The Case Book of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

by G.K. Chesterton (Contributor), Dorothy L. Sayers (Contributor), A.E. Murch (Contributor)

The Case Book of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, available only through Quality Paperback Book Club, is a consummate companion to the Sherlock Holmes canon. Included here are extensive information on both the author and his sublime creation, the world's first consulting detective; a comprehensive bibliography of all of Conan Doyle's works; and critical pieces from three illustrious Holmes devotees: G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and A.E. Murch. No proper Sherlockian, seasoned or novice, should be without The Case Book of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Genres: Fiction

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.

Reviews

[Laura Verret · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Case Book of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle functions in three capacities: it begins by offering a short biography of the man behind the stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; next, it furnishes its reader with a complete bibliography of Doyle's sizeable contribution to English Literature; finally, it provides readers with three short pieces on the role of Sherlock Holmes in the development of the detective genre. It is in this latter section that the true juice of the collection lies. For two of those pieces are written by none other than the equally renowned G. K. Chesterton and Dorothy Sayers, creators of the fictional detectives Father Brown and Lord Peter Wimsey, respectively. Their indebtedness to Doyle's prototype makes their opinions of that prototype doubly interesting and their insight into Holmes' perennial fascination especially keen.

All in all, what this slim little volume lacks in length it makes up for in enjoyability.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardly an in-depth biography of Doyle; however, it's still an interesting look not only at how the Sherlock Homes stories were created but also his other literary works.

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have read all of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and probably others as well, just never bothered to put them in to amazon or goodreads, so dates wrong. Some KU some paperback some hardback some collections.