The Best Supernatural Tales Of Arthur Conan Doyle

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. — Sherlock Holmes When Holmes wearied of mundane Victorian reality, he reached for the cocaine; his creator Doyle reached beyond reality, to the occult mystery world as real to him as a hansom cab—so real that it became part of his fiction. It is no surprise that in the year "A Study in Scarlet" appeared (1887), this versatile writer was reading seriously in spiritualism, attending séances, and had already written some of the thrilling tales in this book. The Best Supernatural Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle gathers together for the first time in an American edition the fifteen finest short stories in this genre by the master storyteller. Relative to his vast literary output, Doyle wrote comparatively few stories dealing specifically with spiritualism, Egyptian magic, psychometry, and other occult domains he knew so thoroughly — and these scattered stories, skeptically dismissed or simply buried beneath the mass of his detective, historical, sports, medical, and other pieces, have yet to receive their due as superior or typical examples of his narrative power. The polymath Doyle has recourse to many twilit borderline realms of the beyond in these stories which appeared in various periodicals from 1880 to 1921. "The Bully of Brocas Court" gives a new slant to the Victorian ghost story in one of Doyle's favorite settings, the world of boxing. "The Captain of the Polestar" recalls the weird northern backdrop of the author's whaling adventures; "The Brown Hand" deals in body-soul bondage with a touch of the East. Two hackle-raising histories, "Lot No. 249" and "The Ring of Thoth," depend on the riddle of Egyptian mummy lore; "The Leather Funnel" and "The Silver Hatchet" involve psychometry, a material object's retention of an aura or memory of its past, which a sensitive being can "replay" through dreams. And then there is "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," Doyle's speculative solution to the Marie Celeste conundrum, which was vehemently denounced when published (anonymously) because it seemed so true and so terrible. Doyle readers, students of the occult, and anyone who loves an imaginative tale will wish to experience, through these obscure, rarely reprinted stories, what was personally so close to their author.

HORROR & GHOST STORIES. Selected and with an introduction by David Stuart Davies, this gripping set of tales by the master storyteller Arthur Conan Doyle is bound to thrill and unnerve you. In these twilight excursions, Doyle's vivid imagination for the strange, the grotesque and the frightening is given full rein. We move from the mysteries of Egypt and the strange powers granted by "The Ring of Thoth" to the isolated ghostlands of the Arctic in "The Captain of the Polestar", we encounter a monstrous creature in "The Terror of Blue John Cap" and the beings that live above our heads in "The Brazilian Cat" and "The Leather Funnel"; and we shudder at the thing in the next room in Lot 249. Sit down in your uneasy chair and enjoy this unique collection of chillers.

The final helping of Conan Doyle's tales of strange events in this world and beyond This is the final volume of the Leonaur special edition of the collected tales of the uncanny by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Each volume is substantial-over 400 pages each-and together they bring together perhaps the most comprehensive collection of Doyle's weird and supernatural fiction now available. This fine looking set is available in softcover and hardcover with dust wrapper for bibliophiles everywhere. This volume continues the pace set by its predecessors with the novel, 'The Mystery of Cloomber.' two novelettes, 'The Parasite' and 'The Black Doctor' together with thirteen short stories each one demonstrating Doyle's skill at portraying the unearthly, the chilling, the odd and the peculiar. Among them readers will discover, 'The Horror of the Heights.' 'The Silver Hatchet, ' 'The Fiend of the Cooperage, ' 'Selecting a Ghost, ' 'The Lift, ' 'The Silver Mirror' and many others. This Leonaur three volume set in coordinating covers, is available in softcover and in hardcover with dustjacket making it an essential addition to the libraries of collectors.

These horror stories -- never before compiled in one volume -- are carefully crafted, compelling and believable. Written in about the same decade as the Sherlock Holmes series, they will convince you that Arthur Conan Doyle was a master of more than just the detective story.