Hehehehe. Review on The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle

What makes ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ a successful detective novel? The detective genre is very popular. One well known detective novel is ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ which when published in 1902 became a big hit with the Victorian public. Sherlock Holmes features in a famous series of detective novels written by Conan Doyle. ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is one of the most famous and earliest books in this genre. No detective novel can be successful without a good setting. ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ was set in four major places; Dartmoor, Merripit House, Baskerville Hall and the Grimpen Mire. Dartmoor always seemed to be very dreary looking and cold. The Grimpen Mire was ‘windy through the silence of the night’ and during ‘the hour of darkness’ it keeps the reader reading on to find out about the moans and ‘rising howls’. ‘Dim and sombre’ describes Baskerville Hall and it’s great sense of ‘gothic’ vibes. The ‘bleak moor land house’ surrounded by trees, is very gloomy and uninviting, Merripit House as it is known as is very dull. Being set in autumn gave the story that added incentive to make it seem a lot more ’gloomy’, ‘melancholy’ and very sinister’ along with the storyline. A way in which a novel can appeal to an audience, is to have a good set of characters. The main character; Holmes, is presented as an exceptionally intelligent man who works with Watson. As they work, they manage to investigate crimes and use their logic to find out ‘whodunit’. Although he works closely with Watson, he keeps a lot of things to himself. He shows little emotion as he is used to living alone. He is very cold man who likes an intellectual challenger to keep himself busy. Dr. Watson ‘the helper’ is a close friend of Holmes’ and tried to copy Holmes in everything he does. As Watson is not as clever as Holmes, he must have certain things explained to him in order for him to know what’s going on. He is very eager to please and also a very reliable man. Watson is like a narrator, he thoughts and guesses with the reader, yet keeps the audience wondering what might happen next, he is the sort of character that the reader will find easy to identify with. In a good detective novel you are sure to find a fair few strong suspects. Barrymore was the favourite of all suspects because he matched the description from witnesses that he had a black beard. Also, the fact that he might have been in London at that time gave away that he was in the right place when the murder happened.