The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Conan Doyle

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The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Conan Doyle

Conan Doyle is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes and his

sidekick Dr Watson. His stories about mysterious detection stories are

still being read all over the world.

Arther Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He spent a year in

Austria before taking a degree in medicine. He later drew on the

method of diagnosis for the basis for Sherlock Holmes's own deductive

methods and 'Elementary' approach to solving mysteries. His work was

so popular because at that time detection was rising.

How do chapters 1 and 2 set in motion the rest of the novel?

At the start of a detective story, readers would expect to find out

about some sort of detection to show how good the characters actually

are at it, but also about the mysterious detection involved. So it

could start very mysterious and scary as if it's building up to

something. Although in 'Hound of the Baskervilles' it does not start

like this. It begins by introducing the two main characters to the

story. "Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings,

save upon those frequent occasions when he stayed up all night, was

seated at the breakfast table" This makes the reader wander what

Holmes does when he stays up at night.

The main detectives are 'Holmes and Watson' we learn that they have a

kind of teacher and pupil relationship. Holmes is a person who always

thinks he's right and has very strong opinions. Watson however is the

type of person who knows he is right but doesn't speak up about it to

Holmes, just to give him the glory and give him confidence; giving off

the impression Holmes is a far better detec...

... middle of paper ...

... said there were no traces upon the ground around

the body. He did not observe any, but Mortimer did, some little

distance off, but fresh and clear. From this Holmes assumes that they

are human footprints, but Mortimer soon puts him right that they were

'footsteps of a gigantic hound.'

This is dramatic because the last bit of information Mortimer had been

keeping a secret as he didn't want people thinking he was mad and

believed in such a story.

In conclusion, chapters 1 and 2 help to set the novel in motion by

explaining the main core of the story and introducing the main

characters. It explains the curse of the family and tells a lot about

the characters and the hound. It includes a lot of mysterious things,

especially at the end of chapter 2 where it reveals that Dr Mortimer

believes there really is a hound.

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