Written in his early 20s, The Narrative of John Smith was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first attempt at writing a full length novel before creating Sherlock Holmes in 1887. According to BBC News, the story chronicles "a man's reflections on life after he finds himself confined to his room with gout," while addressing topics such as religion and politics.
Tragically for the young Doyle, the original manuscript was lost in the mail and there was no other copy. As a result, he later had to reconstruct the entire novel from memory. How times have changed.
Only Doyle scholars have studied the still unpublished work; however, the general public will get their first opportunity to read it this fall.
