Arthur Doyle was in his day one of the great non-fiction writers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. In many ways he was a pioneer; after some success writing short articles in the strand, he made his name with long works of popular non fiction that were neither journalism nor academic, but rather an attempt to combine investigative reporting, education and explanations of complicated subject matter for the lay reader and excellent story telling. Though many of his works are of interest only to a denizen of the ivory tower, Toucan Publishing has reissued the 'Canonical Works' in this handsome edition marking the centenary of Doyle's death...
A Study in Scarlet: Hugely controversial when it came out, this book about the British left and the continental anarchist émigré community remains a fascinating glimpse at a revolution that never happened. Sympathetic to their ideals without ever approving of their methods, the book was banned in twenty two US states.
A Scandal in Bohemia: Doyle happened to be attending a medical conference in Prague in 1891 when Crown Prince Rudolf was discovered in flagrante delicto with Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen. The resulting scandal for the houses of Hapsburg, Hohenzollern and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was never more entertainingly chronicled than in this slim volume, drawn largely from Doyle's contemporary diaries. Banned in thirty two US states, and resulted in Doyle's trial for obscenity at the Old Bailey (where he was successfully defended by Sir Edward Carson.)
The Valley of Fear: The Luxembourg (Eisch Valley) Crisis almost brought Europe into a general war, and Doyle was there to report on the standoff between Boulanger and Leopold II. Not banned in any US states, possibly because it's distressingly straightforward.
The Hound of the Baskerville: A comic work that deserves a wider audience, this tells the story of a dispute between two printers over the most aesthetically pleasing typeface that somehow led to the Fleet Street Riots of 1898.
The Sign of Four: The Quadruple Intervention saw the fleets of Germany, Russia, the United States and France stand between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the seemingly invincible Beiyang Navy and its British allies. Doyle's reporting of the crisis and his frank assessment of the British navy's woeful obsolescence compared to her rivals made this a seminal text of the Naval Panics of the early twentieth century.
The Red Headed League: This tale of the Spencer family's designs on Downing Street verges into conspiratorial, but it remains one of the most entertaining character assessments of Winston Churchill ever written. Churchill did, in the end, get Doyle jailed for slander- but neither he nor his father ever made it to the helm of the ship of state.