Tales of Terror and Mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Epub)

Description

Tales of Terror and Mystery is a volume collecting 12 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle and first published in 1922 by John Murray. The collection is divided in two parts : Tales of Terror with horror stories, and Tales of Mystery with stories with strange schemes.

User’s Reviews

There is no Editorial Review for this book

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I must admit, I didn’t know sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote anything besides Sherlock Holmes. This book of short stories is a nice surprise.I like these stories, especially because they were new to me and I couldn’t guess the endings. But I also see that even great men or, in this case, writers, are not above borrowing ideas from each other. Maybe they all share the same sea of inspiration, which I like better, after reading the theories of Carl Jung.Anyway, in the first story, all those snakes and creatures of clouds in their own kingdom could be found as intelligent species on Jupiter by Arthur C. Clarke. Amazing coincidence.The most horrific story is, of course, the one with a man imprisoned with a panther. A true fight between a man and a brutal force of nature. What is a careless sleeping night for one man, for the other is eternity.The one I like the most is about two men and a catacomb. The carelessness of one man and the devotion of another got them into trouble from which one of them would not get out.

⭐ This collection of twelve short-stories was first published in 1922. Six are classified by the author (or more likely the publisher) as “tales of terror”; and the other six, classified as “tales of mystery.” Most if not all of these had been published earlier as individual pieces in literary periodicals of the day, primarily the “Strand Magazine.” Many of them also appear in other collections of Conan Doyle’s short stories: “The Case of Lady Sannox,” classified as a tale of terror, also appears in “Round the Red Lamp,” an earlier collection of medical tales which I had previously read; and several of the tales of mystery are also in “Round the Fire,” an earlier collection that I have not yet encountered in its collective form.In my opinion “The Case of Lady Sannox,” “The New Catacomb,” and “The Brazilian Cat,” are the best of the terror tales, with Lady Sannox being similar to something that Poe might have written. My favorites of the mystery tales were “The Lost Special,” “The Beetle Hunter,” “The Japanned Box,” and “The Jew’s Breastplate.” Two of the mystery tales, “The Lost Special” and “The Man with the Watches,” tell of mysterious disappearances involving trains. “The Lost Special” mentions “an amateur reasoner of some celebrity”; and “The Man with Six Watches” includes a letter “over the signature of a well-known criminal investigator.” The unnamed reasoner/investigator is obviously suggestive of Sherlock Holmes; but in both tales, his speculations prove ultimately to be incorrect. The author was having a bit of fun by including these minor Holmesian roles, somewhat like Alfred Hitchcock making cameo appearances in movies that he directed.The strangest of the stories, and the only one that is utterly impossible in light of today’s science is “The Horror of the Heights,” which speculates about an “atmospheric jungle” somewhere above an elevation of 30,000 feet that is inhabited by lighter-than-air flora and fauna. “The Leather Funnel” and “The Terror of Blue John Gap” both involve some aspects of the supernatural or paranormal; but the first is based, in part, on a documented historical event, and the second is no more unlikely than sightings of an actual Bigfoot. For all the other stories, the characters, situations and events, albeit more or less implausible, are entirely possible. Unfortunately, “Horror of the Heights” and “Leather Funnel” are the first two stories presented in this collection and were the most difficult for me to enjoy; however, I did push on through them. Don’t get discouraged by the first couple of tales. The remainder are more in keeping with Sir Arthur’s normal standards.

⭐ Book includes the twelve tales:1) Horror of the Heights2) The Leather Funnel3) The New Catacomb4) The Case of Lady Sannox5) The Terror of Blue John Gap6) The Brazilian Cat7) The Lost Special8) The Beetle-Hunter9) The Man With the Watches10) The Japanned Box11) The Black Doctor12) The Jew’s Breast-PlateWhile one illustration at the beginning of each story is nothing to write home about, at least it provided some basis to locate a story of interest by matter of a break point since this book was sorely lacking handy links from the table of contents to otherwise access said story quickly in any order you choose. My favorite of the twelve was “The Black Doctor” for the ease of which the tale flowed and the intrigue as to how the identity of the murdered man was eventually revealed. As a precursor to the widely popular Sherlock Holmes character the tales of mystery really do remind one of Sherlock Holmes. Book is in need of better formatting as well, but I can’t complain about the price since each tale if sold individually is 99 cents a piece, so short of buying the public domain ebook I clearly saved a bundle on some fine works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!

⭐ The stories were very well written and entertaining, but the book needs a proofreader. There’s a typo on the cover! (Misspelled Doyle’s first name as “Arthut”!) Some of the words in the text had to be wrong – I got used to skipping over mistakes. The book itself is far too high and wide, and the print crosses the entire page, making each line annoyingly long. It’s too bad, just a little more attention to detail and artistry could have made a much more pleasing product.

⭐ Read the first two pages questioning my own perception that the text was really odd. When I came upon the word “ebook” on page two, I knew it wasn’t just me. The text reads like someone scanned the book and didn’t clean up the mistakes that always happen when using software to convert image to text. I’ve included an image to give you an idea.

⭐ Reviewers have suggested that the tales of terror in this Conan Doyle collection show that these themes are no longer frightening to us – monsters in the high altitudes? Something that has absorbed the bad vibes of its history? Being locked in dark and close places? Monstrous creatures that have somehow survived? Wild cats – lions, tigers, pumas, jaguars?This is the very stuff of our fascination with the outré the bizarre, the unexplained – the very stuff of horror – fantasy or sci-fi. Didn’t the Master himself, Stephen King, write a tale about creatures in the upper atmosphere? And is not this what our planetary sci-fi often dwells on? Ghost stories use that theory that objects – often places – absorb horrible things that have happened it their history. That other master, Edgar Allan Poe, used our feelings of panic when closed in tight, dark places. A whole series of films were wildly popular that used an update of those prehistoric creatures alive today. And turn a lion or tiger or jaguar loose in a city and see what panic quickly occurs.Many of the mysteries in this collection are not reminiscent of the Holmes tales – those have clues in them that the great detective points out to befuddled Watson – and the readers. Most of these tales use some secret that is revealed at the end – not clues in the stories.Yet this is one great fun collection of stories – and it’s free!

⭐ Twelve will written tales of horror and mystery of the atmosphere of Victoria England. Each story is different with individual characters and conclusions. They range from very good to OK but then that is my view point. Give this novel a try you will probably find it different. Enjoy reading 2021

⭐ Hey, it is Sir Authur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes…enough said. Yes, if you want the ultimate Doyle experience, then read the Complete Work of Sherlock Holmes, and if you like those stories filled with atmosphere of Victorian England, you will also very much enjoy these stories. Yes, some stories were not as good as others, but only a few, , but just know that each story stands on its own merit from a man who was the forerunner of forensic science and so many other things in crime detection and the supernatural, all too numerous to mention. Sir Authur Conan Doyle created so many worlds: lost continents, the strange and bizarre, the mysterious experiences of humanity : Bottom line is that this book is a great read from a master. The game’s afoot, the paraphrase Sherlock to Watson….are you game?

⭐ Sir ACD is a master of the English language and can keep you so interested in his tale that you are willing to give up sleep to continue reading. He is also a product of the late Victorian period with all the prejudices that came out of colonialism.

⭐ I never got to read other short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when I was younger as I was totally hooked on Sherlock Holmes as a child and did not really look for other books he had written. I am very happy to acquire this compilation of stories.Though very old-fashioned in tone and writing style, the stories do grip your imagination. It may drag a bit for those not used to the classic writers of the past as there is a lot more descriptive writing than what normally passes for today’s fiction. But the nice thing is that the stories are original in their idea and not derivative as so many are today.Some very nice surprises in this collection.

Keywords

Free Download Tales of Terror and Mystery in Epub format
Tales of Terror and Mystery Epub Free Download
Download Tales of Terror and Mystery 2016 Epub Free
Tales of Terror and Mystery 2016 Epub Free Download
Download Tales of Terror and Mystery Epub
Free Download Ebook Tales of Terror and Mystery