'An Exciting Christmas Eve, or, My Lecture on Dynamite' is a semi-comic short story, written by Conan Doyle in summer 1882 and first published in December 1883.
You can read the stories here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=An_Exciting_Christmas_Eve.
The episode can be heard here: http://doingsofdoyle.podbean.com/.
Synopsis
After a successful, and inadvertently eventful, student career at Heidelberg, Herr Doctor Otto von Spee, expert in explosives, has settled down to a peaceful life as a private tutor and research scientist in Berlin. However, his peace is shattered one wild and tempestuous Christmas Eve when he is called out unwillingly on an emergency medical errand, which results in an impromptu lecture to a particularly dangerous audience...
Writing and publication history
Written in summer 1882 and first published in the Boy’s Own Paper in December 1883.
Republished in Every
Boy’s Monthly in Feb-March 1905.
J. M. Gibson
and R. L. Green, The Uncollected Conan Doyle (1982).
International
terrorism, Nihilism and Fenianism
Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_I_of_Russia.
Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russia.
Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite
(1833-96). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel
James Stevens, Fenian leader
(1825-1901). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stephens_(Fenian)
R. L. Stevenson & F.
Stevenson, More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (1885), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_New_Arabian_Nights:_The_Dynamiter.
Oscar Wilde, Vera; or the
Nihilists (c. 1880), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera;_or,_The_Nihilists.
Vera Zasulich, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Zasulich.
Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
(1862), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathers_and_Sons_(novel).
Semi-autobiographical elements
Feldkirch, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldkirch,_Vorarlberg.
Stella Matutina, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Matutina_(Jesuit_school).
O. D. Edwards, The Quest for
Sherlock Holmes (1983).
The Anarchists
Friedrich Staps, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Staps.
Felice Orsini, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Orsini.
Francois Ravaillac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Ravaillac.
Tsar Paul I, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_I_of_Russia#Assassination.
Cesare Lombroso, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso.
Related Conan Doyle works
'A Night Among the Nihilists' (1881), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=A_Night_Among_the_Nihilists.
'Touch and Go: A Midshipman’s
Story' (1886), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Touch_and_Go:_A_Midshipman%27s_Story.
'That Little Square Box' (1881), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=That_Little_Square_Box.
'The Winning Shot' (1883), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Winning_Shot.
'The Silver Hatchet' (1883), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Silver_Hatchet.
'A Pastoral Horror' (1890), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=A_Pastoral_Horror.
'The Great Keinplatz Experiment' (1885), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Great_Keinplatz_Experiment.
'Danger! Being the Log of Captain
John Sirius' (1914), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Danger!.
'The Story of the Man with the
Watches' (1898), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Story_of_the_Man_with_the_Watches.
Sherlockian connections
'A Study in Scarlet' (1887), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=A_Study_in_Scarlet.
'A Scandal in Bohemia' (1891), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=A_Scandal_in_Bohemia.
'The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter' (1893), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Greek_Interpreter.
'The Adventure of the Red Circle' (1911),
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Red_Circle.
'His Last Bow' (1917), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=His_Last_Bow.
'The Adventure of the Golden
Pince-Nez' (1904), https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Golden_Pince-Nez.
Chris Redmond, ‘Nihilism, NKVD,
and the Napoleon of Crime’ (Sherlock Holmes Journal, v.7, n4, p.104-7).
Absurdist anarchist stories
R. L. Stevenson & F. Stevenson, More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter (1885), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_New_Arabian_Nights:_The_Dynamiter.
Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Saville’s
Crime (1887), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Arthur_Savile%27s_Crime_and_Other_Stories.
G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was
Thursday (1908), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday.
Jack London, The Assassination
Bureau (1916), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assassination_Bureau#Original_novel.
Eugene Moret, An Anarchist (Strand
Magazine, 1894).
Next time on
the Doings of Doyle…
Conan Doyle’s ‘A Straggler of ‘15’ (1891) and the stage adaptation of the same, ‘Waterloo’ (1894). Read them here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=A_Straggler_of_%2715 and https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=A_Story_of_Waterloo
Acknowledgements
Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books: www.belangerbooks.com.
Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.
Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Comments
Post a comment