Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, into an intelligent family. Love for art and literature, in particular, was instilled in young Arthur by his parents. The whole family of the future writer was related to literature. Mother, moreover, was a great storyteller.

At the age of nine, Arthur went to study at the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst. The teaching methods there corresponded to the name of the institution. Coming out of there, the future classic of English literature forever retained an aversion to religious fanaticism and physical punishment. The talent of the storyteller was awakened precisely during the training. Young Doyle often entertained his classmates on gloomy evenings with his stories, which he often made up on the go.

In 1876 he graduated from college. Contrary to family tradition, he preferred the career of a doctor to art. Doyle received further education at the University of Edinburgh. There he studied with D. Barry and R. L. Stevenson.

The beginning of the creative path

Doyle searched for himself in literature for a long time. While still a student, he became interested in E. Poe, and wrote several mystical stories himself. But they did not have much success, due to their secondary nature.

In 1881, Doyle received a medical degree and a bachelor's degree. For some time he was engaged in medical activities, but he did not feel much love for his chosen profession.

In 1886, the writer created his first story about Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887.

Doyle often fell under the influence of his venerable colleagues in the pen. Several of his early stories and novellas were written under the influence of the work of C. Dickens.

creative flourishing

Detective stories about Sherlock Holmes made Conan Doyle not only famous outside of England, but also one of the highest paid writers.

Despite this, Doyle always got angry when he was introduced as "Sherlock Holmes' dad." The writer himself did not attach much importance to the stories about the detective. He devoted more time and effort to writing such historical works as "Micah Clark", "Exiles", "White Party" and "Sir Nigel".

Of the entire historical cycle, readers and critics liked the novel The White Squad the most. According to the publisher, D. Penn, he is the best historical canvas after "Ivanhoe" by W. Scott.

In 1912, the first novel about Professor Challenger, The Lost World, was published. A total of five novels were created in this series.

Studying a brief biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, you should know that he was not only a novelist, but also a publicist. From his pen came a cycle of works dedicated to the Anglo-Boer War.

last years of life

throughout the second half of the 1920s. The writer spent the 20th century on a journey. Without stopping his journalistic activities, Doyle traveled to all continents.

Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930, in Sussex. The cause of death was a heart attack. The writer was buried in Minstead, in the New Forest National Park.

Other biography options

• There were many interesting facts in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. By profession, the writer was an ophthalmologist. In 1902, for his service as a military doctor during the Boer War, he was knighted.
• Conan Doyle was fond of spiritualism. This, rather specific interest, he retained until the end of his life.
• The writer highly appreciated creativity

😉 Greetings to the respectable audience on the site "Ladies and Gentlemen"! Friends, let's continue to study the success stories of great people. In the article "Arthur Conan Doyle: biography, interesting facts" about the main stages of the writer's life and work.

Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a famous English writer. Creator of more than seventy books: short stories, novels, novellas, poems. Works of adventure, sci-fi, humorous genres.

He was born in Father Charles Altamont Doyle - a talented artist, worked as a clerk. Due to his passion for alcohol and unstable mentality, the family did not live well.

1868 Wealthy relatives sent Arthur to study at a school in Hodder. At the age of eleven, he moves to the next stage of education - a Catholic school in Stonyhurst. The school taught seven subjects and practiced harsh punishments.

The guy diversifies the difficult period of study by writing stories that other students will like. He enjoyed outdoor activities, especially cricket and golf. Sports accompanied him all his life, here you can add cycling, billiards.

The beginning of the creative path

1876 ​​- Arthur enters the medical university, choosing a career as a doctor despite the fact that the family devoted itself to literature and art. Simultaneously with his studies, he worked in a pharmacy, helping the family financially. I read a lot and continued to write.

1879 - The story "The Secret of the Sesassa Valley" brought Doyle his first income from literary creativity. By this time, he becomes the mother's only support, as the sick father is admitted to the hospital.

1880 - he is sent as a surgeon to sail on the ship Nadezhda, which is engaged in whale fishing. Seven months of work brought him 50 pounds.

1881 - becomes a bachelor of medicine, but practice was necessary to become a doctor.

1882 - worked as a doctor in Plymouth, then moved to Portsmouth, where his first practice appears. At first there was little work, which gave him the opportunity to write for the soul.

Writing career

Doyle continues his literary activity. Fame brings him published "A Study in Scarlet". The characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson become the heroes of new stories.

In 1891, Doyle said goodbye to medicine and immersed himself in the writer's work. His popularity is gaining momentum after the release of the next work "The Man with the Split Lip". The magazine that publishes stories about Sherlock Holmes asks the author to write six more stories about this character, paying the amount of 50 pounds.

After some time, Arthur begins to become weary of the cycle, believing that these works distract him from writing other serious works, but he fulfills the agreement on writing stories.

A year later, the magazine again asks him to write a series of stories about Sherlock. The author's fee is 1000 pounds. The fatigue associated with finding a plot for a new story prompts Arthur to "murder" the protagonist. After the completion of the cycle about the famous detective, 20 thousand readers refuse to purchase the magazine.

In 1892, the play "Waterloo" was released on the stage of theaters. The operetta Jane Annie, or the Prize for Good Conduct, based on his second play, failed. Doubting his ability to write plays, Doyle agrees to lecture on literary subjects throughout England.

• 1894 - Conducts lectures in the cities of the United States. In subsequent years, he writes a lot, but pays special attention to the health of his wife Louise;
• 1902 - The Hound of the Baskervilles is published. At the same time, King Edward VII awarded Conan Doyle the title of knight for his participation as a military doctor in the Boer War;
• 1910 - the next works "Motley Ribbon" and others appear on the stage.

Over the next years, he continues to write literary works, political essays. Visits America, Holland and other countries. The most popular were works about Sherlock Holmes, although he himself considered historical novels his achievement.

Arthur Conan Doyle: biography (video)

Personal life

The writer was married twice. His first wife, Louise Hawkins, died of tuberculosis in 1906. A year later, Doyle married Jean Lecky, with whom he had been secretly in love since 1897. He was the father of five children.

The English writer of Irish origin, who worked and created his works in England, is known throughout the world. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made a huge contribution to English literature with his iconic hero Holmes. The whole life of a fictional character is known to his fans to the smallest detail, but what do we know about the writer himself?

Childhood of Arthur Igneishus

The Doyles gave their son the traditional triple name for those times - Arthur Igneyshus Conan. The future writer saw the light in a family of Irish immigrants. The birthplace of the great man was Edinburgh, Scotland, and the universe chose May 22, 1859 as the date of his birth.

Doyle's family was not poor. His grandfather was an excellent artist and also a silk merchant. Parents raised the boy in the best Catholic traditions and managed to give him a good education.

Charles Doyle (father) worked as a local illustrator, and was so good at his work that it was his drawings that adorned the work of Lewis Carroll, as well as Defoe. Even according to the sketches of Charles, stained-glass windows were made in a large temple in Glasgow.

Irish Mary Foley became the mother of the future writer, giving her husband seven more children. Mary was known as an educated woman. She devoted a lot of time to literature, and accustomed her children to long reading, as well as to adventure stories about knights.

It was to his mother that Doyle later addressed words of gratitude for his passion for literature..

When Arthur became a teenager, the well-being of his family was noticeably shaken. Charles, as the head of the family, understood that he had to adequately provide for his offspring, but he suffered from creative failure, dreamed of the glory of a great artist, and therefore drank a lot.

The green serpent killed Doyle's father. Several years of hard drinking led to the fact that the man's health deteriorated, and he died. After the death of the head of the family, Doyle's relatives took patronage over the widowed Mary and her children.

So Arthur was sent to study at Stonyhurst School. The Jesuit College was famous for its high educational standards, as well as strict discipline, which was often expressed in the flogging of students.

Arthur was not only flogged for infractions. He also could not find a common language with some classmates, for which he regularly received ridicule and cuffs. The young man was not given the exact sciences at all. Therefore, the Moriarty brothers, his classmates, often made fun of Arthur and fought with him.

Cricket became an outlet for Arthur in college. The boy played this game skillfully and recklessly. Even in his school years, the young man was known as an excellent storyteller. He made up stories, and the children listened to him with their mouths open in surprise.

While away from home, Doyle wrote long and detailed letters to his mother about what happened to him during the day. So he comprehended the science of a detailed and detailed presentation of the plot.

Literature and later life

At the age of six, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the first story about a tiger and a traveler. Even then, the work of the young author was filled with pragmatism and realism unusual for children of his age. The tiger dined as a traveler and there was no happy ending.

In adulthood, the writer chose the profession of a doctor for himself. The prerequisites for this choice were the stories of the guest of his mother about how he had his own medical practice.

Doyle graduated from university and became an ophthalmologist. While studying at the university, Arthur quickly became friends with classmates Stevenson and Barry. These young people later also became famous writers.

During the student period, Arthur was seriously interested in the work of Poe and Garth. He studied in detail the style of the writers, and then he himself created his works "American History" and "The Secret of the Sesas Valley".

From 1881 and for 10 years, Doyle was engaged only in medical practice. Then he set aside his white coat for pen and ink. In 1886, under the light hand of a doctor and now a writer, A Study in Scarlet came out.

With this story, a new era in literature began. After all, now the world has recognized a new hero, whom Conan Doyle named Sherlock Holmes. There is an opinion among writers and researchers that the creator copied the image of a brilliant detective from the real doctor Joseph Bell.

Bell was Doyle's professor at the university. He made a strong impression on many students. After all, this doctor had a powerful logical thinking. He could accurately characterize a person by their cigarette butts, their shoes, or even the dirt on their trousers. Worshiped by Doyle, Bell was able to accurately distinguish truth from falsehood, able to recognize the smallest details of a situation and build logical conclusions from them.

Sherlock Holm became such a popular character because he was shown as an ordinary person with no mystical superpowers, but with a brilliant mind and developed instinct, which is so necessary for a successful investigation.

"A Scandal in Bohemia", as well as other 12 stories about a detective and his doctor friend, were included in a large collection about Sherlock Holmes and brought unprecedented fame and good money to their creator.

After working on his main character for a long time, the author got so tired of him that he decided to finish him off. However, fans flooded Doyle with threatening letters and demanding the return of their beloved hero. Doyle had to obey them.

Of great interest in the work of Arthur is his second character - Watson. A military doctor who never managed to find a place for himself in civilian life, agrees with Sherlock in his views on his work, but does not approve of the simple life of a detective. The exact image of both the antagonist and the friend, ready at any moment to come to the aid of the eccentric Holmes, became the perfect complement to the storyline of stories about the great detective.

Doyle's personal life and activities

Outwardly, the famous writer looked quite impressive and presentable. A powerful man went in for sports until his old age. There are versions that it was Doyle who taught the Swiss to ski, and was also one of the first to use motor vehicles.

During his life, the author managed to work both as a ship's doctor and as an employee on a dry cargo ship. In his youth, Arthur sailed to the shores of Africa. There he learned a lot of new and interesting things about the life and customs of other peoples, different from the British and other Europeans.

In the First World War, Doyle rushed to the front, but they did not take him. Then he began to send articles on military subjects to The Times, which were invariably accepted and printed.

Doyle's first wife was Louise Hawkins. In this marriage, the couple had two children. Unfortunately, in 1906, Arthur's wife died of consumption. A year later, the writer was comforted in the arms of his longtime lover. The chosen one was Jean Lecky. In this union, Doyle had three more offspring.

Arthur's last child Adrian became his father's personal biographer.

In adulthood, the writer turned from realism to spiritualism. He became interested in esotericism. He personally organized spectacular seances. The second wife fully shared the magical research of her husband, and was also a fairly strong medium.

In addition to séances, Doyle was also related to the Freemasons. He entered their lodge several times and left it at will.

Communication with the dead was necessary for Doyle in order to find out the answers to many questions, as well as to understand whether there is life after death. The unusual hobby of the writer only enriched his worldview, without spoiling his sharp mind.

The Social Life of Arthur Doyle

Doyle maintained various relationships with other writers. During his youth and maturity, the author was not ranked among the classics of world literature, so some fellow writers looked down on him.

In 1893, a Doyle relative married the author Hornung. The writers were friends, although sometimes they argued among themselves, not seeing eye to eye.

Doyle talked with Kipling for a while, but later they disagreed on the influence of English culture on the people of Africa, and moved away from each other.

Arthur had a very strained relationship with Shaw. Bernard regularly criticized the main character Doyle, considering the writer's works childish and frivolous. Doyle reciprocated Shaw and parried all his attacks with the same barbs.

Doyle was friends with Herbert Wells, as well as with university friends who retained common interests with the author and converged with him on political and cultural issues.

Analysis of the writer's work

The detective genre became the leading literary movement for Arthur Conan Doyle. If before the birth of the writer's works, the authors made their characters a little mystical and divorced from reality, then Doyle managed to create the image of Sherlock in such a way that he was perceived as a living and real person.

This literary device was invented by the writer due to the fact that he paid great attention to small and almost imperceptible details. Reading about Holmes, one might think that such a person once lived in a neighboring street, and his genius abilities were only the capabilities of his brain, which Sherlock managed to develop to incredible sharpness.

The heroes of Doyle's novels are characters who can be described as strong-willed, ambitious, ambitious, lively, impetuous, inquisitive and persistent people. These qualities, in part, belong to the author of immortal works.

Last years and writer's death

Arthur Conan Doyle lived a rich and original life. He remained an active person until his death. In recent years, before leaving, the writer traveled all over the world.

While in Scandinavia, Doyle felt unwell. Having recovered a little, he left there for his native England. There he tried to negotiate with the minister so that adherents of spiritualistic sessions would stop being prosecuted by law, but his attempt was once again unsuccessful.

Today, a modest tombstone over the grave of Arthur Conan Doyle is located in the New Forest. Prior to this, the writer was buried near his house..

After the death of the prose writer, his papers were discovered, among them were unfinished works, correspondence with influential people in Great Britain and personal letters.

Interesting facts about Arthur Conan Doyle

Fate more than once presented Doyle with surprises, tested him for strength, but the best-selling author always showed character and won many social battles of that time. Things to know about Arthur Conan Doyle:

• Doyle played on the football team as a young man under the pseudonym Smith;
• The writer received the title of "sir" for his scientific work on the war in South Africa and its causes;
• The main topic of dispute for Shaw and Doyle was the sunken Titanic;
• The writer was not accepted into the army due to weight problems;
• It was Doyle who took part in the development of the military uniform of the English soldiers;
• According to historical data, Arthur died in his own garden with a flower in his hand;
• In dealing with people, the author always behaved politely and respectfully, not dividing people according to class or wealth;
• The idea of ​​the Channel Tunnel belongs to Arthur Conan Doyle.

Even today England is proud that such a great creative figure as Arthur Doyle lived and worked on its land. This brilliant man made a huge contribution to literature, criminology and the social life of Great Britain, for which he was awarded many awards. Sir Doyle had a hand in the development of many useful things, for example, he came up with the basis of body armor for the military. He left a huge mark on history, and his works continue to be filmed again and again, as proof that they are outside of time and outside of the only era in which they were created. Until the end of his life, the pragmatist and realist Doyle remained a bit of a child at heart. He believed in fairies and mysticism, wanting to know that the otherworld exists and can push the boundaries of existing reality.

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 learn 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 he was most 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 Girdlestones Trading House. 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 Color, 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

Sir Arthur Ignaishus (in an obsolete transmission - Ignatius) Conan Doyle (Doyle) was born May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh to an Irish Catholic family known for their achievements in art 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.

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, rich 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 prejudices, as well as physical punishment. The few happy moments of those years for him were associated with letters to his mother: he retained the habit of describing current events to her in detail for the rest of his life. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent for storytelling, gathering around him peers who listened to stories they made up on the go for hours.

It is said that while studying in college, Arthur's least favorite 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 in his name the papers of his father, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind. 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 Louis Stevenson.

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 Hart (his favorite writers at the time), was published by the university's Chamber's Journal, where the first work of Thomas Hardy appeared. That same year, Doyle's second short story, The American Tale, appeared in the London Society.

February to September 1880 Doyle spent seven months as a ship's doctor in Arctic waters aboard the whaling ship Hope (Hope - "Hope"), receiving a total of 50 pounds for his work. The impressions of the Arctic journey formed the basis of the story "Captain of the Pole-Star" (Captain of the Pole-Star). Two years later he made a similar voyage to the west coast of Africa aboard the Mayumba steamer between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa.

Having received in 1881 a university degree and a Bachelor of Medicine degree, Conan Doyle went into medical practice, first jointly (with an extremely unscrupulous partner - this experience was described in the Stark Munro Notes), then individual, in Portsmouth. Finally, in 1891 Doyle decided to make literature his main profession. In January 1884 Cornhill magazine published the story "Message of Hebekuk Jephson". During those same days, he met his future wife, Louise "Tuya" Hawkins; the wedding took place August 6, 1885.

In 1884 Conan Doyle began work on a social-everyday novel with a crime-detective plot "The Girdlestone Trading House" about cynical and cruel money-growing merchants. A novel clearly influenced by Dickens was published in 1890.

In March 1886 Conan Doyle began - and already in April largely completed - work on A Study in Scarlet (originally supposed to be called 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 Beeton's Christmas Annual. 1887 , inviting the writer's father, Charles Doyle, to illustrate the novel.

In 1889 Doyle's third (and possibly strangest) novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, was released. 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

In February 1888 A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel "The Adventures of Micah Clark", which told about the Monmouth uprising (1685), the purpose of which was to overthrow 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 Company". "White Squad" was published in Cornhill magazine, and was published as a separate book. in 1891. Conan Doyle has always said that he considers it one of his best works.

With some assumption, the novel "Rodney Stone" can also be classified as historical ( 1896 ).

To the Napoleonic Wars, from Trafalgar to Waterloo, Conan Doyle devoted the Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard. The birth of this character refers, apparently, by 1892, when George Meredith handed Conan Doyle the three-volume "Memoirs" of Marbo: the latter became the prototype of Gerard. The first story of the new series, "Brigadier Gerard's Medal", was read by the writer for the first time from the stage in 1894 while traveling in the United States. In December of the same year, the story was published by Strand Magazine, after which the author continued work on the continuation in Davos. April to September 1895"The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard" were published in Strand. Here, for the first time, "Adventures" ( August 1902 - May 1903). Despite the fact that the plots of the stories about Gerard are fantastic, the historical era is written out with great certainty.

In 1892 The "French-Canadian" adventure novel "The Exiles" and the historical play "Waterloo" were completed. In the same year, Conan Doyle published the novel "Doctor Fletcher's Patient", which a number of later researchers consider as one of the author's first experiments with the detective genre.

"A Scandal in Bohemia", the first story in the "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" series, was published in Strand magazine in 1891. The prototype of the protagonist, who soon became a legendary consulting detective, was Joseph Bell, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, famous for his ability to guess the character and past of a person from the smallest details. Over the course of two years, Doyle created story after story, and eventually grew weary of his own character. His attempt to "finish" Holmes in a fight with Professor Moriarty ("The Last Case of Holmes", 1893 ) turned out to be unsuccessful: the hero, beloved by the reading public, had to be “resurrected”. Holmes epic culminated in the novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" ( 1900 ), which belongs to the classics of the detective genre.

Four novels are devoted to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet ( 1887 ), "The Sign of Four" ( 1890 ), "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "Valley of Terror" - and five collections of short stories, the most famous of which are "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" ( 1892 ), "Notes about Sherlock Holmes" ( 1894 ) and The Return of Sherlock Holmes ( 1905 ).

At the time of writing The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1900 Arthur Conan Doyle was the highest paid author in world literature.

In 1900 Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a surgeon in a military field hospital, he went to the Boer War. Released by him in 1902 the book "The Anglo-Boer War" met with the warm approval of 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).

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

Early 1890s Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and staff of The Idler magazine: 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.

In 1912 Conan Doyle published the science fiction novella The Lost World (subsequently filmed several times), followed by The Poison Belt ( 1913 ). The protagonist 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 one of his strongest.

The main themes of Conan Doyle's journalism in 1911-1913 there was the failure of Britain at the 1912 Olympics, Prince Henry's car race in Germany, the construction of sports facilities, and preparations for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin (which never took place).

The outbreak of World War I completely turned Conan Doyle's life upside down. First, he volunteered for the front, being sure that his mission was to set a personal example of heroism and service to the motherland. After this offer was rejected, he devoted himself to publicistic activity.

Beginning from August 8, 1914 Doyle's military letters appear in The Times of London. In the Daily Chronicle series "German Politics: A Bet on Killing", Doyle, with his characteristic passion and force of conviction, outlined the atrocities of the German army in the air, at sea and in the occupied territories of France and Belgium. Doyle becomes even more embittered when he becomes aware of the torture that English prisoners of war were subjected to in Germany.

In 1916 Conan Doyle rode through the battle positions of the British troops and visited the Allied armies. The result of the trip was 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 English troops in France and Flanders" began to appear. By 1920 All 6 volumes have been 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.

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 was also interested in since the 1880s. The main works of Conan Doyle on this topic are considered to be "The New Revelation" ( 1918 ) and the novel "The Land of Mist" (The Land of Mist, 1926 ). The result of his many years of research on the "psychic" phenomenon was the fundamental work "The History of Spiritualism" (The History of Spiritualism, 1926 ).

In 1924 Conan Doyle's autobiographical book Memories and Adventures was published. The last major work of the writer was the science fiction novel "The Maracot Abyss" ( 1929 ).

All the second half of the 1920s years the writer spent traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Came to England for a short time in 1929 To celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle traveled to Scandinavia. 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 the last: in the early morning July 7, 1930 Conan Doyle died of a heart attack at his home in Crowborough, Sussex. He was buried near his garden house. On the tombstone, at the request of the widow, the knightly motto was engraved: Steel True, Blade Straight (“True as steel, just like a blade”). Later, he was reburied with his wife at Minstead, in the New Forest National Park.

Keywords: Arthur Conan Doyle