer as well (Dirda, that is). Just like chatting with one of your bookish friends with an impish sense of humor. Here is one of his memories of his school library days - I was poking around the small travel section of the school library when I noticed a book entitled "Jorkins Remembers Africa". Suspecting it to be some Great White Hunter's gung-ho memoir about the fierce man-eaters he had killed, I half-heartedly pulled the book from the shelf. On the title page was a small illustration, revealing a hunter in deadly combat with a. . . unicorn. Recognizing that here was a book that had been seriously misshelved, I immediately signed it out. LOL - as would we all, ammirite?

[Bill FromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Dirda’s summary of Conan Doyle’s life and works is a delight to read. In this short book, compact and ideally portable, Mr. Dirda conveys a treasure trove of information, not only about his titular subject, but also a wide range of related literary subjects. Seamlessly intertwining personal memoir, biography, and literary analysis, Dirda gives us an amazingly engaging exploration of Conan Doyle’s achievements and the delights of both discovery and re-reading. In a brief discussion of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu books, he also demonstrates an uncanny sense of when re-reading of a youthful favorite would be more likely to shatter than revive the original enjoyment.

However, in the later part of the book, at the end of an extended discussion of the Baker Street Irregulars, of which Mr. Dirda is a member, a certain literary schizophrenia becomes evident. This section concludes with a literary jeu of Dirda’s own composition, purporting to be the opening of a rare collection of detective stories, A Case for Langdale Pike (Pike is a minor character from a Holmes story and Dirda’s own nom de BSI). Earlier in the book Conan Doyle’s rules for good writing are given as “The first requisite is to be intelligible. The second is to be interesting. The third is to be clever.” However A Case for Langdale Pike sacrifices everything for the sake of cleverness, even, for those of us who can recognize no more than a tithe of its cascading literary allusions, intelligibility. It made me think of the type of literary games practiced by Oulipo, known to me more by reputation than experience, and for which Mr. Dirda has elsewhere expressed his admiration. I would be interested in reading a companion volume from the author similarly documenting his initiation into and enjoyment of the sort of allusive, reflexive texts that seem the polar opposite of the whole art of storytelling he so eloquently admires in Conan Doyle.

[Melora · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the greater part of this. In the first approximately two-thirds of the book, Dirda recounts his youthful discovery of Sherlock Holmes and his later explorations of Doyle's (voluminous) work. As always, he does a marvelous job of describing books and stories with just the right level of intriguing detail, and my own reading list is now several books longer. He offers biographical details of Conan Doyle's life, mostly those related to his storytelling and writing, and I found the description of his working habits particularly interesting. The exploration of the works of authors influenced by Doyle was also fascinating – T.S. Eliot? P.G. Wodehouse? Who knew? (Not me, anyway!) I dropped a star for the lengthy section on the Baker Street Irregulars (about 40 pages of a 202 page book), a club of which the author is a proud member. While the existence of active clubs devoted to the life and adventures of Sherlock Holmes is relevant to the continuing life of Doyle's creation, the descriptions of the club's activities were too long to be interesting to any but other club members (though Dirda's excerpt from his own story, written for presentation at the BSI, “A Case for Langdale Pike,” did make me laugh, with its references to the works of M.R. James, P.G. Wodehouse, etc.). In the final part of the book, also very good, Dirda returns to Doyle's historical romances, suggesting that, while dated, they are still worth reading, and he concludes with a few words on the continuing life of Doyle's work in film and fiction. A quick, fun read, and, as intended, it's made me keen to revisit the original Sherlock Holmes and also some of his newer manifestations.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in preparation for reading The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume III The Novels . I have read only one Sherlock Holmes story ("The Speckled Band," for a course on eighteenth-century British literature in college) and, to be honest, didn't find it particularly interesting. I'd never been a fan of mysteries, and since I could never figure out who had "done it" before the author told me, I tended to find them fairly frustrating.

But that was twenty years ago now and, embarrassing as this is to admit, the Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman BBC series and the Guy Ritchie films have done their part in encouraging me to revisit Doyle's work. Plus I've had my eye on Leslie Klinger's beautiful annotated editions for quite some time (as objects as well as for the words they contain).

Michael Dirda's book-length appreciation had the desired effect, in that he has led me to believe that I won't regret my desire to revisit Holmes and Watson in printed form. His enthusiasm for Doyle's work (not just the Holmes stories, but for much of the author's output) is inspiring and eloquently supported by his engaging prose style. After reading Dirda's take, I'm confident that if, after reading the annotated novels, I still don't like the Holmes stories, the fault lies entirely within me rather than in Arthur Conan Doyle.

[Disclaimer: I am an employee of this book's publisher, Princeton University Press. Arguably, this means you should read my "review" (if you can call it that) with a grain of salt, even though I had no direct involvement in its publication and read it only because it interested me personally. Honestly, I wouldn't have even mentioned it if it weren't, y'know, the law.]

[Matt Poland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn't usually classify literary criticism as a "quick read," but I blew through Michael Dirda's appreciation of Arthur Conan Doyle's career on a 3-hour ferry ride. "Appreciation" is maybe a better word than "criticism" to characterize this book: I could have used more detailed explication of what exactly makes the style and structure of Doyle's stories work; his short fiction is so carefully constructed and styled, yet it wears that care so lightly. But Dirda's enthusiasm for the whole of Doyle's work (not just Sherlock Holmes) and his fondness for late 19th- and earth 20th-century genre fiction make this book a wonderful companion for a few hours. Dirda is a walking card catalog, so I found myself making lists of stories and books that he referenced on which to follow up. Although he did not convince me entirely to give Doyle's didactic medieval romances a try, Dirda's chapter on his weird fiction was frankly mouthwatering. Most fun of all were his reminiscences of his association with the Baker Street Irregulars, certainly the classiest fanboys around. This, and Dirda's reminiscences of his early encounters with Sherlock Holmes, make this a wonderfully personal book about one reader's lifelong engagement with an author. As someone whose love of books was kick-started by a children's version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, it's nice to think I can join them in the parlor by the fire.

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book packs a big punch thanks to Michael Dirda's trademark enthusiasm for not only Arthur Conan Doyle but for excellent stories of all sorts. Interwoven with his own discoveries of Doyle's writing, we get Doyle's biography, looks at the whys and wherefore's of his work, and the context of the times in which they were written. We also get an inside look at the Baker Street Irregulars, in which I was less interested but which was charmingly written about.

In particular this is good for those who think that the only thing Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about was Sherlock Holmes. I've long had a liking for Professor Challenger, Doyle's weird fiction, and The White Company. I discovered, reading this, that I've missed Doyle's tall tales told at the club about Brigadier Gerard.

As always with Michael Dirda's writing, read this with a notepad and pen nearby. His eagerness to share many wonderful sounding books leaves the reader with much more to explore.

[Stanley Goldyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that Michael Dirda writes well is indisputable, and his treatment of this compendium of the works by Arthur Conan Doyle (ACD) is no exception.

Dirda navigates Doyle's writings, his novels and short stories, as a connoisseur sifting the dishes of a banquet for the best caviar. He is certainly well acquainted with the subject and his field. Moving from the most famous tales of Holmes and Watson, Dirda segues into Professor Challenger, The White Company, Brigadier Gerard and Doyle's ventures into the unknown, the scientific, and the spiritual. He includes mention of the minor and less known works - highly interesting in their own way.

This work is a short book, 45,000 words by the author's own count, and if you are a fan of Doyle, it's well worth a read. It contains many insights into a wonderfully interesting and creative man - courteous, chivalrous, knowledgeable, combative, trustworthy, stoic, self-controlled - an endless list.

Dirda's journey exposes some interesting facts. Although the list is almost infinite, the more exotic include:
- references to ACD's brother-in-law, E V Hornung, whose comments and notes are singularly witty and erudite.
- 'The Sign of the Four' written in Pitman's shorthand.
- the possibility that Professor Moriarty suffered from Parkinson's disease.
- a snapshot of the rituals of the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI) at their meetings. Both Franklin D Roosevelt and Harry Truman were BSI invested members.
- was 'M' of James Bond fame derived from Professor Moriarty?
- ACD's 13 published books about spiritualism between 1916 and 1930.

He asks, "What other ACD books deserve rediscovery?" Then points to Doyle's historical novels - 'The White Company' and 'Sir Nigel', and piratical exploits in 'The Dealings of Captain Sharkey'. More obscure recommendations follow, including novels of contemporary life such as 'The Stark Munro Letters' and the more popular 'The Tragedy of the Korosko'.

The views of other authors, ACD's peers and the present, where Agatha Christie, John le Carre, Peter Ackroyd, P G Wodehouse, Graham Greene and Michael Chabon, receive a mention. He singles out Dr Watson as the sorely underappreciated and to whom we owe so much, and above all, confirms the undying interest in the world's greatest detective and his creator, the inimitable Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

[Christopher Rush · Rating 3 out of 5]

The real subtitle of this should probably have been "But Mostly On Dirda's Experience with Doyle's Works," instead of its purported subtitle, which is only addressed briefly toward the end. This is not a criticism, mind, simply information for you, the unsuspecting future reader, a good deal of this is a personal reflection of Dirda's reading youth, his early experiences with Doyle and other mystery/sci-fi/fantasy/pulp adventures in those halcyon days of dime-store magazines and the freedom of youth to travel their hometowns without worry or danger, as well as his later-life experiences with the Baker Street Irregulars, and how he has lead the best life possible (as usually comes across in his collections of book reviews) without sounding too snobby about it.
As usual, Mr. Dirda suffuses his commentary with lists of authors and other works you'll want to track down, which is not always as facile as one might suspect in the Digital Age. You'll likely want a pen and paper (or word processor) close by to enumerate the suggested readings throughout in addition to the recommended works at the end of his reflections.
The only other flaw (if you might consider Dirda's personal histories an intrusive flaw) is Dirda's awkward inability to balance his general enthusiasm for Sir Conan Doyle with his (ACD's) flaws as Dirda sees them, especially Doyle's Spiritualism. Toward the end, Dirda attempts to say he respects Doyle's religious/spiritual beliefs and his willingness to write and act on them so much, but since he (Dirda) clearly disagrees with it, his respect is tepid and nominal at best. He is clearly embarrassed by Doyle's belief in fairies and even goes so far as to encourage us not to read some of Doyle's work in certain areas.
The rest, however, comes off as an energetic, enthusiastic appeal to us to delight in more of Conan Doyle's oeuvre than just Sherlock Holmes (though he clearly wants us to read those works again and again as well). He does mention Jeremy Brett briefly, with mild approbation, perhaps not as much or effusively as some of us may prefer, especially as it is only in passing with Robert Downey, Jr. and that newer BBC modern version. He discusses Basil Rathbone's movies, too, but his delight is hampered by Nigel Bruce's Watson (or, at least, the writer's treatment of the character). On the whole, Dirda is dissatisfied with the history of Sherlock Holmes on radio and screen, which is why he continues to enjoin us to use our imagination with the real stories themselves (along with a few other adaptations he recommends), and especially increase our awareness of the wide range of Conan Doyle works as well: the autobiographies (not the fairy ones), the Challenger stories, Gerard, the historical adventures, the White Company, the horror short stories, and more. But not the fairy works.
Rough patches and all, this is a fast-paced read that does its job well: motivates us to go read a lot of diverse Sir Arthur Conan Doyle works.

[Kornela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a bit obsessed with Sherlock Holmes. So I was very excited to pick up this book. However, I felt that this was not a good starting point for someone, like me, who doesn't really know much about the man behind Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. Dirda writes in a way that assumes the reader is at least moderately acquainted with Conan Doyle's life. Events are mentioned, alluded to, glossed over, and not explained. Hardly any of CD's biography is detailed. And somewhat disappointingly, Sherlock Holmes is not the main focus of this book. He's in there of course, but the main purpose of this book is to introduce you to CD's other work. Dirda is obviously a huge fan. He seems to know a lot of CD's work like the back of his hand. He does a thorough, impressive introduction and summary of many of CD's novels and stories. You can picture him reading and rereading this stuff and his enthusiasm makes you want to read it too. Someday.
The other part of the book deals with Dirda's experiences with the Baker Street Irregulars, a highly exclusive Holmes admiration society whose exploits are...very irregular. From what I gather these people like to meet every so often so they can eat, drink, and make up stories about Holmes and everything else from his world--from writing fake letters talking about the characters as if they truly existed to working on research papers hypothesizing that Holmes was actually a woman or that his archenemy Professor Moriarty was misunderstood. It's done with love, Dirda says. Maybe so, but it doesn't make it any less weird.
Overall, a very slim, quick book that introduces you to Conan Doyle beyond Sherlock Holmes, appropriate for anyone who's interested in it.

[Nathanael Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this slim volume (210 pages) over the course of an afternoon. It’s a marvelous appreciation of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle—not just his Holmes stories, though those bulk large, but also his lesser-known works. And also the man himself. Dirda has an easy, conversational style that never grows wearying (except, perhaps, when he presents a huge chunk of a speech he gave to the Baker Street Irregulars). I laughed many times while reading; it’s a convivial book that deserves to be on the shelves, not only of Holmesians, but of anyone who enjoys a well-written appreciation of good writing.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one is better at evoking the joy of reading than Michael Dirda, and few book critics are better at igniting interest in books you would not normally have sought out. In this short book on Arthur Conan Doyle, part of the Writers on Writers series, Dirda covers Doyle's life and considerable body of work, starting but not stopping with Sherlock Holmes. He also pens a wonderful chapter describing his introduction to and involvement with The Baker Street Irregulars. For Doyle fans (or for people who enjoy reading about writers) this book is a must.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dirda's love affair with the works of Conan Doyle (and with associated writers like R. Austin Freeman, Jacques Futrelle, Chesterton, Rider Haggard, etc.) makes pleasant reading because it reminds me of how exciting books were when I was a kid. They still are, of course, but his enthusiasm for his early reading is contagious.) He also gives a good reading of Doyle's major characters (Holmes, Challoner, Gerard), though others provide more analysis. It's a short book but a pleasant read.

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short excellent book that conveys Michael Dirda's delight in reading, provides a good reading of the Sherlock Holmes canon, an interesting introduction to the other works of Conan Doyle (I've only read The Lost World), and a fascinating inside account of the Baker Street Irregulars, the American association of Sherlockians. It's infectious.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has read a fair amount of works by Arthur Conan Doyle [1], I consider myself at least a mild fan of his writing.  This work is written by someone who is enough of a fan to have been invited to the Baker Street Irregulars, which apparently believe that it was a different Doyle who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories as the rest of his body of work.  This book covers mainly the short stories and novels of Sherlock Holmes and neither his poetry nor very much on his writings in defense of Spiritualism, except his fiction along those lines.  This book is written by someone who first started reading Sherlock Holmes and other related tales as a kid and as a result feels particularly passionate about such works.  The author seems to think that one cannot be a passionate reader of works that one readers later in life, but he appears to extrapolate his own experience and make it a universal law, and that is a common human flaw, unfortunately.  This is a worthwhile book to read, but mainly if you are the sort of person who likes reading chatty and somewhat rambling discussions about one author by another author.

This is a short work of about 200 short pages, and it is written without a great deal of structure.  The book consists of rambling tangents that are given titles but which tend to run together fairly easily.  Consider this a set of monologues on the influence and importance of Arthur Conan Doyle and his literary creations.  Many of these are highly entertaining, as some of them discuss Conan Doyle's own ideas about his writings and which writings he thought were the best, and others discuss the context of his works in terms of inspiring other writers as well as inspiring groups and societies which carry on remembering the writings he made.  Of particular interest to note are the ways that other writers have been inspired by Doyle's works.  For example, one of the stories included, "A Case For Langdale Pike," includes a great deal of humorous literary references for the reader who is well-read and elegantly mixes fact and fiction.  Overall, this book shows the fun of being a fan of a writer and talking with other people who are fans of writer, building a community out of the beloved works one has read and enjoyed.

This book has a clear and pretty narrow area of interest for those who are fans of the writing of Arthur Conan Doyle.  Specifically, this book is primarily for those who are fans of Sherlock Holmes and appreciate that there are real-life societies of fans devoted to the series even now.  To a lesser extent, the author focuses on the short stories that influenced or echoed the Sherlock Holmes stories as well as other science-fiction related stories.  The writings of Sherlock Holmes in defense of faeries is barely discussed, and his poetry, which is actually pretty decent, is entirely ignored.  This is a book that does not seek to expand the understanding of Conan Doyle's writing beyond what is currently most popular, except to mention that he preferred his longer historical epics and rather sold his shorter stories a bit short.  Like many writers, he most valued what he spent the most time and effort on and not what was the most popular to the general public.  The fact that the author is a fanboy of Conan Doyle and not a literary scholar greatly influences this approach.  If you are a Sherlock Holmes fanboy (or fangirl), there is much you will appreciate here.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

http://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/...

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arthur Conan Doyle is most known for being the creator of the superlative detective Sherlock Holmes. Yet, Doyle wrote much more than that. To the extent that his other writings are mentioned, they are often restricted to Doyle’s writings on spiritualism. His other writings, some of which Doyle considered to be his best work, are rarely mentioned.
The strongest feature of this recapitulation of Doyle’s life is the mention of his other writings. Some of those writings are examined in significant detail, a valuable feature for readers that want to expand beyond the Holmes tales.
Dirda is a member of the group “Baker Street Irregulars,” a club of people dedicated to delving deep into the meanings and unusual extensions of the characters beyond what Doyle actually wrote. There is extensive mention of these musings, no place more than on page 146. “Jason Rouby conjectured that Holmes let Moriarty go at the Reichenbach and that the reformed master criminal went on to pursue a career in law enforcement the United States, taking the name J. Edgar Hoover. C. Arnold Johnson, by contrast, hypothesized that Moriarty returned to London as Fu Manchu, while William Leonard determined that Moriarty survived because he was actually the undead Count Dracula.”
Delving into the total work and mind of Conan Doyle is some of the most interesting literary exploration that you can embark on. This book is a must read for deep fans of Conan Doyle.

[Otto Hahaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Internetissä eräs kirjailija ihmetteli miksi Sherlock Holmes -kloonit ovat yhä niin suosittuja. Toinen käski lukea tämän kirjan, joka sitten löytyikin kirjastosta. Loppujen lopuksi tämän lukeminen ei kyllä auttanut vastaamaan alkuperäiseen kysymykseen, mutta oli ihan mukava lukukokemus.

Käydään läpi Conan Doylen elämää ja hänen kirjoituksiaan. Tämä kaikki punotaan osaksi kirjoittajan omia kokemuksia ja elämänvaiheita. Pääpaino on, kuten arvata saattaa, Sherlock Holmesissa, mutta kovasti todistellaan, että muutakin Doylen tuotantoa kannattaisi lukea. Tuotanto on kyllä niin laaja, että ei kirjoittajakaan ole kaikkea lukenut ja epäilee, että ei luekaan. Mutta innostus tarttuu ja mieleen tuleen, että pitäisi lukea ainakin Conan Doylen kummitusjuttuja. Ja Dunsanyn Jorkens-tarinoita, joita myös kehuttiin. Conan Doylen teoksia lienee helpompi löytää kuin Dunsanyn teoksia.

Lisäksi esitellään Baker Street Irregulars -seuran toimintaa, varsinkin sen ympärillä pyörivää leikkimielistä aiheeseen liittyvää spekulaatiota (esim. menivätkö Sherlock Holmes ja Irene Adler jossain vaiheessa naimisiin, ja oliko heidän poikansa Jeeves?). Täältäkin löytyisi paljon hauskaa lukemista. (Tämä amerikkalainen seura, on tai oli olemassa myös brittiseura, mutta en nyt muista sen nimeä)

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Michael Dirda, longtime book critic for the Washington Post, fell for Sherlock Holmes in grade school and never looked back. He begins this book, an early entry in Princeton's strong "Writers on Writers" series, with his fond reminiscence of getting a copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles in his fifth-grade book club, a winsome (and relatable) anecdote. From there, he traces a love of literature that continues to reveal ties reaching back to Conan Doyle whether he's studying T.S. Eliot at Oberlin or Victor Hugo at Cornell.

It appears that this book was assembled from pieces published in different capacities (an introduction here, a bit of memoir there, etc.) and the seams show. It also gets a bit bumpy. For instance, he spends his time on his fellow revelers in The Baker Street Irregulars, a social club that seems both deeply clever and lightly tedious. He closes the book, not surprisingly, by returning to The Hound of the Baskervilles. Amidst Conan Doyle's formidable oeuvre, which Dirda is well acquainted with--that's never in doubt--Sherlock Holmes is Dirda's abiding literary love. In reading this, I was hoping to catch a spark of interest in Conan Doyle's work. That didn't quite happen, charming as it was to see how much he has meant to Dirda.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dirda's book is a hybrid of a personal memoir & a survey of Doyle's work. He begins with his childhood encounter with The Hound of the Baskervilles (the first adult work he had read) & proceeds to discuss Doyle's life & his work beyond the scope of the Sherlock stories. Although Dirda discusses Doyle's non Sherlock works (including some that sound fascinating & outright bizarre), the focus of the book is on the Holmes stories & their larger cultural influence & impact. I *loved* this book. Perfect for fans of Holmes who want to quickly learn more about the creator.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and extremely entertaining celebration of the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle. There's a lot on Sherlock Holmes, of course, and the author has several really fun chapers about the Baker Street Irregulars and othe Holmsian fan organizations. But he also discusses a lot of Doyle's other fiction, recognizing him as a superb storyteller in a number of genres. This book has forced me to make a list of Doyle books & short stories I have not yet read.

[Ann Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dirda writes about his boy hood fascination with the Sherlock Holmes tales which continued into adulthood. This book covers those tales but also the other, lesser known writings by Doyle. Dirda was surprised and delighted to be asked to address The Baker Street Irregulars the most famous of all the Sherlockian groups. And after several years of talks before the group, he was invited to join, a position he holds with great joy

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Image sitting down listening to someone knowledgeable talking about Conan Doyle. That's what this book is. Except you read it, instead of listening to it. Your enjoyment would depend on how good that someone is in talking about Doyle. Dirda is good, and fun, and I went and bought another book based on his mention. So it could be considered a dangerous book.

[Georgene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several books by Michael Dirda, and I love the way he writes! He is so excited to tell you all about his favorite books. I enjoyed reading about Arthur Conan Doyle, his many books, his Sherlock Holmes series, the Baker Street Irregulars, and other books about Sherlock and about Doyle. Very entertaining, and a quick read. Now, I need to go read some Sherlock Holmes stories.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the writer and his even more famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. At times the name-dropping of past-era figures confused me, but like The Great Detective, I simply eliminated the impossible (to remember.)

[Scott Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

great little book chuck full of wonderful reading suggestions up to and including Sherlock Holmes from my favorite literary critic

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this to be so moving or for the writer's love of reading to be so infectious. The end is delightful. Well needed balm in my reading slump.

[Sergey Selyutin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and touching.

[Erik Tanouye]

Found this in the laundry room of my building in April 2022.