Maracot Deep and The Coming of the Fairies

Summary

In this original pairing from Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s lesser-known works, Maracot Deep and The Coming of the Fairies, are brought together for the first time. Doyle’s forays into science fiction and spiritualism prove just as engaging and imaginative as the mysteries for which he is best known.

Originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1927, Maracot Deep is a tale of discovery that voyages all the way down to the deepest part of the ocean. The eccentric Professor Maracot leads an expedition team consisting of Bill Scanlan, a gruff American mechanic; and Cyrus Headley, a young zoologist, to an area he hopes will come to be known as “The Maracot Deep.” On their way to the ocean floor, they are attacked by a monstrous creature from the deep sea but are rescued by none other than the citizens of the lost city of Atlantis. With wild and richly detailed descriptions of both the underwater majesty of their journey and the speculative science that helped get them there, this science fiction adventure tale is among Doyle’s most creative works.

In The Coming of the Fairies, Doyle tells the story of the real-life hoax of the Cottingley Fairies. In 1917, the Cottingley Fairies appeared in a series of five photographs taken by the young cousins Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, who presented them to the world as proof of the existence of fairies. A spiritualist, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Coming of the Fairies for the 1920 Christmas edition of The Strand. Doyle himself was completely convinced of the authenticity of these photographs and used this work to lay out the evidence for his belief, though he did not write it to persuade anyone to his side, rather as “simply a collection of facts the inferences from which may be accepted or rejected as the reader may think fit.” Though Elsie later confessed and confirmed the photographs were a hoax, Frances maintained that the fifth photograph was in fact genuine.

The audiobook includes a bonus PDF containing reproductions of the famous Cottingley photographs featured in The Coming of the Fairies.