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TELLER
OF TALES: THE LIFE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (Daniel Stashower) |
For time immortal, people will remember Arthur Conan Doyle
for creating the infamous fictional detective, Sherlock
Holmes. However, there is a lot more depth to Arthur Conan
Doyle than his short stories about a detective and somewhat
straitlaced partner. Although present day people know and
respect Conan Doyle for his fictional work, for the last
decade of his life - and for decades afterwards, Conan Doyle
was a fanatical devotee of spiritualism. For those who admired
the man as a great and prolific writer, his devotion to
the spiritual movement was his doom.
This fascinating book by Daniel Stashower is a comprehensive
look at the life of Conan Doyle, and how he came he metamorphosed
from an average doctor into a great and wonderful writer.
Stashower freely admits, he became fascinated with Conan
Doyle once he had finished consuming all the Sherlock Holmes
mysteries. He was stunned to find that Conan Doyle had many
fiction and nonfiction books, and in fact, Conan Doyle never
aspired to be a writer of fiction, but of history. His biographical
accounting of Conan Doyle works its way through Conan Doyle's
life, chronologically and is narrated with an engaging and
spirited tone, fitting to the benevolent subject. The only
time the book begins to falter is when Stashower is describing
Conan Doyle''s last years. Throughout the first 3/4's of
the book, he often quotes sections from the Conan Doyle's
books and seems to know his subject matter by heart. However,
towards the end, he doesn't seem to know his material as
intimately as before and one gets the impression that not
only is Stashower a skeptic, but he didn't really have a
lot of interest in learning about this side of Conan Doyle.
However, despite this 'cloud' hovering over the writing
until the end of the book, Stashower tries to present a
fair image of Conan Doyle, even as he debunks some of Conan
Doyle's (admittedly in hindsight) flawed beliefs. But despite
it all, Conan Doyle had a profound effect on the spiritual
movement - as he did on everything, and it's just a shame
that people exploited him.
In summary, this book is a fair and interesting presentation
of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and well laid out. It
was both a pleasant and absorbing read, worthy of what would
have to be one of the more prolific writers I have ever
heard of!
