London — Auctioneers on Thursday displayed six handwritten manuscripts by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — including a domestic romance, a work of science fiction and a piece of war reportage — that they say reveals another side to the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
The manuscripts, which will be sold by Christie's in London on Nov. 19, have come from the estate of Conan Doyle's last surviving daughter, Jean Conan Doyle, and are expected to fetch up to $450,000 (Cdn). Proceeds will go to charities chosen by Arthur Conan Doyle.
The earliest work, The Duet, published in 1899, is a domestic romance about a couple of newlyweds in late Victorian times which draws on details of Conan Doyle's first marriage to Louise Hawkins, who died of tuberculosis.
Christie's manuscript specialist Thomas Venning described the novel as one of Conan Doyle's most unusual works and one which "says a lot about him."
But it was also controversial.
"It was taken as being amoral at the time because there is a scene when the protagonist has coffee with his former mistress," said Venning. "In 1899 that was far too much for some critics."
The war reportage includes an account of Conan Doyle's time as a doctor during the Boer War in 1900 and a patriotic poem about the First World War entitled Ypres, September 1915.
The Maracot Deep, a work of science fiction published in 1927, shows a more mature writer at work and Conan Doyle's emerging spiritual side, Venning said.
Conan Doyle's most famous character, the great detective Sherlock Holmes, does not appear in the manuscripts.
