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pipn_t's review against another edition
2.0
Honestly dissapintimg. There were lots of asides about publishing details when I thought it would be more intelligent commentary on A.C.D’s personality versus the character he created (like a book I read a number of years ago about ACD and Harry Houdini). Also don’t appreciate the sharing of racist comments without any commentary whatsoever, plus there were derogatory words used to describe First Nations people that absolutely had no reason to be there.
diana_eveline's review against another edition
4.0
"During his first year in Southsea, Arthur earned only £154, too little to even require a tax payment, as he noted on a form to the government. The form was returned with a scrawled commentary: Most unsatisfactory. Arthur wrote underneath those words : I entirely agree. He then mailed it back."
Despite this being a rather challenging read, I loved it! I was especially surprised to hear that Arthur Conan Doyle had been out to dinner with Oscar Wilde and that it was after that very dinner, Wilde had decided to write The Picture of Dorian Gray.
It is so interesting to see where Conan Doyle got the concept of his characters from. I loved to read some about a few important figures in his life but the information about those figures could have been a bit more brief. I was expecting to read a little more about the writer himself. Sims doesn't even go all the way through the publication and writing process of all the Sherlock novels. A bit of a shame, really. I did enjoy it massively and would recommend it to anyone who is familiar with Conan Doyle's work!
Despite this being a rather challenging read, I loved it! I was especially surprised to hear that Arthur Conan Doyle had been out to dinner with Oscar Wilde and that it was after that very dinner, Wilde had decided to write The Picture of Dorian Gray.
It is so interesting to see where Conan Doyle got the concept of his characters from. I loved to read some about a few important figures in his life but the information about those figures could have been a bit more brief. I was expecting to read a little more about the writer himself. Sims doesn't even go all the way through the publication and writing process of all the Sherlock novels. A bit of a shame, really. I did enjoy it massively and would recommend it to anyone who is familiar with Conan Doyle's work!
idiotzone's review against another edition
2.0
Whenever I talked about this book to someone, I thought it self explanatory. The only person who seemed to miss the point of the book is the author. There were continuous passages about anything and everything other than Arthur and Sherlock that it was quite irritating.
It’s really hard for anyone to mess a Sherlock-related material up for me. I just love it too much. But apparently, it’s not impossible.
The first part was pretty good, I’ll give it that. The next two, however, fell down a cliff real fast.
It’s really hard for anyone to mess a Sherlock-related material up for me. I just love it too much. But apparently, it’s not impossible.
The first part was pretty good, I’ll give it that. The next two, however, fell down a cliff real fast.
ryner's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Arthur Conan Doyle is most renowned as the inventor of Sherlock Holmes, the astute, determined and steadfast London detective whose many solved cases contribute to what we now consider the mystery genre in its infancy. Doyle's inspiration for his famously analytical protagonist came not from his own imagination but instead from a respected medical professor he studied under in Edinburgh. In this biography, author Michael Sims illustrates Doyle's life before and after his "Sherlock" fame.
I thought I initially heard about this book on the SYMHC podcast, but I'm not finding the episode now to confirm. It was interesting to learn of Doyle's background and of his desire to become a writer despite having been educated as a physician. There was one scene in which I took exception to Sims' choice of phrase, when he declared that "Arthur delivered at home their first child" — doctor notwithstanding, I'm pretty sure we know who did all of the work. Amusing side note: When the categories were released for Read Harder 2022 and the first one was "a biography of an author you admire," I was already in the middle of this book. I'm unsure about the term "admire," since I knew nothing about Doyle personally or as a writer, but I suppose I admire or respect him about as much as I do any other author, so SCORE!
I thought I initially heard about this book on the SYMHC podcast, but I'm not finding the episode now to confirm. It was interesting to learn of Doyle's background and of his desire to become a writer despite having been educated as a physician. There was one scene in which I took exception to Sims' choice of phrase, when he declared that "Arthur delivered at home their first child" — doctor notwithstanding, I'm pretty sure we know who did all of the work. Amusing side note: When the categories were released for Read Harder 2022 and the first one was "a biography of an author you admire," I was already in the middle of this book. I'm unsure about the term "admire," since I knew nothing about Doyle personally or as a writer, but I suppose I admire or respect him about as much as I do any other author, so SCORE!
jonjeffryes's review against another edition
5.0
Concise biography and exploration of the creation of Sherlock Holmes -- provides really great contextualization for the early detective novel. Sims picks great details to highlight and his works cited was filled with other books I'm eager to read.
sarrie's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting look at Arthur Conan Doyle's life leading up to and including his creation of Holmes. It doesn't give much information past the first wave of novels and stories, so it avoids most of his later life, but the focus on the inspiration behind the detective stories was interesting. It was also very nice to get a much more fleshed out image of Arthur Conan Doyle. It helped to make him into more of an 'author' instead of the shadow behind the classics.
mwgerard's review
5.0
Rather than a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, this is a history of all of the people surrounding the world’s greatest consulting detective. Instead of trying to encompass a whole (very accomplished) life, Sims chooses to take a magnifying glass to Conan Doyle’s early professional life as a student, doctor and writer, up until the birth of Sherlock Holmes.
Piece by piece, he unmasks aspects of Conan Doyle’s past that point to inspiration for Holmes and the fantastic stories. Most notably (and a personal hero of mine) is Dr. Joseph Bell, a teaching physician at the University of Edinburgh while Conan Doyle studied there. The book, in fact, opens with a quote from Bell, and sets the tone for the whole work.
Read my full review here: http://mwgerard.com/review-arthur-and-sherlock/
Piece by piece, he unmasks aspects of Conan Doyle’s past that point to inspiration for Holmes and the fantastic stories. Most notably (and a personal hero of mine) is Dr. Joseph Bell, a teaching physician at the University of Edinburgh while Conan Doyle studied there. The book, in fact, opens with a quote from Bell, and sets the tone for the whole work.
Read my full review here: http://mwgerard.com/review-arthur-and-sherlock/
jennypgh's review
2.0
Meh. I was hoping for a lot more from this book, but found it difficult to get into and finish. It's awkwardly written and very, very dry. Some of the language and composition was choppy and clumsy. The book jumped around a bit with sections of back-and-forth between topics. The book also spent a lot of time delving into biographies of (seemingly) everyone in Conan Doyle's life to the point where you couldn't figure out how this related to the creation of Sherlock. About 50 pages into it, I just said, "Who cares?"