TCDE-Team at 15:41, 3 May 2026

2026-05-03T15:41:44Z

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	One can imagine that the pursuit of this literary dignity' haunted [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] throughout his writing career and it was his desire to meet this goal that prompted his attempt to destroy his most popular character, [[Sherlock Holmes]].		One can imagine that the pursuit of this 'literary dignity' haunted [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] throughout his writing career and it was his desire to meet this goal that prompted his attempt to destroy his most popular character, [[Sherlock Holmes]].

	In [[Through the Magic Door]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] wrote: '<q>I wish Macaulay had written an historical novel.</q>' In essence [[Micah Clarke]] was it. Much of the historical source material came from Macaulay's History of England. Nordon states that the account of the rebellion is based on chapter five of Macaulay's book. This, of course, does not necessarily detract from the worth of the novel. Shakespeare himself never used an original storyline — it was what he did with the plot that mattered. Such is the case here. The chivalry and derring-do of Sir Walter Scott filters through the pages along with all the other subtle, subliminal influences that a young author inevitably carries with him. [[Owen Dudley Edwards]] suggests Charles Reade and Tolstoy along with Robert Louis Stevenson. There is also evidence of that blithe talent to create 'grotesques' very much in the way that Charles Dickens did — flat one-note characters who amuse or disgust. By way of illustration, the retired sea dog. Solomon Sprent, provides a flavour of such a character:		In [[Through the Magic Door]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] wrote: '<q>I wish Macaulay had written an historical novel.</q>' In essence [[Micah Clarke]] was it. Much of the historical source material came from Macaulay's History of England. Nordon states that the account of the rebellion is based on chapter five of Macaulay's book. This, of course, does not necessarily detract from the worth of the novel. Shakespeare himself never used an original storyline — it was what he did with the plot that mattered. Such is the case here. The chivalry and derring-do of Sir Walter Scott filters through the pages along with all the other subtle, subliminal influences that a young author inevitably carries with him. [[Owen Dudley Edwards]] suggests Charles Reade and Tolstoy along with Robert Louis Stevenson. There is also evidence of that blithe talent to create 'grotesques' very much in the way that Charles Dickens did — flat one-note characters who amuse or disgust. By way of illustration, the retired sea dog. Solomon Sprent, provides a flavour of such a character:

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	\|author=David Stuart Davies		\|author=David Stuart Davies
	\|topic=Historiography		\|topic=Historiography
			\|summary=This article reassesses Micah Clarke as Arthur Conan Doyle's first major literary success, examining its historical foundations, political ambivalence, and stylistic influences from Macaulay, Scott, and Dickens. It argues that the novel reveals Conan Doyle's early pursuit of literary dignity and anticipates themes, especially anti-war sentiment, that recur throughout his career.
	}}		}}
	''Literature as a Milkcow'' is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992).		''Literature as a Milkcow'' is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992).

TCDE-Team: Created page with "{{Cargo_Research_Articles |date=1992-01-01 |author=David Stuart Davies |topic=Historiography }} ''Literature as a Milkcow'' is an article written by David Stuart Davies published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 3, 1992). This article reassesses Micah Clarke as Conan Doyle's first major literary success, examining its historical foundations, political ambivalence, and stylistic influences from Maca..."

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Created page with "{{Cargo_Research_Articles |date=1992-01-01 |author=David Stuart Davies |topic=Historiography }} ''Literature as a Milkcow'' is an article written by David Stuart Davies published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 3, 1992). This article reassesses Micah Clarke as Conan Doyle's first major literary success, examining its historical foundations, political ambivalence, and stylistic influences from Maca..."

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{{Cargo_Research_Articles
|date=1992-01-01
|author=David Stuart Davies
|topic=Historiography
}}
''Literature as a Milkcow'' is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992).

This article reassesses [[Micah Clarke]] as [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s first major literary success, examining its historical foundations, political ambivalence, and stylistic influences from Macaulay, Scott, and Dickens. It argues that the novel reveals [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s early pursuit of "literary dignity" and anticipates themes, especially anti-war sentiment, that recur throughout his career.

== Literature as a Milkcow ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1992-vol3-p97-literature-as-a-milkcow.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992, p. 97)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1992-vol3-p98-literature-as-a-milkcow.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992, p. 98)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1992-vol3-p99-literature-as-a-milkcow.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992, p. 99)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1992-vol3-p100-literature-as-a-milkcow.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992, p. 100)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1992-vol3-p101-literature-as-a-milkcow.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 3, 1992, p. 101)]]

'''An Introduction to Micah Clarke'''

Despite Micah Clarke being Arthur Conan Doyle's first real literary success, it has, generally, been ignored by many serious critics. This is somewhat strange because, for an early work, it is remarkably ambitious and has many qualities which commend it to the modern reader.

The author was deep in the planning and writing of the novel in 1887 when [[A Study in Scarlet]], which aroused little initial attention with the reading public, appeared in [[Beeton's Christmas Annual]]. By February 1888, ACD had completed the final draft of his picaresque tale of the Monmouth rebellion. He was excited and wrote to his sister [[Lottie]]: '<q>If Micah comes off we may I think take it as proved that I can live by the pen.</q>'

Pierre Nordon claims that the novel must have been conceived in 1885, two years earlier than other records indicate, and this is why Nordon refers to [[Micah Clarke]] as [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]]'s first novel. Indeed, the author himself, in a letter to his friend John Ryan, said: '<q>I wrote the book in five months, but it took me two years to collect my materials.</q>'

[[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] sent his completed manuscript off to publishers with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm was not reciprocated and no one would accept the book. James Payn said he was wasting his time writing historical fiction; Blackwoods declined; and the Globe newspaper syndicate, writing to [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Dr A. Conan Doyle]], complained that there was no love interest in the story. In November 1888, however, Longmans finally accepted the manuscript but hardly with warm enthusiasm. It was one hundred and seventy pages longer than Rider Haggard's ''She'', they claimed, mysteriously, and must, therefore, be pruned.

It was pruned and subsequently printed in the following February when it enjoyed immediate and prolonged success. The second edition followed only a few days after the first; the third appeared in May and the fourth in August. So [[Micah Clarke]] was indeed [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s first real literary and financial success.

The character who gives his name to the novel is both hero and narrator; but in the interests of historical truth, Conan Doyle explained, in a long sub-title written in archaic style, that the book was less an historical document than a statement in fictional form:

: ''[[Micah Clarke]]''. His Statement. As made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervais. Reuben. During the hard winter of 1734 Wherein is contained A full report of certain passages in his early life. Together with some account of his journey from Havant to Taunton with Decimus Saxon in the summer of 1685. Also of the adventure that befell During the western rebellion & of their intercourse With James Duke of Monmouth, Lord Grey and other persons of quality. Compiled day by day, from his own narration by Joseph Clarke & never previously set forth in print, Now for the first time collected, corrected & re-Arranged from the original manuscripts by [[Arthur Conan Doyle|A. Conan Doyle]].

As [[Owen Dudley Edwards]] notes: "This is an imitation of late seventeenth-century book-titling" and it really was necessary from the point of view of how the story was supposed to be comprehended and received. It is a pity therefore that, in modern. editions, this titular statement was dropped. The sense of immediacy and authenticity is lost by this omission.

[[Micah Clarke]] recounts the ill-fated 1685 campaign of James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, who was the illegitimate son of Charles II. He had groomed himself for accession to the throne and had been encouraged, to some degree, by Charles. Charles' brother, the Duke of York and heir presumptive, was unpopular with the people because of his Catholic beliefs, and because of this, a struggle for the right to succeed Charles evolved between the Duke and the charismatic Monmouth. In the end, Charles supported his brother, but Monmouth continued his campaign. With the death of Charles in early 1685, the stage was set for a showdown. Monmouth, who had been living in exile on the continent, returned to England with a small group of supporters and assembled an army from the citizens who joined the cause. It is the stuff of which epic sagas are made.

[[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s novel commences with Monmouth's arrival in England. [[Micah Clarke]] is turning twenty-one and, to the young man, the veracity of Monmouth's claim to the throne is a vexing one. However, he becomes convinced that the real issue that troubles him is not Monmouth's accession but his own struggle against Catholicism. He is told that, if James II is not removed. Protestantism cannot be preserved in England. For this reason, Clarke joins Monmouth and embarks upon what amounts to a religious crusade. There are obvious shades here, of course, of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s own rejection of Catholicism.

[[Micah Clarke]] consists of a series of episodic adventures, some based on fact. some invented, strung together on the thread of an historical narrative.

[[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] himself wrote:

: <q>I now determined to test my powers to the full and I chose a historical novel for this end, because it seemed to me the one way of combining a certain amount of literary dignity with those scenes of action and adventure which were natural to my young and ardent mind. I had always felt great sympathy for the Puritans, who, after all, whatever their little peculiarities, did represent political liberty and earnestness in religion. They had usually been caricatured in fiction and art. Even Scott had not drawn them as they were. Macaulay. always one of my chief inspirations, had alone made them comprehensible the sombre fighters with their bibles and their broad-swords.</q>
: Memories and Adventures

One can imagine that the pursuit of this literary dignity' haunted [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] throughout his writing career and it was his desire to meet this goal that prompted his attempt to destroy his most popular character, [[Sherlock Holmes]].

In [[Through the Magic Door]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] wrote: '<q>I wish Macaulay had written an historical novel.</q>' In essence [[Micah Clarke]] was it. Much of the historical source material came from Macaulay's History of England. Nordon states that the account of the rebellion is based on chapter five of Macaulay's book. This, of course, does not necessarily detract from the worth of the novel. Shakespeare himself never used an original storyline — it was what he did with the plot that mattered. Such is the case here. The chivalry and derring-do of Sir Walter Scott filters through the pages along with all the other subtle, subliminal influences that a young author inevitably carries with him. [[Owen Dudley Edwards]] suggests Charles Reade and Tolstoy along with Robert Louis Stevenson. There is also evidence of that blithe talent to create 'grotesques' very much in the way that Charles Dickens did — flat one-note characters who amuse or disgust. By way of illustration, the retired sea dog. Solomon Sprent, provides a flavour of such a character:

: A very different teacher was the seadog. Solomon Sprent, who lived in the second last cottage on the left-hand side of the main street of the village. He was one of the old tarpaulin breed, who had fought under the red cross ensign against the Frenchman. Don Dutchman, and Moor, until a round shot carried off his foot and put an end to his battles for ever. In person he was thin, and brown, and lithe as a cat, with a short body and very long arms, each ending in a great hand which was ever half closed as though shutting upon a rope. From head to foot he was covered with the most marvellous tattooings, done in blue, red, and green. beginning with the Creation upon his neck and winding up with the Ascension upon his left ankle. Never have I seen such a walking work of art. He was wont to say that had he been drowned and his body cast upon some savage land, the natives might have learned the whole blessed gospel from a contemplation of his carcass.

This wonderfully comic idea resurfaced years later in a Marx Brothers' comedy when Groucho sang of Lydia, the tattooed lady 'that encyclopaedia, the Queen of Tattoo':

: On her back is the battle of Waterloo
: Beside it, the wreck of the Hesperus too
: And proudly above waves the Red, White and Blue
: You can learn a lot from Lydia.

What is interesting about [[Micah Clarke]] is the light it sheds on [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s attitude to the rising. It is not clear whether or not there was a right side to the conflict: Monmouth was essentially the people's choice, but he was a rebel. [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] captures the ambivalence many Britons must have felt at the time. Micah, as narrator and reader's confidant, expresses the dilemma eloquently. In the closing pages of the novel he says that Monmouth 'showed in his last moments some traces of that spirit which spurted up now and again from his feeble nature, like the momentary flash of expiring fire. Don Richard Cox (''Arthur Conan Doyle'', Ungar, 1985) writes: '... this ambivalent attitude about Monmouth and the revolution makes the book interesting and the ambiguities elevate it above the status of an historical adventure novel.'

The novel is a patchy read: it is slow to start, and some of the 'invented' episodes are over-long and interrupt the flow of the tale. But the characterisation is good, with the flamboyant rogue Decimus Saxon having a particular appeal: 'Pooh, pooh, he cries, 'Justice is a slippery dame and hath a two-edged sword. We may have enough of justice in our characters to give us a surfeit of it."

There is a highly personal view of the battle of Sedgemoor with, as is usual in [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s narratives, a concentration on the ordinary people rather than on the major protagonists. A bitter passage at the end of the battle utterly destroys the view of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] as a blood-thirsty militarist:

: Oh, war, my children, what a terrible thing it is. How are men cozened and cheated by the rare trappings and prancing steeds, by empty terms of honour and glory, until they forget in the outward tinsel and show the real ghastly horror of the accursed thing! Think not of the dazzling squadrons, nor of the spirit-stirring blare of trumpets, but think that the lonely man under the shadow of the alders, and of what he was doing in a Christian age and a Christian land.

Here is the eloquent anti-war voice that was strengthened and amplified by the poets of the First World War. In [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s tone and language his prancing steeds and empty terms of honour and glory — we can find the precursor of Wilfred Owen's famous attack on war in his poem 'Dulce et Decorum Est':

: My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
: To children ardent for some desperate glory
: The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
: Pro patria mori.

In [[Micah Clarke]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] clearly explodes 'The old Lie' that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. However, it is in the action scenes that this novel really comes to life and no more so than in Chapter XXXIII: 'Of the Onfall of Sedgemoor'. Here [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] captures with dashing prose the thrill, the excitement and the ignominy of battle, richly depicting those 'sombre figures with their bibles and their broad-swords'.

[[Micah Clarke]] set [[Arthur Conan Doyle|ACD]] on the literary ladder. Writing to [[Lottie]], he averred that if the book succeeded, he could regard Literature as a Milkcow, a supplement to his medical income. As it happened, Literature became, virtually, the whole farm.

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Literature as a Milkcow - Revision history

TCDE-Team at 15:41, 3 May 2026

TCDE-Team at 21:29, 17 February 2026