Arthur Conan Doyle and the meaning of masculinity

A valued icon of British manhood, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been the subject of numerous biographies, all of which have drawn heavily on his own autobiography, "Memories & Adventures", a collection of stories and anecdotes themed on the subject of masculinity and its representation.

In this work, Diana Barsham discusses Doyle's career in the context of that 19th-century biographical tradition which Dr Watson so successfully appropriated.

She explores Doyle's determination to become a great name in the culture of his day and the strains on his identity arising from this project.

A Scotsman with an alcoholic, Irish, fairy-painting father, Doyle offered himself and his writings as a model of British manhood during the greatest crisis of British history.

This study offers a revision of the Doyle myth. It presents his career as a series of dialogic contestations with writers like Thomas Hardy and Winston Churchill to define the masculine presence in British culture.

It also demonstrates how, in his spiritualist campaign, Doyle took on the figure of St Paul in an attempt to create a new religious culture for a socialist age.