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

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan DoyleExamine how Conan Doyle establishes the setting for the novel in theopening four chapters. How effective do you consider this to be?The Hound of the Baskervilles was written in 1902 when the detectivegenre had been established in England for around 50 years, by authorssuch as Wilkie Collins and James Anderson who published Murder SheWrote. Arthur Conan Doyle contributed to the development of thisgenre by creating private detective Holmes & Dr.Watson in a range of best-selling(predicate)short stories released in magazines. He was one of the mostsignificant, influential authors to this genre as he created the mostfamous detective, in fiction, in Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes wasfirst awardd in A Study in Scarlet which was published in 1887this won a lot of success and meant that Holmes featured as a principal(prenominal)character in future stories and novels written by Doyle. Doyle, bornin Edinburgh, Scotland began practicin g medicine in 1882 hisknowledge from his education comes by dint of in his opus and thereare many references to scientific sources. This gave his writing a newdimension and was new for readers at the succession which perhaps evencontributing to the popularity of his writing. In The Hound of theBaskervilles 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 maincharacters, their relationships and personalities. Doyle introduces 4of the main characters in the opening chapters and begins to establishtheir relationships most noticeably between Holmes and Watson. Themain characters are Holmes, Watson, Dr. Mortimer, the Baskervillefamily and of course the hound itself. These different characters areintroduced in different chapters through different methods. This isfor a number of reasons to differentiate them, to let each of themhave a different impact in the novel and because of the tradition fromprevious stories containing close to of the characters.Holmes and Watson are not described in great detail but introduced inthe opening chapters through their dialogue. Doyle did this as hedidnt need to introduce them in more depth as they had already beenwell established to the readers through other short stories in whichthey appeared before The Hound of the Baskervilles. Readers at thetime already had a sense of their personalities and physical featuresthrough their earlier introductions.Holmes and Watson have a strong relationship in the novel which isshown by the way they intercourse to each other, their actions and the waythey both try to solve the crime.