Product Description

SHERLOCK HOLMES AT DEATH'S DOOR?!

Customer Reviews (2)

The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Excellent short story by Arthur Conan Dolye. A nice surprise ending is in store for the reader. Well worth the free cost.

The Adventure of the Dying Detective
Conan Doyle at his best. This has been a favorite of mine for many years.Briefer than many short stories but unique and always exciting. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Challenger, Professor (Fictitious character); Prehistoric peoples; Dinosaurs; South America; Fiction / Science Fiction / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Animals / Dinosaurs ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Lost Turn-of-the-Century Adventure
Arthur Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes who thinks his way through mysteries with tightly-reasoned deductions.This book is the first in a less-known series that focuses on Professor Edward Challenger, an impulsive, boisterous adventurer who must repeatedly prove his assertions to the stuffy and skeptical British scientists of the Royal Academy.The contrast between Holmes and Challenger shows the author's range in style and imagination.

This book chronicles an expedition's attempt to document Challenger's claims that dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures survive on a remote Brazilian plateau.Accompanying Challenger are Professor Summerlee, a fussily-skeptic fellow scientist; Lord John Roxton, a fearless and famous explorer; and Edward Malone, a naïve young reporter.A supporting cast of non-Caucasian extras is given equal inattention by the author and other explorers.Once reaching Challenger's "lost world," the adventurers quickly establish the existence in abundance of dinosaurs, prehistoric vegetation and primitive humans and near-humans.Their concern becomes whether they can escape from this dangerous plateau and return to civilization.Their discoveries, challenges, and inventive and harrowing escapes make good reading.

This book is strongly recommended for fans of good old fashioned adventure stories like Raiders of the Lost Ark.Readers who enjoy this first Professor Challenger book way wish to continue with The Poison Belt, The Land of Mist, When the World Screamed, and The Disintegration Machine.Engaging stories all, from a less civilized age.

Fantastic story!
I was apprehensive about reading this story, thinking it might be dated.I have recently read several modern 'dinosaur thrillers' and was concerned this book would be too old to be compelling.I was wrong!This story was fantastic, funny, and very engrossing.Professor Challenger is one of the most hilarious and compelling characters I have read in a long time.The science aspect of this novel is fine.It may be a bit dated, but that doesn't take away from the story.If you like books about expeditions, bravery, and adventure, this book will certainly please!

Outstanding
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's (Sherlock Holmes) best work. An original that isn't worth reading JUST because it's a classic. It is simply a magnificent book.

A Pretty Good Story!
Join two self-absorbed and bickering scientists, Challenger and Summerlee, cautious Lord John the Lion Tamer (see Muldoon, Jurassic Park I) and some kid (made out more or less to be you) as they somewhat arrogantly force their way into a veritable living museum of flora and fauna........shooting, maiming, and dominating everything along the way, in their quest to satisfy their own wanderlust and attain world recognition.

A true turn-of-the-century attitude book, complete with Zambo, a black companion more or less made out to be a loyal dog, Mexican guides who are shot dead at point blank range (justifiably, of course) for their treachery............ and a community of ape-looking people who are mercilessly slaughtered so "civilization can prevail".
Dinosaurs vary from near brainless death-machines whos only seeming purpose in life is to be gunned down on sight until their legs stop moving, to curious-looking but farmable cows kept for their meat and resources.
The book ends with the authors slight nagging regret that all the wonders they discovered are soon to be raped and pillaged by money-making opportunists once the secret gets out, and the forgotten place becomes "unLost" and nationally recognized. Duhh.

The book is not entirely without satire however, and the author takes time to point out (and quite humorously) the irony of self-aggrandizing Challenger and skeptical Summerlee in all their pompousness being forced to reckon with humbling surroundings far unlike any lecture hall. (One memorable scene in particular where the noble Challenger is found to closely resemble the neandrethal Ape-King in features and temperment, much to his staunch denials).

Really a well done story, and certainly considering the time it was written an original and imaginative work.Worth reading!

"The jungle reclaims its own."
(4.5 stars) Fans of the Sherlock Holmes series may be as surprised as I was by the complete change of style that this novel represents for its author.Gone are the formulas, the formal language, the stilted dialogue, and the gamesmanship between author and reader that characterize the Holmes novels, however delightful and successful those may be as mysteries.Instead, we see Doyle letting his imagination run free in a sci-fi romp that is both fun and funny, and often thoughtful.Written in 1912, during an eight-year hiatus from his Sherlock Holmes novels, and six years after his last "historical novel," The Lost World is the first of five works involvingtemperamental Professor Edward Challenger, a scientist investigating evolution and related subjects.

Challenger is a scientific outcast, vilified for his most recent paper, in which he claimed to have seen dinosaurs and pre-historic creatures in a remote area of South America, but which he refuses to locate on a map.Blaming the press for much of the controversy over his research, he despises reporters, and regularly assaults them.Young Ed Malone, a reporter looking for more excitement than he is getting on his regular beat, manages to make a connection with Challenger, after passing a test of his mettle.

Along with two other scientists, Elizabeth Summerlee and Lord John Roxton, they travel with Challenger to the mysterious plateau in Brazil where he claims to have seen extraordinary beasts believed dead for millions of years.Malone's newspaper, which partially funded the expedition,expects him to send daily reports of his adventures by messenger back to "civilization.These form much of the novel's narrative.

The place where Challenger has made his discoveries, which the other scientists are soon able to verify, is at the base of a high plateau in the jungle which has protected it from intrusion by man.This self-contained universe has protected creatures that have become extinct elsewhere.The scientists' often death-defying thrills--with canoes going over falls, shooting by headhunters, vengeance taken by one of the guides for past crimes, a war to the death between two separate, but related, species on the evolutionary tree, attacks by pre-historic creatures, and even a love story--make this novel non-stop fun to read.Far more "relaxed" in style and more imaginative in content than the novels for which Doyle is now (justifiably) famous, The Lost World, written almost a hundred years ago, builds on our universal spirit of adventure and our never-ending fascination with dinosaurs and their behavior.nMary Whipple

The Poison Belt: Being an Account of Another Amazing Adventure of Professor Challenger (Bison Frontiers of Imagination), #2 in the series
THE LAND OF MIST, #3 in the series
When the World Screamed, With the Lost World, #4
The Disintegration Machine and Other Stories, #5


... Read more

Product Description
Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on standardized tests, Webster's paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this edition of The Last Galley Impressions and Tales by Arthur Conan Doyle was edited for students who are actively building their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT¿, SAT¿, AP¿ (Advanced Placement¿), GRE¿, LSAT¿, GMAT¿ or similar examinations.
PSAT¿ is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT¿ is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE¿, AP¿ and Advanced Placement¿ are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT¿ is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT¿ is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Free SF Reader
An eclectic mix, a story from just about any genre you could think of here, from romance to pirates.

Last Galley : THE LAST GALLEY [short story] - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE CONTEST - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THROUGH THE VEIL - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : AN ICONOCLAST - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : GIANT MAXIMIN - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE COMING OF THE HUNS - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE LAST OF THE LEGIONS - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE FIRST CARGO - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE HOME-COMING - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE RED STAR - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE SILVER MIRROR - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE BLIGHTING OF SHARKEY - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE MARRIAGE OF THE BRIGADIER - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE LORD OF FALCONBRIDGE - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : OUT OF THE RUNNING - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : DE PROFUNDIS - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE GREAT BROWN-PERICORD MOTOR - Arthur Conan Doyle
Last Galley : THE TERROR OF BLUE JOHN GAP - Arthur Conan Doyle


No match for the Romans.

3 out of 5


Theatrical extravaganza.

3 out of 5


Old Roman oddity.

3 out of 5


Statue bashing.

2.5 out of 5


A large Thracian is recruited into the Roman legions.

3 out of 5


Hermit meditation warning.

2 out of


Pulling out of Britain.

3.5 out of 5


Some old Roman discussion of the locals and shipping.

2 out of 5


A holiday trip for an Imperial kid turns nasty.

3 out of 5


Travel story of an eastern merchant.

3 out of 5


Hitting the books so hard an investigator starts seeing the past.

3 out of 5


The pirate business being slew, mutiny is brewing until a ship blunders in. Doing away with its crew and captain they keep a beautiful young woman who just happens to be a leper. See first part.

3 out of 5


Woman causes peace?

2.5 out of 5


An old boxer running a pub gets involved with training for a special fight.

3.5 out of 5


Walking around.

2 out of 5


Ghostly hubby's reapparance.

3 out of 5


This engine advance is quite crazy.

4 out of 5


Finding a mine monster.

4 out of 5 ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description

An excerpt:

Customer Reviews (2)

Turn-of-the-Century Ideas
This book was published first in 1895, and the setting is in various small cities in England of that time. The author believed that the public gave too much attention to the character he created, Sherlock Holmes, and neglected his other works. He undoubtedly was justified in this opinion. This novel is an important work because Doyle has been quoted as saying much of the book is based on his relations with an earlier acquaintance. It is therefore possible that the book is at least semi-autobiographical and may be an indicator of some of Doyle's beliefs and attitudes toward his times. It is an epistolary novel, written in the form of letters, "edited and arranged" by Doyle, according to the title page. An introductory note, ostensibly by the fictional Herbert Swanborough, to whom the letters have been sent, claims the letters are herewith published with the thought that some other young man might benefit from the story, and the views, of John Stark Munro. Each letter contains two elements: one part is the narrative of events in the life of a young medical graduate in his efforts to set up a practice, as his own man, with a very little assistance from anyone else; the other part of each letter is didactic, presented as his friendly arguments with his close friend Swanborough. The didactic portions may be genuine expressions of Doyle's belief about religion, politics, ethics, and society. Munro nevertheless is presented as an interesting character, as well as a person who would have been a benefit to society and the world he lived in. Doyle deserves respect as a serious writer of the turn of the century, and not alone for the "entertainments" of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Lloyd Beldon Lacy

semi autobiographical tale of Conan Doyle
This is the story of a young Doctor in Victorian Britain. In this collection of letters written to an american friend, Stark Munro tells of the trials and tribulations that face him as he tries to build his practice. This book gives a fascinating insight into lower middle class life in Victorian Society. It is semi autobiographical and Conan Doyle uses the novel to discus his views on Religion. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This is one of the most extended of Conan Doyle's works advocating Spiritualism, to which he became a convert after the death of several relatives in World War I. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The history of spiritualism
A very surprising book! Doyle embraces spiritualism and digs into the subject.I made one mistake not reading this book earlier.

Expert Account by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
No one goes wrong in tapping into the great research of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his review of New Spiritualism. He takes us through the pioneers of that movement that began here in the United States in 1848 with the Fox Sisters. Doyle was purposeful and intent on his work; a scholarly effort that is used today by the Morris Pratt Institute as required reading for its courses on Spiritualism.

history of Spiritualism - arthur conan doyle
I have looked for this book for many yrs, as yet I havent read it, but very happy to have it. Shall read as soon as I have finished my other Spiritual books... many thanks Amazon.... Meg

The St. Paul of Spiritualism
Besides being the Father of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the St. Paul of Spiritualism. Having become disenchanted with the Roman Catholic faith at an early age, Doyle searched for years, before becoming a convinced Spiritualist. The evidence that convinced him was communication with his son, Kingsley, who died at the end of the great war. This information came through in seances. Doyle often remarked,"If only they could know". Doyle not only believed, he knew! This book is extremely well written, as one would expect from a writer of Doyle's distinction. The early beginnings with Swedenborg are covered, as well as important phenomena and mediums of the time. To me, as a Spiritualist minister, the greatest chapters are on the religious aspects of Spiritualism, which Doyle explains in great depth. This is a scholarly book, which I require my students to read. But it is more than worth the time, when one considers what one learns from this authority. Doyle traveled extensively in the cause of the faith and established several churches in Australia. I wish all readers the same exciting learning experience that I had when I first read this book! ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
The first collection of vampire stories from the creator of Sherlock Holmes!Who would suspect that the same mind that created the most famous literary detective of all time also took on the eternally popular genre of vampires? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a contemporary of Bram Stoker, gave us some fascinating works of vampire fiction. From the bloodsucking plant in “The American’s Tale” to the bloodsucking wife in “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,” he reveled in the horror created by creatures who survived on the blood of men and women.

As the bestselling Twilight series has dominated bookstores, it’s the perfect time to offer the first-ever compilation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s vampire tales. Get ready to sink your teeth into this heart-stopping anthology. Each of these twelve short stories has been pulled from obscurity and hand selected for this collection. Conan Doyle’s famous friendship with vampire king Bram Stoker is thought to have influenced these many blood-sucking tales, including “The Captain of the Pole Star,” about a medical student on an arctic voyage haunted by a heat-draining Eskimo vampire and “The Three Gables,” in which vampirism is cunningly used as a metaphor for capitalism.

Featuring an introduction by world-renowned vampire expert, Robert Eighteen-Bisang, this is a must-have anthology for all vampire lovers, and for any Arthur Conan Doyle enthusiast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

False advertising!
Being a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle I was pretty excited to read this collection of short stories. I was so disappointed! Silly me thinking a book titled 'Vampire Stories' would actually have stories about vampires. There is not even one true vampire story in this book. Granted, most of them are still an interesting read, although the longest one in the middle of the book is quite long and very tedious, but don't expect the title to deliver. Instead it's stories about man eating plants, ghosts, mummies, and hypnotists. At the end of each story is a small blurb trying to justify why they are considering it a vampire story such as 'vampires' can take things from a human other than blood, like body heat, and one story is included simply because Doyle describes the character as having a 'vampire like appearance'. I wouldn't recommend this book.

Vampire Stories Pleases.
In todays literary world, so many vampire stories are re- hashed and muttled. Very few have lasting impressions and present new ideas.The freshness is gone with the wind. Alas, I read Vampire Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with excitement because you can never go wrong with a classic and author who has a positive track record. Vampire Stories is perfect! It is what it is. Classic vampire stories that have remained fresh throughout the decades. Doyle takes us on a literary horror journey that we don't want to see end. Have your dictionary ready to have new words thrown at you. Good stories. Great discriptions. Beautiful dialogue. Have fun!

Collected Conan Doyle Horror Stories
The Vampire Stories are a collection of fiction by Sir Arther Conan Doyle written over the years and submitted to different historical magazines of the 19th and 20th centuries. These stories brought in numerous amounts of money to support the growing and busy family of the author. The imagination of this author brought many stories before the reading public of which early readers sought after a busy day working long hours. The Ring of Thoth is considered the first Horror Story ever written and is included in this book. ... Read more

Product Description

The Adventures of Gerard concerns the life of a military leader, Etienne Gerard, of the Napoleonic era as he sits in a cafe and reflects on his life telling basically long-winded "old war stories."

Customer Reviews (1)

A Gallic Flashman, without the self-deprecating wit (quelle suprise!!)
What we have here is a collection of eight stories purportedly written about a Colonel of the Hussars in Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armee.His stories take us from the Spanish battlefields of the Penninsula campaign, through Russia (and the retreat), the Battle of Waterloo, and a fanciful failed rescue of L'Emporer from St.Helena.

THese are stories of dashing doo and have all the Doyle hallmarks of Honor and Gentle-Manliness.One has to keep in mind that these stories were written eighty to one hundred years after the actual battles.Many of the people he wrote about, had been known to people of his parents age.So that Doyle had great insight into how these people thought and acted.

The reading (I listed to the tape read by Bolen) of the stories prevents me from commenting on the character of Etienne Gerard.Some of the comments are very drole and may be Doyles way of making the Colonel less conceited that he comes off on tape.As it is, he has little of Flashy's insight into luck and cowardice and is totally consumed by his own abilities (very french indeed). The Flashman suceeds often in spite of himself (and is the first to admit it), Gerard always suceeds because he is the best swordsman, the best horseman, the greatest......(fill in the blank).

The stories are worth reading for their marvelous description of the life of the cavalry in the early nineteenth century, and the romanticism of that time at the fin de siecle. ... Read more

Product Description
The science fiction stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stand alongside those of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. The protagonist, the 'cave-man in a lounge suit', is the maddening, irascible and fascinating Professor George Edward Challenger. In these collected tales he faces adventures such as that high above the Amazon rain forest in The Lost World and the challenges of The Land of Mist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Well written and quite exciting!
Professor George Edward Challenger is the lesser known creation of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Unlike the cool and calculating Homes, Challenger is irascible, domineering and extremely outspoken. In short, he is a lot of fun to read. However, unlike Holmes, Professor Challenger never caught on and as such only five Challenger stories were ever written. This book combines all five of the Professor Challenger stories together in one book:

The Lost World - originally published in 1912 - 5 stars - This is the greatest, and the best known of the Professor Challenger stories. Professor Challenger has heard of a plateau in South America where dinosaurs still roam, and he loses no time in setting up an expedition to this strange place. However, when the expedition finds itself marooned on the plateau, the team faces many dangers and adventures.

The Poison Belt - 1913 - 5 stars - Professor Challenger has learned that the Earth is moving towards a poisonous section of space, and has figured out a way that he can save a few members of the human race - the last people left on Earth!

The Land of Mist - 1926 - 1 star - The worst of the Professor Challenger stories, this one is really just a polemic, written to convince the reader of the wonder (or whatever) of Spiritualism. This story might have been what killed the series.

The Disintegration Machine - 1927 - 5 stars - A Latvian scientist has created a machine that can disintegrate matter, and reintegrate it again...or not. This is something that Professor Challenger must see for himself if he is to fully understand its ramifications.

When The World Screamed - 1928 - 5 stars - Professor Challenger is digging a well or mine of some sort in southern England, but what is he up to? It seems that the eccentric professor has a new theory - that the Earth is really a living creature!

Although more than a little dated, scientifically, I found these stories to be well written and quite exciting. (Well, four of the five that is.) They reflects a world that is now gone, but is quite interesting to read about. If you like adventure stories, then you will like this one. Read this book, and learn about A.C. Doyle's other hero!

The First installment of the Challenger Series.
The Lost World is a classic in it's own right. Many shows, series, and movies have copied from this book. This book came out at a time when the general public was first gaining real knowledge of dinosaurs. It was an instant classic. Only Sir Conan Doyle himself, can make such a masterpiece. It is detailed, full of wonder and adventure. A must read for anyone who can truley appreciate an all time classic. One of my personal favorites.

Conan Doyle's best let down by his worst.
Although I am a Sherlock Holmes fan The Lost World is my favorite Arthur Conan Doyle story and one of my all time favorite novels. Brilliantly told with so much imagination it puts MIchael Crichton and Steven Spielberg to shame for their pedestrian trilogy almost a hundred years later. I would give it 5 stars on its own and recommend it to anyone who was interested in that genre. However one of the most outstanding elements of the novel is the obnoxious and arrogant Professor Challenger who gradually becomes the lovable grouch of the novel.

I was much looking forward to reading other stories featuring the Professor but found all of them a let down and was particularly irritated by the second longest novel in the collection The Land of Mist which firstly hardly features the professor and secondly is not a story at all but an incredibly boring pro spiritualist lecture. The other 3 tales, 1 other short novel and two very short stories, are not too bad but feature little or no adventure and can be quite dull other than as examples of early sci-fi. But the Spiritualist diatribe should be excluded from the collection. It has as little to do with Professor Challenger as it has to do with hard science. I'm not anti spiritualist and wouldn't have minded a good ghost story but The Land of Mist was no story at all, rather just a sequence of reported experiences on Conan Doyle's journey to being converted from sceptic to spiritualist.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World
I do enjoy reading the basis of the movies I watch. They usually have more information than the movie are able to convey. A simple, but enjoyable story.

Entertaining Adventure
This book collects all of the stories featuring Professor George E. Challenger, the most famous of which is The Lost World.Lost World features two scientists, including Challenger, an adventurous English Lord, and a journalist who acts as the story's narrator.As events unfold, the group travels to a mysterious plateau in South America where dinosaurs still roam along with other prehistoric dangers.As one might imagine, the plot largely revolves around the dangers and difficulties of surviving such a locale and returning to civilization.

While Edward Malone is the narrator of the story, the dominant figure is Professor Challenger.His immense intellect is matched only by his ego and air of condescension.It would be easy to dislike such a character, but Doyle does a good job of making him fun to read about.The rest of the cast is also enjoyable and the story is generally a fun read.There are some attitudes expressed toward non-Caucasian characters that are blatantly racist by today's standard, but it would probably be hard to find something from this time period that wouldn't be.

This book contains several stories beyond The Lost World, but they are of a lesser caliber.There are two novella-length stories, The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist, which too often degenerate into an excuse for lengthy philosophical musings expressing points of view that Doyle wanted to get across.The stories are flimsy and the promotion of the author's ideas to ham-handed to be entertaining.

Overall, this book is a good buy and The Lost World is well worth reading.I don't particularly recommend the other stories but this edition is actually cheaper than any version with only The Lost World so you may as well pick this one up and at least have the option of sampling the later tales. ... Read more

Product Description

This collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography.

Customer Reviews (6)

Not bad, considering the price
It's big and it's cheap ... but be warned: I'm going through the Sherlock Holmes stories and they typically have 3 to 4 typos apiece. Not enough to obscure the text, but enough to be annoying and make you wonder what else they messed up.

If you believe you get what you pay for, then this is a pretty darn good investment. It's a lot of books for a pretty low price. But if you only want the best, you ought to look elsewhere.

Love
I have always and will always have the works of Conan Doyle in my library. Regardless the form that library form takes.

This is where the Kindle Shines!
All of the works of Arthur Conan Doyle for a low price and in one location: your Kindle. Easy to navigate the large collection of stories. A great bargain!

I love the works of Doyle. I grew up reading the Sherlock Holmes stories, but after I exhausted them I soon discovered his other wonderful works.

It is easy, at any library or bookstore, to find "The Lost World", which introduces that marvelous character Professor Challenger. However, this Kindle edition has ALL of the Challenger stories. I do recommend "The Poison Belt", while "The Mist" is simply a short story with an interesting moral (along the lines of "If you went back in time and met Hitler while he was a child, would you kill him"). One of the other Challenger stores turned out to be a Big Bore, since it dealt with spiritualism (which Doyle became very interested in).

Anyway, Doyle was a great writer, as you will soon see if you leave the Sherlock stories and dwell on some of his other writings. The White Company is one of his best (knights, damsels, crusaders, etc).

Kudos to this wonderful collection of the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Great ebook!
This is a very comprehensive collection of works of Conan Doyle. User friendly Table of Contents. EZ access and navigation. Great ebook!

Absolutely awesome
I've bought about four or five of these complete works collections from this publisher. They are all exactly what they claim to be: the complete works of the author. For someone who doesn't want to be nickeled and dimed to death, these are a phenomenal value. ... Read more

Product Description
Unlike other versions on Amazon, this version is complete with transcriptions of all the important newspaper articles and other entries. Enjoy this classic mystery with Sherlock Holmes.Amazon.com Review
We owe 1902's The Hound of the Baskervilles to ArthurConan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him tovisit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told himmarvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-centuryaristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified thelegend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat ofdevilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursedBaskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir CharlesBaskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretiveservant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasingStapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone'sbeen signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor cansupernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone bySherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the nextBaskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?

Many Holmes fans prefer Doyle's complete short stories,but their clockwork logic doesn't match the author's boast about thisnovel: it's "a real Creeper!" What distinguishes this particularHound is its fulfillment of Doyle's great debt to Edgar Allan Poe--it'sfull of ancient woe, low moans, a Grimpen Mire that sucks ponies toDostoyevskian deaths, and locals digging up Neolithic skulls withoutnext-of-kins' consent. "The longer one stays here the more does thespirit of the moor sink into one's soul," Watson realizes. "Rank reedsand lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay ... while a falsestep plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quiveringmire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet ... itwas as if some malignant hand was tugging us down into those obscenedepths." Read on--but, reader, watch your step! --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (225)

Fine.
It came on time, and in the condition described by the web site. How wonderful.

I haven't read it yet, because I am not yet required to (because believe me, it wouldn't be something I would read on my own; I'm not that civilized) but I'm sure that if/when I do, I won't have any problems with writing on the pages or water damage, or anything of the sort. So I thank you in advance, partly because I'm a trusting soul, and party (mostly) because Amazon keeps sending me emails begging me to review everything I've ever thought about buying in the past. So I figured I'd get on it and make y'all happy. Yes, I just said y'all. Deal with it.

Thanks again, kind Sir, and I will continue to do business with you if necessary.


(The opinions expressed above are just that: opinions. The writer of the review has no bad opinions of the dealer...er...provider, or his/her product, and is, in fact, satisfied with both. So don't take offense, just laugh. It was funny. Come on.)

Hound of hell
"Hound of the Baskervilles" is a unique story in the Sherlock Holmes canon -- author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it in the years between Holmes' death and his resurrection several years later.

But due to public pressure, Doyle brought Holmes and Watson back temporarily for a sort of "memoir" tale, a tale of supernatural curses, escaped convicts and ghastly glowing hounds. It suffers a little from a lack of Holmes, but is otherwise a tightly-written, solid little mystery.

Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead of a heart attack -- apparently killed by a family curse in the shape of a giant dog. So his pal Dr. Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes to protect Charles' heir, Henry Baskerville, who has just arrived in England to claim his estate and inheritance.

But even without Holmes, Watson can tell that something is up -- secretive servants, peculiar neighbors, an escaped criminal, a giant quicksand marsh, and the sounds of a dog howling in the night. But Holmes knows that the curse is no supernatural hound -- and that Sir Henry is in danger from a more real kind of ancient enemy.

"Hound of the Baskervilles" stumbles in one area -- the relative lack of Holmes. He's out of the picture for most of the book, and Watson does plenty of solid detecting on his own. Everybody loves the faithful narrator, but Watson isn't the Great Detective, and the book feels vaguely incomplete without Holmes inspecting clues and giving little hints to Watson.

The mystery unfolds at a languid pace, dropping a few red herrings along the way. Doyle pays loving attention to the dangerous, almost surreal Grimpen Mire and the surrounding countryside. But when Holmes comes back onto the scene, the book tightens itself up. All the plot threads rapidly slip into place as the real "hound" is uncovered.

Holmes' steel-trap mind is untarnished here, especially when he reveals what he figured out at the end. He's especially likable in an endearing scene at the beginning, where he educates Watson on deduction. But this is Watson's turn to shine, since he spends a long time gathering clues and even solving a sub-mystery without any assistance.

"Hound of the Baskervilles" is a short, satisfying Holmesian mystery, which is only hampered by Holmes' absence for about half the book. Solid work, and a good introduction to the Holmes series.

Like Finding an Old Friend
I read this book as a kid but that was long enough ago that reading it again was like discovering it for the first time. This is probably the best known of all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and it it really deserves it's classic status. It is a gripping tale mixing crime investigation with a touch of the supernatural and is after 100 years still a page-turner. Arthur Conan Doyle helped start a genre that continues to entertain as evidenced by the countless crime novels and detective shows on TV. Despite the potential overexposure Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson still seem relevant and the deductive reasoning Holmes employs to solve the mystery of the Hound Of The Baskervilles is so entertaining that I read this in one day, unable to put it aside. Crime solving raised to a high art form never gets old.

Very good mystery novel
With its unique and detailed setting that takes place in the past with mild moorlands and an evil feel, The Hound of the Baskervilles is a very goodd mystery novel. A novel that keeps you thinking, debating, guessing, and wanting to read more, which I personally think is the key to a good book. In this novel, good is pitted against evil, and realism against the supernatural, as Sherlock Holmes tries to defeat a very worthy and powerful foe. Throughout the novel, Holmes characteristically dismisses the following theory: Could the sudden and tragic death of Sir Charles Baskerville have been caused by a gigantic ghostly hound which is said to have haunted his family for generations? Claiming to be caught up in another case, he sends his partner Watson to Devon to protect the Baskerville heir and to observe the suspects closely. As the novel continues, the outcome of this murder case is slowly but surely solved in this very good mystery novel.

Missing content is not acceptable - Wake up, Amazon!
Missing content is not acceptable for publishing books, either paper version or digital version! Please fix the problem, Amazon!!!! ... Read more

Product Description
In this collection are four of the finest cases of Mr Sherlock Holmes, narrated by his faithful friend and admirer Dr Watson. What was the mystery of the engineer's thumb? What was behind the disappearance of the race horse? Why did masked royalty walk up to see Holmes in Baker Street? These and other puzzles are solved by this bloodhound of a genius. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Adventures of Sherlock II
The Game's afoot again as David Timson narrates the second volume of The Adventures.He reads with verve, alacrity, joy and understanding.His vocal character stylizations are a delight for both the uninitiated in the genre and the seasoned Sherlockian campaigner.

A "Fun" Listen
Listening to David Timson read these stories provides a delightful respite during a busy day. He handles the characters well, so it is easy to follow the dialog in the stories. I also enjoy the inclusion of classical music at the beginning of each story as well as between some of the scenes.

Cheesy
Absent of any quality.Throughly disappointing.All the Naxos Sherlock series is without ANY redeeming value

Cheesy
Absent of any quality.Throughly disappointing.All the Naxos Sherlock series is without ANY redeeming value

Cheesy
Absent of any quality.Throughly disappointing.All the Naxos Sherlock series is without ANY redeeming value ... Read more

Product Description
A potpourri of Conan Doyle's creepy crawly imaginings. Stories include:The Horror of HeightsThe Leather FunnelThe New CatacombThe Case of Lady SannoxThe Terror of Blue John GapThe Brazilian Cat ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superb mix of great mystery and terror!
This is a great book!You can't read this book just once! I rate it a 10 because it's my favorite book of all time.I found it long ago in my mom's cellar and have kept it on my nightstand ever since.And to think she was about to throw it away! This book is divided into two main parts:Tales of Terror and Tales of Mystery.Both parts have excellent stories to interest people of all ages.I especially enjoy the tales of mystery the most.Great book to read with a cup of tea. ... Read more

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An excerpt:

Customer Reviews (13)

A Surfeit of Chivalry?
I must be losing my taste for things medieval. As a boy I had always enjoyed tales of knights and adventure. Indeed I just about grew up on the stuff. Discovering Arthur Conan Doyle late in life through his Sherlock Holmes tales (I had never been a great fan of detective stories!) thanks to the BBC television series (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Boxed Set Collection))with Jeremy Brett as the inimitable detective, I was fascinated to learn that Conan Doyle was also the author of two historical romances, The White Company and Sir Nigel, both set in the high Middle Ages during the Hundred Years War between England and France -- a war for the territories that would ultimately become the modern state of France. Of course the English nobility and, especially, its royal house traced their descent from the French-speaking Normans and their French allies and so both sides shared a common heritage. Indeed, as Conan Doyle makes clear in one preface to the book, the nobility on both sides spoke French and shared a common set of mores and traditions.

I guess it's those traditions that made the book so tiresome for me though. Certainly it's true that a tradition of chivalrous knight errantry became enshrined in medieval French and English literature, rooted perhaps in the Christian gloss that had been spread by medieval clerics over the old Germanic warrior culture out of which the English and French peoples arose. In such guise, knights are portrayed as forever concerned for honor and their ladies, and when they fight it's not for anything as mundane as power or land or wealth, but for honor and fame, always. This is a strange and distant echo of the old warrior ethos found in works as diverse as the The Iliad (Penguin Classics) or the old Icelandic Njal's Saga (Penguin Classics). In these works, too, honor and fame are admired and portrayed as the underlying forces that prompt men to hazard their lives in trying to take the lives of others on the bloody field of war. But the impulses of acquisition, of ordinary human greed for gain, are not so readily forgotten or dismissed in these as they came to be in the later tradition of European chivalry.

Conan Doyle clearly wrote this tale in that tradition and, as such, he is at great pains to write in a tone and voice that seek to emulate the late medieval uplifting of the warrior's goals to an otherworldly character. Unfortunately it delivers a rather tiresome story about some rather irksome and predictable players. Young Nigel Loring, himself, is the epitome of this. A near penniless squire of an old knightly family fallen on hard times, our hero lives quietly with his grandmother in what remains of his ancient family estate, their household teetering on extinction as a conflict with the local monastery gathers steam, the greedy monks keen to grab the last vestiges of Loring land. Young Nigel, himself, is too noble a fellow to sully himself by trying to outthink the monks. Rather he disregards them as beneath his notice, even as they conspire to yank from under him all that is left of his father's holdings. When a messenger arrives with a king's summons claiming the last of the Lorings' wealth for the Abbey, Nigel, of course, responds without a thought to the game that is (as Holmes might have said, and as one of the knights in this book actually does say at one point) a foot. Instead he boldly boots the fellow out on his rear and sets his servants on him.

As one might imagine, this doesn't go well for him and Nigel is soon hauled before a church court to answer for his actions. But as is always to be the case with our undiscerning hero, luck will out and Nigel shortly finds himself honored by the king who just happens to be passing through. From luck to luck as it were and Nigel is soon inducted into the king's wars abroad in France, learning the arts of nobility first hand from other knights and squires who imagine themselves of better ("gentler") blood than other men. Worshipped by good simple folk who recognize their betters, "worshipfully seeking worship" by crossing his sword and spear with, and trying to kill, other men of "gentle" blood like himself, the stubbornly proud and remarkably dense young Nigel earns himself a suit of armor to go with the magnificent warhorse he had earlier unwittingly gained as he proceeds to follow his king, and a knight who takes him on as squire, to war.

In a series of pieces that take them to Calais and deeper into France, Nigel manages to send back the humble yet spiritual messages he has promised his lady as, one by one, he continues to play his part in the battles and confrontations he finds himself in.

Meanwhile we meet innumerable knights who, like Nigel himself, are introduced via carefully catalogued pedigrees, reports of their knightly colors and insignia and, of course, their manifold remarkable deeds. (Here we find echoes of the Iliad -- though such formal cataloging in an archaic poem has a certain quaintness and interest that is somehow lost in a nineteenth or early twentieth century opus. And yet one can almost see how the echoes of an English classical education worked to inform the nineteenth century British mind as it blossomed in the Victorian age.)

Our noble Nigel, of course, is always quick to take offense or, under suitable circumstances, land a blow, without thought to the implications of his actions for himself and for many others. This, too, we are led to believe is part of the noble code which he was born to observe. More often saved than saving, young Nigel nevertheless earns his spurs and the sobriquet of "sir" in the final battle of the book and lives to carry his own final greeting in person back to his lady. (Of course he does, as this is a prequel to an earlier book in which he is the protagonist!)

It may well be that the literature of the medieval period presented warriors in just this way, that is if they were the real thing, i.e., proper Christian knights and not mere commoners or those of noble blood who fell from such an exacting standard. But it strikes one as far-fetched, at the least, that real human beings living in violent societies, who were committed to blood and plunder, ever actually thought or acted according to such standards. More likely this was superimposed on the stories and traditions by clerics seeking to tame genuinely greedy and brutal men. It is in that literary tradition, of course, that Conan Doyle sought to compose his tales of historic chivalry and knightly adventure echoing the high-sounding refrains, the glorious language and codas of a later England and, certainly of the Romantic period that took hold in the Victorian Age. In keeping with the model he elected to follow, Conan Doyle's tale follows an episodic form, taking us from one seemingly self-contained adventure to the next within a broader and less tightly drawn frame and with little characterization or growth. Nigel at the end is just a little more experienced but no less the spiritual fool of a knight that he was at the beginning.

As an example of this kind of writing, found also in the likes of William Morris (The Well at the World's End: Volume I, The Sundering Flood) who sought to emulate high medieval poetry and romance (see Amadis of Gaul, Volume 1), of H. Rider Haggard who did much the same with his Viking novel (Eric Brighteyes - Haggard, Henry Rider, 1856-1925) and of Cervantes who mocked it all with his Don Quixote (Penguin Classics)), this one by Conan Doyle seems pale by comparison. Young Nigel Loring is too thick and too naive, one is moved to think, to have actually succeeded as portrayed by Conan Doyle although he is also too lucky, which saps our capacity to care much about him while it papers over his other ill-conceived "virtues".

I've read that Conan Doyle actually preferred his simpleminded creation, Sir Nigel, to his famous detective and if that is so, I must say I'm quite surprised. On the other hand, the judgement of readers in his time and afterwards seems to have overridden even that misbegotten authorial passion, for it is Holmes, the fascinatingly eccentric Victorian detective whose intuition masquerades as deduction, we mostly remember today of Conan Doyle's work. The bantam knight Nigel Loring, along with Professor Challenger, another of Conan Doyle's famous creations, remain also-rans to their more noble, and certainly more interesting, detective cousin.

On the other hand it remains possible that I am just finally grown tired of the medieval ethos and my appreciation for Sir Nigel must suffer from the lateness of my discovery of it.

Stuart W. Mirsky
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

Got my son reading!
I purchased this book for my son who is not a reader. He has had a wonderful time getting to know the characters and sharing the adventures with family and friends. The binding on this particular issue is extremely frustrating and as my son reads a page it falls out...

The story has certainly caught his attention but the binding has certainly been a distraction.

Fantastic story of adventure and honor
I initially read `The White Company' as a recommended adventure book for young readers (I read it to my son).I then picked up `Sir Nigel' as its companion-piece, only to learn later that it is regarded by some as one of the 100 essential English novels of any genre.I believe that recognition is well-deserved.

Sir Nigel is the story of Nigel Loring's rise from impoverished local nobility, through his status as Squire to the historical figure John Chandos, to his eventual knighting after accomplishing multiple heroic tasks and adhering to a code of chivalry which was beginning to fade even as the story takes place.Although a bit bloody in pieces, young readers should enjoy the many action and battle-pieces, beginning with Nigel's fight at the monastery and ending with the skirmish against the French at Maupertuis.Of greater interest to the adult reader are the near-forgotten lessons in honor, loyalty, chivalry, constancy, and respect which are sorely lacking from similar literature today.

Because of its message and pace, I would recommend this for the average high school student.Because of its writing and plotting, I would recommend this for the average adult reader (it is, after all, written by the venerable Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).For its final paragraph, I would recommend it to anyone, especially young writers trying to learn how to close a book: "So lie the dead leaves; but they and such as they nourish forever that great old Truck of England, which still sheds forth another crop and another, each as strong and as fair as the last..."

Excellent Medieval Adventure
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book.I very much enjoyed Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books, but there is quite a difference between detective stories set in the present (or at least what wast the present at the turn of the 20th century) and adventure books set in the Middle Ages.I am pleased to say that Doyle is just as good at adventure as he as at mystery, which is saying quite a bit.

I will refrain from explaining the plot to you once again, as that has already been done several times in previous reviews.What I wish to note in particular is the incredible realism Doyle mixes with outlandish chivalry.I find this difficult to explain, but the best I can do is briefly compare it to the Arthurian novels of the great Howard Pyle of the same era as Doyle.Pyle's books are the embodiment of boyhood ideals of chivalry.Knights fight for honor, and live in something resembling a fairy-tale land (though not quite as preposterous).Doyle's world, on the other hand, is the real world.It is a place of suffering mixed with joy, and the cunning of worldy men alongside the chivalry of others.It is a place where a man is actually liable to be crushed by a blow, whereas in Pyle's world a hero would seemingly have to try very hard to incapacitate himself.Doyle's world is actually meant to be historically accurate, and he took great trouble to research what he was writing about.This explanation is but one aspect of the "realness" of Doyle's style, but I find it impossible to adequately explain, and you will simply have to read the book to understand.

In truth, I prefer Pyle, but Doyle is not far behind.The difference would be largely made up for if Doyle's book contained excellent drawings and superb archaic english like Pyle's do.If you like Pyle, I imagine you will be delighted to find another author who writes Medieval adventure with so much skill, especially in so unlikely a figure (at least, to those of us used only to thinking of him as the author of the Sherlock Holmes books) as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.I'm very much looking forward to finding the sequel.

Overall grade:A.

A well written boys own adventure.
Sir Nigel is the tale of the early adventures of Nigel the future commander of the White company, from his early squire hood culminating in his knighting on the battlefield and successfully winning his lady love.

In many the morals and world view of Sir Nigel clash with my own. Nigel is one of these simple strong souls who never see the relative nature ofthe world. To Nigel everything is black and white, good or evil without any shades of grey, Honour is all and fear is an unknown concept. Yet I enjoyed this story immensely. Why? Perhaps because it takes me back to the simplicity of childhood, that state of perfect heroes and right and just causes.

Also this is Conan-Doyle the author who bought us Sherlock Holmes so the quality of the writing is first rate as is the quality of the historical research and accuracy providing idealized visions of characters such as Prince Edward andJohn Chandos and events such as the Battle of Poiters. ... Read more

Product Description
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY S. PAGET ... Read more