Dr. Conan Doyle in Bristol
Dr. Conan Doyle in Bristol is an article published in The Bristol Mercury on 7 december 1893.
Report of the lecture "Facts about Fiction" given by Arthur Conan Doyle on 6 december 1893 at the Victoria Rooms (Clifton, Bristol, UK).
Report
The Literary and Philosophic Club have already earned the thanks of the Bristol public by enabling them to see and hear some of the foremost living men in science and art ; but not until last night has literature, or at any rate fiction, been prominently represented on their platform. Dr Conan Doyle, while of high standing in current fiction, is also well known as a lecturer upon things pertaining to his art and craft, so that in many respects last night's Lecture was perhaps the most important, as it proved to be one of the most interesting of the series. There was a fairly full attendance, an Dr Doyle, who was briefly introduced by Mr C. H. B. Eliot, was heartily received.
Dr Doyle's appearance immediately strikes the observer with a sense of bigness. He is tall and by no means thin ; he has a large and genial face adorned with a heavy moustache, and he speaks with a full, deep voice. His enunciation last evening was to a slight degree indistinct, and perhaps it was due to the fact that the audience to set themselves to catch his words that applause was indulged in very quietly and at rather long intervale. Announcing his subject as "Facts About Fiction," the lecturer immediately explained that it was limited to the work of living writers, and especially to the younger of contemporary novelists. Having characterised literature as a nation's most permanent glory, he went on to point out a growth in English literature consequent upon the extension of the British Empire, Kipling in India, Olive Schreiner at the Cape, Stevenson in his self-imposed exile in the South Seas, Haggard in those frontier territories of South Africa where the pioneer and the savage were waging a constant struggle, Ralph Bolderwood in Australia, and Gilbert Parker and Robert Barr in Canada were enumerated as instances of the increasingly cosmopolitan character of our literature. There was something solemn, said Dr Doyle, and even touching, in that vast interchange
of confidences, that calling of deep to deep all over our world wide Empire. He passed lightly over Meredith and Hardy, because although he looked upon them as possibly the two most vital forces in current fiction, still they had been before the public too long to come within the scope of that lecture. He stayed, however, to notice Meredith's extreme unconventionality and his sympathy with women, which, he said, would always give Meredith a niche of his own in English literature. Hardy's freedom of treatment and his sympathy with that rural life which he described so well would give him an enduring place among our greater novelists. Plunging into the thick of his subject, Dr Doyle first dealt with Robert Louis Stevenson. If the last generation of novelists were all largely under the influence of Dickens, it was, he thought, no less true that that which was now springing up was strongly tinged with Stevenson. Stevenson could claim the rare distinction of having attained success both in the short and the long story, but the lecturer thought his short stories were more characteristic and more likely to retain a place in literature. Dr Doyle referred to Stevenson's reaction against the abuse of love in fiction, and to the fact that in all his novels women played a subordinate part. After the way in which marriage had been held up by the novelist as the be-all and end-all of life he was not surprised at such a reaction ; but he thought it went too far. The lecturer referred to Stevenson's admirable style as "the unerring way in which he lets his pen drop upon the word most fitted to convey his meaning."
Of Olive Schreiner Dr Doyle spoke highly, and coupled her "African Farm" with Emily Bronte's "Withering Heights" as the two most powerful productions of women in this century. He also gave unstinted praise to J. M. Barrie, whose name was perhaps more heartily recognised by the audience than any, save those of Dickens and Thackeray, to whom reference was made in the introduction. Dr Doyle read with sympathetic humour the passage from "A Window in Thrums" picturing the excitement preparatory to the arrival of the expected visitor to the weaver's cottage, Quiller-Couch he mentioned in terms of great respect, characterising his "Noughts and Crosses" as one of the most brilliant collections of short stories which he could name. He treated the audience to an able analysis of Rudyard Kipling's work, whose vices were as pronounced as his virtues. He attached great importance to his Anglo-Indian stories, in which he saw a distinct political force, in as much as they had created a sympathy with, and imparted a knowledge of the life and work of our fellow countrymen in India which were not possessed by the public of this country before the appearance of "Plain Tales from the Hills." Dr Doyle concluded with a defence of "his friend, Jerome,"
who had never had that justice done to him at the hands of the critics that he had received from the public. Dr Doyle's view of current literature was on the whole a most hopeful one, as far as the future is concerned, and he exhibited an entire lack of sympathy with the "wailings" which he said had been made in the critical press lately over the decay of our literature.
