Hello and welcome to Episode 53. Today, we discuss ‘The Coming of the Huns,’ one of Conan Doyle’s Tales of Long Ago, written and published in 1910.

You can read the story here: ACD Encyclopaedia – The Coming of the Huns.

Or listen to an audiobook reading here: The Coming of the Huns – Magpie Audio.

The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle

Synopsis

Weary of the infighting between Christian sects in Fourth Century Constantinople, the Trinitarian Simon Melas heads northwards, beyond the Dneister, to live a secluded life of contemplation. Yet even in the wilderness he cannot find complete solitude. In a neighbouring cave he encounters an established hermit, Paul of Nicopolis. Their discourse however proves short-lived as Paul is a follower of the rival Arian philosophy.

One evening, two years into his retreat, Simon’s peace is disturbed by the fleeting appearance of an oddly conformed stranger. The next morning, the plain beneath his refuge is covered by a vast multitude of horsemen heading steadily westwards…

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We return to Baker Street for ‘The Adventure of the Second Stain’ (1904). You can read the story here: ACD Encyclopaedia – The Adventure of the Second Stain.

Support the podcast

Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

This episode, we welcome to the podcast Professor Roger Luckhurst to talk about his new edition of Round the Red Lamp (1894) for the Edinburgh University Press, and plenty of Gothic too.

About Roger Luckhurst

Roger Luckhurst is the Geoffrey Tillotson Chair of Nineteenth-Century Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He is the author of ten monographs and has edited many works of classic nineteenth century Gothic, including key works by Rider Haggard, Henry James, Stevenson, Stoker and Conan Doyle. Listeners to the Doings of Doyle podcast will have heard us make reference to his Science Fiction: A Literary History (2017) The Mummy’s Curse (2012) and his excellent book Gothic: An Illustrated History which came out in 2021.

He can be found on X as @TheProfRog. Visit Roger’s page at Birkbeck, University of London here.

Round the Red Lamp (Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle, 2024)

An often overlooked collection in Arthur Conan Doyle’s career, these tales actually track the vital moment in his life when he decided to shift careers from provincial medic to celebrated London author

• Detailed introduction, notes and scholarly apparatus

This is a scholarly edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s controversial collection of medical tales, first published in 1894 in the first flush of his fame. Conan Doyle had trained in medicine at Edinburgh University in the 1870s, and then spent eight years as a General Practitioner in Southsea, before deciding to become a professional author in 1890. The stories he collected in Round the Red Lamp are gathered from his medical training and incidents in his life as a provincial GP. Some of the stories are daring – dealing explicitly with child birth, sexually transmitted diseases and malpractice. Some are sentimental or comic vignettes. Some are Gothic horrors. On publication the shades of dark and light bewildered some of his readers and the medical realism outraged others. Round the Red Lamp is a vital collection in understanding Conan Doyle’s shift of profession from medic to author. (Source: Edinburgh university Press website)

Purchase from the publisher here.

Other works by Roger Luckhurst

Gothic: an illustrated history (London, Thames and Hudson, 2021).

‘Arthur Conan Doyle and medical London: reading the topography of Round the Red Lamp’, Victoriographies: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing, Vol 11 (3), 2021.

The Ghost Stories of M. R. James (London, British Library Press, 2018).

The Cambridge Companion to Dracula (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

Science Fiction: A Literary History (London, British Library Press, 2017)

The Mummy's Curse: the True History of a Dark Fantasy (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Late Victorian Gothic Tales (Oxford World's Classics, 2009)

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We take a look at ‘The Coming of the Huns’ (1910), one of Conan Doyle’s Tales of Long Ago. You can read the story here.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube vide created by @headlinerapp.

This episode, we discuss one of Conan Doyle’s little-known post-war stories, ‘The Nightmare Room’ from 1921.

Read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Nightmare_Room

Listen to an audiobook reading by Greg Wagland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFZwsEE8ua8

The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle

Synopsis

The air of an ordinary if luxuriant and curiously incomplete living room hangs heavy with an atmosphere of sinister expectation. Its occupants, Lucille and Archie Mason, have reached a dangerous impasse in their society marriage. She is a famous dancer who gave up her art and career for the sake of love; he, a young and successful man of business. But there is also a mutual friend, a soldier named Jack Campbell. A source of poison, perhaps? But who then is the fourth figure watching from the shadows, watching and controlling…

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We are joined by Roger Luckhurst, editor of the new Edinburgh Edition of Round the Red Lamp (1924), to delve into medical gothic...

Support the podcast

Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

Welcome to Episode 50! This month, we look at a deeply personal work that Conan Doyle suppressed for almost thirty years before reissuing in heavily redacted form, ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell’ from 1890.

You can the original 1890 version here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Surgeon_of_Gaster_Fell

Or listen to a Librivox recording of the 1918 version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PouWLBMO0E (starts at 3:27:50).

The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle

Synopsis

Following a life of adventure, James Upperton, whilst still only in his late thirties, has decided to retire to a quiet and secluded corner of North West Yorkshire where he intends to pursue a course of abstruse philosophical studies. His plans and his peace are however disarranged by the arrival of a mysterious young woman and the disturbing presence near his woodland retreat of a disparate and strange male duo, the younger of whom introduces himself as the Surgeon of Gaster Fell…

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We jump forward to 1921 to enter ‘The Nightmare Room’…

Support the podcast

Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

Hello and welcome to Episode 49. This month, we look at a classic Conan Doyle short story, one the author felt was “gloomy but of [his] best” - ‘The Pot of Caviare’ from 1908.

You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Pot_of_Caviare

Or listen to an audio recording by Greg Wagland here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yah89KYMwr8

The episode will be uploaded to our YouTube channel soon, where you can listen with closed captions. In the meantime, subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates here: https://www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle

Synopsis

During the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, the small European garrison of Ichau is barely holding out against a besieging Boxer army. A relief force is expected but its progress is uncertain. Hope and fears both run high, and the defenders begin to weigh up their options: relief, death or capture by a merciless foe.

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We reach out fiftieth episode (good heavens) and spend it in the company of ‘The Surgeon of Gaster Fell,’ which first appeared in Chambers’ Journal in 1890, and which Conan Doyle sought to suppress in later life…

Support the podcast

Please help us reach new listeners by leaving a rating or view on the podcast platform of your choice. And if you want to sponsor the podcast, please check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/doingsofdoyle

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

This episode, we travel to the Scottish borders at the end of the Napoleonic Wars for Conan Doyle’s 1892 novella The Great Shadow.

You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Great_Shadow

Listen to the podcast below or at the Podcaster of your choice.

Read the show notes here.

The episode will be released on our YouTube channel and available for viewing with closed captions in a day or two. Subscribe to the channel here: www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle

Become a Patron

Visit our website to find out how to sponsor the podcast via Paypal or Patreon.

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We talk to Glen and Cathy Miranker about their forthcoming facsimile edition of Conan Doyle’s notes for his 1910 speech ‘The Romance of Medicine.’

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode, we break from our usual format to take a look at the last twelve months in the Doylean universe and make some recommendations of adaptations, events, and publications you may have missed.

Apologies to anyone we have left out. So much happened last year, it was hard to keep track! If you know of something we have overlooked, please give it a mention in the comments.

You can read the shownotes at www.doingsofdoyle.com 

The episode will be released on our YouTube channel in the next few hours, with closed captions shortly after.

And if you are enjoying the podcast, please leave a rating or review on your podcaster of choice, or sponsor us on PayPal or Patreon. Thank you!

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We step back two hundred years to the Scottish borders and the Battle of Waterloo in The Great Shadow (1892). You can read the story at the wonderful Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode, we return to a different incarnation of Goresthorpe Grange in ‘Selecting A Ghost’ from December 1883.

You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Selecting_a_Ghost

And read the show notes here: https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2023/12/46-selecting-ghost-ghosts-of.html. 

Listen to the podcast on your podcaster of choice. 

The episode will be released on our YouTube channel in the next few hours, with closed captions shortly after.

And if you are enjoying the podcast, please leave a rating or review on your podcaster of choice, or sponsor us on PayPal or Patreon. Thank you!

Synopsis

After making his fortune in the grocery business, Argentine D’Odd has developed a raft of social pretension and acquired property and ancestry to match. He now lives in a moated Mediaeval castle, with his own coat of arms and a carefully chosen gallery of instant ancestor portraits. All his new and venerable home lacks is a resident ghost, and now his wife’s resourceful cousin, Jack Brocket, has met a man in a pub who can remedy that defect…

Next time on Doings of Doyle

2023 was an eventful year for Conan Doyle scholarship. We take a look at some of the highlights and look forward to 2024.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode, we discuss what is believed to be the first story Conan Doyle submitted to a publisher, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe’ (c.1877).

You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Haunted_Grange_of_Goresthorpe

This episode will also be released on our Youtube channel, www.youtube.com/@doingsofdoyle. Closed captions will be available two days after the video is uploaded.

Synopsis

Following a particularly atrocious multiple murder in the mid-eighteenth century, Goresthorpe Grange in Norfolk has stood empty and uninhabited for a century, especially given the additional stories of vengeful ghosts who can drive the inquisitive over the brink of insanity. Yet Tom Holton, a friend of the estate’s young heir, has his own theories about the supernatural and wishes to test them by spending a night in the haunted grange. At first his friend demurs, but is soon caught up in Tom’s enthusiasm and together the two young men submit themselves to a terrifying ordeal…

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Next time on Doings of Doyle…

We return to a different Goresthorpe Grange in ‘Selecting a Ghost: The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange’ (1883), Conan Doyle’s pastiche of the genre. You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Selecting_a_Ghost

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode, we welcome to the podcast author, journalist, and biographer Andrew Lycett to talk about his latest book, The Worlds of Sherlock Holmes, released in October 2023.

The Worlds of Sherlock Holmes (2023)

Questing was Sherlock Holmes’s business. He famously adopted the latest forensic techniques, channelled the Victorian passion for enquiry, kept abreast of the key scientific breakthroughs of his age, and conducted his investigations in an enigmatic and stylised manner. And the brains behind it all was, of course, the great Arthur Conan Doyle.

In this deep dive into the contemporary world of Holmes and Conan Doyle, biographer Andrew Lycett explores all that encompasses the world of the great detective – tracing the infamous character’s own interests, personality and mythologised biography alongside that of his creator’s.

From the Victorian crazes for detection and séance, to contemporary developments in science and psychology, Lycett weaves together everything that inspired Conan Doyle in creating the world’s most famous detective and one of fiction's most enduring, enigmatic and recognisable characters.

Purchase from the publisher here.

Next time on Doings of Doyle

We take a look at one of Conan Doyle’s earliest works, ‘The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe (c.1877), which was unpublished in his day and finally printed in 2000. You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Haunted_Grange_of_Goresthorpe  

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

YouTube vide created by @headlinerapp.