Sportsman, doctor, historian and writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) created one of the most enduring - indeed, legendary - characters in English literature: Sherlock Holmes, the brilliantly observational denizen of 221B Baker Street. Conan Doyle was born of Irish parents in Edinburgh and educated partly in Great Britain and partly in Germany. He qualified as a medical doctor in Southsea, but the absence of both patients and revenue persuaded him, as he himself has related, to turn his daydreams into imaginative writings. The result was a true stroke of genius, the creation of the great detective and his honest, down-to-earth colleague and 'chronicler', Dr Watson. In addition to his works of fiction, Conan Doyle was also a superb physical specimen and an avid boxer. In 1894 at Davos, Switzerland, he invented and subsequently popularized the concept of skiing as a sport. He also served as an army doctor in the war between England and the Boers of South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century, wrote a history of that war and was appointed official War Historian of the 1914-18 World War. His keen sense of justice involved him in two notorious cases of mistaken identity, those of Edaljee in 1903 and Oscar Slater in 1909. Conan Doyle personally, at his own expense, fought the courts on behalf of these two men, both total strangers to him, because he felt that they had been wrongfully convicted. Conan Doyle was an idealist who believed in his country and 'fair play'. In his writings, women tend to be modest, charming, faithful, beautiful and in need of defence. Gentlemen are honest, altruistic, gallant and brilliant. But Conan Doyle's fertile brain also conjured up an opposing criminal class of extraordinary depravity and ingenuity, led by the diabolical and brilliant Professor Moriarty, Holmes's arch enemy. From Buzan's Book of Genius, by Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene.
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The novel begins with preparations for the dive, off the coast of Africa. Prof. Maracot claims to have located the deepest trench in the Atlantic and is vehement that he shall go down in the specially prepared submersible actually a bathysphere along with Headley and Scanlan. On reaching the edge of the trench, a description of the undersea world is presented. The team comes face to face with a giant crustacean who cuts off their line and hurls them down into the trench. Down in the trench, the team is rescued by the Atlanteans who are the last survivors of the land that was Atlantis.
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.About the Author
Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. Sent off to boarding school, he cut his teeth as a story-teller amusing his schoolmates with tales and writing letters home to his mother. He practiced medicine and, in 1900, volunteered as a medic in Africa during the Boer War – he was later knighted for his service. Doyle lost a son, two brothers in law, and two nephews to the Great War. He is remembered for the Sherlock Holmes stories and his novel The Lost World.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DOYLE SHINES IN HIS LAST NOVEL,
By s.ferber (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Maracot Deep (Paperback)
Readers who know of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through his Sherlock Holmes stories, his tales of Sir Nigel in the 14th century, the Napoleonic adventures of Brigadier Gerard or the sci-fi escapades of Professor Challenger may still be unfamiliar with "The Maracot Deep." Published in 1929, only a year before the author's death, this short novel amply demonstrates that Doyle still retained all his great abilities as a spinner of riveting yarns, even in his twilight years. At a mere 140 pages, the novel(la) is a compact but densely written fantasy of the discovery of the remnants of Atlantis. It seems that Professor Maracot (a kind of early 20th century cross between Jacques Cousteau and Robert Ballard), along with an American naturalist and an American engineer, had suffered a terrible accident while in his bathysphere off the Canary Islands. A giant crayfish had separated the hawser connecting them to their mother ship, and down they went, 26,000 feet, into the abyss of the eponymous Maracot Deep. Miraculously, disaster is averted as Maracot & Co. are rescued by the survivors of the lost Atlantean civilization, which society has been living under the ocean floor for the last 8,000 years. Our heroes are given a tour of the Atlantean realm and witness many monstrous varieties of undersea life, including a giant electric sea-worm, poisonous purple slugs, and the sea serpent of legend. They witness some of the Atlantean relics of superscience, explore the ruins of the capital city, and have a run-in with the "Lord of the Dark Face."
This is a wonderful fantasy, and keeps the reader thoroughly entertained throughout. It is largely epistolary in nature, taking the form of various letters/"messages in a bottle" that our heroes manage to get back to the world. Doyle solves the problem of there being no light at the ocean bottom by having Maracot & Co. discover that the ocean floor's globigerina ooze is phosphorescent, due to the decomposing marine life. As for the unbearable pressure, our boys discover some mysterious compensating factor that nullifies that problem. So they are able to walk around with their vitrine helmets and oxygen tanks and explore the ocean depths very comfortably, thank you. Doyle, an ardent spiritualist in his twilight years, had his Professor Challenger character (his favorite) convert from being a hardened materialist to a believer in the unseen forces that surround us, in his 1926 novel "The Land of Mist." And in his last novel, he does likewise for Professor Maracot, whose "theories of a lifetime have crumbled about [his] ears" after his battle with the mystical Lord of the Dark Face. This really is a remarkable story. If only Doyle hadn't made one tremendous booboo. At one point in the tale, Headley, our narrator, falls in love with an Atlantean named Mona, the daughter of Scarpa, a community leader. Fifty pages later, she is the daughter of Manda, the chief of Atlantis! This is a terrible oversight on Doyle's part, and on the part of his editors, and undermines what up until then had been a meticulously put-together tale. This major slip aside, "The Maracot Deep" is guaranteed to give all sci-fi/fantasy fans a few nights of great pleasure indeed. It would make for excellent reading after one finishes C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne's classic novel of ancient Atlantis, "The Lost Continent" (1900), which details Atlantis as it was back when. Doyle tells us what's going on there now.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Free SF Reader,
By Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Maracot Deep (Paperback)
A scientific genius of the Doyle era comes up with a method for deep sea exploration, and gives it a try. Unfortunately, a cyclone wrecks the ship they are attached to.
Fortunately for them, not all the Atlanteans were destroyed, and they are rescued by some of the denizens of aforementioned remnant. A fairly genial reception awaits the adventurers (who also find some hot chicks, it seems, at least the younger two do). Initital verbal communication is established through classical Greek, as apparently said Atlanteans kept Greek slaves, from their war with ancient Greece. Just to throw you for a loop, in the midst of all this scientific discovery, we have some reincarnated heroes. A more than slight problem is discovered, as the advent of these gentlemen has led to the reawakening of the ancient nemesis of the Atlanteans, Baal. (Seems they can never get rid of the guy in Stargate, either). Baal apparently is not the only powerful being with tricks left, as his ancient white magic enemy manages to possess Professor Maracot for a time, leading to his defeat. Of course, they devise a means for getting a hopeful message to the surface world, to organise a possible rescue, and slip away from their hosts, complete with female companionship. All in all, entertaining enough, and I didn't see the Baal coming, that is for sure.
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