Danger! and Other Stories — Text and Context

A Warning in Fiction

The title story, Danger!, is presented not as a work of imagination but as a failed prophecy. Doyle states it was written eighteen months before the war and that its predictions were borne out “even down to the smallest details.” He does not, however, claim to have foreseen the navy's countermeasures. The preface shifts between self-justification and policy advocacy, naming specific tonnages and costs for submarine merchantmen. This blend of fiction and realpolitik is unusual for a story collection; readers encounter a narrative that is explicitly intended to influence national defence policy. The story itself is not excerpted here, but the preface makes clear that Doyle saw fiction as a tool for public persuasion, one he felt compelled to supplement with direct appeals to officials.

Horror in the Air

The excerpt from “The Horror of the Heights” presents a very different kind of warning. The narrator recounts the disappearance of aviator Joyce-Armstrong, whose notebook describes an “air-jungle” over southwest England populated by monstrous flying creatures. The prose is vivid and grim: “God help me; it is a dreadful death to die!” The story ends with pieces of the monoplane found near where the notebook was discovered, and the narrator speculates that the pilot was “overtaken and devoured.” Unlike the political argument of the title story, this tale uses scientific-sounding detail—the theory that the air-jungle exists only over a specific region—to create a sense of plausible dread. The contrast between the two works shows Doyle shifting from reasoned policy to visceral horror, both modes aimed at unsettling the reader.

Borrowed Scenes and Comic Voice

In “Borrowed Scenes,” Doyle adopts a lighter tone. The narrator, steeped in George Borrow's Lavengro and Romany Rye, attempts to live as Borrow did, reciting Saxon Chronicle passages to peasants who flee from him. At an inn, he quizzes the landlord about the sign of a rose and crown, insisting on a historical explanation. The comedy arises from the mismatch between the narrator's literary pretensions and the baffled reactions of ordinary people. The story is structured as a series of failed encounters, each ending with the interlocutor escaping. This piece demonstrates Doyle's range beyond the supernatural and the political, showing an interest in literary parody and the absurdity of trying to impose a bookish worldview on real life.

Readers approaching this collection should be prepared for tonal shifts that reflect Doyle's varied purposes: the polemical preface, the grim aviation horror, and the light literary parody. The catalog subjects—science fiction and short stories—only partially capture the range. The excerpts suggest a writer using fiction to argue, to frighten, and to amuse, sometimes within the same volume. Pay attention to the prefaces and framing devices, as they reveal Doyle's sense of himself as a public intellectual as much as a storyteller.

I’ve always felt that Conan Doyle’s war warnings in Danger! share a strange kinship with the patient plotting of Edmond Dantès — Key Ideas to Explore—both are stories of voices unheard until too late, of men who watch the world ignore their quiet truth. Sitting with them feels like overhearing two old friends confess the same ache.