I\u2019ve been read\u00ading some ear\u00adly works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Some of this mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal was only redis\u00adcov\u00adered in recent years.<\/p>\n
At the age of twen\u00adty, while still in med\u00adical school in Edin\u00adburgh, he shipped out on a whal\u00ading ship for six months. The ship went to the remote arc\u00adtic islands of Spitzber\u00adgen [Sval\u00adbard] and Jan Mayen, and Doyle had his twen\u00adty-first birth\u00adday on the rim of the polar icepack. This was no tame adven\u00adture. It was 1880, and Doyle\u2019s ship reached with\u00adin three degrees of the record point that the British Arc\u00adtic Expe\u00addi\u00adtion had turned back from in 1876. A year lat\u00ader, George DeLong\u2019s Amer\u00adi\u00adcan expe\u00addi\u00adtion would per\u00adish at a sim\u00adi\u00adlar lat\u00adi\u00adtude. The pole would not be reached with cer\u00adtain\u00adty until 1926, when Doyle was an old man. Peary and Hen\u00adson, often cred\u00adit\u00aded with reach\u00ading the pole in 1909, are now con\u00adsid\u00adered doubt\u00adful. Doyle\u2019s voy\u00adage was on a com\u00admer\u00adcial whaler and seal\u00ader, dri\u00adven by prof\u00adit, not glo\u00adry, but it was cer\u00adtain\u00adly a dan\u00adger\u00adous and spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar adven\u00adture for a book\u00adish young Scott, and he lat\u00ader wrote that he left as a boy and came back as a man. He kept a diary, quite well writ\u00adten, but rather terse, and dec\u00ado\u00adrat\u00aded with his draw\u00adings. On his return, he became caught up with his exams and his first attempts to build a med\u00adical prac\u00adtice, and so the diary was for\u00adgot\u00adten. It was not pub\u00adlished until 2012, when it appeared as Dan\u00adger\u00adous Work: Diary of an Arc\u00adtic Adven\u00adture<\/em>.<\/p>\n Doyle was already a pub\u00adlished writer at the time of the arc\u00adtic adven\u00adture, hav\u00ading sold a sto\u00adry just before he left. After a few more sales, he attempt\u00aded a nov\u00adel, The Nar\u00adra\u00adtive of John Smith, <\/em>in 1883. After the usu\u00adal long wait for the inevitable rejec\u00adtion, he learned that it had nev\u00ader reached the edi\u00adtor \u2014 it was lost in the post. There was only the one copy. Doyle vowed to re-write it from mem\u00ado\u00adry, and got fair\u00adly far before work and finan\u00adcial pres\u00adsure com\u00adpelled him to stop. But he con\u00adtin\u00adued to write, and struck gold in 1886 with A Study in Scar\u00adlet<\/em>, which intro\u00adduced Sher\u00adlock Holmes. The incom\u00adplete re-writ\u00adten man\u00adu\u00adscript of his first nov\u00adel was also for\u00adgot\u00adten, and did not see pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion until 2011.<\/p>\n The Nar\u00adra\u00adtive of John Smith<\/em> is not exact\u00adly a good book, but it is read\u00adable, and a rather odd thing to be pro\u00adduced by a 24-year old. It\u2019s not real\u00adly a \u201cnov\u00adel\u201d, but more some\u00adthing along the line of Oliv\u00ader Wen\u00addell Holmes\u2019 The Auto\u00adcrat at the Break\u00adfast Table, <\/em>a salma\u00adgun\u00addi of mus\u00adings with\u00adin a fram\u00ading device. The nar\u00adra\u00adtor is an old man, nor\u00admal\u00adly an active out\u00addoor type, who sud\u00adden\u00adly finds him\u00adself con\u00adfined indoors by gout. There is no plot. He mere\u00adly spouts his opin\u00adions on a wide range of top\u00adics, some\u00adtimes direct\u00adly to the read\u00ader, and some\u00adtimes in dia\u00adlogue with an assort\u00adment of vis\u00adi\u00adtors. Doyle, always an opin\u00adion\u00adat\u00aded man, must have thought it great fun to put his notions in the mouth of some\u00adone far his old\u00ader than himself.<\/p>\n Both the arc\u00adtic diary and this first attempt at writ\u00ading a book form a win\u00addow into the mind of a remark\u00adable young man in the Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan era, and show aspects of the peri\u00adod that one will not find else\u00adwhere. On the whal\u00ading ship, Doyle grew to respect and admire men that most Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan era writ\u00aders would have con\u00adsid\u00adered beneath them. He remained remark\u00adably free of class snob\u00adbery through\u00adout his life, no mean accom\u00adplish\u00adment in his cir\u00adcum\u00adstances. It might best be summed up by the scene in A Scan\u00addal in Bohemia<\/em>, where an imag\u00adi\u00adnary King of Bohemia is try\u00ading to cov\u00ader up an affair with a com\u00admon\u00ader, an Amer\u00adi\u00adcan actress:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>What a woman \u2014 oh, what a woman!\u201d cried the King of Bohemia, when we had all three read the epis\u00adtle. \u201cDid I not tell you how quick and res\u00adolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a very dif\u00adfer\u00adent lev\u00adel to your Majesty,\u201d said Holmes coldly.<\/em><\/p>\n In the fine tele\u00advi\u00adsion adap\u00adta\u00adtion of 1984, the actor Jere\u00admy Brett deliv\u00aders this line with a splen\u00addid under\u00adstand\u00ading of its deep and echo\u00ading sarcasm.<\/p>\n But noth\u00ading pre\u00adpared me to read this remark\u00adable pas\u00adsage in Doyle\u2019s appren\u00adtice \u201cnov\u00adel\u201d. It is far removed from one\u2019s nor\u00admal image of Vic\u00adto\u00adri\u00adan era sen\u00adti\u00adments in Britain:<\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I should like to see a lit\u00adtle more trans\u00adfu\u00adsion in the Empire,\u201d he remarked after a pause. \u201cMore black faces in the streets of Lon\u00addon and more white ones in the coun\u00adtry parts of India. We should find bil\u00adlets in Eng\u00adland for a thou\u00adsand bright Hin\u00addoo youths every year, and send out as mnay of our own young fel\u00adlows to work at the tea and indi\u00adgo. It would help us towards con\u00adsol\u00adi\u00addat\u00ading the union between the coun\u00adtries. A few Indi\u00adan reg\u00adi\u00adments in Eng\u00adlish gar\u00adri\u00adson towns would have the same effect. As to our par\u00adlia\u00adment, it should be a piebald assem\u00adbly with every hue from jet to brown, red and yel\u00adlow, with occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly a bronze-coloured pre\u00admier at the head of them. What\u2019s the odds how much pig\u00adment a man has in his skin, if he has a lev\u00adel head and a loy\u00adal heart. Gad, sir, I\u2019ve seen our British reg\u00adi\u00adments glad enough of their help on the day of bat\u00adtle \u2014 why shouldn\u2019t we be equal\u00adly ready to have their assis\u00adtance at our councils?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ading that a \u201cbronze-coloured\u201d Eng\u00adlish Prime Min\u00adis\u00adter would still be con\u00adsid\u00adered an improb\u00ada\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty today, when the U.K. has become a mul\u00adti-eth\u00adnic soci\u00adety, this is a most sur\u00adpris\u00ading idea to be float\u00aded in 1883. Doyle was indeed an inter\u00adest\u00ading man.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n 26087. (Arthur Conan Doyle) The Nar\u00adra\u00adtive of John Smith <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been read\u00ading some ear\u00adly works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Some of this mate\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal was only redis\u00adcov\u00adered in recent years. At the age of twen\u00adty, while still in med\u00adical school in Edin\u00adburgh, he shipped out on a whal\u00ading ship for \u2026<\/p>\n
26101. (Arthur Conan Doyle) Dan\u00adger\u00adous Work: The Diary of an Arc\u00adtic Adventure<\/p>\n