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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 11, Summer 1946

Page 274

274     FANTASY COMMENTATOR

DOYLE, Arthur Conan (1859-1930)

The Captain of the "Pole Star" and Other Tales

London: Longmans, Green & Co.; 1890. 315 pp. 19 1/2cm. 6/-.

Further information: The contents consists of ten short stories: "The Captain of the 'Pole Star'," "The Great Keinplatz Experiment," "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," "The Man from Archangel," "That Little Square Box," "The Ring of Thoth," "John Huxford's Hiatus," "Cyrian Overbeck Wells," "Elias B. Hopkins," "John Barington Cowles." The data given above is for the first English edition; later printings in some cases substitute "A Literary Mosaic" and "The Parson of Jackman's Gulch" for "Cyrian Overbeck Wells" and "Elias B. Hopkins"; some tales have been reprinted in a collection titled The Great Keinplatz Experiment; and all of them may be found in The Conan Doyle Stories. Well over a dozen varied editions of the original, both paper- and cloth-covered, have appeared.

Synoptic review: This volume of early work by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contains a number of weird stories of high quality. Only four of these included can qualify as supernatural tales; however, there are elements of mystery and suspense in several more that recommend them also to readers of fantastic literature.
     Perhaps the best known of those in this collection is the title story, "The Captain of the 'Pole Star'." A ghost story written along traditional lines, it succeeds in making one overlook its basic unoriginality of plot by an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere. Presented as "an extract from the singular journal of John M'Allister Ray, student of medicine," it tells of a strange horror amid the ice floes of the Arctic. In Ray's diary are recorded the events which lead to a powerful climax. An ice-bound ship, a half-mad and violent captain, and supernatural visitations during the stillness of the polar night are skillfully woven together until they end in tragedy and death.
As a relief from this tale of terror is a comical fantasy. In "The Great Keinplatz Experiment" Professor Alexis Von Baumgarten Performs an experiment to prove that it is possible for the human spirit to exist apart from its body for a time and then return to it once again. What happens when the good professor's and a scapegrace student's spirits exchange bodies while they are mesmerized makes an hilarious narrative---pure slapstick, but good fun.
Next we come upon a highly original and complex story. "John Barrington Cowles" is extremely effective in producing the physical reaction which is the test of all horror tales. Written in a careful, restrained style, this introduces us to Catherine Norcott, a beautiful young woman. Three men have been engaged to her, but each has separated from her on the eve of marriage to meet later with ruin and death. Doyle subtly hints at the request which she made of her lovers that sent them flying in horror and revulsion, suggesting a form of  vampirism or lycanthropy. Taken as a whole, this strikes one as belonging in the very first rank of all the tales on this theme that have been written.
"The Ring of Thoth" deals with familiar material but the author gives it a characteristically original treatment. This tells of an Egyptian who discovers the secret of everlasting life in the time of the pharaohs and spends the thousands of years of his existence in search of the elixir---contained in the ring of Thoth---which will release him from what he realizes is a terrible curse. The story is told with an excellent blend of pathos and humor; it suffers only slightly from the use of a stereotyped character (the narrator) who appears in many of Doyle's other tales.
Among the remaining stories in this collection are "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," which involves a meteoric rock of strange influence, and "Cyr-

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274 FANTASY COMMENTATOR DOYLE, Arthur Conan (1859-1930) The Captain of the "Pole Star" and Other Tales London: Longmans, Green & Co.; 1890. 315 pp. 19 1/2cm. 6/-. Further information: The contents consists of ten short stories: "The Captain of the 'Pole Star'," "The Great Keinplatz Experiment," "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," "The Man from Archangel," "That Little Square Box," "The Ring of Thoth," "John Huxford's Hiatus," "Cyrian Overbeck Wells," "Elias B. Hopkins," "John Barington Cowles." The data given above is for the first English edition; later printings in some cases substitute "A Literary Mosaic" and "The Parson of Jackman's Gulch" for "Cyrian Overbeck Wells" and "Elias B. Hopkins"; some tales have been reprinted in a collection titled The Great Keinplatz Experiment; and all of them may be found in The Conan Doyle Stories. Well over a dozen varied editions of the original, both paper- and cloth-covered, have appeared. Synoptic review: This volume of early work by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contains a number of weird stories of high quality. Only four of these included can qualify as supernatural tales; however, there are elements of mystery and suspense in several more that recommend them also to readers of fantastic literature. Perhaps the best known of those in this collection is the title story, "The Captain of the 'Pole Star'." A ghost story written along traditional lines, it succeeds in making one overlook its basic unoriginality of plot by an eerie and suspenseful atmosphere. Presented as "an extract from the singular journal of John M'Allister Ray, student of medicine," it tells of a strange horror amid the ice floes of the Arctic. In Ray's diary are recorded the events which lead to a powerful climax. An ice-bound ship, a half-mad and violent captain, and supernatural visitations during the stillness of the polar night are skillfully woven together until they end in tragedy and death. As a relief from this tale of terror is a comical fantasy. In "The Great Keinplatz Experiment" Professor Alexis Von Baumgarten Performs an experiment to prove that it is possible for the human spirit to exist apart from its body for a time and then return to it once again. What happens when the good professor's and a scapegrace student's spirits exchange bodies while they are mesmerized makes an hilarious narrative---pure slapstick, but good fun. Next we come upon a highly original and complex story. "John Barrington Cowles" is extremely effective in producing the physical reaction which is the test of all horror tales. Written in a careful, restrained style, this introduces us to Catherine Norcott, a beautiful young woman. Three men have been engaged to her, but each has separated from her on the eve of marriage to meet later with ruin and death. Doyle subtly hints at the request which she made of her lovers that sent them flying in horror and revulsion, suggesting a form of vampirism or lycanthropy. Taken as a whole, this strikes one as belonging in the very first rank of all the tales on this theme that have been written. "The Ring of Thoth" deals with familiar material but the author gives it a characteristically original treatment. This tells of an Egyptian who discovers the secret of everlasting life in the time of the pharaohs and spends the thousands of years of his existence in search of the elixir---contained in the ring of Thoth---which will release him from what he realizes is a terrible curse. The story is told with an excellent blend of pathos and humor; it suffers only slightly from the use of a stereotyped character (the narrator) who appears in many of Doyle's other tales. Among the remaining stories in this collection are "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement," which involves a meteoric rock of strange influence, and "Cyr-