Complete Works of Arthur Conan Doyle
The life of Arthur Conan Doyle illustrates the excitement and diversity of the Victorian age unlike that of any other figure of the period. In his autobiography, he wrote: I have had a life which, for variety and romance, could, I think, hardly be exceeded. He was not wrong. But Conan Doyle was also a Victorian with a twist, a man of tensions and contradictions. He was fascinated by travel, exploration, invention, and indeed all things modern and technological; yet at the same time very traditional, voicing support for values such as chivalry, duty, constancy, and honour. By the time of his death he was a celebrity, achieving worldwide fame for his creation of the rationalist, scientific super-detective Sherlock Holmes; but his later decades were taken up with advocacy of the new religion of Spiritualism, in which he became a devoted believer.