江苏省永丰初级中学九年级英语上册《Unit 6 Detective stories》Conan Doyle and His Achievements文章背景

Conan Doyle and His Achievements
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930) was the most successful contemporary of Stevenson. He did not invent the detective novel. There were already detectives in the novels of Dickens, Collins, and Poe. Even without She rlock Holmes Doyle would still hold a high place in the literature of adventure stories and historical romance. He himself wished to be reme mbered by his historical romances, and he produced two masterpieces in this genre, Micah Clarke (1889) and The White Company (1881). He was practising as a physician when he wrote A Study in Scarlet (1887), which combined Collins’technique of the mystery story with the sprightly style of The New Arabian Nights (1882) by Stevenson, and in which Sherlock Holmes, the first private consulting detective in English litera ture, made his first appearance.
In France, Ernile Gabor ia u had created an energetic professional detective, M. Lecoq, appare ntly based on the actual detective Vidocq whose Memoirs had been published in 1824. Doyle’s detective Sherlock Holmes was modeled upon one of h is medical professors at Edinburgh University, who had fascinated the students with his powers of induction. The first appearance of Holmes in A Study in Scarlet created little stir among readers, but the second, in The Sign of Four, had more popular success. But it was not until The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes began appearing month by month in The Strand Magazine in 1891 that Sherlock Holmes took the public by storm. Each of the monthly issues included a complete story with the same ch ief characters instead of a single full-length story cut in to monthly parts. Doyle found that the form of short story suited him well, providing variety, suspense, and surprise while retaining the central characters of Holmes and Dr. Watson, and the now familiar quarters at 221A Baker Street. But he was in a haste to finish with Holmes so that he could write his favourite romance, so in the last tale of Memoirs of Sherlo ck Holmes(1892), Doyle made the detective meet with a spectacular death. However the pu blic loved Holmes so much and protested so vehemently that Doyle was forced to give in, and to bring Holmes to life again. But the final volume of the series did not come out until 1927. Few fictitious characters have ever assumed such a living
identity in the minds of countless readers.。