The Popularity of The Hound of the Baskervilles in Victorian Times

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The Popularity of The Hound of the Baskervilles in Victorian Times

In this essay I will be looking at some of the reasons why ‘the Hound

of the Baskervilles’ was popular with Victorian readers. I will

explain how cliff hangers worked and why the writers used them in most

novels and chapters.

There are many different themes n the story that was quite popular in

the 1901’s when the story was first published. A few of those themes

were designed for the higher majority of Victorians, the themes of

order and chaos together with the confusion of science and religion.

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories Sherlock Holmes is the main character

and that particular character’s appealed to a higher society in which

crime was wrong and that the criminals should be punished.

Stories, serialized in magazines such as ‘The Hound of The

Baskervilles’ were very popular in Victorian times, the Victorians

obviously enjoyed the novel as it increased the effect of terror and

mostly suspense such as cliff hangers at the end of chapters. The

novel was so popular that the creators and publishers sold out every

issue and had to keep up with the demand so they made more copies.

The other reason for why this particular book was so popular is

because the Victorians invented ‘gothic’ fiction which suggests that

if they invented it they must enjoy reading it.

‘The Hound of The Baskervilles’ shows the characteristics of gothic

fiction in most chapters in the story by describing the moon for

example, “I saw beyond the trees a broken fringe of rocks and the

long, low curve of the melancholy moon”.

In Victorian times they didn’t have television or any other

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... have been part of the fun of reading the novel.

Cliff hangers worked so well when they first started to publish this

novel because the sold each chapter in monthly installments in a

magazine, so in order for people to keep buying the magazine they

thought of leaving the end of chapters on a cliff hangers.

Two examples of cliff hangers from The Hound of The Baskervilles are

when, ‘Dr Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his

voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered, “Mr Holmes, they were

the foot prints of a gigantic hound”. At the end of chapter 2.

At the end of chapter 11, it talks about how footsteps approached and

a shadow fell across the opening of the hut. “It is a lovely evening,

my dear Watson”, said a well known voice. “I really think that you

will be more comfortable outside than in”.

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