The Narrative of John Smith
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Someone, I think it was the noted Janeite Lord David Cecil, once said that Jane Austen was the kind of writer on whose laundry lists and notes to the milkman any keen reader would pounce. While Conan Doyle may not be considered to be in quite that category there can be no doubt that the heart of every lover of British writing will rejoice at this discovery of an early and as yet unpublished work by the creator of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty and Professor Challenger. The breadth, depth and scope of Conan Doyle's knowledge and curiosity is often overlooked. He was the first popular writer to tell the wider reading public about narcotics, the Ku Klux Klan, the mafia, the Mormons, American crime gangs, corrupt union bosses and much else besides. His boundless energy, enthusiasm and wide-ranging mind, not to mention the pitch-perfect, muscular and memorable prose is all on display here in a work whose publication is very very welcome indeed. --Stephen Fry, May 2011
Robert Lindsay ... discriminates consistently and wittily among these characters. There is an element of tour de force as the actor must vivify the entire cast, and Lindsay rises admirably to the challenge. He 'does' Mrs Rundle with unpatronising sympathy, and is very funny at the expense of the obsequious curate. When he is not talking to - or at - these people, he addresses his listeners with warmth and wit. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that this fragment will be seized on by Doyle's devotees - possibly adding to their number. --Brian McFarlane, Australian Book Review, March 2012
Robert Lindsay ... discriminates consistently and wittily among these characters. There is an element of tour de force as the actor must vivify the entire cast, and Lindsay rises admirably to the challenge. He 'does' Mrs Rundle with unpatronising sympathy, and is very funny at the expense of the obsequious curate. When he is not talking to - or at - these people, he addresses his listeners with warmth and wit. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that this fragment will be seized on by Doyle's devotees - possibly adding to their number. --Brian McFarlane, Australian Book Review, March 2012
Product Description
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Narrative of John Smith in 1883 when he was just 23, living in Portsmouth and struggling to establish himself as a doctor and a writer. By that time he had succeeded in getting a number of short stories published in leading magazines of the day, such as Blackwood s, All the Year Round, London Society and the Boy s Own Paper. But, as was the accepted practice of literary journals of the time, his stories were published anonymously and Conan Doyle realised that to make his name as a writer he would have to write a novel. That novel, the first he ever wrote, and published here for the first time, is The Narrative of John Smith. More a string of ruminations than a novel, it is however of considerable biographical importance and has exceptional value as a window into the mind of the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Many of the themes and tropes of his later writing, including his first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet (published in 1887), can be clearly seen. Via the protagonist, John Smith, a 50-year-old man confined to his room by an attack of gout, Conan Doyle sets down his thoughts and opinions on a range of subjects literature, science, religion, war, education with no detectable shyness or diffidence, full of bravado in the face of little professional success at that time. Although it has little in the way of plot it stands as a fascinating record of an early attempt at writing by a man who was on his way to being one of the best-known authors in the world. This mspecially-recorded version of the final text is read by award-winning actor Robert Lindsay. Extract from Chapter I: Gout or rheumatism, Doctor? I asked. A little of both Mr. Smith, said he. And pray, sir, what is the exact difference between them? I continued under a natural impulse to gain a little knowledge in exchange for the red-hot skewer which was transfixing my right foot. Why, said my good physician, tapping his tortoise-shell snuff box, the one is a punishment and the other is a misfortune one is in the hands of Providence and the other in your own. You can t command the weather which governs your rheumatism, but you can command your appetites which govern your gout. And so, said I, this diabolical pain in my foot is the hybrid form of torture known as rheumatic gout which unites the disadvantages of both diseases to a dash of malignancy all its own.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Arthur Conan Doyle lost the manuscript of his first novel, and later professed horror at the thought that it should be found and published. As we now know, he rewrote much of it from memory, and "The Narrative of John Smith" has indeed been published. As it stands, it's not a long book, and next to nothing happens. I doubt it would have seen print in the 1880s, but now we're familiar with the author's life and work, and we're interested to follow his development as a writer, a thinker and a person. John Smith, perhaps Conan Doyle's vision of himself as an older man, is confined to his room by gout; the narrative consists of his reflections on life and his conversations with his doctor, his neighbours, his landlady, and the local curate - characters who are depicted with a lively authenticity. Nowhere else in his fiction does Conan Doyle discourse on such a range of topics - politics, religion, philosophy and much more - with the boldness of youth and often with the wisdom of maturity. Perhaps it's not a novel so much as a series of sketches: I was reminded of the "Sketches by Boz", which is no bad thing. The Narrative is a precursor of "The Stark Munro Letters" and "A Duet", rather than "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "The White Company" or "The Lost World", but there are details here that would become important elements in the chronicles of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Nigel and Professor Challenger. The admirable notes are by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Rachel Foss.
Format:Audio CD
Ideal present for daughter - especially as this had not been published before. Would recommend buying for adult Conan Doyle fans.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Interesting and informative but not exactly engrossing at times. It would have needed a very good editor to put it into an appropriate category - but then thse were very different times and the readers would have been very different.
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