The Narrative of John Smith was written when Conan Doyle was 23, and just a few years before the author published his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. It's the story of a 50-year-old "opinionated Everyman" confined to his room by gout, laying out his thoughts and views on subjects from religion to war and literature through the conversations he has with his visitors, from a retired army major to a curate.
"As you might expect with the creator of Sherlock Holmes, there's a bit of a mystery around the manuscript," said Rachel Foss, lead curator of modern literary manuscripts at the British Library, which is publishing the 150-page book in November.
"He wrote it in 1883 and 1884, when he was starting to try to establish himself in the medical profession and as a writer. He sent it to a publisher, but it got lost in the post, so he decided to try and redo it from memory. The manuscript we have is the novel as reconstructed from memory, and it stops around chapter six."
"Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it in 1883 and 1884, when he was starting to try to establish himself in the medical profession and as a writer," said Rachel Foss of the British Library, which is publishing this book this coming November. "He sent it to a publisher, but it got lost in the post, so he decided to try and redo it from memory. The manuscript we have is the novel as reconstructed from memory, and it stops around chapter six." Though loose in terms of character and plot, Foss adds that it does provide "some hints towards the Sherlock Holmes stories to come ... and represents his first attempt to make the transition from short story writer to novelist."
From The Guardian via Omnimysterynews.com
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