Round the Fire Stories

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Paper Book, 1902

Status

Available

Call number

823.8

Genres

Collection

Where:MB

Publication

New York : McClure Company, 1908, c1902.

Description

Fiction. Horror. Mystery. Thriller. Originally published in 1908 and out of print for more than half a century, this collection of stories, complete with a Preface by the author, presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at his finest. These are seventeen tales of suspense and adventure, of the mysterious and the fantastic, meant to be read "round the fire" upon a winter's night. Murder, madness, ghosts, unsolved crimes, diabolical traps, and inexplicable disappearances abound in these exciting accounts narrated by doctors, lawyers, genetlemen, teachers, burglars, dilettantes, and convicted criminals. The titles are inviting�??"The Pot of Caviare," "The Clubfooted Grocer," "The Brazilian Cat," "The Sealed Room," and "There Fiend of the Coopergate"�??and the stoires are riveting. This is a rediscovered classic by a master storyt… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member john257hopper

A fairly interesting selection of mystery stories, a collection first published in 1908. Some of the stories are crying out to be Sherlock Holmes stories (Man with the Watches, The Black Doctor, B.24 and possibly The Japanned Box and The Beetle Hunter) while The Lost Special alluded to Holmes (as

an unnamed amateur investigator who says that one must eliminate the impossible and then whatever remains is the truth, no matter how improbable), though I found the resolution of the mystery implausible in this case. Implausibility was also a feature of one or two others, such as The Jew's Breastplate. Some others were a little more pedestrian or rather predictable in their resolution (The Club-Footed Grocer, The Usher of Lea House School, The Brown Hand, Jelland's Voyage). Finally, some were quite horrific and Poe-esque (especially The Leather Funnel, Pot of Caviare, The Sealed Room, perhaps also The Brazilian Cat and The Fiend of the Cooperage). Finally, Playing with Fire presaged the author's own later obsession with spiritualism. A collection worth reading.

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LibraryThing member bookworm12

This collection reads a bit like Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, but without the infamous detective. Quite a few of the stories had a macabre style that reminded me more of Edgar Allan Poe than of Doyle’s other work. Pot of Caviar, The Sealed Room and The Brown Hand were a few of the darkest

pieces.

Other tales were easily solved with some critical thinking, similar to the Holmes books, but always with fun twists along the way. One deals with a museum break-in (The Jew’s Breastplate), an unexpected death (The Black Doctor), a visit to an eccentric relative (The Brazilian Cat), and a disappearance on a train.

BOTTOM LINE: A great collection of mysteries and ghost stories for a dark night. I missed Sherlock Holmes, but it was a treat to read some of Doyle’s other work.

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