Best known as the creator of the consulting detective par excellence Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a man of wide-ranging interests and talents, and his literary output went far beyond his Holmes and Watson stories. The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader collects works from all the genres in which he wrote, including mysteries, historical adventure tales, science fiction stories, ghost stories, plays, memoirs, essays on spiritualism (in which he was a dedicated believer) and reports on the Boer War and World War I. This collection features the account of Watson's first meeting with Holmes from A Study in Scarlet, an account of the dinosaurs inhabiting The Lost World, tales of Doyle's Napoleonic hero Brigadier Gerard, a condemnation of Belgium's exploitation of the Congo, and the complete text of his apocalyptic book The Poison Belt, in addition to several other stories and excerpts.

Winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, this is "an excellent biography of the man who created Sherlock Holmes" (David Walton, The New York Times Book Review) This fresh, compelling biography examines the extraordinary life and strange contrasts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the struggling provincial doctor who became the most popular storyteller of his age. From his youthful exploits aboard a whaling ship to his often stormy friendships with such figures as Harry Houdini and George Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle lived a life as gripping as one of his adventures. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, Daniel Stashower's Teller of Tales sets aside many myths and misconceptions to present a vivid portrait of the man behind the legend of Baker Street, with a particular emphasis on the Psychic Crusade that dominated his final years--the work that Conan Doyle himself felt to be "the most important thing in the world."

Professor Challenger returns to test one of his theories by digging underground and poking the planet in this classic adventure story. In The Lost World, Professor Challenger and reporter Edward Malone found dinosaurs living in the Amazon. In The Poison Belt, they witnessed chaos as Earth passed through a cloud of poison gas. Now, with the help of Peerless Jones, an expert in Artesian boring, they seek to test the professor’s Echinus theory . . . Professor Challenger believes that Earth is a sentient being. Like the sea urchin, it is protected by an outer layer, unaware of what happens on its surface. Challenger wants to dig beneath Earth’s protective layer, its crust, and touch the creature inside to let it know humanity is here. But what the men find underground is quite surprising . . .

First published in 1890, The Sign of Four is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's second book starring legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. The story is complex, involving a secret between four ex-cons from India and a hidden treasure. More complex than the first Holmes novel, The Sign of Four also introduces the detective's drug habit and leaves breadcrumbs for the reader that lead toward the final resolution.

"In addition to the best of Sherlock Holmes, this anthology features selections from Conan Doyle's works of fantasy starring Professor Challenger. Contents include The Hound of the Baskervilles and A Study in Scarlet plus three other stories from Baker Street as well as The Lost World and a trio of supernatural tales"--

Presenting 12 tales starring the legendary British detective Sherlock Holmes, this 1892 book is Arthur Conan Doyle's first short-story collection. The mystery compilation includes some of Holmes's finest cases with his dutiful sidekick, Doctor Watson, most notably "A Scandal in Bohemia," in which Holmes matches wits with the crafty former lover of a European king. Also featured is "The Adventure of the Red-Headed League," a study in misdirection that unfolds to become a much larger scheme. The stories, initially published in the Strand Magazine, are essential reading for Holmes fans.

This extraordinary collection puts together eight books:A Study in Scarlet (1887)The Sign of the Four (1890)The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1904)The Valley of Fear (1914)His Last Bow (1917)BOOK ONEA Study in Scarlet is an 1887.The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.BOOK TWO:The Sign of the Four The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.BOOK THREE:The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, which had been published in twelve monthly issues of The Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892. The stories are collected in the same sequence, which is not supported by any fictional chronology. The only characters common to all twelve are Holmes and Dr. Watson and all are related in first-person narrative from Watson's point of view.BOOK FOUR: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of short stories. The twelve stories were originally published in The Strand Magazine from December 1892 to December 1893 as The Adventures number 13 to 24. For instance, "The Final Problem" was published under the subheading "XXIV.--The Adventure of the Final Problem."[3]BOOK FIVE:The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.BOOK SIX:The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a 1905 collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories.The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891-1894, a period called "The Great Hiatus" by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories.BOOK SEVEN:The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is loosely based on the Molly Maguires and Pinkerton agent James McParland.BOOK EIGHTHis Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes is a 1917 collection of previously published. Holmes is long retired from his profession of detective but is still alive and well, albeit suffering from a touch of rheumatism.