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 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.
Moorman, Charles. A Knyght There Was: The Evolution of the Knight in Literature. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1967.
*Abrams, M.H., ed., et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition. Vol.I. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.
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.
The acclaimed authors, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, formulate the characters of Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes respectively, to be similar in the way that they analyze, deduce, and connect segments of desperate and often-thought “unsolvable” detective cases. Through their comparable techniques and system of deduction, Dupin and Holmes never fail to trace back their evidence to the scene of the crime. However, due to the vast difference in the writing styles of Poe and Doyle, the audience observes the main characters not as clones, but rather an analogous pair that think alike, but do not act alike. The personalities of Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes, although present are recognizable differences in their actions, continue to
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.
A perfect detective, is there such a thing? Sherlock Holmes is well a known fictional detective to the public, he is most famous for his mastery at using logic adroit observation to solve cases. Sherlock Holmes presents multiple times his talent for noticing tiny details such as in the novels A Study in Scarlet and The Man with the Twisted Lip. In the two criticisms works his cleverness and technique is brought to light. Author Conan Doyle incorporated a lot details to make Holmes seem real. Holmes can be considered a “Romantic Hero” because time after time he risk, his mental sanity, and at times his life. All these qualities that Holmes have makes him seem like anhero from the twentieth century although he was created in the Victorian era.
The Hound of the Baskervilles written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the movie The Hound of the Baskervilles directed by Jeremy Bret are two works of art that are mainly telling the same story. There are, however, many differences about the book and the movie. Those differences don’t affect the outcome of the story, but they give less impact to the story. Along with the differences there are many similarities, and those similarities give you confidence that it is the same story.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of Arthur Conan Doyle 's most famous works. The novel is the prime example of a Gothic Detective Story. Written during the first year of the 20th Century, the novel is a reflection of the concerns and issues that were prevalent at the time. The novel incorporates beliefs that were widely popular, including atavism and criminality. Although the novel is viewed as just another addition to the Sherlock Holmes canon, there are deeper philosophical conflicts that reflect the time period in which the novel was written.
My childhood memories of sitting in front the coal fire watching Sherlock Holmes on a black and white television obviously gripped by the story line, apparently started my endearment for murder mystery by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A studious man my admiration goes out to him as an exceptionally
Mysteries have always held great fascination for the human mind, not least because of the aura that surrounds them and the realm of the Unknown into which they delve. Coupled with the human propensity of being particularly curious about aspects which elude the average mind, the layer of intrigue that glosses over such puzzles makes for a heady combination of the literary and the popular. In the canon of detective fiction worldwide, no detective has tickled the curious reader’s imagination and held it in thrall as much as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The 221-B, Baker Street, London ‘amateur’ detective combines a rare blend of intellectual prowess and sharp wit to crack a series of baffling riddles.
In the beginning, Sir Charles fears the mythical hound, and is killed because of it. When Dr. Mortimer, Sherlock Holmes, and Dr. Watson are discussing the details of the time leading to Sir Charles death and his death. This is depicted when Dr. Mortimer states, ‘“…Sir Charles’s nervous system was strained…so much so…nothing would induce him to go out upon the moor at night…[a] ghastly presence constantly haunted him…”’ (23-24). Furthermore, Sir Charles heart attack was caused by the fear of seeing the hound and when he died, his face was distorted with fear. His fear directly ruled his life through keeping him away from the moor at night and worrying about
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.
Pos-Ho. Critical survey of mystery and Detective Fiction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey Salem Press, 1988. pgs 1332-1337
“The Hound of the Baskervilles”. Novel for Students. Vol. 28. Detroit:Gale, 2009. 119-146. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Nov.2013.