Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure • Arthur Conan Doyle

Every spring and autumn, the Mare publishing house releases its new catalogue of books. For me, that’s always a reason to carefully go through the new titles, because Mare is without a doubt the best publisher around at the moment. Usually, only three or four of their books appeal to me in terms of content — but those few are always, absolutely always, outstanding and well worth reading.

Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure immediately caught my eye, and I knew right away that I had to read it. Just like The Garden Above the Sea by Mercè Rodoreda or The Green Ray by Jules Verne, this book is available as an elegant, bound hardcover edition complete with a slipcase.

The price of the book is slightly higher considering its length, but once you hold it in your hands, you immediately understand why. The book is beautifully produced and contains color reproductions of the original drawings from Arthur Conan Doyle’s diary. It’s simply a pleasure to pick it up and leaf through it. Okay, my bibliophile side is showing again — and moments like this just reaffirm for me that eBooks will never be my thing.

The diary itself spans 144 pages, so it’s not particularly extensive. It includes numerous annotations and footnotes, as well as references to the diary’s illustrations, where the drawings corresponding to each entry can be found. The central section contains the aforementioned original illustrations, while the appendix features several of Arthur Conan Doyle’s writings. Not to be forgotten, of course, is the foreword by Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower. The German translation was done by Alexander Pechmann. On the front and endpapers, there’s a map showing the route of the Hope (the whaling ship on which Doyle served), which is quite helpful. I often found myself glancing at it while reading.

While reading, I truly felt as though I were leafing through an old journal — which, of course, I was — but the many notes and explanations make it easy to immerse oneself in this unique world. Doyle vividly describes his impressions, daily routines, and the process of hunting seals and whales, always in concise diary entries. This creates an engaging flow of reading — not one driven by thrilling plotlines or great adventures, but rather by the accumulation of small observations that form a vivid and authentic portrait of the time, the polar seas, and the Arctic region. It’s easy to imagine Doyle jumping from ice floe to ice floe, hunting seals, and working alongside the rugged sailors with great enthusiasm and curiosity. At times, I even felt a bit envious of him — though often, not so much. The life of a whaler leaves quite a martial impression at points; they seem to hunt and kill anything that moves (Doyle included).

The detailed appendix includes an essay by the two editors, Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower, who briefly outline Doyle’s later life and highlight where his Arctic voyage influenced his subsequent career. I found this section quite fitting, since one naturally wonders what became of Doyle afterward — what he experienced following his polar expedition.

Several texts by Arthur Conan Doyle, inspired by his Arctic journey, are also included. Among them is a slightly eerie story written again in diary form, though entirely fictional — I particularly enjoyed that one. The question of how the North Pole might be reached comes up repeatedly, and Doyle shares his vision of what it might be like there in a lecture given before the Literary & Scientific Society, which is also included in the appendix. The book concludes with a Sherlock Holmes story that has strong ties to his Arctic experience. These texts round out the volume nicely; they’re partly quite interesting to read, though they didn’t captivate me as deeply as the diary itself.

It is a region of purity, of white ice and blue water, with no human habitation within a thousand miles to taint the freshness of the breeze that blows across the floes.

Conclusion: Mare Verlag simply has a gift for great literature and has never once disappointed me — nor with this beautifully produced volume. It’s a pleasure to read through the diary and gain a vivid and atmospheric impression of life aboard a whaling ship at the end of the 19th century. And, as is typical of Mare, it also paints a wonderful picture of the polar seas and the Arctic. For anyone who appreciates fine, beautifully made books, loves the sea and the North — I can wholeheartedly recommend this one. A truly special reading experience, far from the mainstream.

Book information: “Heute dreimal ins Polarmeer gefallen”: Tagebuch einer arktischen Reise • Arthur Conan Doyle • Mare Verlag • 336 pages • ISBN 9783866482098