The famous Novel “the hounds of the Baskerville” was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he was very popular in late 19th century all the way up to now. His books were published in the weekly magazine the “Strand” and proved to be loved by most Victorians since he’s main character, Sherlock Holmes, a private detective proved to be far more competent than the police force. Especially since it was a time were notorious murderers such as “jack the ripper”, it was a time were you put your own life at risk just by going out to the pub after a long days of work , therefore a justice force that could actually solve crimes made the population feel reassured and secure.
To engage the reader, Arthur Conan Doyle uses many different technique and methods. The first method are his characters, especially his 2 main characters- Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of “deductive reasoning”, observation to solve difficult cases and in some way his arrogance for example on the bottom of page 6 and top of page 7″Recognizing, as I do , that you are the second highest expert in Europe” ” Indeed ,sir ! May I inquire who has the honors to be the first?” asked Holmes, with some asperity.” . But Dr Watson isn’t as clever but more down to earth, less unpredictable, sympathetic and buffoon like. We could say that they balance each other out. Also Watson has another important role; Arthur Conan Doyle uses him to narrate the book.
Most other characters in the hound of the Baskerville are nowhere near as detailed in human terms as Holmes and Watson .Some such as Mr. Frankland, Laura Lyons and inspector Lestrade, are quite shadowy figures. The remaining characters are shown in rather more detail such as Dr Mortimer who is described by Holmes as “strange, peering, absent minded” and at the beginning they are some speculation of him being involved in the murders of Charles Baskerville and that lead on to another method used by Arthur Conan Doyle .It is called Red herring , it is when one particular character is described or emphasized in a way that seems to throw suspicion upon that character as the person who committed the crime: later, it develops that someone else is the guilty party. And that is used a lot for example Barrymore, the Baskerville hall housekeeper is one of the first suspect of the book since
a man with a big black bushy beard is seen following Dr Mortimer and Sir Henry Baskerville. Holmes then talks about it to Mortimer who only has one reference-Barrymore. He is then later in the book heard walking around the house at night and the weeping of his wife make him a very suspicious character. He is then followed by Watson and Sir Henry which surprise him doing light signals across the moor. The next morning he is interrogated by Sir Henry, he says that he is signaling to Seldon an escape convict from the high security prison of the moor and notorious for the Nottinghill murders, he then appears to be Mrs. Barrymore brother which then become clear the reason why she’s crying at night . She worried about her brother alone on the treacherous Moore and that’s why he sends signal – to know the position of Seldon to place some food and clothing
Another method used by Arthur Conan Doyle is Pathetic fallacy. And that’s when the atmosphere of the chapter echo’s into the environment i.e. If there a cold rainy weather the atmosphere isn’t happy and jolly and the other around, there aren’t going to be someone dying on a bright sunny day where the sky is blue and colorful flowers everywhere. He also uses cliffhangers; He does this at the end of nearly every chapter to encourage the reader to buy the next issue he does this by leaving the main characters in a precarious or difficult situation or by introducing new characters and new clues. A good example is chapters 1 were Mortimer is introduced for the first time at the end of the chapter.
Another technique used is he’ different sentence structure. He uses long; complex sentences to slow the pace down the reader can pause and think. this is also used as it is easier to add in a description for example ( pg100) “the extract from my private diary which forms the last chapter has bought my narrative up to the 18th of October ,a time where these strange events began to move swiftly towards their terrible conclusion. “He the uses short sentences to create suspense reader “That night he looted there” (pg25) it’s short and makes a point. Therefore my conclusion is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle engages the reader by using a mix of different techniques to try and create suspense which is engaging so my conclusion is , if you want to engage the reader you have to create suspense…
