Notun Dash Rahasya: Sisir Chakraborty—A Thrilling Mystery Stories Collection of Doyle
Title: Notun Dash Rahasya (Ten New Mysteries)
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Translated by: Sisir Chakraborty
Language: Bengali, Format: PDF
Genre: Detective Book, Mystery Stories, Short Stories Collection
Notun Dash Rahasya (Ten New Mysteries): A Bengali collection of Doyle’s lesser known yet thrilling mystery stories.
Overview:
‘Notun Dosh Rohosyo’ (Ten New Mysteries) is written by Shishir Chakraborty, based on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. He has translated a collection of Doyle’s unique historical, adventurous, and supernatural stories into Bengali. While Arthur Conan Doyle is globally famous for creating Sherlock Holmes, he wrote approximately 76 non-Sherlockian stories spanning history, war, the supernatural, piracy, boxing, medicine, and mystery. This collection translates ten of those obscures, gripping mystery stories into Bengali. This book Notun Dash Rahasya features ten translated short stories selected from this lesser-known treasure trove, originally published in the Kishore Bharati magazine to introduce young readers to Doyle’s versatile literary genius.
Table of Contents & Story Summaries (Notun Dash Rahasya)
- Boddho Ghorer Rahashya (বন্ধ ঘরের রহস্য / The Sealed Room): Frank Alder encounters a young man named Felix Staniford, whose father (a disgraced banker) disappeared years ago. Felix lives in a large, mostly empty house containing a mysterious sealed room that his father strictly forbade him to open until he turned twenty-one. Upon finally opening the room on his 21st birthday, they discover the skeletal remains of his father, who had secretly taken poison years prior to die in isolation and spare his weak-hearted wife from shock.
- Kalo Prashader Malik (কালো প্রাসাদের মালিক / The Lord of Chateau Noir): During the Franco-Prussian War, a German captain named Baumgarten is sent to capture Count Eustace, the lord of a gloomy castle who has been covertly assassinating German soldiers in revenge for his son’s death. Captured by the Count, Baumgarten is subjected to psychological and physical torment mirroring the suffering inflicted upon the Count’s deceased son before being released into the winter storm.
- Niruddesh Train (নিরুদ্দেশ ট্রেন / The Lost Special): In 1890, a special train carrying a political figure (Monsieur Caratal) and his guard disappears completely in broad daylight between Liverpool and Manchester. Years later, a criminal’s deathbed confession reveals an elaborate conspiracy by a secret political organization that diverted the train onto an abandoned mine siding and plunged it down an empty mine shaft to eliminate Caratal and suppress sensitive documents.
- Caviar-er Jar (ক্যাভিয়ারের জার / The Pot of Caviare): During the Boxer Rebellion, a small group of Europeans is besieged in an outpost in northern China, awaiting rescue. Believing that relief has failed and that capture and brutal torture by rebels are imminent, a scientist (Professor Marsar) secretly poisons a jar of caviare with cyanide to give the group a painless death, only to discover moments later—as they lose consciousness—that rescue troops had actually arrived.
- Sei Hath-ta (সেই হাতটা / The Brown Hand): Sir Dominic Holden, a retired surgeon, is haunted every night in his country home by the ghost of an Afghan amputee whose gangrenous arm Sir Dominic had once surgically removed and kept as a pathological specimen. His nephew, a neurologist, solves the haunting by acquiring the correct corresponding hand (the left hand) from a hospital morgue to replace the lost specimen, allowing the ghost to finally find peace and vanish.
- Protishodh (প্রতিশোধ / The New Catacomb): Julius Burger, an impoverished scholar, lures his arrogant archaeologist friend Kennedy into a newly discovered, labyrinthine underground Christian catacomb in Rome. Revealing that Kennedy had treated the woman Burger loved with cruel indifference, Burger abandons Kennedy in total darkness within the endless mazes, leading to Kennedy’s eventual death.
- Mushtijuddho (মুষ্টিযুদ্ধ / The Bully of the Brookes Court): A military officer and a professional boxer named Alf travel near Luton and encounter the ghost of an infamous, brutal 19th-century bare-knuckle fighter (Tom Hickman, the “Gasman”) and his companion. Alf engages in a grueling supernatural boxing match against the apparition before the ghost flees in terror from the phantom sound of a battered dog.
- Debotar Angti (দেবতার আংটি / The Ring of Thoth): While researching in the Louvre, a scholar encounters a strange, ancient Egyptian museum worker named Sosra. Sosra reveals he is an immortal who took an experimental youth-preserving drug in ancient times and has spent millennia searching for an antidote contained within the ring of Thoth to finally reunite with the mummy of his long-lost love; he dies happily after finally consuming it.
- Antardhan (অন্তর্ধান / The Bravo Doctor): Dr. Aloysius Lana is accused of murdering an intruder in his study, who turns out to be his own unscrupulous, estranged twin brother Ernest, who died of a sudden heart attack. Dr. Lana had initially swapped clothes and fled to escape his past, leading to a dramatic courtroom trial where he reappears to clear an innocent man.
- Ghatana-ti (ঘটনাটি / How It Happened): Narrated from the perspective of a spirit, a wealthy car owner drives his new high-powered vehicle recklessly down a dangerous hill when the brakes fail, resulting in a fatal crash. Upon dying, the narrator is comforted by the ghost of an old college friend who informs him that he, too, has passed away.
All stories are published into Bengali as Notun Dash Rahasya by Shishir Chakraborty.
About the Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is an unforgettable name in the world of mystery literature. He remains unrivaled to this day in his mastery of plot construction, subtle analytical approach, diversity of subject matter, and character portrayal. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. After completing his university education, he began his career as a physician in Southsea. However, struggling to establish a successful medical practice, he turned to writing during his spare time between seeing patients. Among his numerous novels and short stories, the tales featuring the amateur detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. Watson, achieved the greatest popularity.
Modern Mystery Literature
Beyond his global renown, Sherlock Holmes has become a legendary figure in modern mystery literature. Such was the immense popularity of the character that, even after Doyle had ‘killed him off,’ he was compelled by public demand to bring him back. Indeed, a memorial dedicated to Sherlock Holmes has been established at 221B Baker Street. The number of books featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is not particularly large—there are only four novels: “A Study in Scarlet” (1887), “The Sign of Four” (1890), “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1903), and The Valley of Fear (1915). Additionally, there are five collections of short stories: “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1892), “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes” (1894), “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” (1905), “His Last Bow” (1915), and “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes” (1927). It is on the strength of these nine books alone that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is regarded today as one of the greatest authors of modern detective fiction.
Beyond the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote various other types of stories and novels, spanning genres such as Sci-fi Stories, Historical Fiction, Adventure, and the supernatural. This extraordinary storyteller passed away in 1930.
About the Translator: Shishir Chakraborty
Shishir Chakraborty was born in Kolkata in 1951. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Presidency College and spent nearly four decades working in public and private sector banks across various states in India. Following his retirement, he lived in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Santiniketan. He had a passion for translating English stories and rhymes into Bengali; notably, he published a collection of translations of some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s unique historical, adventurous, and supernatural tales under the title ‘Notun Dash Rahasya’ (Ten New Mysteries).