American Doyle Research Paper

The personal lives of many authors can be expressed in their work. Most famously known as the creator of the character Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a prime example of how authors can draw from past experiences to inspire their writing. The topics and characters seen in the historical and fictional writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reflect his familial background, his career in the medical field, and his struggle with religion. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born into a dysfunctional family. According to Dr. Diniejko on The Victorian Web, Arthur’s father Charles was “neurotic” and could not adequately provide for his family “with a clerk’s meagre salary.” Charles was derived from a long line of creative and successful family members, …show more content…
His mother urged him to study at the University of Edinburgh, which he started in 1876 (Booth 42). Charles’ health declined while Conan Doyle was at the university, and he was soon sent to an alcoholic treatment facility called “Fordoun House” (66). Conan Doyle began delving deeper into his studies, as well as photography and sports, perhaps to comfort his grieving mother. At the encouragement of Mary, Conan Doyle began studying medicine and quickly started research in the …show more content…
Poe’s short stories, such as “The Gold Bug” and “The Murder in the Rue Morgue,” were the basis for Conan Doyle’s detective fiction. Conan Doyle considered Poe to be the “Master of Detectives” (Booth 104). In 1886, Conan Doyle finished the first Sherlock Holmes novella, “A Study in Scarlet” (“Arthur Conan Doyle”). The novella was published in a local magazine and met with “overwhelming success.” Conan Doyle began writing more short stories about Sherlock and Watson, and each publication was received amorously by the public, but he soon began to resent the detective. Booth states that Conan Doyle saw the mysteries as too easily solved, often by unrealistic coincidences (Booth 104). He wanted to create a scientifically accurate crime-solver, but instead he found himself stuck to with a commercial detective he resented. He described his dislike of Sherlock to pâté de foie gras, “of which I once ate too much, so that the name of it gives me a sickly feeling to this day” (“Arthur Conan Doyle”). Because Conan Doyle grew to hate the detective stories so strongly, he often knowingly wrote discrepancies in the stories without fixing them, such as changing certain dates. The public, however, overlooked these mistakes and continued to crave Holmes. After thirty-six Sherlock mysteries, Conan Doyle tried to kill him off in the 1893 story, “The Final Problem.” The public reacted so negatively to this story