The Ring of Thoth and Other Tales
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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In "The Ring of Thoth," Mr. John Vansittart Smith, a British student of Egyptology, goes to the Egyptian Room of the Louvre to study. There he meets a curious looking attendant, but he is otherwise alone in the great hall. Not long afterwards, the quiet surroundings and his inability to concentrate cause him to drift off to sleep. When Smith wakes, it is the middle of the night and he is locked inside the darkened museum. Soon he becomes aware that someone else is there, too. A mysterious show more figure holding a light has come into the hall and opened the case of one of the mummies. Smith realizes that it is the attendant that he saw earlier in the day, and as he watches from the shadows, he becomes involved in the extraordinary story of the ring of Thoth.In addition to "The Ring of Thoth," this collection of short stories by the masterful Arthur Conan Doyle contains "The Captain of the Polestar," "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," "The Great Kleinplatz Experiment," "The Man from Archangel," "That Little Square Box," "John Huxford's Hiatus," "A Literary Mosaic," "John Barrington Cowles," and "Elias B. Hopkins." show lessTags
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Conan Doyle's 1890 egyptological horror fantasy, a precursor to Bram Stoker's 'The Jewel of the Seven Stars' of 1903, is only one of very many 'mummy stories' that appeared at the end of the nineteenth century.
This particular story is well written but not more than it is - a variant on the Wandering Jew (though the subject is not jewish) interlaced with ancient mysteries and having a slightly hapless English scholar stumbling late at night on something very esoteric in a Parisian museum.
These stories were often attractive because of the symbolic erotic content - the beautiful woman from the distant past whose love persists beyond death or who inspires a love which centuries cannot dim. They are a way of recognising a deep emotion show more otherwise not to be expressed. show less
This particular story is well written but not more than it is - a variant on the Wandering Jew (though the subject is not jewish) interlaced with ancient mysteries and having a slightly hapless English scholar stumbling late at night on something very esoteric in a Parisian museum.
These stories were often attractive because of the symbolic erotic content - the beautiful woman from the distant past whose love persists beyond death or who inspires a love which centuries cannot dim. They are a way of recognising a deep emotion show more otherwise not to be expressed. show less
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The most famous fictional detective in the world is Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. However, Doyle was, at best, ambivalent about his immensely successful literary creation and, at worst, resentful that his more "serious" fiction was relatively ignored. Born in Edinburgh, Doyle studied medicine from 1876 to 1881 and received his M.D. in show more 1885. He worked as a military physician in South Africa during the Boer War and was knighted in 1902 for his exceptional service. Doyle was drawn to writing at an early age. Although he attempted to enter private practice in Southsea, Portsmouth, in 1882, he soon turned to writing in his spare time; it eventually became his profession. As a Liberal Unionist, Doyle ran, unsuccessfully, for Parliament in 1903. During his later years, Doyle became an avowed spiritualist. Doyle sold his first story, "The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley," to Chambers' Journal in 1879. When Doyle published the novel, A Study in Scarlet in 1887, Sherlock Holmes was introduced to an avid public. Doyle is reputed to have used one of his medical professors, Dr. Joseph Bell, as a model for Holmes's character. Eventually, Doyle wrote three additional Holmes novels and five collections of Holmes short stories. A brilliant, though somewhat eccentric, detective, Holmes employs scientific methods of observation and deduction to solve the mysteries that he investigates. Although an "amateur" private detective, he is frequently called upon by Scotland Yard for assistance. Holmes's assistant, the faithful Dr. Watson, provides a striking contrast to Holmes's brilliant intellect and, in Doyle's day at least, serves as a character with whom the reader can readily identify. Having tired of Holmes's popularity, Doyle even tried to kill the great detective in "The Final Problem" but was forced by an outraged public to resurrect him in 1903. Although Holmes remained Doyle's most popular literary creation, Doyle wrote prolifically in other genres, including historical adventure, science fiction, and supernatural fiction. Despite Doyle's sometimes careless writing, he was a superb storyteller. His great skill as a popular author lay in his technique of involving readers in his highly entertaining adventures. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Arthur Conan Doyle has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Ring of Thoth and Other Stories; The Ring of Thoth and Other Tales
- Original publication date
- 1968 (anthology) (anthology)
- People/Characters
- John Vansittart Smith
- Important places
- British Museum, London, England, UK; Gower Street, Bloomsbury, London, England, UK
- First words
- Mr. John Vansittart Smith, F.R.S., of 147-A Gower Street, was a man whose energy of purpose and clearness of thought might have placed him in the very first rank of scientific observers.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"[. . .] It is said that he was a man of uncertain age and eccentric habits, without any living relations to mourn over his dramatic and untimely end."
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 823.0873
- Disambiguation notice
- This is a collection. Do NOT combine with the short story.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Historical Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 823.0873 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction By type Genre fiction Adventure fiction Horror and ghost fiction
- LCC
- PZ3 .D772 — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction in English
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 48
- Popularity
- 622,038
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.44)
- Languages
- English, Estonian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 16
- ASINs
- 5
