Tales of Terror and Mystery

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Tales of Terror and Mystery collects six “Tales of Terror” and seven “Tales of Mystery” from the master of British detective fiction. In the first story, “The Horror of the Heights,” a monoplane pilot ascends past 20,000 feet where he encounters an unknown creature. Doyle uses the framing device of the story following the pilot’s recovered diary, giving the whole story an H.P. Lovecraft feel. One of the other stories, “The Case of Lady Sannox,” features a rather gruesome twist evocative of Edgar Allan Poe. While the “Tales of Terror” feature great ambiance, modern readers won’t find them particularly terrifying.

“The Lost Special,” the first of the “Tales of Mystery,” features a show more lost train that disappears between two stations. Though not officially a Sherlock Holmes story, Doyle references “an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date” who writes, “It is one of the elementary principles of practical reasoning… that when the impossible has been eliminated the residuum, however improbable, must contain the truth” (pg. 102). This would therefore appear to have been Doyle’s way to publish a Holmes story in the five years after killing off the Great Detective in 1893. Similarly, “The Story of the Man with the Watches” (also from 1898) features a reference to “a well-known criminal investigator” who publishes his hypothesis in the Daily Gazette (pg. 135). While his hypothesis fails, the style of the investigator’s hypothesizing resembles that of Holmes. As it would be another five years before Doyle resurrected Holmes in “The Adventure of the Empty House,” this may have been Doyle’s way of testing the waters (though The Hound of the Baskervilles appeared in 1901, it takes place before Holmes’ “death”). The story is similarly appealing to me as a Rochesterian for its references to Rochester, NY, including the Rochester Watchmaking Company and a watchmaker named Mason from Elmira. The other mysteries are likely to entertain fans of Doyle as they surpass the “Tales of Terror” in their narratives.

The book includes an introduction by Nina Conan Doyle Harwood, the daughter-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle, setting up her father-in-law’s interests and how they influenced these stories. The title page credits Barbara Ninde Byfield with the book’s illustrations, but there are none that I can find within the book unless Byfield designed the cover decoration, which evokes the patterned vintage look common to the International Collectors Library’s publications. show less

When we talk about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes always seems to be one of the first things that spring to mind. Sadly for this Scottish writer, this turned into both a blessing and a curse. Firstly, Sherlock Holmes remains a seminal part of crime writing and English literature, but limited the writer’s chances in exploring something different. In 1893 Doyle famously tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes in the story “The Final Problem” but due to public outcry and high demands the eccentric detective returned in the 1901 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

While Arthur Conan Doyle is known for his prolific writing, he didn’t gain much recognition for his works outside of Sherlock Holmes. Even though some critics believe show more his historical novels are some of his best works and The Lost World being the inspiration behind Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. I picked up Doyle’s 1923 short story collection Tales of Terror and Mystery as part of our book club, but this afforded me the opportunity to explore his writing outside of Sherlock.

Tales of Terror and Mystery is a collection of thirteen short stories broken up into two topics; six stories on terror and seven on mystery. The book kicked off on a positive gear, the tales of terror are almost like a homage to Edgar Allen Poe. Even the short story “The New Catacomb” has a remarkable similarity to Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”. What I enjoyed about these tales of terror was the way Doyle went a little darker and macabre to what I expected from this author.

Having such a great experience with the tales of terror it was a shame to move onto the tales of mystery. Here is a fun experiment; replace the protagonist name with Sherlock Holmes in these stories and see if they feel any different. It doesn’t work in all the stories; I wanted Conan Doyle to explore different styles of writing but I felt like the tales of mystery was almost like Holmes stories at times and the rest just didn’t work too well at all.

Some of the stories with Tales of Terror and Mystery worked really well but then the rest just feel short. I loved that Arthur Conan Doyle seemed to be influenced by great short story writers like Edgar Allen Poe or H.P. Lovecraft in some of the stories. However for the most part I was left wanting something a little more. Also, like what I have found with Doyle’s writing, there are some incredibly racist moments within this collection, with stories like “The Japanned Box” and “The Jews Breastplate”. After reading The Sign of Four earlier this year I have come to expect this colonialism nature from his writing. I like that some of these stories were macabre but overall I think this lacked the stylistic approach I am used to from this author.

This review originally appeared on my blog: http://literary-exploration.com/2014/11/29/tales-of-terror-and-mystery-by-arthur... show less

Welp, the "tales of terror" are for the most part a little silly (although I did enjoy "The Horror of the Heights," kind of a precursor to "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet") and the "tales of mystery" are *really* silly, all of which is even more entertaining when you consider that this is what Doyle wanted to be writing instead of Sherlock Holmes.

Hit and miss, but when the short stories hit, they hit hard and well. A lot of the "eh" stories have more to do with their reliance on old technology for explanations.

A collection of non-Holmes mysteries (though a couple stories have a small nameless mention of him, which is always fun) that includes some fantastical stories, which feels a bit unexpected until one recalls that The lost world was also somewhat in that realm, though far less dark. Though the "tales of mystery" are non-Holmes they still retain Doyle's typical style, which I personally don't see as problematic since that's why Holmes has been so enjoyed for so long. A solid little collection.

Reading Doyle's Tales of Terror today, is like reading a cozy mystery, all conjecture with only postulated ending; wrapped around Doyle's concept of scientific thinking. I feel I walked into a conversation, eavesdropping, a comfortable way to start and end a tale.

I have been reading this collection for several weeks to fulfill a challenge. To be truthful there were too many stories grouped together, I wish the collection had been shorter.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a prolific writer, and his Sherlock Holmes stories, while the best known of his work, were only a fraction of what he wrote. This book gives us six tales of terror- mostly supernatural- and seven tales of mystery- all works of humankind.

Some of the mysteries have the feel of a Holmes story- in fact, he is obliquely referred to in two of them- but most don’t. “Terror of the Heights” made me think of Lovecraft, while “The New Catacomb” and “The Brazilian Cat” are both downright Poe-ish in character.

While none of these stories has the liveliness of the Holmes stories, they are well worth reading. Some people have put them down as being ‘pulp’ stories, but I don’t happen to think that’s an show more insult. show less