Arthur Conan Doyle's Stories and Their Undying Appeal Essays

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a British physician and writer, mostly well known for his stories “Sherlock Holmes”, which are generally in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction.

The placing of a red herring at the opening of the twisted lip I think

many; if not all of his cases as he himself informs us that it 'has

Like all literature, the Holmes stories are open to interpretation and analysis. Readers of all levels of scholarship and devotion have poured countless hours into examining every last detail in hopes of finding some new detail or something to unlock an additional

The readers are also exposed to the deep thoughts of his mind, “This fellow may be very clever, I said to myself, but he is certainly very conceited”. The character of Watson is believable and comforting, he warmly invites the readers into this world of mystery. Our bond is deepened by the fact that all these experiences are as new to Watson as they are to the readers. This paired with the autobiographical style of writing authenticates the narrative further. These elements increase the suspense and mystery within the text and particularly the readers’ concern for the safety of its characters. As has been shown, tension and suspense can be created through both dialogue and first-person perspectives in the mystery genre.

In the genre of detective fiction one of the first names that pops into ones head is that of Sherlock Holmes. His stories, in the “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," more or less embody classic detective fiction in the 1800s. There are victims early on in the story and a bad guy whom you only find out about at the end. The story is fast paced and you are lead down different paths and end up thinking you have figured out the twisted mystery, to only then find out you were no where close to the actual solution. Almost all of the stories we have read in class have had these things in common.

Holmes is a very complex and moody character who, although of strict habit, is considerably messy. Holmes appears to undergo periods of obsession and depression, the latter of which are accompanied by violin playing, and cocaine use. All of Conan Doyle’s stories are told from Watson’s first-person perspective, and yet, Holmes flaws are not criticized but glamourized. While Holmes is a clever and observant man, his flaws are very clear to people around him.

Detective stories have never truly intrigued me until now, it surprises me that Mr. Doyle is able to developed the characters so well in such a short period of writing. If I could ask him a question about his book it would be, how do you have inspiration for all of the different stories inside the book? How the book is written makes me feel as though I am inside of the story standing beside Holmes seeing what he is, that description is what grabbed me and made me guess about the book. I read the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last year and the young boy always used Sherlock as a “guide” as to how he would go about solving his situations. That shows how influential the book is or prevalent. The book so far has taught

Crime fiction became popular in the 1840’s with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, however scientific crime fiction has been credited to Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle is the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. This fictional detective, made his first appearance in The Strand Magazine short story “A Scandal in Bohemia” in 1891 and appeared in four novels and 56 short stories. One of Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous novels is “The Hound of the Baskervilles” featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as detectives who are responsible for solving the mystery and the family curse of “The Hound”. In the novel, there is a “supernatural” hound, but with Holmes’ deductive and scientific reasoning reveals the

The manor of Stoke Moran is the kind of place that you would expect to

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, The Hound of the Baskervilles, provides insight into the values of the late Victorian Period. The people of this prosperous age valued a cultured demeanor and respected the social order. This story was written for the Victorian reader and reflects these views. Doyle created Sherlock Holmes to represent what his audience valued in a man of high status. Throughout the sleuth story, Sherlock Holmes and Watson strive to maintain civil order. A murderer must be stopped from cheating the class system and an escaped convict must pay for his transgressions.

This case is significant since it involves an important animal on which people have bet large amounts of money as well as an unsolved murder. An additional characteristic of Detective Fiction is that because a large part of the attraction of a detective story is the opportunity for the reader to try to figure out the solution along with the detective, all suspects of the crime must be introduced early in the story. In this story, the reader does indeed meet all of the suspects at the beginning, but there is no way one could predict who is guilty of the crime of murder. “Silver Blaze” is a compelling story filled with characters stumbling through this adventure with little hope for an answer until Sherlock Holmes arrives. There are various “people who had the strongest interest in preventing Silver Blaze” from being at the race, so there are multiple suspects (2). Many people were rapidly starting to become suspects z“who had the strongest interest in preventing Silver Blaze from being there at the fall of the flag next Tuesday”(2). Since the beginning of the mystery those two people were already started to be accused of being suspects. Each character is a separate detail, and when all the details are examined, Holmes solves the case of the missing horse and its murdered trainer. Ultimitaley, a third characteristic that applies to Detective Fiction is that the solution must seem obvious, logical. At the end of the story, Holmes is able to

Though the case is riddled with myth, Holmes does not let ghost stories scare him off. Charles Mortimer was hesitant to ask Holmes to help with the case, for fear that there was nothing Holmes could do with the supernatural, but Holmes says “In a modest way I have combated evil, but to take o the Father of Evil himself would, perhaps, be too ambitious a task. Yet you must admit that the footmark is material.”(31) Thus Holmes is focused on the realness of the case, not the supposed supernatural. He is determined to find the truth of the case, even willing to isolate himself in the woods to observe the crimes scene to further his investigation, without tipping of his enemies of his presence. When Holmes finally tells Watson who the culprit is, Watson wants to arrest him immediately. However, Holmes is not finished yet and wants to find more evidence to prove the Stapleton is guilty. This shows that Holmes is determined to bring Stapleton to justice, not just impulsively arrest him without proof. In conclusion, Holmes is determined, even when faced with many

was the father of the detective tale, and covered its limits so completely that I fail to see how his followers can find any fresh ground which they can confidently call their own" (Morledge 38). From the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes it was clear that Conan Doyle is on the right track of creating his character, gaining a tremendous level of success after the first story

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” (Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes) This is one of the many lines in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Mysteries. Conan Doyle, born in May of 1859, published the first Sherlock Holmes mystery, A Study in Scarlet, in 1887. When he died in July of 1930 there were 4 novels as well as 56 short stories that featured Holmes. Even though some of the plots throughout the series are unrealistic many of the cultural details are real. Doyle describes London in a great amount of detail, including the smog that fell upon the city. For example, some of the locations Doyle writes about are in fact real places; some of the characters are based off people he knew in his life, and throughout the novels and stories there are many weapons and ammo that were actually used in the nineteenth century.