TCDE-Team at 17:51, 26 February 2026

2026-02-26T17:51:44Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:51, 26 February 2026
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	This should not be thought of as mere braggadocio, though [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] cheerfully abandoned modesty whenever he referred to [[The White Company]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] derived much of his inspiration from historians; but the historians he loved best were good story-tellers. Gibbon, despite his pomposity, wrote a tremendous narrative covering half the world's known history': his work was greater than himself. About Gibbon the man little needed to be said: he did not know how to tell good stories about his own life. If we don't know all about Gibbon it is not his fault, for he wrote no fewer than six accounts of his own career, each differing from the other, and all equally bad. A man must have more heart and soul than Gibbon to write a good autobiography. (17) (And so on, with additional tart comments on the inability of an Englishman to be frank while writing an autobiography.)		This should not be thought of as mere braggadocio, though [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] cheerfully abandoned modesty whenever he referred to [[The White Company]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] derived much of his inspiration from historians; but the historians he loved best were good story-tellers. Gibbon, despite his pomposity, wrote a tremendous narrative covering half the world's known history': his work was greater than himself. About Gibbon the man little needed to be said: he did not know how to tell good stories about his own life. If we don't know all about Gibbon it is not his fault, for he wrote no fewer than six accounts of his own career, each differing from the other, and all equally bad. A man must have more heart and soul than Gibbon to write a good autobiography. (17) (And so on, with additional tart comments on the inability of an Englishman to be frank while writing an autobiography.)

	[[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], who detested Napoleon and wished that Scott had not spent so much time on his biography of Napolcon at the expense of the novels he might have written, collected a large library of Napolconic histories. He admired Justin McCarthy's History of Our Own Times and W.E.H. Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century, because, he said. both authors rose above their Irishness and treated their subject-matter with a becoming tolerance. He also spoke affectionately of Francis Parkman's history of carly American settlements and of French Canada, as well as of the great chroniclers. particularly Jean Froissart and Philippe De Comines: Kazimierz Waliszewski, biographer of Ivan the Terrible; Washington Irving. historian of the conquest of Granada; and many Englishmen who wrote accounts of their explorations, voyages and wars. His lengthy catalogue of the volumes that might appropriately make up a 'sea library' mixed works of fiction and non-fiction. For [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], history was one marvellous tale after the other. As a novelist, he loved the great historians, and when he became a historian himself of both the Boer War and the Great War-he always found room, while discussing strategy or the movement of battalions and divisions, to include still one more rattling good yarn.		[[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], who detested Napoleon and wished that Scott had not spent so much time on his biography of Napolcon at the expense of the novels he might have written, collected a large library of Napolconic histories. He admired Justin McCarthy's History of Our Own Times and W. E. H. Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century, because, he said. both authors rose above their Irishness and treated their subject-matter with a becoming tolerance. He also spoke affectionately of Francis Parkman's history of carly American settlements and of French Canada, as well as of the great chroniclers. particularly Jean Froissart and Philippe De Comines: Kazimierz Waliszewski, biographer of Ivan the Terrible; Washington Irving. historian of the conquest of Granada; and many Englishmen who wrote accounts of their explorations, voyages and wars. His lengthy catalogue of the volumes that might appropriately make up a 'sea library' mixed works of fiction and non-fiction. For [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], history was one marvellous tale after the other. As a novelist, he loved the great historians, and when he became a historian himself of both the Boer War and the Great War-he always found room, while discussing strategy or the movement of battalions and divisions, to include still one more rattling good yarn.

	Most readers of [[The White Company]], however, were not consulting it as a reference-work. Like the romances of Stevenson. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s novel appealed to readers of all ages; indeed, the late Victorian Age was an extended period in which publishers. authors and common readers agreed on the high value of story-telling pursued for its own sake. When Cosmo Hamilton dined at the Authors' Club in 1902, he thrilled at the sight of the great men seated near him at the same long table, story-tellers all: Ascott Hope. W. W. Jacobs. Hugh Walpole, Robert Hichens, W. J. Locke, A. E. W. Mason. Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr (an American who lived and wrote in England), H. Rider Haggard, Maurice Hewlett, and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s books were liked especially by boys at school and those neglected but numerous readers who gain great refreshment and relaxation from good honest stories of gallant and daring deeds, from the quick flash of swords, from the colour of pageantry and from love at first sight which ends, or begins rather, in great happiness.' (18)		Most readers of [[The White Company]], however, were not consulting it as a reference-work. Like the romances of Stevenson. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s novel appealed to readers of all ages; indeed, the late Victorian Age was an extended period in which publishers. authors and common readers agreed on the high value of story-telling pursued for its own sake. When Cosmo Hamilton dined at the Authors' Club in 1902, he thrilled at the sight of the great men seated near him at the same long table, story-tellers all: Ascott Hope. W. W. Jacobs. Hugh Walpole, Robert Hichens, W. J. Locke, A. E. W. Mason. Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr (an American who lived and wrote in England), H. Rider Haggard, Maurice Hewlett, and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s books were liked especially by boys at school and those neglected but numerous readers who gain great refreshment and relaxation from good honest stories of gallant and daring deeds, from the quick flash of swords, from the colour of pageantry and from love at first sight which ends, or begins rather, in great happiness.' (18)

TCDE-Team at 17:51, 26 February 2026

2026-02-26T17:51:11Z

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TCDE-Team: Created page with "{{Cargo_Research_Articles |date=1994-01-01 |author=Harold Orel |topic=Historical |summary=This critical essay analyses The White Company within the tradition of the historical romance, examining Arthur Conan Doyle's research methods, narrative technique, moral code, and relationship to Sir Walter Scott and other nineteenth-century writers. It argues that the novel represents his most ambitious literary achievement and a conscious attempt to elevate historical fiction..."

2026-02-26T17:19:44Z

Created page with "{{Cargo_Research_Articles |date=1994-01-01 |author=Harold Orel |topic=Historical |summary=This critical essay analyses The White Company within the tradition of the historical romance, examining Arthur Conan Doyle's research methods, narrative technique, moral code, and relationship to Sir Walter Scott and other nineteenth-century writers. It argues that the novel represents his most ambitious literary achievement and a conscious attempt to elevate historical fiction..."

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← Older revision		Revision as of 19:51, 26 February 2026
Line 67:		Line 67:
	This should not be thought of as mere braggadocio, though [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] cheerfully abandoned modesty whenever he referred to [[The White Company]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] derived much of his inspiration from historians; but the historians he loved best were good story-tellers. Gibbon, despite his pomposity, wrote a tremendous narrative covering half the world's known history': his work was greater than himself. About Gibbon the man little needed to be said: he did not know how to tell good stories about his own life. If we don't know all about Gibbon it is not his fault, for he wrote no fewer than six accounts of his own career, each differing from the other, and all equally bad. A man must have more heart and soul than Gibbon to write a good autobiography. (17) (And so on, with additional tart comments on the inability of an Englishman to be frank while writing an autobiography.)		This should not be thought of as mere braggadocio, though [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] cheerfully abandoned modesty whenever he referred to [[The White Company]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]] derived much of his inspiration from historians; but the historians he loved best were good story-tellers. Gibbon, despite his pomposity, wrote a tremendous narrative covering half the world's known history': his work was greater than himself. About Gibbon the man little needed to be said: he did not know how to tell good stories about his own life. If we don't know all about Gibbon it is not his fault, for he wrote no fewer than six accounts of his own career, each differing from the other, and all equally bad. A man must have more heart and soul than Gibbon to write a good autobiography. (17) (And so on, with additional tart comments on the inability of an Englishman to be frank while writing an autobiography.)

	[[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], who detested Napoleon and wished that Scott had not spent so much time on his biography of Napolcon at the expense of the novels he might have written, collected a large library of Napolconic histories. He admired Justin McCarthy's History of Our Own Times and W.E.H. Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century, because, he said. both authors rose above their Irishness and treated their subject-matter with a becoming tolerance. He also spoke affectionately of Francis Parkman's history of carly American settlements and of French Canada, as well as of the great chroniclers. particularly Jean Froissart and Philippe De Comines: Kazimierz Waliszewski, biographer of Ivan the Terrible; Washington Irving. historian of the conquest of Granada; and many Englishmen who wrote accounts of their explorations, voyages and wars. His lengthy catalogue of the volumes that might appropriately make up a 'sea library' mixed works of fiction and non-fiction. For [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], history was one marvellous tale after the other. As a novelist, he loved the great historians, and when he became a historian himself of both the Boer War and the Great War-he always found room, while discussing strategy or the movement of battalions and divisions, to include still one more rattling good yarn.		[[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], who detested Napoleon and wished that Scott had not spent so much time on his biography of Napolcon at the expense of the novels he might have written, collected a large library of Napolconic histories. He admired Justin McCarthy's History of Our Own Times and W. E. H. Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century, because, he said. both authors rose above their Irishness and treated their subject-matter with a becoming tolerance. He also spoke affectionately of Francis Parkman's history of carly American settlements and of French Canada, as well as of the great chroniclers. particularly Jean Froissart and Philippe De Comines: Kazimierz Waliszewski, biographer of Ivan the Terrible; Washington Irving. historian of the conquest of Granada; and many Englishmen who wrote accounts of their explorations, voyages and wars. His lengthy catalogue of the volumes that might appropriately make up a 'sea library' mixed works of fiction and non-fiction. For [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]], history was one marvellous tale after the other. As a novelist, he loved the great historians, and when he became a historian himself of both the Boer War and the Great War-he always found room, while discussing strategy or the movement of battalions and divisions, to include still one more rattling good yarn.

	Most readers of [[The White Company]], however, were not consulting it as a reference-work. Like the romances of Stevenson. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s novel appealed to readers of all ages; indeed, the late Victorian Age was an extended period in which publishers. authors and common readers agreed on the high value of story-telling pursued for its own sake. When Cosmo Hamilton dined at the Authors' Club in 1902, he thrilled at the sight of the great men seated near him at the same long table, story-tellers all: Ascott Hope. W. W. Jacobs. Hugh Walpole, Robert Hichens, W. J. Locke, A. E. W. Mason. Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr (an American who lived and wrote in England), H. Rider Haggard, Maurice Hewlett, and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s books were liked especially by boys at school and those neglected but numerous readers who gain great refreshment and relaxation from good honest stories of gallant and daring deeds, from the quick flash of swords, from the colour of pageantry and from love at first sight which ends, or begins rather, in great happiness.' (18)		Most readers of [[The White Company]], however, were not consulting it as a reference-work. Like the romances of Stevenson. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s novel appealed to readers of all ages; indeed, the late Victorian Age was an extended period in which publishers. authors and common readers agreed on the high value of story-telling pursued for its own sake. When Cosmo Hamilton dined at the Authors' Club in 1902, he thrilled at the sight of the great men seated near him at the same long table, story-tellers all: Ascott Hope. W. W. Jacobs. Hugh Walpole, Robert Hichens, W. J. Locke, A. E. W. Mason. Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr (an American who lived and wrote in England), H. Rider Haggard, Maurice Hewlett, and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]. [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s books were liked especially by boys at school and those neglected but numerous readers who gain great refreshment and relaxation from good honest stories of gallant and daring deeds, from the quick flash of swords, from the colour of pageantry and from love at first sight which ends, or begins rather, in great happiness.' (18)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The White Company - Revision history

TCDE-Team at 17:51, 26 February 2026

TCDE-Team at 17:51, 26 February 2026