Without a major international war happening at the time, there was a relative increase in national prosperity, a push in industrialization and a massive population boom in the country’s cities. These years are considered a major turning point in England’s history, when it transitioned fully into the age of modernity. The Sherlock Holmes stories were written at the height of Victorian England, the cultural period between 18 when Queen Victoria reigned over the country. Up until his death at the age of 71, Doyle wrote a total of fifty-six stories and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Watson, as well as dozens of books across non-fiction, drama and poetry. The author had an enduring fascination from with mysticism, Freemasonry, and Spiritualism, writing and lecturing frequently about these topics for decades. Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1906 and Doyle was married again the following year, to his long term platonic love interest Jean, with whom he would have three more children. Doyle remained dedicated to a number of judicial and political causes, even moving briefly to South Africa in 1900 to work as a chief surgeon in a field hospital during the Boer War.

He went on to publish two historical novels in succession and then abandoned his career as a doctor to focus exclusively on writing. In 1886, Doyle published his first novel A Study in Scarlet, which was also his first work featuring the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.

That same year, he married his first wife, Louisa, with whom he would have two children. During this time, Doyle began to write short fiction and, in 1879, published both his first story, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” and his first academic article, “Gelsemium as a Poison.” After working briefly as a doctor on two ships and trying to establish his own medical practice, Doyle received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1885. He went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School from 1876 until 1881.

When Charles died in 1893, a nine-year-old Doyle was sent to study at a Jesuit prep school in England, with the support of wealthy uncles. The family reunited in 1867 and then lived together in a run-down tenement flat in the Sciennes neighborhood, where young Arthur was the leader of a Catholic street gang. After his father Charles’s growing alcoholism caused the family to split apart in 1864, the children lived across the city in different forms of low-income housing. Born in Edinburgh to an Irish Catholic family, Arthur Conan Doyle’s early life was marked by instability.

The adventures of the speckled