Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Arnold Genthe via Wikimedia [Public domain]

I would like to speak about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He is a man that I admire for his books. Indeed I have read many of his detective stories with Sherlock Holmes. But before talking about why I like his novels, I want to do a little biography of him.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on the 22th of May, 1859 in Edinburgh. He had nine brothers and sisters. Their father was a civil servant who died because of alcoholism. 

After primary and secondary studies in Catholic institutes, he studied medicine in Edinburgh University from 1875 to 1881. Then he was a doctor for few years, but without success. So he began to write. He published his first writing in 1879. In November 1887 Sherlock Holmes appeared for the first time in Study in Red. Then Conan Doyle gives up the medicine for writing.

Conan Doyle is well-known for the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but he wrote many other types of writing. For example he wrote some historic novels such as The White Company, and science-fiction ones such as The Lost World, and paranormal books. He was a prolific author as he wrote more than fifty books.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died of heart attack the 7th July, 1930, rich and famous. His historic writings which were the most important according to him, is nowadays almost forgotten. On the contrary, Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective is known all over the world, whereas he considered it only like the way to earn his living.

Doyle Unknown via Wikimedia [public domain]

I am not a great reader, but the detective novels of Conan Doyle are easy to read. He is probably my favourite author. I like these short stories, with suspense and an extraordinary demonstration of finding the criminal. Generally, the action starts from the beginning of the story. There is nothing useless in the description of the action, of the characters and of the background. Each detail will have its importance to solve the riddle. I like the way which Doyle had to describe the character who went to ask for Holmes’ help. Watson, who told the story, gave us some details of his clothes and his face. After the first discussion, just by the observation of these details, Sherlock Holmes knows many points of the visitor's personality. It is this sense of observation that I like by Holmes.

According to me Conan Doyle is a great author because his stories are well managed. I think he has a fabulous imagination.

For all these reasons I like Conan Doyle and his job through his novels which I read with pleasure. Moreover I began to read it in English : it's better in the original version!