Getting Medieval

Another dead guy publishes. It's getting annoying. Ah well. The crux of it seems that Conan Doyle sent this manuscript, written between 1883 and 1884, to his publisher and it was lost in the post. He reconstructed it from memory (another cautionary tale to back up your work, people) but it was never published because it was never finished. He worked on it over the years but it is reported he was embarrassed by this first effort, as most of us are. I certainly wouldn't want any of my first novels to see the light of day.

The book, about a man's reflections on life after he finds himself confined to his room with gout, sounds like it could have been another "Rear Window," but it also sounds like it didn't get that interesting.

Rachel Foss, lead curator of modern literary manuscripts at the British Library, decided to publish The Narrative of John Smith and it has just been released. It had been part of the British Library's Conan Doyle collection since 2007. The Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate gave their consent to the plan. The information online is scant and doesn't relate whether the manuscript was finished by another or not.

Is the book any good? I guess you can find out on your own. I'm betting the literary merit lies soley with the fame of the author.