A surprisingly quick read. I found the stories enthralling and page-turning even though they are of course incredibly silly. Even Conan Doyle could see the silly side, in spite of his gullibility in the areas of spirituality and fairies, and so a handful of the stories are written in an humorous vein. Certainly a fun way to pass a dark evening with the wind blowing outside the door. There is racism because of the age of the writing so be warned.

The Best Supernatural Tales of Arthur Conan Doyle [Dover, 1976].

A selection of fifteen stories in the gothic horror vein from A.C. Doyle, originally published from 1880-1920, including:

“The Bully of Brocas Court”: On a desolate stretch of the Queen’s highway, an undefeated champion middleweight boxer meets a formidable, otherworldly foe.

“The Captain of the Polestar”: An epistolary story which takes the form a physician’s journal recounts hauntings on board a whaling ship.

“The Brown Hand”: A British doctor who served in India, is haunted by the ghost of a former patient who seeks to be reunited with his hand in the afterlife.

“The Leather Funnel”: A leather funnel which was used to water board a suspected murderess produces disquieting dreams.

“Lot No. 249”: An Oxford student reanimates a mummy’s corpse.

“The Great Kleinplatz Experiment”: A semi-comical story in which a stodgy professor and a spirited youth switch personalities after a session of mesmerism goes awry.

“The Ring of Thoth:” A student who fell asleep in the Louvre, awakens in the middle of the night and finds an attendant stalking around, who claims to be an almost four thousand year-old priest of Osiris.

“The Los Amigos Fiasco”: A farcical tale of a botched execution attempt.

“The Silver Hatchet”: A cursed antique weapon causes homicidal urges.

“John Barrington Cowles:” A beautiful woman with secret occult proclivities drives her various suitors to madness and death.

“The Americans Tale:” An American ruffian recounts the story of an ambush on the Arizona frontier, which met with strange and unexpected results.

***
Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the most popular authors of his age. In addition to the Sherlock Holmes stories, he wrote historical fiction, and science fiction, including The Lost World.

3.88⭐

Arthur Conan Doyle and His Supernatural Fiction by B. F. Bleiler 4⭐
The Bully of Brocas Court 3⭐
The Captain of the Polestar 4⭐
The Brown Hand 4⭐
The Leather Funnel 4.25⭐
Lot No. 249 4.5⭐
J. Habakak Jephson's Statement 5⭐
The Great Keinplatz Experiment 3.5⭐
The Literary Mosaic 3.5⭐
Playing with Fire 3.5⭐
The Ring of Thoth 4⭐
The Los Amigos Fiasco 3.25⭐
The Silver Hatchet 3.5⭐
John Barrington Cowles 4.25⭐
Selecting a Ghost 4.25⭐
The American Tale 3.5⭐

3,5

See my review here: http://trebro.livejournal.com/220756....

A nice mix of supernatural subjects. Conan Doyle has a very readable style in most, which makes them a joy. Too bad Sherlock overshadows everything else Conan Doyle wrote.

This was a fairly well put together collection. Some stories were great, while others lacked. The most striking thing, however, was seeing these short stories and the influence they have had on film over the years. At least three stories I can directly relate to pulp films I've seen over the years and this connection came without truly pondering each story and then films I've seen, but was a natural association.

An excellent collection of stories from the author of Sherlock Holmes.

Though none of these stories feature everyone's favorite detective the same writting style and tone come through. Also these are fine examples of Doyle's remarkable attention to plot and detail.

A must read for anyone who has only ever read Sherlock Holmes stories. If you haven't read Sherlock Holmes then this collection would be a wonderful introduction to one of the best writers form an era full of excellent writers.

Doyle is great writing mystery and great writing horror.

I had high hopes for this collection when I picked it up at Powell's City of Books two years ago. I mean, what could be cooler than some vintage Victorian supernatural mystery by one of the most celebrated authors of the day? A lot of things, it turns out. Truth be told, I'm becoming convinced that Doyle's imitators make for better reading than Doyle himself (especially good old scandalous Sax Rohmer).

The first warning sign in this collection actually comes in the editor's preface, in which he essentially admits that not all of these stories are gems (despite this being “The Best” of Doyle's supernatural fiction) and that in fact many of them display an unfortunate lack of imagination. I was really hoping that I'd forget these criticisms in a wash of ghosty genre bliss... but it was not to be. Some of the tales have a fun elements to them, a ship on an ice-floe, a reanimated mummy, a gaggle of dead authors trying to write together, etc., but none of it is quite enough to create a whole satisfying tale. Even the best of the stories here is still a few cents short.

One thing that especially bothered me was that Doyle couldn't ever give us a very strong conclusion, or even a very good reveal (something that's kind of surprising from such a famous author of detective fiction). Some of the stories simply end because time has run out. Probably most disappointing was the story that speculates as to the fate of the Marie Celeste (the mystery of a ship that vanished only to be found without a crew, unsolved to this day) and presents a pretty dull human plot which never actually gets into the realm of the supernatural.

By the time I forced myself to finish the collection (and it was a chore), I was disgusted and immediately ran to the comfort of my old friends, Poe and Lovecraft. I suggest you save time, and just skip Doyle's attempts at ghost stories. The best ones are little more than mildly diverting.

Zanim trafiłam na tą książkę, to nie wiedziałam, że ten autor w ogóle pisał horrory. Miłe zaskoczenie.
Z opowiadań podobały mi się najbardziej dwa pierwsze. Wizja bycia w niebezpiecznej, strasznej sytuacji na zamkniętej, małej przestrzeni, z której nie ma ucieczki, jest najbardziej przerażająca.

A nice collection of ghost stories and murders outside of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes repertoire. The stories read very much like the early pulp tales. A very interesting read.