Winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, this is "an excellent biography of the man who created Sherlock Holmes" (David Walton, The New York Times Book Review) This fresh, compelling biography examines the extraordinary life and strange contrasts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the struggling provincial doctor who became the most popular storyteller of his age. From his youthful exploits aboard a whaling ship to his often stormy friendships with such figures as Harry Houdini and George Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle lived a life as gripping as one of his adventures. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, Daniel Stashower's Teller of Tales sets aside many myths and misconceptions to present a vivid portrait of the man behind the legend of Baker Street, with a particular emphasis on the Psychic Crusade that dominated his final years--the work that Conan Doyle himself felt to be "the most important thing in the world."

Originally a physician, in 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. This is a collection of the 7 best short stories of one of the most iconic writer ever to have been published, Arthur Conan Doyle. This selection specially chosen by the literary critic August Nemo, contains the following stories: - A Scandal In Bohemia - The Five Orange Pips - The Disintegration Machine - When the World Screamed - The Great Keinplatz Experiment - The Horror of the Heights - The Ring of Thoth

Famed Victorian-era sleuth outwits a variety of unprincipled villains in "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Red-headed League," "The Final Problem," "The Adventure of the Empty House," and two other tales.

Curated new collections. The fascination with Conan Doyle’s enigmatic anti-hero Sherlock Holmes, and his pompous narrator Dr Watson, has barely subsided over the years. Inspiring a long line of detective stories and Whodunnits, Holmes is a constant feature on TV, and movie screens, with new audio and radio shows joining the frenzy. The Holmes tales have earned their place amongst the most influential of popular fantasy, crime and gothic stories.

The house of Theodosius, the famous eastern merchant, was in the best part of Constantinople at the Sea Point which is near the church of Saint Demetrius. Here he would entertain in so princely a fashion that even the Emperor Maurice had been known to come privately from the neighbouring Bucoleon palace in order to join in the revelry. On the night in question, however, which was the fourth of November in the year of our Lord 630, his numerous guests had retired early, and there remained only two intimates, both of them successful merchants like himself, who sat with him over their wine on the marble verandah of his house, whence on the one side they could see the lights of the shipping in the Sea of Marmora, and on the other the beacons which marked out the course of the Bosphorus. Immediately at their feet lay a narrow strait of water, with the low, dark loom of the Asiatic hills beyond. A thin haze hid the heavens, but away to the south a single great red star burned sullenly in the darkness.