How well do you know your Sherlock Holmes stories? A quiz at our partner site, The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, will separate the true Sherlockians from the casual mystery reader. The quiz features the first lines from 10 stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Your task, should you decide to accept it, is to match the first line of the story to the story title. Do you dare to take The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Quiz?
Tag Archives: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Two Things Quotes
Yesterday I added a new quote topic. It’s called two things as each of the quotes as the phrase “two things.” You can see all of the two things quotes here.
In the meantime here are some of my favorites:
There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink. ~ Penrod by Booth Tarkington
“My good fellow,” retorted Mr. Boffin, “you have my word; and how you can have that, without my honour too, I don’t know. I’ve sorted a lot of dust in my time, but I never knew the two things go into separate heaps.” ~ Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
It is decreed by a merciful Nature that the human brain cannot think of two things simultaneously. ~ The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Just for Fun – Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders
Gyles Brandreth writes a mystery series based on the fictional adventures of Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders is the fifth book in the series.
Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders opens in 1892, as an exhausted Arthur Conan Doyle retires to a spa in Germany with a suitcase full of fan mail. But his rest cure does not go as planned. The first person he encounters is Oscar Wilde, and the two friends make a series of macabre discoveries among the letters—a finger; a lock of hair; and, finally, an entire severed hand.
The trail leads the intrepid duo to Rome, and to a case that involves miracles as well as murder. Pope Pius IX has just died—these are uncertain times in the Eternal City. To uncover the mystery and discover why the creator of Sherlock Holmes has been summoned in this way, Wilde and Conan Doyle must penetrate the innermost circle of the Catholic Church and expose the deadly secrets of the six men closest to the pope.
Conan Doyle on NPR
Recently I wrote about the publication of the diary Conan Doyle kept while working as ship’s surgeon aboard the whaling vessel, Hope. Recently NPR interviewed Jon Lellenberg, one of the book’s editors. You can listen to the entire interview and see photos from the book at NPR – From Ship To Sherlock: Doyle’s ‘Arctic’ Diary
Buy Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure
Six Degrees of J. M. Barrie
Could James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, be the literary Kevin Bacon of his day? It might sound a little nutty, but take a look at his connections:
- He had a long-standing correspondence with Robert Louis Stevenson. Despite that fact that the two wrote many letters, they never met in person.
- George Meredith, the author of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, was his friend.
- George Bernard Shaw was Barrie’s neighbor for several years.
- He collaborated with H.B. Marriott Watson on a biography of Richard Savage.
- Barrie’s friend H. G. Wells tried to help him with his marital problems.
- Barrie knew Thomas Hardy.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and James M. Barrie were good friends. You can read about their friendship at our partner site, The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Barrie’s formed a cricket team, the Allah-Akabarries. Some of Barrie’s teammates included, Conan Dolye, H. G. Wells, Jerome K. Jerome, P. G. Wodehouse, A. E. W. Mason, E. V. Lucas, E. W. Hornung, Maurice Hewlett, A. A. Milne (of Winnie the Pooh fame) and G. K. Chesterton.
Conan Doyle’s Diary – Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure
As you may know, I’m also the publisher of a website on the life and work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There’s a lot about Conan Doyle that’s not commonly known. For example, Conan Doyle was a doctor. When he’d completed his third year of medical studies he signed up for he adventure of a lifetime. He signed on as the ship’s surgeon of a whaling vessel, the Hope. You can read more about this at the Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
You can learn even more about Conan Doyle and the era by reading the diary that he kept while aboard the Hope. Here’s a description of Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure:
Conan Doyle’s time in the Arctic provided powerful fuel for his growing ambitions as a writer. With a ghost story set in the Arctic wastes that he wrote shortly after his return, he established himself as a promising young writer. A subsequent magazine article laying out possible routes to the North Pole won him the respect of Arctic explorers. And he would call upon his shipboard experiences many times in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who was introduced in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet.
Out of sight for more than a century was a diary that Conan Doyle kept while aboard the whaler. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure makes this account available for the first time in a beautiful facsimile edition that reproduces Conan Doyle’s notebook pages in his own elegant hand, accompanied by his copious illustrations. With humor and grace, Conan Doyle provides a vivid account of a long-vanished way of life at sea. His careful detailing of the experience of arctic whaling is equal parts fascinating and alarming, revealing the dark workings of the later days of the British whaling industry. In addition to the facsimile and annotated transcript of the diary, the volume contains photographs of the Hope, its captain, and a young Conan Doyle on deck with its officers; two nonfiction pieces by Doyle about his experiences; and two of his tales inspired by the journey.
Noteworthy Link – The Ghost Club
What do Charles Dickens, Algernon Blackwood, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and W.B.Yeats all have in common? They were members of The Ghost Club.
The Ghost Club is the oldest organization in the world associated with research of psychic events and issues. The group was founded in 1862 and exists today. Their website states:
Today the Ghost Club is a non-profit, social club run by an elected Council of volunteers and its purpose remains true to its roots; the Ghost Club offers open-minded, curious individuals the opportunity to debate, explore and investigate unexplained phenomena with like-minded people and record the results for posterity.
New Facebook Page
I’ve just made a Facebook page for LitQuotes. I’ve also redone the two quote photos that I’ve posted so far so that they’ll look better when you share them with your Facebook friends.
To celebrate the Facebook page, I made a new quote photo. This one features a quote by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
A wave of panic passed over the vessel, and these rough and hardy men, who feared no mortal foe, shook with terror at the shadows of their own minds. ~ Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw and the Titanic
Tomorrow marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
Most of us are familiar with the story. In 1912, on its maiden voyage, the ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank. Because there were not enough lifeboats over 1,500 lives were lost.
A little-known fact is that after the disaster Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw had a very public disagreement about how the disaster was characterized in the press.
You can read the full story about the dispute at our partner site, The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Happy Easter!
It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man’s energy. ~ The Adventure of the Copper Beeches by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle