Arthur Conan Doyle
Although Arthur Conan Doyle is now best remembered as the creator of the timeless Sherlock Holmes series of detective stories, he was also something of a social activist in his day who used his acclaim to shed light on injustices. In The Crime of the Congo, Conan Doyle builds a devastating case against the Congo Free State, a kind of sociopolitical experiment undertaken by Belgium's King Leopold II, under whose rule indigenous Africans were
...Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. Here are two of his best stories, The New Catacomb and The Beetle-Hunter.
...A country doctor has come to 221B Baker Street, the lodgings of famed detective Sherlock Holmes, with the eerie tale of the Hound of the Baskervilles. The legend warns the descendants of the Baskerville family never to venture out on the moors that surround their ancestral home, for fear that they will meet the devil-beast that lurks...
Altogether, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories about Sherlock Holmes. Throughout, Dr. Watson (or just Watson) was included as a catalyst for Holmes's massive ego and mental processes. Eventually, Doyle felt the stories were distracting him from more serious literary work, but he did finally wind it up with the seven stories you're about to hear. In the words of Watson (Dr. John H. Watson, MD), we have the pleasure
...In this second Sherlock Holmes novel, the indomitable sleuth is visited by a woman in distress. Each year for the past six years, on the anniversary of her father's mysterious disappearance ten years ago, Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving pearls, she knows not why or from whom. This time, her anonymous benefactor wants to meet. In the letter, he promises to reveal the mystery and to "right the wrongs" against her. "If you distrust me," he writes,
..."The man in black now advanced, and taking one of the cords from his left arm, he bound the woman's hands together. She held them meekly toward him as he did so. Then he took her arm with a rough grip and led her toward the wooden horse, which was little higher than her waist. On to this she was lifted and laid, with her back upon it, and her face to the ceiling, while the priest, quivering with horror, had rushed out of the room. I saw that the
...When a strange coded message arrives at 221B Baker Street, sent by a member of Professor Moriarty's criminal organization, Sherlock Holmes soon deciphers it and finds a warning: someone is about to be murdered. A visit from a Scotland Yard inspector confirms that one John Douglas has been mysteriously killed in Sussex. Even Sherlock Holmes, well accustomed to the bizarre, finds the elements of this case unusual. John Douglas lived at Birlstone
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