208
See also: Bleak House 14 6 – 49 ■ The Moonstone 198 ■ The Big Sleep 236–37T
he sleuth, who uses acute
powers of observation
and deduction to solve
nearly impossible puzzles and
catch wrongdoers, appears in
earlier texts from several cultures.
However, detective fiction as a
distinct genre emerged only in
the 19th century, with the stories
of American author Edgar Allan
Poe featuring C. Auguste Dupin,
and reached its zenith in interwar
Britain. At its heart was the
detective: cerebral, often at the
expense of social skills; usually
accompanied by an assistant (who
is often also the narrator); and
possessed of an ability to identify
and decipher clues that baffle the
police. Sherlock Holmes—created
by Scottish writer Arthur Conan
Doyle (1859 –1930)—epitomized this
modern detective.
Conan Doyle trained as a
doctor in Scotland and pursued his
medical career even after writing
had brought him acclaim. His true
interest was writing historical
fiction, but he found far more
success with his detective stories,many of which were serialized in
The Strand Magazine. The Hound
of the Baskervilles was the third
full-length novel to feature Holmes.Foul play
The story centers on a strange
crime on Dartmoor: Sir Charles
Baskerville has apparently been
terrified to death on his own
estate by a ghostly hound. Foul
play is suspected, and Holmes
investigates. The main story, and
a subplot involving an escaped
criminal on the moor—are told
by Dr. Watson, Holmes’s friend
and ally and the book’s narrator.
Like most other works of early
detective fiction, The Hound of the
Baskervilles features a dastardly
crime (a murder), a closed group
of suspects, an inspired sleuth
who arrives to carry out an
investigation, and a solution that
readers may arrive at themselves
through logical deduction. The
appeal of the novel lies as much
in its plot—the triumph of reason
over evil and superstition—as in
its eerie, gothic atmosphere. ■THE WORLD IS FULL OF
OBVIOUS THINGS WHICH
NOBODY BY ANY CHANCE
EVER OBSERVES
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1901),
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Detective fiction
comes of ageBEFORE
1841 American writer Edgar
Allan Poe’s hero detective in
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
applies observation, deduction,
and intuition to solve a murder.1852–53 Inspector Bucket
investigates a murder in
Bleak House, by the English
writer Charles Dickens, sifting
through a variety of suspects.1868 English author Wilkie
Collins’ The Moonstone is
published, arguably the
first full-length detective
novel in English.AFTER
1920 English writer Agatha
Christie publishes her first
detective novel, The
Mysterious Affair at Styles,
marking the beginning of the
often called “Golden Age” of
detective fiction.US_208-209_Baskervilles_Cat.indd 208 08/10/2015 13:07