The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Read Online Free Page A

Sheffield. Stays with relatives in Maida Vale, London, his first visit to the capital. Writes novel,
The Narrative of John Smith
, which is lost in the post and never recovered. Works as assistant in doctor’s practice in Ruyton-of-the-eleven-towns, Shropshire, and then in Birmingham.
1879
Publication of first story, ‘The Mystery of Sasassa Valley’, in the Edinburgh weekly
Chambers’s Journal
(September).
1880
Serves as ship’s doctor on Greenland whaler the
Hope
.
1881
Serves as ship’s doctor on West African cargo steamer the
Mayumba
. Graduates from Edinburgh as Bachelor of Medicine.
1882–90
Establishes solo general medical practice in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, after a brief and unsuccessful partnership with Dr George Turnavine Budd in Plymouth (1882).
1884
Publication in the
Cornhill
magazine of ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’, widely taken as a true explanation of the mystery of the
Marie Celeste
.
1885
Marries Louise Hawkins. Obtains a doctorate from Edinburgh for dissertation on syphilis.
1886
Writes
A Study in Scarlet
, the first Sherlock Holmes story, which is rejected by the
Cornhill
magazine and the publishers Arrowsmith but is accepted by Ward Lock who hold it over for a year before publishing.
1887
A Study in Scarlet
is published in
Beeton’s Christmas Annual
.
1889
Birth of first child, Mary Louise.
Micah Clarke
, Conan Doyle’s first historical novel, is published. At a meeting arranged by the magazine publishers Lippincott, Conan Doyle is commissioned to write what becomes
The Sign of Four
, the second Sherlock Holmes story.
1890
Publication of
The Firm of Girdlestone. The Sign of Four
published in
Lippincott’s
magazine. Leaves for Austria to study ophthalmology in Vienna.
1891
Opens short-lived oculist practice in Marylebone, London, half a mile east of Baker Street. First six Holmes short stories published in the
Strand
magazine. Abandons medical career and moves to Norwood, south-east London, to take up writing full time. Publication of
The White Company
.
1892
Birth of Kingsley Conan Doyle.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
collection of short stories published.
1893
Louise diagnosed with tuberculosis. More Sherlock Holmes short stories published in the
Strand
and later collected as
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
. In one of these, ‘The Final Problem’, Conan Doyle apparently kills off Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls. His father, Charles Doyle, dies in the same year.
The Refugees
published.
1894
Makes a very successful US lecture tour with his brother Innes. Publication of
Round the Red Lamp
, a collection of medical stories.
1896
Publication of
The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard
and
Rodney Stone
.
The Field Bazaar
, a Conan Doyle Holmes pastiche and the first new Holmes work since the detective’s ‘death’, is published in an Edinburgh University student magazine. Moves to Hindhead, Surrey.
1897
Publication of
Uncle Bernac
. Meets and falls in love with Jean Leckie.
1898
Publication of
The Tragedy of the Korosko
and
Songs of Action
.
1900
Serves as a volunteer doctor in South Africa during the Boer War and produces an account of the struggle in
The Great Boer War
. Stands (unsuccessfully) as Liberal Unionist candidate for Edinburgh constituency.
1901
The Hound of the Baskervilles
, set before Holmes’s ‘official’ death in ‘The Final Problem’, begins publication in the
Strand
.
1902
Receives knighthood.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
published in book form.
1903
Publication of
The Adventures of Gerard
. Holmes properly resurrected in ‘The Empty House’, published in the
Strand
.
1905
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
, the latest collection of Holmes short stories that began with ‘The Empty House’, published in book form.
1906
Stands (unsuccessfully) as Unionist candidate for Hawick on the Scottish Borders. Publication of
Sir Nigel
. Death of Louise Conan Doyle.
1907
Marries Jean