The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle :: English Literature

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Examine how Conan Doyle establishes the setting for the novel in the opening four chapters. How effective do you consider this to be? â€Å"The Hound of the Baskervilles† was written in 1902 when the detective genre had been established in England for around 50 years, by authors such as Wilkie Collins and James Anderson who published â€Å"Murder She Wrote†. Arthur Conan Doyle contributed to the development of this genre by creating Sherlock Holmes & Dr.Watson in a range of popular short stories released in magazines. He was one of the most significant, influential authors to this genre as he created the most famous detective, in fiction, in Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes was first introduced in â€Å"A Study in Scarlet† which was published in 1887; this won a lot of success and meant that Holmes featured as a main character in future stories and novels written by Doyle. Doyle, born in Edinburgh, Scotland began practicing medicine in 1882; his knowledge from his education comes through in his writing and there are many references to scientific sources. This gave his writing a new dimension and was new for readers at the time which perhaps even contributing to the popularity of his writing. In â€Å"The Hound of the Baskervilles† Doyle establishes the setting through five main aspects. These are a sense of time, places, genre, the plot and characters. An important aspect of the setting is how Doyle presents the main characters, their relationships and personalities. Doyle introduces 4 of the main characters in the opening chapters and begins to establish their relationships most noticeably between Holmes and Watson. The main characters are Holmes, Watson, Dr. Mortimer, the Baskerville family and of course the hound itself. These different characters are introduced in different chapters through different methods. This is for a number of reasons; to differentiate them, to let each of them have a different impact in the novel and because of the tradition from previous stories containing some of the characters. Holmes and Watson are not described in great detail but introduced in the opening chapters through their dialogue. Doyle did this as he didn’t need to introduce them in more depth as they had already been well established to the readers through other short stories in which they appeared before â€Å"The Hound of the Baskervilles†. Readers at the time already had a sense of their personalities and physical features through their earlier introductions. Holmes and Watson have a strong relationship in the novel which is shown by the way they talk to each other, their actions and the way they both try to solve the crime.