The Tragedy of the Korosko and The Fires of Fate

Arthur Conan Doyle’s visit to Egypt in 1895–96 included a trip up the Nile from Cairo to Wadi Halfa in a Cook’s steamer, which he documents in The Nile Journal, published here for the first time. His trip also included a month reporting on Kitchener’s expeditionary army’s march south to confront the ‘Dervish’ forces of the Khalifa. Both experiences informed the novella The Tragedy of the Korosko, a tale of abduction and rescue on the Sudanese frontier, published serially in the Strand in 1897 and in book form in 1898. This edition is the first scholarly treatment of this important book, a key text for the understanding of Conan Doyle’s imperialism. A decade later saw the staging of The Fires of Fate, his dramatisation of the tale, with significant changes to characters and story. This play had a modest success on the stage, but has never appeared in print. Juxtaposing these two works highlights Conan Doyle’s mastery of two forms of storytelling, while the differences between the two illustrate his evolving views and practices in the middle years of his literary career.