'Lost' novel reveals Sherlock Holmes's origins - Times of India

A "lost" first novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, is to be published on Monday for the first time, 128 years after it was written.

The book's manuscript formed part of a collection of private papers that emerged at auction in 2004 and was bought by the British Library for nearly 1m. Written in four black notebooks, the 130-page work has now been transcribed and typeset for worldwide release to accompany an exhibition of Conan Doyleabilia at the British Library.

Many years after writing The Narrative, Conan Doyle said that he would be horrified if the book ever appeared in print. But academics have defended the publication because of its contribution to understanding his later work. "This book gives us a unique insight into the developing creative mind of the writer," says Rachel Foss, one of the book's editors. "This is his first attempt to make the transition from a short-story writer to a novel writer."

The book is about a 50-year-old man who is stricken with gout and confined to his couch for a week. He then attempts to write a book, and expounds his views on topics such as medicine, religion, literature and interior design.

Many of the opinions clearly chime with the author's , such as his belief in the importance of science and medicine, and his scepticism about religious dogma.

Conan Doyle was living and working as a doctor in Portsmouth when he embarked on the novel in 1883. His father had been taken ill due to alcoholism, and the 23-year-old had to support his mother and fund the education of his 10-year-old brother. He had started writing short stories and submitting them to magazines to supplement his income.

But he was frustrated by the Victorian practice of omitting the author's name, especially when one of his works in The Cornhill was hailed as being by Robert Louis Stevenson. For that reason , he attempted a novel, which would have his name on the cover. He then suffered a major blow when the manuscript of The Narrative got lost in the post, never to be found again. So he rewrote it from memory, the result of which is thought to be the British Library's manuscript.

Although the novel suffers from a lack of plot, it does conjure a world of boarding houses and pipe-smoking , which fans of Sherlock Holmes will recognise. Conan Doyle called it a novel with a "personal-social-political complexion" and it hints at themes that would appear in the Holmes books, such as an interest in logical reasoning.