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COPYRIGHT 2005 ELT Press
Catherine Wynne. The Colonial Conan Doyle: British Imperialism, Irish Nationalism, and the Gothic. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. viii + 212 pp. $61.95
IN HIS 1964 biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, Pierre Nordon devoted his opening chapter to the writer's family history, urging that "the existence of a great many ancient, varied and potently attractive family traditions ... are the key to Conan Doyle's complex character." He continued:
An Irish, Catholic tradition, associated with the arts for two generations came from the Doyles. An Irish military and nationalist tradition, associated with legends and a passionate interest in history, came from the Packs and Foleys. Conan Doyle could neither relegate these traditions completely to the past, nor integrate them wholly into the present; but we cannot understand him if we ignore them. They explain his vocation as an artist and the impulse that urged him to other activities beyond literature. They explain the shadows surrounding his work--about whose modernity there is much to be said and his reputation.
Despite the influence of Nordon's biography, no one has, until now, attempted to explore in detail the Irish shadows surrounding Doyle's work. In The Colonial Conan Doyle, Catherine Wynne argues that Doyle should be read through the lens of an Irishness that is representative of the "colonial condition." Tying together the threads of her subtitle, she...
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