Although, the words were never actually uttered by Sherlock Holmes, the phrase “Elementary, my dear Watson,” has been stuck in minds since Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote about the famous detective. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, widely known for his stories about the great detective Sherlock Holmes, was born into poverty in Edinburg, Scotland on May 22, 1859. Doyle’s early life and later experiences with his medical career and religion helped influence stories centered around his most famous series and detective, Sherlock Holmes, along with Holmes’ best friend, John Watson. His early interest in Edgar Allen Poe’s style of Gothicism also helped mold his writing style later in life. Living in England and Scotland, and serving in the Boer War, his life was filled with influences that later affected Holmes’ biggest adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles. Of all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s influences, his three biggest ones are his love of Edgar Allen Poe’s works, his adventures as a doctor, and his belief in spiritualism.
As a young child, Arthur Conan Doyle was an avid reader of the most popular books of the time, especially adventure and gothic novels (British Writers 161). Poe’s works were among the most famous and influential of Doyle’s writing. Gothicism, the main style of Poe’s writing, which intertwined elements of romance and horror, was just starting to reach its height in Victorian England in cheap books and magazines. In fact, Poe’s detective character C. Auguste Dupin was thought of as part of the inspiration for Doyle’s own mystery hero, Sherlock Holmes (“The Hound” 120, 130). Attending a Jesuit school in England which he despised, his short visits home led him to the discovery of Poe’s short stories, which influenced his love ...
... middle of paper ...
...ve Supplement. Ed. Jay Parini and George Stade. Supplement 2. New York: Macmillan, 2009. 160-164. Print.
“Arthur Conan Doyle.” Notable British Novelists. Ed. Carl Rollyson.Vol. 1. Pasadena: Salem Press, Inc., 2001. 264-270. Print.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Park Ridge: Andor Publishing, Inc., 1976. Print.
Pearson, Hesketh. Conan Doyle: His Life and Art. Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1943. 193. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon K. Hall. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 221-222. Print.
Sayer, Dorothy. “Introduction.” The Omnibus of Crime. Payson and Clarke Ltd., 1929. 9-47. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Sharon K. Hall. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 219. Print.
“The Hound of the Baskervilles: Arthur Conan Doyle.” Novels for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 28. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 120-133. Print.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four novels written about his world famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. However, unlike the other books written about Sherlock Holmes, much of The Hound of the Baskervilles is absent of the detective. Instead, the audience is left to work through the mystery of who murdered Mr. Baskerville with Sherlock Holmes’ assistant and friend, as well as the narrator of the novel, Dr. John Watson. There are multiple reasons Doyle may have decided to make Watson the narrator, and to remove Holmes from a large portion of the novel. First, as Holmes is such a dry and clinical person, by making Watson the narrator, Doyle is able to employ more descriptive and entertaining writing. Second,
With respect to the Gothic conventions present in The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe’s texts are considered examples of Gothic literature. Through the use of literary techniques and devices, Poe has effectively conveyed thematic concerns of Gothicism. Poe’s texts explore the inept fear of the unknown, the decay of an individual’s character and the psychotic relationship between insanity and the expression and instigation of emotions. The Gothic conventions within his work complement each other and operate in conjunction to express themes related to Gothicism, as ambient setting is achieved with the aid of the Gothic conventions of supernatural motifs and reference to darkness. By creating a pastiche of forms and conventions, Edgar Allan Poe’s works are considered sublime paradigms of Gothic fiction.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles. New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 2001. Print.
In The Hound of the Baskervilles, various factors of Arthur Conan Doyle’s early life, popularity, perspective, and status were all expressed in multiple ways. Spiritualism played an crucial role in his life, greatly impacting his work, specifically “The Hound.” Additionally, his birthplace and upbringing, along with the time period, inveigled his writing. Furthermore, Doyle characterized the people in the story in along with real life scenarios.
His stories had an immense importance among authors such as Stephen King, along with helping to establish the genres of science fiction and the detective story, which got him the named father of the detective story. When writing his work “Poe was concerned above all with the “effect” of his tale on the reader. This effect, he thought, should be single and unified. When readers finished the story, they ought to be left with a totality of impression, and every element of the story--character, style, tone, plot and so forth--should contribute to this effect” (Wright). So Poe sought to give his readers emotional and aesthetic pleasure, but also to get them to believe that his stories had a reality of their own. Poe’s early career path had him harboring two aspirations, one was writing and the other the army. The army aspiration didn’t last long and Poe began to focuses solely on writing full time. Poe began working for a magazine, writing reviews of his contemporaries and developed a reputation as a cutthroat critic, but while working for the magazine he also published some of his own works in it. In later years Poe worked as an editor, a poet, a critic and would publish several poems, short stories, and collections of stories. Poe was one of the more famous Dark Romantic writers, leading his works to have Dark Romantic elements such
Reading Edgar Allen Poe’s works such as “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart” are both written around 1840’s and written in the gothic style. Poe displays his horror short stories, in which the reader can differentiate his signature style. Although many of Poe’s significant works may have a similar theme, the reader can distinguish the themes through the characters in “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Tell-Tale Heart.”
Edgar Allan Poe, renowned as the foremost master of the short-story form of writing, chiefly tales of the mysterious and macabre, has established his short stories as leading proponents of “Gothic” literature. Although the term “Gothic” originally referred only to literature set in the Gothic (or medieval) period, its meaning has since been extended to include a particular style of writing. In order for literature to be “Gothic,” it must fulfill some specific requirements. Firstly, it must set a tone that is dark, somber, and foreboding. Next, throughout the development of the story, the events that occur must be strange, melodramatic, or often sinister. Poe’s short stories are considered Gothic literature because of their eerie atmosphere and atypical plot developments. Consequently, in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe is distinguished as an author of unique, albeit grotesque ingenuity in addition to superb plot construction via his frequent use of the ominous setting to enhance the plot’s progression and his thematic exploration of science versus superstition.
In what follows, my research paper will rely on an article by Kathy Prendergast entitled “Introduction to The Gothic Tradition”. The significance of this article resides in helping to recapitulate the various features of the Gothic tradition. In this article the authoress argues that in order to overturn the Enlightenment and realistic literary mores, many of the eighteenth century novelists had recourse to traditional Romantic conventions in their works of fiction, like the Arthurian legendary tales (Prendergast).
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Great Britain, Penguin Groups, 2004. New York, Berkley Publishing Group,1993.
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
Romanticism played a large role in the creation of gothic literature, and it was considered to be “a lunatic fringe version of romanticism” (Tiffin). Gothic novels often had a powerful unleashing of emotions to very extreme levels “beyond social constraining” (Tiffin). The genre’s character often had an excess of a specific type (Tiffin), and in an analysis of Frankenstein and Northanger Abbey, this excess can be seen in Frankenstein’s ambition and Catherine’s curiosity.
M.H. Abrams, et al; ed., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume I. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1993.
In the novel, Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are given a case that is paranormal. They decide to split up and Dr. Watson is given the task to stay by Sir Henry’s side while looking for clues. They cross paths against and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet to discuss this case as a murder. They find major clues against Mr. Stapleton leading to his death. The novel explores the theme of not being ruled by fear through characters dealing with the apparent supernatural myth coming to life.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) pioneered many of the most enduring forms of American popular culture, including detective story and the Gothic or sensational tale. I will compare and contrast five short stories of Poe: The Gold-Bug, The Purloined Letter, “Thou Art the Man”, The Cask of Amontillado and The Pit and the Pendulum. The genre, the purpose and role of the narrator and the parallelism between all of the stories will be examined.
and made him the well known author he is today is titles A Study in Scarlet. Doyle’s complete name is Sir Author Conan Doyle. The two main characters in this book are Sherlock Holmes and his roommate John H. Watson, they were a couple of friends who live together and solved cases. Events in all of our lives make certain impacts or when we meet certain people that we