Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson: Comparative Analysis

Both Conan Doyle and Stevenson were similarly born and raised in Edinburgh, nine years apart but this is where the similarities end. Conan Doyle was born May 2nd, 1859, to a working class, Irish family and as such would have experienced a modicum of financial hardship. His father was an alcoholic who was institutionalised in 1885 and subsequently died. A generous uncle offered to pay for Conan Doyle to be schooled in England and he was shipped off to continue his studies and he eventually went on to study medicine at Edinburgh University where he qualified as a doctor. While living away from home and once he became a practising doctor, Conan Doyle would have been aware of both sides of the social divide and that prosperity and respectability could co-exist alongside poverty and crime.

Stevenson was born November 13th, 1850, to an upper-middle class family and enjoyed a privileged upbringing. His father was the leading lighthouse engineer of his time and his mother hailed from a family that boasted lawyers and clergymen as is members. As a sickly child, Stevenson rarely completed a full term at school and was looked after by his devout Presbyterian nurse, Alison Cunningham (1822-1913) whom was affectionately known as ‘Cummy’. She would read aloud from her Bible to her small charge preferring morality over fiction. Stevenson as a child would have experienced material and physical security and comfort but that could have felt psychologically stifling, unlike Wordsworth and Shelley who may not have had all of that but would have experienced a natural childhood environment.

A hybrid novel is one that mixes themes and elements from two different genres. This type of novel can open up opportunities to debates and stimulating discussions.

The Sign of Four is seen as a hybrid novel as it mixes Detective fiction, which is a predominantly new genre of writing, and Gothic writing. Detective fiction was very much a development of the Victorian era where typically, a single case (murder, theft or both) was solved by the lead character in the story. It is based on the solution of the crime and would use narrative to unravel the case but in turn would force the reader to engage with the text. The earliest detective fiction was ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ written by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) who was a Gothic short story writer and poet, also a hero of Conan Doyle’s. This was followed up with ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ (1843) and ‘The Purloined Letter’ (1844). The lead character, Dupin was merely a cipher to explain the plot where as Holmes was instrumental in solving the mysteries he was presented with.

Usually gothic literature is defined as writing that would use dark and picturesque scenery, using startling and melodramatic devices creating an overall atmosphere of exoticism, mystery, fear, and dread. As seen in Wuthering Heights, a gothic novel or story will often revolve around a large, ancient house that hides a terrible secret and we get this in ‘The Sign of Four’ with Pondicherry Lodge, the home of the deceased Major Sholto. Our first look of Pondicherry Lodge is one that is not very welcoming. ‘…a very high stone wall topped with broken glass. A single narrow iron-clamped door formed the only means of entrance’ (pg. 77) and it’s not until they move through the gate, do we get a real feel for the house ‘Inside, a gravel path wound through the desolate grounds to huge clump of a house, square and prosaic, all plunged in shadow save where a moonbeam struck one corner and glimmered in a garret window. The vast size of the building, with its gloom and its deathly silence, struck a chill to the heart’ (pg. 78)

We also have an element of the supernatural, another part of the Gothic genre, in the character Tonga. Although a native of the Andaman Islands, the descriptions make him appear only just human ‘They are naturally hideous, having large, misshapen heads, small fierce eyes, and distorted features. Their feet and hands, however, are remarkably small.’ (pg. 109) This imbues a strong sense of the uncanny which is another part of the Gothic genre. Also, the use of blow darts as in instrument of death would make him appear alien to the readers in Victorian England.

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Robert Louis Stevenson wrote ‘The Beach of Falesa’ after his emigration to Samoa in 1889 and based on his own experiences and impressions. This novella was also classed as a hybrid text, it is too short to be classed as a novel but too long to be classed as a short story. It also mixes realism with more romantic and poetic modes and gives a central place to the supernatural which are all part of the Gothic genre. We, as readers, could assume that the opening paragraph would have been Stevenson’s first impressions of a Pacific Island. ‘To the east, and right amidships of the dawn, which was all pink, the daystar sparkled like a diamond. The land breeze blew in our faces, and smelt of wild lime and vanilla; other things besides, but these were the most plain;’ (pg. 2). The language used here is poetic and descriptive, engaging all of the senses and told to us by John Wiltshire, the central character with the strong use of visual imagery conveys the beauty of the natural world.

Stevenson’s novella was seen as highly controversial at the time and not one that the Victorian readers should be exposed to. This is due to the tricking of Uma into marriage with Wiltshire and he was asked to remove all traces of this before it was serialised in the Illustrated London News. He refused to do this so the editor took it into his own hands and removed all traces from the chapter before publication, however before it was published in book form, it was reinstated.

As in The Sign of Four, the supernatural had a place in the text, albeit something that has been ‘manufactured’ by Case to keep the locals in check but this was discovered by Wiltshire ‘Well, Mr Case,’ Said I, ‘you’ve frightened me once, but I defy you to frighten me again,’ I says’ (pg. 53)

All of what is in Stevenson’s text would have been completely foreign to the readers back home on Victorian England and something that Stevenson would have been aware of. He wrote to Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), close friend and literary advisor ‘It is the first realistic South Sea story; I mean with real South Sea character and details of life, he declared, adding to his intended reader that ‘you will know more about the South Seas after you have read my little tale than if you had read a library’ (Romantics and Victorians, Chapter 8, Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘The Beach of Falesa’ pg. 285)

Both Conan Doyle and Stevenson had both of these texts serialised in magazines, The Sign of Four in February 1890 in the Philadelphia Literary Journal, Lippincotts Monthly Magazine, and later in The Strand Magazine, which all boasted a high amount of distributed copies. This ensured that Conan Doyle continued to write Holmes and Watson adventures.

The Beach of Falesa was serialised in The Illustrated London News over a six period in July and August 1892 using the working title of Uma; The Beach of Falesa – narrative of a South Sea trader. As previously mentioned, the editor of the magazine found the tricking of Uma extremely distasteful and demanded that it was edited out of the serialisation, Stevenson refused so the editor took it into his own hands and removed it before publication.

The sterilisation of stories were another way that the Victorian readers discovered a new world beyond their own living rooms. These foreign countries were alien to people in that era where travel was restricted to the extremely wealthy so the authors that had an experience of these places, gave the readers a better understanding of them and at the same time allowed their own minds to wander and imagine what it would be like to travel to these far off lands.