“Conan Doyle sent it to a publisher but it was lost in the post. The book was then reconstructed from memory.”
Starting today, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first novel The Narrative of John Smith is out and ready for reading. It’s a narrative of a man “confined to his room by gout.”
First addressed in June of this year, it was noted that not only was the novel not finished, but also “‘loose in plot and characterisation’, as it was his first full-length effort, having written many successful short stories previously.” Conan Doyle did, however, work on it a bit in later years.
Still, as stated in the latest article, “‘It’s a testament to the richness of Conan Doyle’s life and the archive he left behind him… that we can still unearth such little-known gems.'”
