The Narrative Of John Smith
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The Narrative Of John Smith
''The Narrative of John Smith'' (2011) is a novel written in 1883 by Arthur Conan Doyle, published posthumously by The British Library. In a work of narrative fiction, Doyle writes from the perspective of a middle-aged bachelor named John Smith recovering from rheumatic gout. Unlike his later work in detective fiction, fantasy, and science fiction, this novel unfolds through a series of tangential, essay-like thoughts stemming from observations on everyday life. The subjects are of a “personal-social-political complexion”. Synopsis Plot Each day is represented by a chapter. Beginning with John Smith's diagnosis of rheumatic gout, the doctor confines him to bed rest for one week; Smith conveys his dismay, then reluctantly accepts. Dr. Turner encourages Smith that the mind can “make a heaven of hell” and that he should set to work writing a book. They begin to debate the circumstances which might drive talent out of a man, and after the doctor exits, Smith considers th ...
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Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste''. Name Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arth ...
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Prototypes
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype (a process sometimes called materialization) is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea. A prototype can also mean a typical example of something such as in the use of the derivation 'prototypical'. This is a useful term in identifying objects, behaviours and concepts which are considered the accepted norm and is analogous with terms such as stereotypes and archetypes. The word ''prototype'' derives from the Greek , "primitive form", neutral of , "original, primitive", from πρῶτο ...
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Daniel Stashower
Daniel Stashower is an American author and editor of mystery fiction and historical nonfiction. He lives in Maryland. Awards and honors Stashower has received awards and recognition for several of his works. Fiction The mystery novel ''The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man'' was a 1986 Edgar Award nominee for best first novel. The short story "A Deliberate Form of Frenzy" was nominated for the 1998 Agatha Award for best short story. Nonfiction ''Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle'' was the 1999 Agatha Award winner for best nonfiction, the 2000 Edgar Award winner for best critical/biographical work, a 2000 Anthony Award nominee for best critical nonfiction work, and a 2000 Macavity Award The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the " mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' ... nominee for best nonfiction. ' ...
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The Hound Of The Baskervilles
''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set in 1889 largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Holmes and Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' led to the character's eventual revival. One of the most famous stories ever written, in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel". In 1999, a poll of "Sherlockians" ranked it as the best of the four Holmes novels. Plot Dr James Mortimer recounts to Sherlock Holmes in London an old legend of a curse that ...
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A Study In Scarlet
''A Study in Scarlet'' is an 1887 detective novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in literature. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." The story, and its main characters, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Only eleven complete copies of the magazine in which the story first appeared, ''Beeton's Christmas Annual'' for 1887, are known to exist now, which have considerable value. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, ''A Study in Scarlet'' is one of only four full-length ...
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The Stark Munro Letters
''The Stark Munro Letters'' is a novel by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first published in 1895 by Longmans, Green & Co. in London, England. Background The book is heavily autobiographical, depicting Conan Doyle's relationship with his parents and his emerging interest in spirituality. It incorporates material he wrote early in 1891 on his rejection of Catholicism in favour of spiritualism. The book was rewritten and collated at the Swiss health spa of Davos, where his wife was recuperating from an illness. This was shortly after he had published "The Final Problem", the story in which he killed off Sherlock Holmes; in writing ''The Stark Munro Letters'' he was attempting to expand his career in a more literary direction. In a letter to his mother dated 23 January 1894, he wrote that "It will make a religious sensation if not a literary - possibly both. I really don't think a young man's life has been gone into so deeply in English literature before." Synopsis As an epist ...
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Altruistic
Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious and secular worldviews. However, the object(s) of concern vary among cultures and religions. In an extreme case, altruism may become a synonym of selflessness, which is the opposite of selfishness. The word "altruism" was popularized (and possibly coined) by the French philosopher Auguste Comte in French, as ''altruisme'', for an antonym of egoism. He derived it from the Italian ''altrui'', which in turn was derived from Latin ''alteri'', meaning " other people" or "somebody else". Altruism in biological observations in field populations of the day organisms is an individual performing an action which is at a cost to themselves (e.g., pleasure and quality of life, time, probability of survival or reproduction), ...
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Novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to have their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work. Description Novelists come from a variety of backgrounds and social classes, and frequently this shapes the content of their works. Public reception of a novelist's work, the literary criticism commenting on it, and the novelists' incorporation of their own experiences into works and characters can lead to the author's personal life and identity being associated with a novel's fictional content. For this reason, the environment within which a novelist works ...
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Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story has been recurrently problematic. A classic definition of a short story ...
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Spread-eagleism
Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There were three basic tenets to the concept: * The special virtues of the American people and their institutions * The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the West in the image of the agrarian East * An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty Historians have emphasized that "manifest destiny" was always contested; many endorsed the idea, but the large majority of Whigs and many prominent Americans (such as Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant) rejected the concept. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity while the ''Whigs'' saw America's moral mission as one of democratic example rather than conquest. The term was used by the then-Democrats in the 1840s to justify the Mexican–American War, ...
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Panslavism
Pan-Slavism, a movement which crystallized in the mid-19th century, is the political ideology concerned with the advancement of integrity and unity for the Slavic people. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans, where non-Slavic empires had ruled the South Slavs for centuries. These were mainly the Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Republic of Venice, Venice. Origins Extensive pan-Slavism began much like Pan-Germanism - both these movements flourished from the sense of unity and nationalism experienced within ethnic groups after the French Revolution and the consequent Napoleonic Wars against traditional European monarchies. As in other Romantic nationalism, Romantic nationalist movements, Slavic intellectuals and scholars in the developing fields of history, philology, and folklore actively encouraged Slavs' interest in their shared identity and ancestry. Pan-Slavism co-existed with the South Slavs, Southern Slavic drive towards independence. Commonly ...
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Chauvinism
Chauvinism is the unreasonable belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotism and nationalism, a fervent faith in national excellence and glory. In English, the word has come to be used in some quarters as shorthand for male chauvinism, a trend reflected in ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary'', which, as of 2018, begins its first example of use of the term ''chauvinism'' with "an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex". As nationalism According to legend, French soldier Nicolas Chauvin was badly wounded in the Napoleonic Wars and received a meager pension for his injuries. After Napoleon abdicated, Chauvin maintained his fanatical Bonapartist belief in the messianic mission of Imperial France, despite the unpopularity of this view under the Bourbon Restoration. His single-minded devotion to his ...
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