Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes — but few know just how much more Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had up his literary sleeve.
In this thoughtful essay, author Paul Bishop guides us through Doyle’s overlooked legacy: from prehistoric jungles in *The Lost World* to the chivalric brotherhood of *The White Company*, to the comic bravado of *Brigadier Gerard*. These stories show a side of Doyle that’s every bit as thrilling, imaginative, and genre-defining as Holmes — just with fewer magnifying glasses and more dinosaurs, knights, and Napoleonic misadventures.
Whether you’re a Doyle diehard or just Holmes-curious, this is a literary journey worth taking.
BEYOND SHERLOCK HOLMES
PAUL BISHOP
When most readers hear the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, they immediately think of Sherlock Holmes—the brilliant detective who transformed crime fiction and remains one of the most recognizable characters in world literature. Yet, Doyle himself often expressed frustration that his career would forever be overshadowed by Holmes, a character he famously attempted to kill off in 1893, only to be compelled by public demand to resurrect him years later. To Doyle, the Holmes stories were just one facet of his literary ambition. He regarded many of his other works—historical novels, swashbuckling adventures, and speculative science fiction—as his true literary legacy. To journey beyond Sherlock Holmes is to uncover the richness and diversity of Doyle’s imagination and to appreciate the breadth of his storytelling mastery.
Perhaps the most enduring of Doyle’s non-Holmes creations is Professor George Edward Challenger, the bombastic, fearless, and fiercely intelligent scientist whose adventures form the backbone of Doyle’s foray into science fiction. The most famous of these is The Lost World (1912), a thrilling expedition into a prehistoric plateau in the Amazon basin where dinosaurs still roam. This novel stands as a precursor to modern adventure tales like Jurassic Park and remains one of the earliest and most influential examples of the lost world genre.
Challenger’s adventures continued in The Poison Belt (1913), a meditation on human vulnerability as Earth passes through a deadly cosmic cloud, and in The Land of Mist (1926), where Doyle’s growing fascination with spiritualism takes center stage. Unlike Holmes, who embodies cool logic, Challenger is a man of passion, action, and bold inquiry—a figure Doyle used to explore the vast possibilities of science, the mysteries of the unknown, and the limits of human understanding.
Among Doyle’s personal favorites was his historical novel The White Company (1891), a tale set during the Hundred Years’ War. Doyle poured meticulous research and deep affection into this story of knighthood, chivalry, and military brotherhood. The novel follows a band of English archers and knights as they travel to fight in France under the command of Sir Nigel Loring, a character so beloved by Doyle that he would later devote an entire novel to his youthful exploits.
The White Company is far removed from the deductive precision of Sherlock Holmes. Instead, it reads as an homage to Sir Walter Scott and the grand tradition of historical romance. Doyle believed The White Company represented some of his finest literary work, lamenting that it would never achieve the fame of his detective stories. His passion for history also surfaces in novels like Micah Clarke and Sir Nigel, through which Doyle sought to bring the distant past vividly to life.
In The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, Doyle turns to the Napoleonic era to deliver a delightful mix of humor, action, and satire. The eponymous French cavalry officer, Etienne Gerard, is brave, vain, and endearingly oblivious to his own shortcomings. Through Gerard’s eyes, Doyle offers a series of fast-paced adventures brimming with daring escapes, military campaigns, and romantic entanglements.
Unlike Holmes, who is driven by intellect, Gerard is driven by honor, pride, and a touch of self-delusion. These stories allowed Doyle to flex his comedic muscles and poke gentle fun at national stereotypes, particularly the French flair for self-aggrandizement. The Gerard tales, immensely popular in their time, showcased Doyle’s versatility and his gift for creating charismatic, larger-than-life characters outside the confines of crime fiction.
Rodney Stone (1896) is another of Doyle’s lesser-known gems, a coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of Regency England. Combining elements of gothic mystery, social satire, and sports fiction, Rodney Stone is notable for its vivid depiction of the bare-knuckle boxing scene—a personal passion of Doyle’s.
The novel is both a portrait of high society and a gritty look at the brutal prizefights of the time, blending historical figures and fictional characters with the same skill Doyle employed in his Holmes stories. In fact, Rodney Stone stands as one of the earliest works to explore boxing as a central theme in literature, decades before the sport became a popular focus in novels and films.
One of Doyle’s most overlooked works is The Maracot Deep (1929), a science fiction novella that follows an expedition to the ocean’s depths, where explorers encounter an ancient, surviving Atlantean civilization. It’s a blend of adventure, speculative science, and utopian fantasy, reflecting Doyle’s persistent curiosity about the unknown.
Written later in his life, The Maracot Deep also reflects Doyle’s increasing preoccupation with spiritualism and life beyond the material world—a theme that grew to dominate his final years. Though not as tightly structured as The Lost World, this underwater odyssey illustrates Doyle’s enduring desire to push narrative boundaries and speculate about civilizations and dimensions beyond the reach of ordinary human experience.
While Sherlock Holmes will undoubtedly remain Doyle’s most famous creation, to limit his literary reputation to the detective genre is to do him a disservice. His body of work is far richer and more varied than is often recognized. Doyle excelled in historical fiction, pioneered science fiction adventures, and crafted memorable tales of humor, heroism, and speculative wonder. He considered many of these works—The White Company in particular—his most important contributions to literature.
Ultimately, Doyle’s versatility is what cements his status as one of the great storytellers of his era. Whether guiding readers through the foggy streets of Victorian London, the perilous battlefields of medieval Europe, the uncharted depths of the ocean, or the dinosaur-haunted jungles of South America, Doyle’s imagination was boundless. To explore his work beyond Sherlock Holmes is to embark on a literary adventure every bit as thrilling as Holmes’s most intricate cases—one that reveals the full measure of Doyle’s creative genius.
Find the paperback here: 52 Weeks 52 Sherlock Holmes Novels
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