The Firm of Girdlestone - Softcover

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 158963392X ISBN 13: 9781589633926

Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL), 2001

Synopsis

Mr. John Harston keeps an appointment... The approach to the office of Girdlestone and Co. was not a very dignified one, nor would the uninitiated who traversed it from any conception of the commercial prosperity of the firm in question. Close to the corner of a broad and busy street, within a couple of a hundred yards of Fenchurch-street station, a narrow doorway opens into a long whitewashed passage.

On one side of this is a brass plate with the inscription "Girdlestone and Co., African Merchants," and above it a curious hieroglyphic supposed to represent a human hand in the act of pointing. Following the guidance of this somewhat ghostly emblem, the wayfarer finds himself in a small square yard surrounded by doors, upon one of which the name of the firm reappears in large white letters, with the word "push" printed beneath it. If he follows this laconic invitation, he will make his way into a long, low apartment, which is the counting house of the African Traders...

About this title

About the Author:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (1859-1930), British physician, novelist, and detective-story writer, creator of the unforgettable master sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh and educated at Stonyhurst College and the University of Edinburgh. From 1882 to 1890 he practiced medicine in Southsea, England. A Study in Scarlet, the first of 60 stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, appeared in 1887. The characterization of Holmes, his ability of ingenious deductive reasoning, was based on one of the author's own university professors. Equally brilliant creations are those of Holmes's foils: his friend Dr. Watson, the good-natured if bumbling narrator of the stories, and the master criminal Professor Moriarty. Conan Doyle was so immediately successful in his literary career that approximately five years later he abandoned his medical practice to devote his entire time to writing.

Some of the best known of the Holmes stories are The Sign of Four (1890), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and His Last Bow (1917). They made Conan Doyle internationally famous and served to popularize the detective-story genre. A Holmes cult arose and still flourishes, notably through clubs of devotees such as the Baker Street Irregulars. Conan Doyle's literary versatility brought him almost equal fame for his historical romances such as Micah Clarke (1888), The White Company (1890), Rodney Stone (1896), and Sir Nigel (1906), and for his play A Story of Waterloo (1894).

About this edition

• Publisher: Fredonia Books (NL)
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 158963392X
• ISBN 13: 9781589633926
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 380
• Illustrator: Edwards Harry C