Skip to content
Beyond the City — cover
Get your copy
Aeneas Press edition Victorian First published 1892

Beyond the City

by Arthur Conan Doyle 1859–1930

The book, and the century it came out of.

Two elderly bachelors and a household of young women in a Norwood suburb, and a widow next door who bicycles, boxes and holds opinions — after which the neighborhood is never the same. Conan Doyle wrote this in 1892 between the Holmes stories; it is a domestic comedy about the New Woman, affectionate and rather braver than it looks, and nobody remembers he wrote it. Illustrated with 40 full-page plates — paintings by Giles, Davis and Kern among them.

“If you please, mum,” said the voice of a domestic from somewhere round the angle of the door, “number three is moving in.”
The first sentence of Beyond the City
A note on this edition

Beyond the City, by Arthur Conan Doyle, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 120 pages
Reading time
about 2 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486155277
The plates

40 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

The Library at Tottenham, John Scarlett Davis
The Library at Tottenham John Scarlett Davis 1835
Old Man in his Study, George Gillis Haanen
Old Man in his Study George Gillis Haanen 1833
The Return, Aimée Brune-Pagès
The Return Aimée Brune-Pagès 1831
Sailors in a Cobbler’s Shop, Aleksandr Gavrilovich Denisov
Sailors in a Cobbler’s Shop Aleksandr Gavrilovich Denisov 1832
Landschap met een herder en zijn kudde bij een schaapskooi, Pieter Gerardus van Os
Landschap met een herder en zijn kudde bij een schaapskooi Pieter Gerardus van Os 1832
A Sailing Boat in full sail, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
A Sailing Boat in full sail Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg 1832
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Beyond the City as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Beyond the City as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Beyond the City, first published 1892, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486155277, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Beyond the City?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Arthur Conan Doyle's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 120 pages, which is roughly about 2 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Beyond the City
$4.99
Buy the ebook