On Conan Doyle

"Imagine having a really unbelievably well-read friend, who likes the same stuff that you do but is able to articulate why he loves it so much better than you can. And while explaining it points you at a hundred books and authors you'd love but haven't heard of or have never got around to reading. And who makes you feel, by the end of his explanation, as if you've been inaugurated into a secret society of people who love what can be done with words. And somewhere on the way he will teach you everything you need to know about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Sherlock Holmes, and the mysteries of The Baker Street Irregulars. That's who Michael Dirda is, and that's what this book does."--Neil Gaiman"Michael Dirda is a very dangerous man. His delight--his life's work--is to declare his adoration for some literary gem with such passion, and such precision, we cannot help being infected. On Conan Doyle traces the arc of one such love affair, from a childhood flashlit encounter with A Gigantic Hound to black-tie dinners with The Baker Street Irregulars. The danger, of course, is that once we read this seductive love letter, we'll end up enthralled not just with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but also with Michael Dirda."--Laurie R. King"It isn't often that I have sat and read 45,000 words nonstop. But like an old-style bookman, Michael Dirda is both erudite and deeply entertaining. He reminds us that Arthur Conan Doyle was not just the creator of the most famous character in modern literature, but also one of the finest writers of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Packed with critical insights and personal observations, On Conan Doyle may be a small book but it deserves a very large audience."--Michael F. Whelan, head of The Baker Street Irregulars"This is a much-needed guide to the life and works of Arthur Conan Doyle. He has long been regarded as little more than the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but Michael Dirda's book proves that he was a far more important literary figure than that. Dirda brings considerable Sherlockian and Doylean experience to the table and, as a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic, he also draws on a lifetime of diverse reading."--Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society