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Review
"splendid, evocatively illustrated biography" SUNDAY TELEGRAPH "Comprehensive and authoritative, it is undoubtedly the best account of Doyle to date" SUNDAY TIMES "Lycett excels at the troubled context of of Doyle's times, caught first on the cusp and then on the charge of change" -- Ross Leckie TIMES "Packed with fascinating detail about Doyle's milieu, this engaging and perceptive account deserves to sell in vast quantities to the army of Holmes fans" -- Christopher Hirst INDEPENDENT "a massive work and Lycett has gathered much new material to produce a comprehensive, lucid and sympathetic portrait of a larger-than-life character" HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER "deftly and sensitively treated by Lycett" GOOD BOOK GUIDE
Philip Hoare, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
"In Andrew Lycett's hugely enjoyable ew biography, the sheer breathtaking dynamism of the man shines through"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mary Cable the American writer said that the best biographies leave their readers with a sense of having all but entered into a second life and of having come to know another human being in some ways better than he knew himself and Andrew Lycett's biography of Arthur Conan Doyle is no exception to this rule. If, as I do, you like to truly understand the subject and his or her antecedents then this is the book for you. As with his biographies of Dylan Thomas and Rudyard Kipling, Lycett has managed to delve deep into an already well researched subject to find even more information about Conan Doyle. Information that may reinforce your admiration for the creator of Sherlock Holmes or, and do be warned, may diminish it. Whatever the outcome you will not be disappointed by this excellent biography.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Conan Doyle was the creator of one of the great literary icons, a successful doctor, fascinated by spiritaulism and contact with the undead. He was both a keen sportsman and a brave journalist, travelling to conflict zones to report and to transcribe his own versions of events. In this biography, Andrew Lycett explores the complexities of this remarkable Scottish writer and shows how the writer could campaign proudly against injustice yet treat his wife and children harshly.
Lycett explores Arthur's difficlt relationship with his alcoholic father and his sympathy for his mother. We learn of the inspirational teachers who shaped his studies as a doctor and how they may have influenced the development of some of his most famous characters. We appreciate the speed and fluency of his writing and how he would often use his skills as a patriotic tool, how his interest in writing was stimulated by his ambition to write detailed historical works that demonstrated his research and mastery of his subject and how his detective novels and adventure stories paid the bills.
Having read this biography, it's difficult to admire the man himself or really to discern what the writer feels about him. Much of this is down to Lycett's skills in presenting what seems to be a detailed and objective portrayal. In his notes, he records the frustrations caused by Doyle's estate and the fact that many quotations have been removed may mean that we are not able to access as full a representation of this remarkable figure as the writer intended. I would like to have learnt more about contemporary responses to his writing and for a fuller discussion of his development as a poet and a dramatist.
I would suggest this biography is mainly successful as it does leave me wanting to learn more about Arthur Conan-Doyle however I do feel it is much more successful as an account of his life than of his literary works.
Lycett explores Arthur's difficlt relationship with his alcoholic father and his sympathy for his mother. We learn of the inspirational teachers who shaped his studies as a doctor and how they may have influenced the development of some of his most famous characters. We appreciate the speed and fluency of his writing and how he would often use his skills as a patriotic tool, how his interest in writing was stimulated by his ambition to write detailed historical works that demonstrated his research and mastery of his subject and how his detective novels and adventure stories paid the bills.
Having read this biography, it's difficult to admire the man himself or really to discern what the writer feels about him. Much of this is down to Lycett's skills in presenting what seems to be a detailed and objective portrayal. In his notes, he records the frustrations caused by Doyle's estate and the fact that many quotations have been removed may mean that we are not able to access as full a representation of this remarkable figure as the writer intended. I would like to have learnt more about contemporary responses to his writing and for a fuller discussion of his development as a poet and a dramatist.
I would suggest this biography is mainly successful as it does leave me wanting to learn more about Arthur Conan-Doyle however I do feel it is much more successful as an account of his life than of his literary works.
Format:Paperback
This was a very comprehensive and readable biography. While knowing this point already, I was struck again by the fact that Sherlock Holmes represents a fairly small portion of his life and output, and not one that he initially rated highly, until its great success changed his attitude to some extent. That said, it felt like the Holmes stories were what he wrote to bring in the financial security to enable him to focus on the things about which he cared most, chiefly his evolving spiritualist beliefs and accompanying lecture tours, and his attempts at military history. The development of those beliefs in the supernatural is a theme running throughout the book, from his early attempts to reconcile his scientifically-rooted medical knowledge with his instinctive belief in a God (though not necessarily the Catholic God of his upbringing and schooling), to his more determined pursuit of spiritualism especially during and after the First World War. The (in)famous Cottingley fairies incident is dealt with quite briefly, though. Doyle emerges as a man of contradictions who wasn't afraid to face ridicule or unpopularity. He was a man of science with a passionate and utterly sincerely held belief in life after death; he was an Empire loyalist staunchly supporting Britain in the Boer war, but who passionately supported the plight of the native Congolese suffering under Belgian rule; he was a man of fairly conventional political views but who supported victims of miscarriages of justice such as Oscar Slater and George Edalji.
This contains a very full genealogical table -unusual for a biography of a non-Royal/aristocratic subject - but there are a number of discrepancies between it and dates given in the text. It also includes an afterword detailing the sordid attempts by his children and other literary heirs to profit from his estate. 5/5
This contains a very full genealogical table -unusual for a biography of a non-Royal/aristocratic subject - but there are a number of discrepancies between it and dates given in the text. It also includes an afterword detailing the sordid attempts by his children and other literary heirs to profit from his estate. 5/5
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Conan Doyle - The last laugh?
Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes
It's a shame that biographers treat Doyle's quest to find out the truth about what happens when we die with such... Read more
It's a shame that biographers treat Doyle's quest to find out the truth about what happens when we die with such... Read more
Published on 20 May 2009 by crow
Masterly
The Sunday Times' review of Andrew Lycett's biography of Doyle says it all: 'the best we are likely to get. Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2007 by Richard Morris author of Harry Price: The Psychic Detective
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