About this item
Highlights
- Arthur Conan Doyle is best known as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
- Author(s): Bernd Stiegler
- 264 Pages
- Literary Criticism, European
Description
About the Book
The first exploration of Arthur Conan Doyle, photography and spiritualism.
Book Synopsis
Arthur Conan Doyle is best known as the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. However, his works are far more extensive than these familiar works. They include historical novels, political pamphlets, historical studies, science fiction novels and, last but not least, numerous publications on spiritualism. Photography plays a central role in his work and gives rise to a highly peculiar world of imagination. The photographs allow us to take a look at the world in around 1900 with all its oddities. For Conan Doyle's contemporaries, Sherlock Holmes was a real figure. To Conan Doyle, photographs of elves, the dead and ghosts testified to their existence. This book collects these images, along with the imaginarium that surrounds them.
Review Quotes
In this fascinating new book Bernd Stiegler gathers a wealth of material to paint the portrait of Conan Doyle as a writer and doctor, a spiritualist and political activist. His study tells a gripping story; it explores the links between science and superstition, between colonialism and collective identity, loss and mourning in ways which deeply resonate with our current concerns.--Carolin Duttlinger, University of Oxford