The novel The Hound of the Baskervilles is written by a British author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1859. Following “nine years in Jesuit schools, he went to Edinburgh University, where he received a degree in medicine in 1881. He then became an eye specialist in Southsea, with a distressing lack of success” (Doyle 1). Doyle’s financial letdown in Southsea created a need for an alternative way for him to generate profit, so he became an author. In the first of his many stories A Study in Scarlet, Doyle brings Sherlock Holmes to life; he is a detective and the protagonist of the story. Doyle’s inspiration and idea for an observant detective came from Dr. Joseph Bell of the Edinburgh Infirmary. Dr. Bell had brilliant powers of observation, analysis, and inference. Doyle’s story was rejected several times before a British publisher bought it for £25 (Doyle 1). “From early on, the worldwide popularity of Holmes annoyed his creator, and with a cause: the detective’s adventures, wonderful as they are, tended to overshadow everything else Conan Doyle wrote” (Dirda 42). Doyle eventually becomes so weary of Sherlock Holmes that he chose to kill off his character. However, Doyle had to later resurrect Holmes’s character due to popular demand for additional stories (Doyle 1). It was while playing golf one day, Robinson told Doyle a story of an ancient tale about a hound that haunted Dartmoor; “he was so inspired by this local legend that he resurrected Holmes, whom he’d killed off eight years earlier, in The Final Problem, at Switzerland’s Reichenbach Falls” (Cook). According to a 1996 article from New Statesman, “For well over 100 years, the great sleuth of Baker Street has been a staple of our imaginati...
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... Doyle is cherished as the creator of one of the best-loved detectives in English literature--but his talents as an author ranged far and wide, from science fiction to swashbucklers.” New Statesman [1996] 7 Nov. 2011: 41+. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
Doyle, Sir Author Conan. Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles. England: First Signet Classic Printing, 1986. Print.
Sangeetha, K. “Kinesics in Arthur Conan Doyle.” Language In India Nov. 2011: 694+. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
“The Hound Of The Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel.” Publishers Weekly 256.34 (2009): 49. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
“The Science of Sherlock Holmes: from Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, the Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective's Greatest Cases.” Science News 29 Apr. 2006: 271. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, a novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, gives off the feeling of eeriness and spookiness. These characteristics fit into many different types of writing. But, Gothic literature is a prime genre for this novel because of the atmosphere of decay; the mysterious, sin, crime, guilt, and secrets of the novel; and, lastly, the woman with a threatening atmosphere. All of these points refer to The Hound of the Baskervilles as one example of Gothic literature.
Today people such as Agatha Christie have carried on the crime genre which in my opinion is successful. The use of technology in the art of forensic science in Doyle’s books is why, in my opinion, they are successful because in those days the technology had just started and they were intrigued by it.
Florescu, Radu R., and McNally, Raymond T., Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times (1989)
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Great Britain, Penguin Groups, 2004. New York, Berkley Publishing Group,1993.
Moorman, Charles. A Knyght There Was: The Evolution of the Knight in Literature. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles. New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 2001. Print.
The birth of classic detective fiction was originated just in the mid nineteenth century, and was producing its own genre. Classical detective fiction follows a set of rules called the ‘Ten commandments of detective fiction’. The genre is so popular it can bee seen by the number of sales in any good book stores. Many of these books have been created a long time ago and there is still a demand for these types of books. The popularity is still ongoing because it provides constant entertainment, and also the reader can also have a role of detective trying to solve the crime/case committed. Classical detective fiction has a formula, the detective story starts with a seemingly irresolvable mystery, typically a murder, features the astute, often unconventional detective, a wrongly accused suspect to whom the circumstantial evidence points, and concludes with a startling or unexpected solution to the mystery, during which the detective explains how he or she solved the mystery. Formula that includes certain elements such as, a closed location to keep the number of suspects down, red hearings spread around the stories to keep the reader entertained yet interacted.
In 1897, an Irish author by the name of Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker introduced the character of the vampire, Count Dracula, to readers of the time. As written and published in the Victorian era, referring to the time during which England fell under the 63 year reign of Queen Victoria, Dracula reflects the attitudes and beliefs of individuals during this period. It was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire, and was an age rich in industrial, political, scientific, cultural, and military change within the United Kingdom. An abundance of these themes and values are portrayed through the several protagonists in the text in its epistolary format. The most prominent of which are inclusive of, but not limited to xenophobia, the new woman and sexuality, the dichotomy of religion and supernaturalism, and the coalescence of science, industrialism and modernity.
Spencer, Kathleen L. “Purity and Danger: Dracula, The Urban Gothic, and the Late Victorian Degeneracy Crisis.” English Literary History 59.1 (1992): 197-226
Podonsky, Amanda M. "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society." Student Pulse: The International Student Journal. N.p., 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
After concluding the role of Sherlock Holmes as a detective in the story of the Speckled Band, I know that he was one of the most famous detectives in the world, and he bought into the world of detectives different skills and abilities, also, bought his own natural talent and set some very high standards, which detectives these days find
The Sherlock Holmes series, has, like most enduring literary works, both challenged and conformed to the ideals of its age. Today, more than a hundred years after his first adventure, Sherlock Holmes remains one of the most beloved fictional characters of the Victorian era.
An examination of Sherlock Holmes' abilities and techniques. allied to his personal characteristics, enable him to solve crimes. There are many reasons to explain why Sherlock Holmes is one of the world's most famous fictional detectives. However, the main reason for This is that not only are the stories complex, but the actual character of Sherlock Holmes has extreme depth, with some subtle. elements of his character only becoming apparent when he is in certain situations.
The most important of Ronald Knox’s “10 Commandments of Detective Fiction” is the first commandment: “The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.” Rendell and Christie somewhat abide by Knox’s first commandment, and introduce the criminal at the beginning of their respective novels. However, both novelists defy Knox’s commandment by allowing the reader access to the guilty criminal’s mind. While Christie and Rendell allow access to the minds of the criminals in two different ways, their access allows the reader insight to the minds of these criminals and allows them to view the events that have taken place from the criminal’s perspective, and understand the reasons why each criminal committed their crimes. This provides an interesting and exciting twist to the novel that would not be present if Christie and Rendell had conformed to Knox’s first commandment.
“The Hound of the Baskervilles”. Novel for Students. Vol. 28. Detroit:Gale, 2009. 119-146. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Nov.2013.