ABSTRACT
In 1891 Doyle took his wife to Vienna, ostensibly to further his career as an ophthamologist by acquiring some prestigious European qualifi cations. Instead, he wrote The Doings of Raffles Haw (1891), the story of a modern-day alchemist who can manufacture gold but cannot find it in other people. A parable of Doyle’s own creative resources, the novel centres on Haw’s involvement with a brother and sister who make use of his friendship to escape the clutches of a scheming alcoholic father. The brother, an artist who specializes in historical genre painting, tries to further his career by forming a business partnership with the goldproducing Raffles Haw. In 1891 a similar partnership between history and alchemy was emerging as the motive force for Doyle’s career too, for, in writing the Holmes stories, he had learnt how to transform the base metals of his early life into a lucrative fictional commodity.
