The Lost World

- By Arthur Conan Doyle
9:25 minutes
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British writer and physician (1859–1930) "Conan Doyle" redirects here. For the rugby player, see Conan Doyle (rugby union). For the South African cricketer, see Conan Doyle (cricketer). SirArthur Conan DoyleKStJ, DLDoyle in 1914BornArthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(1859-05-22)22 May 1859Edinburgh, ScotlandDied7 July 1930(1930-07-07) (aged 71)Crowborough, Sussex, EnglandOccupation Writer physician EducationUniversity of EdinburghGenre Detective fiction fantasy science fiction historical novels non-fiction Notable works Stories of Sherlock Holmes The Lost World Spouse Louisa Hawkins ​ ​(m. 1885; died 1906)​ Jean Leckie ​(m. 1907)​ Children5, including Adrian and JeanParentsCharles Altamont DoyleMary FoleySignatureWebsitewww.conandoyleestate.com Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste. Name[edit] Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his given names and "Doyle" as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.[1] The catalogues of the British Library and the Library of Congress treat "Doyle" alone as his surname.[2] Steven Doyle, publisher of The Baker Street Journal, wrote: "Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'."[3] When knighted, he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle.[4] Early life[edit] Portrait of Doyle by Herbert Rose Barraud, 1893 Title page from Arthur Conan Doyle's thesis Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.[5][6] His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was born in England, of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary (née Foley), was Irish Catholic. His parents married in 1855.[7] In 1864 the family scattered because of Charles's growing alcoholism, and the children were temporarily housed across Edinburgh. Arthur lodged with Mary Burton, the aunt of a friend, at Liberton Bank House on Gilmerton Road, while studying at Newington Academy.[8] In 1867, the family came together again and lived in squalid tenement flats at 3 Sciennes Place.[9] Doyle's father died in 1893, in the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, after many years of psychiatric illness.[10][11] Beginning at an early age, throughout his life Doyle wrote letters to his mother, and many of them were preserved.[12] Supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to England, to the Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst in Lancashire, at the age of nine (1868–70). He then went on to Stonyhurst College, which he attended until 1875. While Doyle was not unhappy at Stonyhurst, he said he did not have any fond memories of it because the school was run on medieval principles: the only subjects covered were rudiments, rhetoric, Euclidean geometry, algebra, and the classics.[13] Doyle commented later in his life that this academic system could only be excused "on the plea that any exercise, however stupid in itself, forms a sort of mental dumbbell by which one can improve one's mind".[13] He also found the school harsh, noting that, instead of compassion and warmth, it favoured the threat of corporal punishment and ritual humiliation.[14] From 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit school Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria.[9] His family decided that he would spend a year there in order to perfect his German and broaden his academic horizons.[15] He later rejected the Catholic faith and became an agnostic.[16] One source attributed his drift away from religion to the time he spent in the less strict Austrian school.[14] He also later became a spiritualist mystic.[17] Medical career[edit] From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School; during this period he spent time working in Aston (then a town in Warwickshire, now part of Birmingham), Sheffield and Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire.[18] Also during this period, he studied practical botany at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.[19] While studying, Doyle began writing short stories. His earliest extant fiction, "The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe", was unsuccessfully submitted to Blackwood's Magazine.[9] His first published piece, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", a story set in South Africa, was printed in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal on 6 September 1879.[9][20] On 20 September 1879, he published his first academic article, "Gelsemium as a Poison" in the British Medical Journal,[9][21][22] a study which The Daily Telegraph regarded as potentially useful in a 21st-century murder investigation.[23] Professor Challenger by Harry Rountree in the novella The Poison Belt published in The Strand Magazine Doyle was the doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880.[24] On 11 July 1880, John Gray's Hope and David Gray's Eclipse met up with the Eira and Leigh Smith. The photographer W. J. A. Grant took a photograph aboard the Eira of Doyle along with Smith, the Gray brothers, and ship's surgeon William Neale, who were members of the Smith expedition. That expedition explored Franz Josef Land, and led to the naming, on 18 August, of Cape Flora, Bell Island, Nightingale Sound, Gratton ("Uncle Joe") Island, and Mabel Island.[25] After graduating with Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (M.B. C.M.) degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 1881, he was ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast.[9] He completed his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree (an advanced degree beyond the basic medical qualification in the UK) with a dissertation on tabes dorsalis in 1885.[26][27] In 1882, Doyle partnered with his former classmate George Turnavine Budd in a medical practice in Plymouth, but their relationship proved difficult, and Doyle soon left to set up an independent practice.[9][28] Arriving in Portsmouth in June 1882, with less than £10 (£1100 in 2019[29]) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea.[30] The practice was not successful. While waiting for patients, Doyle returned to writing fiction. Doyle was a staunch supporter of compulsory vaccination and wrote several articles advocating the practice and denouncing the views of anti-vaccinators.[31][32] In early 1891, Doyle embarked on the study of ophthalmology in Vienna. He had previously studied at the Portsmouth Eye Hospital in order to qualify to perform eye tests and prescribe glasses. Vienna had been suggested by his friend Vernon Morris as a place to spend six months and train to be an eye surgeon. But Doyle found it too difficult to understand the German medical terms being used in his classes in Vienna, and soon quit his studies there. For the rest of his two-month stay in Vienna, he pursued other activities, such as ice skating with his wife Louisa and drinking with Brinsley Richards of the London Times. He also wrote The Doings of Raffles Haw. After visiting Venice and Milan, he spent a few days in Paris observing Edmund Landolt, an expert on diseases of the eye. Within three months of his departure for Vienna, Doyle returned to London. He opened a small office and consulting room at 2 Upper Wimpole Street, or 2 Devonshire Place as it was then. (There is today a Westminster City Council commemorative plaque over the front door.) He had no patients, according to his autobiography, and his efforts as an ophthalmologist were a failure.[33][34][35] Literary career[edit] Main article: Arthur Conan Doyle bibliography Sherlock Holmes[edit] Portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget, 1904 Doyle struggled to find a publisher. His first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, A Study in Scarlet, was written in three weeks when he was 27 and was accepted for publication by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, which gave Doyle £25 (equivalent to £2,900 in 2019) in exchange for all rights to the story. The piece appeared a year later in the Beeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald.[9] Holmes was partially modelled on Doyle's former university teacher Joseph Bell. In 1892, in a letter to Bell, Doyle wrote, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes ... round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man",[36] and in his 1924 autobiography, he remarked, "It is no wonder that after the study of such a character [viz., Bell] I used and amplified his methods when in later life I tried to build up a scientific detective who solved cases on his own merits and not through the folly of the criminal."[37] Robert Louis Stevenson was able to recognise the strong similarity between Joseph Bell and Sherlock Holmes: "My compliments on your very ingenious and very interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ... can this be my old friend Joe Bell?"[38] Other authors sometimes suggest additional influences—for instance, Edgar Allan Poe's character C. Auguste Dupin, who is mentioned, disparagingly, by Holmes in A Study in Scarlet.[39] Dr. (John) Watson owes his surname, but not any other obvious characteristic, to a Portsmouth medical colleague of Doyle's, Dr. James Watson.[40] Sherlock Holmes statue in Edinburgh, erected opposite the birthplace of Doyle, which was demolished c. 1970 A sequel to A Study in Scarlet was commissioned, and The Sign of the Four appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in February 1890, under agreement with the Ward Lock company. Doyle felt grievously exploited by Ward Lock as an author new to the publishing world, and so, after this, he left them.[9] Short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes were published in the Strand Magazine. Doyle wrote the first five Holmes short stories from his office at 2 Upper Wimpole Street (then known as Devonshire Place), which is now marked by a memorial plaque.[41] Doyle's attitude towards his most famous creation was ambivalent.[40] In November 1891, he wrote to his mother: "I think of slaying Holmes, ... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things." His mother responded, "You won't! You can't! You mustn't!"[42] In an attempt to deflect publishers' demands for more Holmes stories, he raised his price to a level intended to discourage them, but found they were willing to pay even the large sums he asked.[40] As a result, he became one of the best-paid authors of his time. Statue of Holmes and the English Church in Meiringen In December 1893, to dedicate more of his time to his historical novels, Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty plunge to their deaths together down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem". Public outcry, however, led him to feature Holmes in 1901 in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. Holmes's fictional connection with the Reichenbach Falls is celebrated in the nearby town of Meiringen. In 1903, Doyle published his first Holmes short story in ten years, "The Adventure of the Empty House", in which it was explained that only Moriarty had fallen, but since Holmes had other dangerous enemies—especially Colonel Sebastian Moran—he had arranged to make it look as if he too were dead. Holmes was ultimately featured in a total of 56 short stories—the last published in 1927—and four novels by Doyle, and has since appeared in many novels and stories by other authors. Other works[edit] Doyle's house in South Norwood, Croydon, south-east London, with a close up of the commemorative blue plaque at the address Doyle's first novels were The Mystery of Cloomber, not published until 1888, and the unfinished Narrative of John Smith, published only posthumously, in 2011.[43] He amassed a portfolio of short stories, including "The Captain of the Pole-Star" and "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", both inspired by Doyle's time at sea. The latter popularised the mystery of the Mary Celeste[44] and added fictional details such as that the ship was found in perfect condition (it had actually taken on water by the time it was discovered), and that its boats remained on board (the single boat was in fact missing). These fictional details have come to dominate popular accounts of the incident,[9][44] and Doyle's alternative spelling of the ship's name as the Marie Celeste has become more commonly used than the original spelling.[45] Between 1888 and 1906, Doyle wrote seven historical novels, which he and many critics regarded as his best work.[40] He also wrote nine other novels, and—later in his career (1912–29)—five narratives (two of novel length) featuring the irascible scientist Professor Challenger. The Challenger stories include his best-known work after the Holmes oeuvre, The Lost World. His historical novels include The White Company and its prequel Sir Nigel, set in the Middle Ages. He was a prolific author of short stories, including two collections set in Napoleonic times and featuring the French character Brigadier Gerard. Doyle's works for the stage include Waterloo, which centres on the reminiscences of an English veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and features a character Gregory Brewster, written for Henry Irving; The House of Temperley, the plot of which reflects his abiding interest in boxing; The Speckled Band, adapted from his earlier short story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"; and an 1893 collaboration with J. M. Barrie on the libretto of Jane Annie.[46] Sporting career[edit] While living in Southsea, the seaside resort near Portsmouth, Doyle played football as a goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur side, under the pseudonym A. C. Smith.[47] Doyle was a keen cricketer, and between 1899 and 1907 he played 10 first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).[48] He also played for the amateur cricket teams the Allahakbarries and the Authors XI alongside fellow writers J. M. Barrie, P. G. Wodehouse and A. A. Milne.[49][50] His highest score, in 1902 against London County, was 43. He was an occasional bowler who took one first-class wicket, W. G. Grace, and wrote a poem about the achievement.[51] In 1900, Doyle founded the Undershaw Rifle Club at his home, constructing a 100-yard range and providing shooting for local men, as the poor showing of British troops in the Boer War had led him to believe that the general population needed training in marksmanship.[52][53] He was a champion of "miniature" rifle clubs, whose members shot small-calibre firearms on local ranges.[54][55] These ranges were much cheaper and more accessible to working-class participants than large "fullbore" ranges, such as Bisley Camp, which were necessarily remote from population centres. Doyle went on to sit on the Rifle Clubs Committee of the National Rifle Association.[56] In 1901, Doyle was one of three judges for the world's first major bodybuilding competition, which was organised by the "Father of Bodybuilding", Eugen Sandow. The event was held in London's Royal Albert Hall. The other two judges were the sculptor Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronge and Eugen Sandow himself.[57] Doyle was an amateur boxer.[58] In 1909, he was invited to referee the James Jeffries–Jack Johnson heavyweight championship fight in Reno, Nevada. Doyle wrote: "I was much inclined to accept ... though my friends pictured me as winding up with a revolver at one ear and a razor at the other. However, the distance and my engagements presented a final bar."[58] Also a keen golfer, Doyle was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in Sussex for 1910. He had moved to Little Windlesham house in Crowborough with Jean Leckie, his second wife, and resided there with his family from 1907 until his death in July 1930.[59] He entered the English Amateur billiards championship in 1913.[60] While living in Switzerland, Doyle became interested in skiing, which was relatively unknown in Switzerland at the time. He wrote an article, "An Alpine Pass on 'Ski'" for the December 1894 issue of The Strand Magazine,[61] in which he described his experiences with skiing and the beautiful alpine scenery that could be seen in the process. The article popularised the activity and began the long association between Switzerland and skiing.[62] Family life[edit] Doyle with his family c. 1923–1925 In 1885 Doyle married Louisa (sometimes called "Touie") Hawkins (1857–1906). She was the youngest daughter of J. Hawkins, of Minsterworth, Gloucestershire, and the sister of one of Doyle's patients. Louisa had tuberculosis.[63] In 1907, the year after Louisa's death, he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie (1874–1940). He had met and fallen in love with Jean in 1897, but had maintained a platonic relationship with her while his first wife was still alive, out of loyalty to her.[64] Jean outlived her husband and died during wartime on 27 June 1940.[65] Doyle fathered five children. He had two with his first wife: Mary Louise (1889–1976) and Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, known as Kingsley (1892–1918). He had an additional three with his second wife: Denis Percy Stewart (1909–1955), who became the second husband of Georgian Princess Nina Mdivani; Adrian Malcolm (1910–1970); and Jean Lena Annette (1912–1997).[66] None of Doyle's five children had children of their own, so he has no living direct descendants.[67][68] Political campaigning[edit] Arthur Conan Doyle by George Wylie Hutchinson, 1894 Doyle served as a volunteer physician in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June 1900,[69] during the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899–1902). Later that year, he wrote a book on the war, The Great Boer War, as well as a short work titled The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, in which he responded to critics of the United Kingdom's role in that war, and argued that its role was justified. The latter work was widely translated, and Doyle believed it was the reason he was knighted (given the rank of Knight Bachelor) by King Edward VII in the 1902 Coronation Honours.[70] He received the accolade from the King in person at Buckingham Palace on 24 October of that year.[71] He stood for Parliament twice as a Liberal Unionist: in 1900 in Edinburgh Central, and in 1906 in the Hawick Burghs, but was not elected.[72] He served as a Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey beginning in 1902,[73] and was appointed a Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1903.[74] Doyle was a supporter of the campaign for the reform of the Congo Free State that was led by the journalist E. D. Morel and diplomat Roger Casement. In 1909 he wrote The Crime of the Congo, a long pamphlet in which he denounced the horrors of that colony. He became acquainted with Morel and Casement, and it is possible that, together with Bertram Fletcher Robinson, they inspired several characters that appear in his 1912 novel The Lost World.[75] Later, after the Irish Easter Rising, Casement was found guilty of treason against the Crown, and was sentenced to death. Doyle tried, unsuccessfully, to save him, arguing that Casement had been driven mad, and therefore should not be held responsible for his actions.[76] As the First World War loomed, and having been caught up in a growing public swell of Germanophobia, Doyle gave a public donation of 10 shillings to the anti-immigration British Brothers' League.[77] In 1914, Doyle was one of fifty-three leading British authors—including H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy—who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration", justifying Britain's involvement in the First World War. This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain "could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war".[78] Legal advocate[edit] Doyle statue in Crowborough, East Sussex Doyle was also a fervent advocate of justice and personally investigated two closed cases, which led to two men being exonerated of the crimes of which they were accused. The first case, in 1906, involved a shy half-British, half-Indian lawyer named George Edalji, who had allegedly penned threatening letters and mutilated animals in Great Wyrley. Police were set on Edalji's conviction, even though the mutilations continued after their suspect was jailed.[79] Apart from helping George Edalji, Doyle's work helped establish a way to correct other miscarriages of justice, as it was partially as a result of this case that the Court of Criminal Appeal was established in 1907.[80] The story of Doyle and Edalji was dramatised in an episode of the 1972 BBC television series, The Edwardians. In Nicholas Meyer's pastiche The West End Horror (1976), Holmes manages to help clear the name of a shy Parsi Indian character wronged by the English justice system. Edalji was of Parsi heritage on his father's side. The story was fictionalised in Julian Barnes's 2005 novel Arthur and George, which was adapted into a three-part drama by ITV in 2015.[citation needed] The second case, that of Oscar Slater—a Jew of German origin who operated a gambling den and was convicted of bludgeoning an 82-year-old woman in Glasgow in 1908—excited Doyle's curiosity because of inconsistencies in the prosecution's case and a general sense that Slater was not guilty. He ended up paying most of the costs for Slater's successful 1928 appeal.[81] Freemasonry and spiritualism[edit] Doyle had a longstanding interest in mystical subjects and remained fascinated by the idea of paranormal phenomena, even though the strength of his belief in their reality waxed and waned periodically over the years. In 1887, in Southsea, influenced by Major-General Alfred Wilks Drayson, a member of the Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society, Doyle began a series of investigations into the possibility of psychic phenomena and attended about 20 seances, experiments in telepathy, and sittings with mediums. Writing to spiritualist journal Light that year, he declared himself to be a spiritualist, describing one particular event that had convinced him psychic phenomena were real.[82] Also in 1887 (on 26 January), he was initiated as a Freemason at the Phoenix Lodge No. 257 in Southsea. (He resigned from the Lodge in 1889, returned to it in 1902, and resigned again in 1911.)[83] In 1889, he became a founding member of the Hampshire Society for Psychical Research; in 1893, he joined the London-based Society for Psychical Research; and in 1894, he collaborated with Sir Sidney Scott and Frank Podmore in a search for poltergeists in Devon.[84] Doyle was also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.[85] Doyle and the spiritualist William Thomas Stead (who would die on the Titanic) were led to believe that Julius and Agnes Zancig had genuine psychic powers, and they claimed publicly that the Zancigs used telepathy. However, in 1924, the Zancigs confessed that their mind reading act had been a trick; they published the secret code and all other details of the trick method they had used under the title "Our Secrets!!" in a London newspaper.[86] Doyle also praised the psychic phenomena and spirit materialisations that he believed had been produced by Eusapia Palladino and Mina Crandon, both of whom were also later exposed as frauds.[87] In 1916, at the height of the First World War, Doyle's belief in psychic phenomena was strengthened by what he took to be the psychic abilities of his children's nanny, Lily Loder Symonds.[88] This and the constant drumbeat of wartime deaths inspired him with the idea that spiritualism was what he called a "New Revelation"[89] sent by God to bring solace to the bereaved. He wrote a piece in Light magazine about his faith and began lecturing frequently on spiritualism. In 1918, he published his first spiritualist work, The New Revelation. Some have mistakenly assumed that Doyle's turn to spiritualism was prompted by the death of his son Kingsley, but Doyle began presenting himself publicly as a spiritualist in 1916, and Kingsley died on 28 October 1918 (from pneumonia contracted during his convalescence after being seriously wounded in the 1916 Battle of the Somme).[89] Nevertheless, the war-related deaths of many people who were close to him appears to have even further strengthened his long-held belief in life after death and spirit communication. Doyle's brother Brigadier-general Innes Doyle died, also from pneumonia, in February 1919. His two brothers-in-law (one of whom was E. W. Hornung, creator of the literary character Raffles), as well as his two nephews, also died shortly after the war. His second book on spiritualism, The Vital Message, appeared in 1919. Doyle found solace in supporting spiritualism's ideas and the attempts of spiritualists to find proof of an existence beyond the grave. In particular, according to some,[90] he favoured Christian Spiritualism and encouraged the Spiritualists' National Union to accept an eighth precept – that of following the teachings and example of Jesus of Nazareth. He was a member of the renowned supernaturalist organisation The Ghost Club.[91] Doyle with his family in New York City, 1922 In 1919, the magician P. T. Selbit staged a séance at his flat in Bloomsbury, which Doyle attended. Although some later claimed that Doyle had endorsed the apparent instances of clairvoyance at that séance as genuine,[92][93] a contemporaneous report by the Sunday Express quoted Doyle as saying "I should have to see it again before passing a definite opinion on it" and "I have my doubts about the whole thing".[94] In 1920, Doyle and the noted sceptic Joseph McCabe held a public debate at Queen's Hall in London, with Doyle taking the position that the claims of spiritualism were true. After the debate, McCabe published a booklet Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud?, in which he laid out evidence refuting Doyle's arguments and claimed that Doyle had been duped into believing in spiritualism through deliberate mediumship trickery.[95] Doyle also debated the psychiatrist Harold Dearden, who vehemently disagreed with Doyle's belief that many cases of diagnosed mental illness were the result of spirit possession.[96] In 1920, Doyle travelled to Australia and New Zealand on spiritualist missionary work, and over the next several years, until his death, he continued his mission, giving talks about his spiritualist conviction in Britain, Europe, and the United States.[84] One of the five photographs of Frances Griffiths with the alleged fairies, taken by Elsie Wright in Cottingley, England in July 1917 Doyle wrote a novel The Land of Mist centred on spiritualist themes and featuring the character Professor Challenger. He also wrote many non-fiction spiritualist works. Perhaps his most famous of these was The Coming of the Fairies (1922),[97] in which Doyle described his beliefs about the nature and existence of fairies and spirits, reproduced the five Cottingley Fairies photographs, asserted that those who suspected them being faked were wrong, and expressed his conviction that they were authentic. Decades later, the photos—taken by cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright—were definitively shown to have been faked, and their creators admitted to the fakery, although both maintained that they really had seen fairies.[98] Doyle was friends for a time with the American magician Harry Houdini. Even though Houdini explained that his feats were based on illusion and trickery, Doyle was convinced that Houdini had supernatural powers and said as much in his work The Edge of the Unknown. Houdini's friend Bernard M. L. Ernst recounted a time when Houdini had performed an impressive trick at his home in Doyle's presence. Houdini had assured Doyle that the trick was pure illusion and had expressed the hope that this demonstration would persuade Doyle not to go around "endorsing phenomena" simply because he could think of no explanation for what he had seen other than supernatural power. However, according to Ernst, Doyle simply refused to believe that it had been a trick.[99] Houdini became a prominent opponent of the spiritualist movement in the 1920s, after the death of his beloved mother. He insisted that spiritualist mediums employed trickery, and consistently exposed them as frauds. These differences between Houdini and Doyle eventually led to a bitter, public falling-out between them.[100] 1922 photograph of Doyle by spirit photographer Ada Deane In 1922, the psychical researcher Harry Price accused the "spirit photographer" William Hope of fraud. Doyle defended Hope, but further evidence of trickery was obtained from other researchers.[101] Doyle threatened to have Price evicted from the National Laboratory of Psychical Research and predicted that, if he persisted in writing what he called "sewage" about spiritualists, he would meet the same fate as Harry Houdini.[102] Price wrote: "Arthur Conan Doyle and his friends abused me for years for exposing Hope."[103] In response to the exposure of frauds that had been perpetrated by Hope and other spiritualists, Doyle led 84 members of the Society for Psychical Research to resign in protest from the society on the ground that they believed it was opposed to spiritualism.[104] Doyle's two-volume book The History of Spiritualism was published in 1926. W. Leslie Curnow a spiritualist, contributed much research to the book.[105][106] Later that year, Robert John Tillyard wrote a predominantly supportive review of it in the journal Nature.[107] This review provoked controversy: Several other critics, notably A. A. Campbell Swinton, pointed out the evidence of fraud in mediumship, as well as Doyle's non-scientific approach to the subject.[108][109][110] In 1927, Doyle gave a filmed interview, in which he spoke about Sherlock Holmes and spiritualism.[111] Doyle and the Piltdown hoax[edit] Richard Milner, an American historian of science, argued that Doyle may have been the perpetrator of the Piltdown Man hoax of 1912, creating the counterfeit hominid fossil that fooled the scientific world for over 40 years. Milner noted that Doyle had a plausible motive—namely, revenge on the scientific establishment for debunking one of his favourite psychics—and said that The Lost World appeared to contain several clues referring cryptically to his having been involved in the hoax.[112][113] Samuel Rosenberg's 1974 book Naked Is the Best Disguise purports to explain how, throughout his writings, Doyle had provided overt clues to otherwise hidden or suppressed aspects of his way of thinking that seemed to support the idea that Doyle would be involved in such a hoax.[114] However, more recent research suggests that Doyle was not involved. In 2016, researchers at the Natural History Museum and Liverpool John Moores University analyzed DNA evidence showing that responsibility for the hoax lay with the amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson, who had originally "found" the remains. He had initially not been considered the likely perpetrator, because the hoax was seen as being too elaborate for him to have devised. However, the DNA evidence showed that a supposedly ancient tooth he had "discovered" in 1915 (at a different site) came from the same jaw as that of the Piltdown Man, suggesting that he had planted them both. That tooth, too, was later proven to have been planted as part of a hoax.[115] Chris Stringer, an anthropologist from the Natural History Museum, was quoted as saying: "Conan Doyle was known to play golf at the Piltdown site and had even given Dawson a lift in his car to the area, but he was a public man and very busy[,] and it is very unlikely that he would have had the time [to create the hoax]. So there are some coincidences, but I think they are just coincidences. When you look at the fossil evidence[,] you can only associate Dawson with all the finds, and Dawson was known to be personally ambitious. He wanted professional recognition. He wanted to be a member of the Royal Society and he was after an MBE [sic[116]]. He wanted people to stop seeing him as an amateur".[117] Architecture[edit] Façade of Undershaw with Doyle's children, Mary and Kingsley, on the drive Another of Doyle's longstanding interests was architectural design. In 1895, when he commissioned an architect friend of his, Joseph Henry Ball, to build him a home, he played an active part in the design process.[118][119] The home in which he lived from October 1897 to September 1907, known as Undershaw (near Hindhead, in Surrey),[120] was used as a hotel and restaurant from 1924 until 2004, when it was bought by a developer and then stood empty while conservationists and Doyle fans fought to preserve it.[63] In 2012, the High Court in London ruled in favor of those seeking to preserve the historic building, ordering that the redevelopment permission be quashed on the ground that it had not been obtained through proper procedures.[121] The building was later approved to become part of Stepping Stones, a school for children with disabilities and special needs. Doyle made his most ambitious foray into architecture in March 1912, while he was staying at the Lyndhurst Grand Hotel: He sketched the original designs for a third-storey extension and for an alteration of the front facade of the building.[122] Work began later that year, and when it was finished, the building was a nearly exact manifestation of the plans Doyle had sketched. Superficial alterations have been subsequently made, but the essential structure is still clearly Doyle's.[123] In 1914, on a family trip to the Jasper National Park in Canada, he designed a golf course and ancillary buildings for a hotel. The plans were realised in full, but neither the golf course nor the buildings have survived.[124] In 1926, Doyle laid the foundation stone for a Spiritualist Temple in Camden, London. Of the building's total £600 construction costs, he provided £500.[125] Crimes Club[edit] The Crimes Club was a private social club founded by Doyle in 1903, whose purpose was discussion of crime and detection, criminals and criminology, and continues to this day as "Our Society", with membership numbers limited to 100. The club meets four times a year at the Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London, where all proceedings are strictly confidential ("Chatham House rules"). Its logo is a silhouette of Doyle.[126] The club's earliest members included John Churton Collins, Japanologist Arthur Diósy, Sir Edward Marshall Hall, Sir Travers Humphreys, H. B. Irving, author (Thou Shalt Do No Murder) Arthur Lambton, William Le Queux, A. E. W. Mason, coroner Ingleby Oddie, Sir Max Pemberton, Bertram Fletcher Robinson, George R. Sims, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Sir P. G. Wodehouse, and Filson Young.[127] Death[edit] Doyle's grave at Minstead in Hampshire Doyle in 1930, the year of his death, with his son Adrian Doyle was found clutching his chest in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in Crowborough, Sussex, on 7 July 1930. He died of a heart attack at the age of 71. His last words were directed toward his wife: "You are wonderful."[128] At the time of his death, there was some controversy concerning his burial place, as he was avowedly not a Christian, considering himself a Spiritualist. He was first buried on 11 July 1930 in Windlesham rose garden. In his will, he bequeathed £250 per year to Alfred Wood, who had served as his private secretary since 1897.[129] He was later reinterred together with his wife in Minstead churchyard in the New Forest, Hampshire.[9] Carved wooden tablets to his memory and to the memory of his wife, originally from the church at Minstead, are on display as part of a Sherlock Holmes exhibition at Portsmouth Museum.[130][131] The epitaph on his gravestone in the churchyard reads, in part: "Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, Physician and man of letters".[132] A statue honours Doyle at Crowborough Cross in Crowborough, where he lived for 23 years.[133] There is a statue of Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, close to the house where Doyle was born.[134] Honours and awards[edit] Knight Bachelor (1902)[4] Knight of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (1903) Queen's South Africa Medal (1901) Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy (1895) Order of the Medjidie – 2nd Class (Ottoman Empire) (1907) Commemoration[edit] Doyle has been commemorated with statues and plaques since his death. In 2009, he was among the ten people selected by the Royal Mail for their "Eminent Britons" commemorative postage stamp issue.[135] Portrayals[edit] Arthur Conan Doyle has been portrayed by many actors, including: Television series[edit] Nigel Davenport in the BBC Two series The Edwardians, in the episode "Conan Doyle" (1972)[136] Michael Ensign in the Voyagers! episode "Jack's Back" (1983) Robin Laing and Charles Edwards in Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes (2000–2001) Geraint Wyn Davies in Murdoch Mysteries, 3 episodes (2008–2013) Alfred Molina in the Drunk History (American series) episode "Detroit" (2013) David Calder in the miniseries Houdini (2014) Martin Clunes in the miniseries Arthur & George (2015) Bruce Mackinnon and Bradley Walsh in Drunk History (British series), in series 2, episodes 5 and 8 respectively (2016)[137][138] Stephen Mangan in Houdini & Doyle (2016) Michael Pitthan in the German TV series Charité episode "Götterdämmerung" (2017) Bill Paterson in the Urban Myths episode "Agatha Christie" (2018) Television films[edit] Peter Cushing in The Great Houdini (1976) David Warner in Houdini (1998) Richard Wilson in Reichenbach Falls (2007) Michael McElhatton in Agatha and the Truth of Murder (2018) Theatrical films[edit] Paul Bildt in The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1937) Peter O'Toole in FairyTale: A True Story (1997) Edward Hardwicke in Photographing Fairies (1997) Tom Fisher in Shanghai Knights (2003) Ian Hart in Finding Neverland (2004) Other media[edit] Carleton Hobbs in the BBC radio drama Conan Doyle Investigates (1972)[139] Iain Cuthbertson in the BBC radio drama Conan Doyle and The Edalji Case (1987)[140] Peter Jeffrey in the BBC radio drama Conan Doyle's Strangest Case (1995)[141] Adrian Lukis in the stage adaptation of the novel Arthur & George (2010)[142] Chris Tallman in Chapter 10 of The Dead Authors Podcast (2012)[143] Steven Miller in the Jago & Litefoot audio drama "The Monstrous Menagerie" (2014)[144] Eamon Stocks in the video game Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015)[145] Ryohei Kimura in the mobile game Ikémen Vampire: Temptation in the Dark (2019)[146] In fiction[edit] Arthur Conan Doyle is the ostensible narrator of Ian Madden's short story "Cracks in an Edifice of Sheer Reason".[147] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle features as a recurring character in Pip Murphy's Christie and Agatha's Detective Agency series, including A Discovery Disappears[148] and Of Mountains and Motors.[149] See also[edit] Biography portalChildren's literature portalPoetry portal William Gillette, a personal friend who performed the most famous stage version of Sherlock Holmes List of notable Freemasons Physician writer References[edit] ^ Stashower says that the compound version of his surname originated from his great-uncle Michael Conan, a distinguished journalist, from whom Arthur and his elder sister, Annette, received the compound surname of "Conan Doyle" (Stashower 20–21). The same source points out that in 1885 he was describing himself on the brass nameplate outside his house, and on his doctoral thesis, as "A. Conan Doyle" (Stashower 70). ^ Redmond, Christopher (2009). Sherlock Holmes Handbook 2nd ed. Dundurn. p. 97. Google Books. Retrieved 11 February 2017. ^ Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. (2010). Sherlock Holmes for Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 51. ^ a b "No. 27494". The London Gazette. 11 November 1902. p. 7165. The entry, 'Arthur Conan Doyle, Esq., M.D., D.L.', is alphabetised based on 'Doyle'. ^ "Scottish Writer Best Known for His Creation of the Detective Sherlock Holmes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009. ^ "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography". sherlockholmesonline.org. Archived from the original on 2 February 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2011. ^ The details of the births of Arthur and his siblings are unclear. Some sources say there were nine children, some say ten. It seems three died in childhood. See Owen Dudley Edwards, "Doyle, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan (1859–1930)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; Encyclopædia Britannica Archived 27 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine; Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, Wordsworth Editions, 2007 p. viii; ISBN 978-1-84022-570-9. ^ "Liberton Bank House, 1, Gilmerton Road, Edinburgh". Register for Scotland: Buildings at Risk. Retrieved 28 April 2020. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Owen Dudley Edwards, "Doyle, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan (1859–1930)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. ^ Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel; Foley, Charles (2007). Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. HarperPress. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0-00-724759-2. ^ Stashower, pp. 20–21. ^ Jon Lellenberg; Daniel Stashower; Charles Foley, eds. (2008). Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-724760-8. ^ a b Pascal, Janet (2000). Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 14. ISBN 0-19-512262-3. ^ a b O'Brien, James (2013). The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-979496-6. ^ Miller, Russell (2010). The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4070-9308-6. ^ Golgotha Press (2011). The Life and Times of Arthur Conan Doyle. BookCaps Study Guides. ISBN 978-1-62107-027-6. In time, he would reject the Catholic religion and become an agnostic. ^ Pascal, Janet B. (2000). Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street. Oxford University Press. p. 139. ^ Brown, Yoland (1988). Ruyton XI Towns, Unusual Name, Unusual History. Brewin Books. pp. 92–93. ISBN 0-947731-41-5. ^ McNeill, Colin (6 January 2016). "Mystery solved of how Sherlock Holmes knew so much about poisonous plants". Herald Scotland. 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Retrieved 10 November 2020. ^ "アーサー・コナン・ドイル（CV：木村良平）のキャラクター紹介". ikemen.cybird.ne.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 17 November 2022. ^ Madden, Ian, "Cracks in an Edifice of Sheer Reason", in Maguire, Susie, & Tongue, Samuel (eds.) (2018), With Their Best Clothes On, New Writing Scotland 36, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, pp. 77–85. ISBN 978-1-906841-33-1 ^ Murphy, Pip (2021). A Discovery Disappears. Roberta Tedeschi, ill. Leicester: Sweet Cherry Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78226-796-6. OCLC 1263776847. ^ Murphy, Pip (2022). Of Mountains and Motors. Roberta Tedeschi, ill. Leicester: Sweet Cherry Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78226-815-4. OCLC 1295111029. Further reading[edit] Martin Booth (2000). The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Minotaur Books. ISBN 0-312-24251-4. John Dickson Carr (2003 edition, originally published in 1949). The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Carroll and Graf Publishers. Michael Dirda (2014). On Conan Doyle: or, The Whole Art of Storytelling. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-16412-0. Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph McCabe (1920). Debate on Spiritualism: Between Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph McCabe. The Appeal's Pocket Series. Bernard M. L. Ernst, Hereward Carrington (1932). Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship. Albert and Charles Boni, Inc. Margalit Fox (2018). Conan Doyle for the Defense. Random House. Kelvin Jones (1989). Conan Doyle and the Spirits: The Spiritualist Career of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Aquarian Press. Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, Charles Foley (2007). Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. HarperPress. ISBN 978-0-00-724759-2 Andrew Lycett (2008). The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-7523-3. Russell Miller (2008). The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Biography. Thomas Dunne Books. Pierre Nordon (1967). Conan Doyle: A Biography. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Ronald Pearsall (1977). Conan Doyle: A Biographical Solution. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. Massimo Polidoro (2001). Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-896-0. Daniel Stashower (2000). Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-8050-5074-4. External links[edit] Arthur Conan Doyle at Wikipedia's sister projects Media from CommonsQuotations from WikiquoteTexts from WikisourceData from Wikidata Library resources about Arthur Conan Doyle Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Digital collections Works by Arthur Conan Doyle in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Arthur Conan Doyle at Project Gutenberg Works by Arthur Conan Doyle at Faded Page (Canada) Works by Arthur Conan Doyle at Project Gutenberg Australia Works by or about Arthur Conan Doyle at Internet Archive Works by Arthur Conan Doyle at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Poems by Arthur Conan Doyle Physical collections Arthur Conan Doyle Papers, Photographs, and Personal Effects at the Harry Ransom Center Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at Toronto Public Library Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at Dartmouth College Library Arthur Conan Doyle Online Exhibition "Archival material relating to Arthur Conan Doyle". UK National Archives. C. Frederick Kittle's Collection of Doyleana Archived 6 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine at the Newberry Library Newspaper clippings about Arthur Conan Doyle in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Biographical information Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Knt. – Cr. 1902 Archived 21 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, The county families of the United Kingdom or Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, (Volume ed. 59, yr. 1919) (page 109 of 415) by Edward Walford The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia Conan Doyle in Birmingham Other references 1930 audio recording of Conan Doyle speaking Arthur Conan Doyle at Curlie The short film Arthur Conan Doyle (1927) (Fox newsreel interview) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The Arthur Conan Doyle Society Arthur Conan Doyle quotes Arthur Conan Doyle at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Arthur Conan Doyle at IMDb vteArthur Conan DoyleBibliographySherlock Holmes(canon) A Study in Scarlet (1887) The Sign of the Four (1890) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1904) The Valley of Fear (1914) His Last Bow (1917) The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) Professor Challenger The Lost World (1912) The Poison Belt (1913) The Land of Mist (1926) "When the World Screamed" (1928) "The Disintegration Machine" (1929) Other novels The Narrative of John Smith (1883) [2011] The Mystery of Cloomber (1889) Micah Clarke (1889) The Firm of Girdlestone (1890) The White Company (1891) The Doings of Raffles Haw (1892) Beyond the City (1892) The Great Shadow (1892) The Refugees (1893) The Parasite (1894) The Stark Munro Letters (1895) The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896) Rodney Stone (1896) The Tragedy of the Korosko (1898) A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus (1899) Adventures of Gerard (1903) Sir Nigel (1906) The Maracot Deep (1929) Short stories "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884) "Lot No. 249" (1892) "The Case of Lady Sannox" (1893) "The Club-Footed Grocer" (1898) "The Brown Hand" (1899) "The Terror of Blue John Gap" (1910) "The Horror of the Heights" (1913) Danger! and Other Stories (1918) Other "The Inner Room" (1898) "The Crime of the Congo" (1909) The Vital Message (1919) Depictions FairyTale: A True Story (1997 film) Photographing Fairies (1997 film) Arthur & George (2015 miniseries) Houdini & Doyle (2016 miniseries) Related Adrian Conan Doyle (son) Jean Conan Doyle (daughter) Charles Altamont Doyle (father) John Doyle (grandfather) The Great Wyrley Outrages Undershaw (home) vteArthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Canon Adaptations Pastiches Popular culture Novels A Study in Scarlet (1887) The Sign of the Four (1890) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) The Valley of Fear (1915) Story collections The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905) His Last Bow (1917) The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) Characters Sherlock Holmes Dr. Watson Professor Moriarty Inspector Lestrade Mycroft Holmes Mrs. Hudson Irene Adler Colonel Moran Baker Street Irregulars Minor characters Uncollected stories "The Field Bazaar" (1896) "The Story of the Lost Special" (1898) "How Watson Learned the Trick" (1924) Universe 221B Baker Street Baritsu Diogenes Club The Dynamics of an Asteroid Reichenbach Falls A Treatise on the Binomial Theorem Studies Sherlockian game Holmesian studies The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes From Holmes to Sherlock The Great Detective Naked Is the Best Disguise Related Sherlock Holmes fandom Sherlockiana Sherlock Holmes Museum The Sherlock Holmes The Baker Street Irregulars The Baker Street Journal  The Bootmakers of Toronto Sidney Paget The Strand Magazine Undershaw Category vteArthur Conan Doyle's The Lost WorldNovels The Lost World (1912) The Poison Belt (1913) The Land of Mist (1926)  Short stories "When the World Screamed" (1928) "The Disintegration Machine" (1929) Characters Professor Challenger Lord John Roxton AdaptationsFilm The Lost World (1925) The Lost World (1960) The Lost World (1992) Return to the Lost World (1992) The Lost World (1998) Dinosaur Island (2002) King of the Lost World (2005) Television The Lost World (1999-2002) episodes "Heart of the Storm" The Lost World (2001) Related The Valley of Gwangi Dinosaur Summer Lost Continent Buddy's Lost World vteSpiritualism and spiritismHistory and beliefs Apport Automatic writing Cross-Correspondences Ectoplasm Faith healing Materialization Mediumship Séance Spirit guides Spiritual healing Spirit obsession Spirit photography Spirit possession Spirit world Table-turning Theism Spiritualists Derek Acorah Rosemary Altea Dan Aykroyd Charles Bailey Bangs Sisters Ada Besinnet Stephen E. 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CHAPTER I
"There Are Heroisms All Round Us" Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,-a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self. If anything could have driven me from Gladys, it would have been the thought of such a father-in-law. I am convinced that he really believed in his heart that I came round to the Chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company, and very especially to hear his views upon bimetallism, a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority.
For an hour or more that evening I listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good, the token value of silver, the depreciation of the rupee, and the true standards of exchange. "Suppose," he cried with feeble violence, "that all the debts in the world were called up simultaneously, and immediate payment insisted upon,-what under our present conditions would happen then?"
I gave the self-evident answer that I should be a ruined man, upon which he jumped from his chair, reproved me for my habitual levity, which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence, and bounced off out of the room to dress for a Masonic meeting. At last I was alone with Gladys, and the moment of Fate had come! All that evening I had felt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope; hope of victory and fear of repulse alternating in his mind.
She sat with that proud, delicate profile of hers outlined against the red curtain. How beautiful she was! And yet how aloof! We had been friends, quite good friends; but never could I get beyond the same comradeship which I might have established with one of my fellow-reporters upon the Gazette,-perfectly frank, perfectly kindly, and perfectly unsexual. My instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me. It is no compliment to a man. Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand. The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure-these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion. Even in my short life I had learned as much as that-or had inherited it in that race memory which we call instinct.
Gladys was full of every womanly quality. Some judged her to be cold and hard; but such a thought was treason. That delicately bronzed skin, almost oriental in its coloring, that raven hair, the large liquid eyes, the full but exquisite lips,-all the stigmata of passion were there. But I was sadly conscious that up to now I had never found the secret of drawing it forth. However, come what might, I should have done with suspense and bring matters to a head to-night. She could but refuse me, and better be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother.
So far my thoughts had carried me, and I was about to break the long and uneasy silence, when two critical, dark eyes looked round at me, and the proud head was shaken in smiling reproof. "I have a presentiment that you are going to propose, Ned. I do wish you wouldn't; for things are so much nicer as they are." I drew my chair a little nearer. "Now, how did you know that I was going to propose?" I asked in genuine wonder.
"Don't women always know? Do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares? But-oh, Ned, our friendship has been so good and so pleasant! What a pity to spoil it! Don't you feel how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked?" "I don't know, Gladys. You see, I can talk face to face with-with the station-master." I can't imagine how that official came into the matter; but in he trotted, and set us both laughing. "That does not satisfy me in the least. I want my arms round you, and your head on my breast, and-oh, Gladys, I want--"
She had sprung from her chair, as she saw signs that I proposed to demonstrate some of my wants. "You've spoiled everything, Ned," she said. "It's all so beautiful and natural until this kind of thing comes in! It is such a pity! Why can't you control yourself?" "I didn't invent it," I pleaded. "It's nature. It's love." "Well, perhaps if both love, it may be different. I have never felt it."
"But you must-you, with your beauty, with your soul! Oh, Gladys, you were made for love! You must love!" "One must wait till it comes." "But why can't you love me, Gladys? Is it my appearance, or what?"
She did unbend a little. She put forward a hand-such a gracious, stooping attitude it was-and she pressed back my head. Then she looked into my upturned face with a very wistful smile. "No it isn't that," she said at last. "You're not a conceited boy by nature, and so I can safely tell you it is not that. It's deeper."
"My character?" She nodded severely. "What can I do to mend it? Do sit down and talk it over. No, really, I won't if you'll only sit down!" She looked at me with a wondering distrust which was much more to my mind than her whole-hearted confidence. How primitive and bestial it looks when you put it down in black and white!-and perhaps after all it is only a feeling peculiar to myself. Anyhow, she sat down.
"Now tell me what's amiss with me?" "I'm in love with somebody else," said she. It was my turn to jump out of my chair. "It's nobody in particular," she explained, laughing at the expression of my face: "only an ideal. I've never met the kind of man I mean."
"Tell me about him. What does he look like?" "Oh, he might look very much like you." "How dear of you to say that! Well, what is it that he does that I don't do? Just say the word,-teetotal, vegetarian, aeronaut, theosophist, superman. I'll have a try at it, Gladys, if you will only give me an idea what would please you."
She laughed at the elasticity of my character. "Well, in the first place, I don't think my ideal would speak like that," said she. "He would be a harder, sterner man, not so ready to adapt himself to a silly girl's whim. But, above all, he must be a man who could do, who could act, who could look Death in the face and have no fear of him, a man of great deeds and strange experiences. It is never a man that I should love, but always the glories he had won; for they would be reflected upon me. Think of Richard Burton! When I read his wife's life of him I could so understand her love! And Lady Stanley! Did you ever read the wonderful last chapter of that book about her husband? These are the sort of men that a woman could worship with all her soul, and yet be the greater, not the less, on account of her love, honored by all the world as the inspirer of noble deeds."
She looked so beautiful in her enthusiasm that I nearly brought down the whole level of the interview. I gripped myself hard, and went on with the argument. "We can't all be Stanleys and Burtons," said I; "besides, we don't get the chance,-at least, I never had the chance. If I did, I should try to take it."
"But chances are all around you. It is the mark of the kind of man I mean that he makes his own chances. You can't hold him back. I've never met him, and yet I seem to know him so well. There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done. It's for men to do them, and for women to reserve their love as a reward for such men. Look at that young Frenchman who went up last week in a balloon. It was blowing a gale of wind; but because he was announced to go he insisted on starting. The wind blew him fifteen hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and he fell in the middle of Russia. That was the kind of man I mean. Think of the woman he loved, and how other women must have envied her! That's what I should like to be,-envied for my man."
"I'd have done it to please you." "But you shouldn't do it merely to please me. You should do it because you can't help yourself, because it's natural to you, because the man in you is crying out for heroic expression. Now, when you described the Wigan coal explosion last month, could you not have gone down and helped those people, in spite of the choke-damp?"
"I did." "You never said so." "There was nothing worth bucking about." "I didn't know." She looked at me with rather more interest. "That was brave of you." "I had to. If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are."
"What a prosaic motive! It seems to take all the romance out of it. But, still, whatever your motive, I am glad that you went down that mine." She gave me her hand; but with such sweetness and dignity that I could only stoop and kiss it. "I dare say I am merely a foolish woman with a young girl's fancies. And yet it is so real with me, so entirely part of my very self, that I cannot help acting upon it. If I marry, I do want to marry a famous man!"
"Why should you not?" I cried. "It is women like you who brace men up. Give me a chance, and see if I will take it! Besides, as you say, men ought to MAKE their own chances, and not wait until they are given. Look at Clive-just a clerk, and he conquered India! By George! I'll do something in the world yet!" She laughed at my sudden Irish effervescence. "Why not?" she said. "You have everything a man could have,-youth, health, strength, education, energy. I was sorry you spoke. And now I am glad-so glad-if it wakens these thoughts in you!"
"And if I do--" Her dear hand rested like warm velvet upon my lips. "Not another word, Sir! You should have been at the office for evening duty half an hour ago; only I hadn't the heart to remind you. Some day, perhaps, when you have won your place in the world, we shall talk it over again."
And so it was that I found myself that foggy November evening pursuing the Camberwell tram with my heart glowing within me, and with the eager determination that not another day should elapse before I should find some deed which was worthy of my lady. But who-who in all this wide world could ever have imagined the incredible shape which that deed was to take, or the strange steps by which I was led to the doing of it?
And, after all, this opening chapter will seem to the reader to have nothing to do with my narrative; and yet there would have been no narrative without it, for it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round him, and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any which may come within sight of him, that he breaks away as I did from the life he knows, and ventures forth into the wonderful mystic twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards. Behold me, then, at the office of the Daily Gazette, on the staff of which I was a most insignificant unit, with the settled determination that very night, if possible, to find the quest which should be worthy of my Gladys! Was it hardness, was it selfishness, that she should ask me to risk my life for her own glorification? Such thoughts may come to middle age; but never to ardent three-and-twenty in the fever of his first love.
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Word Lists:

Aeronaut : a traveler in a hot-air balloon, airship, or other flying craft.
Tactless : having or showing a lack of adroitness and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues
Effervescence : bubbles in a liquid; fizz
Bestial : of or like an animal or animals
Tram : a trolley car.
Vegetarian : a person who does not eat meat, and sometimes other animal products, especially for moral, religious, or health reasons.
Fluffy : of, like, or covered with fluff
Depreciation : a reduction in the value of an asset with the passage of time, due in particular to wear and tear
Heroism : great bravery
Elasticity : the ability of an object or material to resume its normal shape after being stretched or compressed; stretchiness

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Rating: A Words in the Passage: 2120 Unique Words: 697 Sentences: 151
Noun: 420 Conjunction: 202 Adverb: 139 Interjection: 9
Adjective: 159 Pronoun: 345 Verb: 396 Preposition: 231
Letter Count: 8,507 Sentiment: Positive / Positive / Positive Tone: Conversational Difficult Words: 356
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