Micah Clarke: His Statement (article 1 march 1889)
Micah Clarke: His Statement is an article published in The Courier (Dundee) on 1 march 1889.
Review of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel : Micah Clarke (1889).
Review
MICAH CLARKE: HIS STATEMENT. By A. CONAN DOYLE. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. — This is rather a remarkable book, and purports to be a statement by one Micah Clarke, as made to his three grand-children, wherein are contained certain passages in his early life, and some account of a journey in 1685. It is further set forth that the statement is compiled from Micah's own narrative, by Joseph Clarke, and is now printed for the first time from original manuscripts. The hero was born in 1664 near Portsmouth. His father went under the sobriquet of " Ironside Joe," he having served in Oliver Cromwell's famous regiment of horse. The history of this Joe's son constitutes the volume before us, and through its 36 chapters we are introduced to many strange scenes and characters. We are told how young Clarke got on at school and of his start for the wars, of the brush he and his companions-in-arms had with the King's Dragoons, of the muster of the men of the North, and of Sedgemoor. The narrative is one of the most interesting kind, full of incident and adventure, and all well and interestingly old. There are telling incidents and sketches of the Cromwellian wars, sea-going adventures, and stories of the smugglers. The book is a very entertaining one, and whether it be regarded as an actual and veracious "statement" of the hero, Micah Clarke, or a narrative worked up by the author from the history of the times, the volume will be found to be an interesting one from beginning to end.
