Literary Dignity
Literary Dignity is an article written by Doug Elliott published in Waterloo: A Case-Book on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Historical Play (The Battered Dispatch Box, january 1998).
Doug Elliott uses the 1998 Shaw Festival revival of Arthur Conan Doyle's play Waterloo as a starting point to re-examine Conan Doyle's overlooked historical fiction, arguing that works such as Micah Clarke, The White Company, the Brigadier Gerard stories, and the Napoleonic tales reveal the "literary dignity" Conan Doyle long sought beyond Sherlock Holmes. The essay connects Waterloo to Conan Doyle's lifelong passion for history and military narrative, showing how his historical novels and plays combined meticulous research, vivid battle scenes, and adventurous storytelling that Doyle himself often valued more highly than the Holmes stories.
Literary Dignity
When the Shaw Festival presented Sherlock Holmes in 1994, audiences were perhaps surprised to learn that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not the playwright. It is common knowledge that Conan Doyle created the character of Sherlock Holmes, so it was a major revelation for many that the play was not, in fact, penned by Sir Arthur, but by the American actor William Gillette. With the revival at The Shaw in 1998 of Waterloo, which was written by Conan Doyle, comes a further revelation: Conan Doyle produced much more than just Sherlock Holmes in his almost 50 years as a full-time author. Among these other works are plays, short stories and novels of historical fiction that, though mostly forgotten, now bear revisiting.
Born in Edinburgh in 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle was educated locally, then at Jesuit schools in England and Austria. After graduating with a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, he established a practice in the Portsmouth suburb of Southsea in 1882 where, between patients, he wrote his first Sherlock Holmes tale, A Study in Scarlet. By 1891 he had moved to London and had achieved such literary success that he was able to give up medicine completely for a writing career.
His first foray into historical fiction was motivated, according to his own autobiography, by purely practical notions. In 1887, waiting for A Study in Scarlet to appear and never guessing how the fictional detective would change his life, the young doctor set out to explore new creative territory. "Feeling large thoughts rise within me, I now determined to test my powers to the full, and I chose a historical novel to 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." (1)
The result was Micah Clarke (1889), initially much-rejected by publishers but eventually much-praised by critics. It is a tale of the Monmouth rebellion at the time of James II in the late seventeenth century.
Conan Doyle was attracted to the period by "a great sympathy for the Puritans, who, after all, whatever their little peculiarities, did represent political liberty and earnestness in religion." (2) In writing the novel, Conan Doyle established a working method that he would adopt in his later historical works: he immersed himself in the period, absorbing vast amounts of research material before undertaking the actual writing. As he wrote to a friend, "I wrote the book in about five months but it took me about two years to collect my materials." (3)
The novel is remarkable for its energetic prose and its vivid characters. As do many of his later historical works, Micah Clarke deals largely with military life and the sweep of great battles. Conan Doyle's talent for economical yet striking description blossoms in scene after scene, as in the following:
- Out of the haze which still lay thick upon our right there twinkled here and there a bright gleam of silvery light, while a dull thundering noise broke upon our ears like that of the surf upon a rocky shore. More and more frequent came the fitful flashes of steel, louder and yet louder grew the hoarse gathering tumult, until of a sudden the fog was rent, and the long lines of the Royal cavalry broke out from it, wave after wave, rich in scarlet and blue and gold, as grand a sight as ever the eye rested upon. There was something in the smooth steady sweep of so great a body of horsemen which gave the feeling of irresistible power.
- Rank after rank, and line after line, with waving standards, tossing manes and gleaming steel, they poured onwards, an army in themselves, with either flank still shrouded in the mist.
Encouraged by the success of Micah Clarke, Conan Doyle set out to write another, more ambitious novel. The White Company is set in fourteenth century England, the age of knighthood and chivalry. It is the story of a company of English soldiers who fight the French during the Hundred Years' War. First appearing in instalments in The Cornhill Magazine in 1891, the work was well-received. "This is real literature," wrote The Times. (4) Historian G. M. Trevelyan called it "spirited and well-informed if somewhat idealised." (5)
It was Conan Doyle's favourite, taking pride of place among all his works and the one creation by which he most hoped to earn literary immortality. Writing it took immense time and effort. He devoured volumes of history and his portrait of civilian and military life in the Middle Ages is rich in authentic detail. However enthusiastic he might have been for the project, by the end he wearied of the burden. "I remember that as I wrote the last words of The White Company I felt a wave of exultation and with a cry of 'That's done it!' I hurled my inky pen across the room, where it left a black smudge upon the duck's-egg wall-paper. I knew in my heart that the book would live and that it would illuminate our national traditions."
Like Micah Clarke, The White Company exhibits larger-than-life characters and a vigorous, rhythmic prose style. A short passage illustrates Conan Doyle's power of description:
- Strange was the scene which met their eyes from this eminence. Beneath them on every side stretched the long sweep of peaceful country, rolling plain, and tangled wood, all softened and mellowed in the silver moonshine. No light, nor movement, nor any sign of human aid could be seen, but far away the hoarse clangour of a heavy bell rose and fell upon the wintry air. Beneath and around them blazed the huge fire, roaring and crackling on every side of the bailey, and even as they looked the two corner turrets fell in with a deafening crash, and the whole castle was but a shapeless mass, spouting flames and smoke from every window and embrasure. The great black tower upon which they stood rose like a last island of refuge amid this sea of fire but the ominous crackling and roaring below showed that it would not be long ere it was engulfed also in the common ruin. At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with vengeance. A yell of execration and a scream of hideous laughter burst from the vast throng, as they saw the faces of the last survivors of their enemies peering down at them from the height of the keep.
Fourteen years later, Conan Doyle returned to the period with Sir Nigel (1906), a prelude to the story of The White Company. The two novels together show both the strengths and weaknesses of his writing. The vivid, yet simple language draws striking images of grand events and provides evocative detail of everyday life. At the same time, many of the characters are cardboard and his ability to tell a story seems to falter on the novel-length tale, resulting in an episodic structure with weak overall direction.
Conan Doyle took great pride in these novels of chivalry. Later in his life he wrote, "I have no hesitation in saying that the two of them taken together did thoroughly achieve my purpose, that they made an accurate picture of that great age and that as a single piece of work they form the most complete, satisfying and ambitious thing that I have ever done." (6)
The year after the appearance of The White Company, Conan Doyle wrote his first story dealing with another period in history that appealed enormously to him: the years of Napoleon, with particular emphasis on the Battle of Waterloo. "A Straggler of '15" (1891), a tale of the ageing Corporal Brewster as he recalls his time in Wellington's army, became the play Waterloo the following year. Other, lesser novels followed: The Great Shadow (1892) with an appearance by Bonaparte himself and its climax at Battle of Waterloo; and Uncle Bernac (1897), which Conan Doyle "never felt to be satisfactory, though I venture to claim that the two chapters which portray Napoleon give a clearer picture of him than many a long book has done." (7) He also wrote a short story set in the period: "A Foreign Office Romance" (1894).
Without a doubt the most delightful and enduringly readable of Conan Doyle's Napoleonic tales are the reminiscences of Brigadier Etienne Gerard, a series of 18 short stories that originally appeared between 1894 and 1910 and were later collected as The Exploits of Gerard (1896) and Adventures of Gerard (1903). A boastful, swaggering officer in Napoleon's army, Gerard nonetheless achieves a measure of appeal as he narrates his own adventures, always inflating his own importance and somehow achieving a satisfactory conclusion. A characteristic Gerardism (from "How the Brigadier Played for a Kingdom"):
- It has sometimes struck me that some of you, when you have heard me tell these little adventures of mine, may have gone away with the impression that I was conceited. There could not be a greater mistake than this, for I have always observed that really fine soldiers are free from this failing.
In 1893, Conan Doyle returned to the late seventeenth century time of Micah Clarke, but this time his story centres on the Huguenots, their life in France, their flight to the New World and their first hard years in Quebec and northern New York state. The Refugees, though fairly well received at the time, does not stand up well today, with its disjointed plot and its stereotypical characterization of the Iroquois as "savages."
With Rodney Stone (1896), Conan Doyle set his sights on England in the period of the regency (1811-1820) of George, Prince of Wales (later George IV). The story centres upon the culture of prize-fighting of the period. Here Conan Doyle displays his historical sense of the period and his love of sport, including boxing. He later wrote a play, The House of Temperley, intended as a prelude to Rodney Stone, which saw a brief run at London's Adelphi Theatre in 1909. Other stories followed set in the same period: The Croxley Master (1899), "An Impression of the Regency" (1900), "The Lord of Falconbridge" (1909), "The Fall of Lord Barrymore" (1912), "The Bully of Brocas Court" (1921) and "The End of Devil Hawker" (1930).
Conan Doyle also wrote a series of 12 unconnected short stories, most published around 1910, set in ancient times. Some focus on the lives of individuals as they experience a great epoch-making event such as the sack of Carthage or the departure of the Romans from Britain. Others deal with great men just about to embark upon their history-making journeys, such as Ulysses setting out to capture Troy. When these were reprinted together in 1929 as Tales of Long Ago, Conan Doyle wrote of his special fondness for them, noting that:
- if it were needful to discriminate, and if all my work were to be destroyed save only that one single selection which I might elect to preserve, my choice would certainly be those short historical pictures which come under the heading of "Tales of Long Ago." (8)
In spite of his affection for these stories, Conan Doyle stopped writing historical fiction almost completely after 1910. Though he continued to write Holmes stories, and some science fiction, including the memorable The Lost World (1912), Conan Doyle for the most part dedicated the last 15 years of his life to the cause of Spiritualism. He died at his home in Sussex in 1930.
Arthur Conan Doyle acquired his passion for history early in life, from stories his mother told him about his ancestors. Among his favourite writers were the historians Gibbon and Macaulay. He was particularly attracted to the days of chivalry and knighthood and a favourite author from a young age — "the first books I ever owned" (9) — was Sir Walter Scott, whose Ivanhoe echoes powerfully in Conan Doyle's own novels of the time. We also know that Conan Doyle owned a collection of Napoleonic military memoirs, including those of Baron Marbot, his inspiration for Brigadier Gerard. For The Refugees, he drew background from the American historian Francis Parkman, who chronicled the early European settlements in New England and New France.
Throughout his career, Conan Doyle felt that Sherlock Holmes was less than his best work and that the detective, though a guaranteed money-spinner, kept both the author's and the public's attention from his more admirable effort, the historical tales. About The Refugees, for example, he wrote that he was eager "to do some work which would certainly be less remunerative but would be more ambitious from a literary point of view." (10) In his historical fiction, Conan Doyle always sought to achieve the same "literary dignity" that had motivated Micah Clarke, a dignity that Holmes apparently lacked, in a lasting body of work that would be his creative legacy.
Some of these works did achieve contemporary fame. More copies of Micah Clarke were sold during Conan Doyle's lifetime than all the Sherlock Holmes books. The White Company was immensely popular at the time, with over 50 one-volume editions printed.
Sadly for Conan Doyle, his fervent wish that his historical fiction would outlast Sherlock Holmes was not to be fulfilled and few now share his strongly-held view that these works were of higher quality. But for those who take the time to conduct a little detective work, to seek out those rare volumes of Conan Doyle's best historical fiction, such as The White Company or the Gerard stories, there are jewels to be unearthed. There are scenes pulsating with power and vitality, moments touched with poignancy and triumph, passages flashing with great humour and sly wit. Like the old Corporal of Waterloo, they still have the power to speak to us a hundred years later.
— Doug Elliott, Director, The Friends of The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection
NOTES:
1. Conan Doyle, Arthur. Memories and Adventures. London: Greenhill Books; 1988. p. 76.
2. Memories and Adventures. p. 76.
3. Quoted in: Nordon, Pierre. Conan Doyle. London: John Murray; 1966. p.288
4. Advertising blurb in the back of Micah Clarke (London: Longmans; 1893).
5. History of England (1947); quoted in Nordon, p.304
6. Memories and Adventures, pp.80-81.
7. ibid. p.145
8. Preface to The Conan Doyle Stories, Blitz editions, 1990.
9. Conan Doyle, Arthur. Through the Magic Door. New York: McClure; 1908, p.25.
10. Memories and Adventures, p.98.
