The Doyle Diary

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- / - ' ". - . i > :, u J i. A ... p i A J /. THE LAST GREAT CONAN DOYLE MYSTERY * 'ÍK«ep steadily in view that this Book is ascribed wholly to the produce of a madman. Whereabouts would you say was the deficiency of Intellect? or depraved taste? Ifin the whole Book you can find a single evidence of either, mark it and record it against me." It is difficuit to imagine a more poignant or disturbing opening to the bizarre and hauntingly beautiful sketchbook diary of Charles Altamont Doyle, father of Arthur Conan Dovle. The time of writing was 1889; the place, the dreary confines of "Sunnyside," as Doyle called it, part of the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum in Scotland, where the 57- year-old Doyle, epileptic and ailing, was interned - "imprisoned," as he says, "under the most dejtressing restrictions." hat can I do?" he continued.". . . I would have thought it would be the duty no less than the pleasure of refined Professional Gentlemen to protect men like myself . . . and not endorse... Tovább

Fülszöveg

- / - ' ". - . i > :, u J i. A ... p i A J /. THE LAST GREAT CONAN DOYLE MYSTERY * 'ÍK«ep steadily in view that this Book is ascribed wholly to the produce of a madman. Whereabouts would you say was the deficiency of Intellect? or depraved taste? Ifin the whole Book you can find a single evidence of either, mark it and record it against me." It is difficuit to imagine a more poignant or disturbing opening to the bizarre and hauntingly beautiful sketchbook diary of Charles Altamont Doyle, father of Arthur Conan Dovle. The time of writing was 1889; the place, the dreary confines of "Sunnyside," as Doyle called it, part of the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum in Scotland, where the 57- year-old Doyle, epileptic and ailing, was interned - "imprisoned," as he says, "under the most dejtressing restrictions." hat can I do?" he continued.". . . I would have thought it would be the duty no less than the pleasure of refined Professional Gentlemen to protect men like myself . . . and not endorse utterly falsé conceptions of sanity or Insanity to the detriment of the life and liberty of a harmless gentleman." Charles Doyle was to spend the rest of his days in asylums, but the question remains: TVas he actually mad? It is a question that might even have baffled the legendary Sherlock Holmes, had his creator been open enough to provide him with all the facts at haiul. Readers may now judge the evidence for themt;elves, for the diary - long forgottén by the family and auctioned off in a job lot of books in 19S5, only to be stored away in a child's playroom for more than continued on back flap . . . R 4. V ¦ m * I Vissza