The Man Who Created Sherlock HolmesThe Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes
Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. Always romantic, energetic, idealistic and upstanding, he could also be selfish and fool-hardy. Lycett assembles the many threads of Conan Doyle's life, including the lasting impact of his domineering mother and his wayward, alcoholic father; his affair with a younger woman while his wife lay dying; and his nearly fanatical pursuit of scientific data to prove and explain various supernatural phenomena. Lycett reveals the evolution of Conan Doyle's nature and ideas against the backdrop of his intense personal life, wider society and the intellectual ferment of his age. In response to the dramatic scientific and social transformations at the turn of the century, he rejected traditional religious faith in favor of psychics and séances -- and in this way he embodied all of his late-Victorian, early-Edwardian era's ambivalence about the advance of science and the decline of religion.
The first biographer to gain access to Conan Doyle's newly released personal archive -- which includes correspondence, diaries, original manuscripts and more -- Lycett combines assiduous research with penetrating insight to offer the most comprehensive, lucid and sympathetic portrait yet of Conan Doyle's personal journey from student to doctor, from world-famous author to ardent spiritualist.
A portrait based on research into thousands of previously unavailable documents offers an alternative view of the prestigious author that depicts him as a contradictory man who embodied both upstanding and cruel tendencies, covering such topics as his dysfunctional parents, his extramarital affair, and his fanatical pursuit of scientific data. 30,000 first printing.
A biography of the creator of Sherlock Holmes shows how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, beginning as a small-town doctor, became a friend to the famous, a celebrated writer, and a psychic investigator.
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- New York : Free Press, 2007.
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