THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES - WEEK 1 - INTRO

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES by Arthur Conan Doyle

I'm going to fit as much info as I can on here about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There is a lot!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born into a wealthy family in 1859 in Scotland. He was the second of seven children. He attended a Jesuit school, but by the time he left in 1875, he rejected Christianity and became an agnostic. From there he attended the University of Edinburgh for medicine. Here he met Dr. Joseph Bell, Professor of Surgery, that used deduction on his patients and their illnesses. This would greatly influence his writing later when Doyle applied the same ideas to his Detective Sherlock Holmes. After graduation he worked as a doctor on a boat bound for Western Africa. In 1887 he wrote his first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. His next Sherlock adventures were written for magazines. They were very popular, but Doyle didn't want to be known for Sherlock Holmes. He wanted to be known for greater literary works, so he told his mother he planned to kill Sherlock Holmes off. His mother began sending him plot ideas to keep the detective alive. Doyle married and had two children. His wife became ill with tuberculosis. The family moved to Switzerland for her health. While there he discovered the Reichenbach Falls where Holmes and his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, eventually plunged to their deaths. In 1895 the family moved to Egypt for Doyle's wife's health. While there he became a war correspondent during the British and Dervishes troubles. In 1899 war broke out in South Africa and Doyle was put in charge of a hospital there. When he returned to England he was knighted for two books he wrote about The Boer War and The War in South Africa. In 1901-1902 Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles which was a serial in Stands Magazine. It was written as taking place right before Holmes' death. An American publisher then offered Doyle a significant amount of money to bring Holmes back, which he did. The result was 33 more Sherlock Holmes adventures. In 1906, Doyle's wife passed away, and he plunged into depression. In 1907 he married again and had 3 more children. Not long after, his two oldest sons, from his first marriage, passed away within months of each other. Both were wounded at the Battle of Somme and died later of pneumonia. In 1916, Doyle converted to spiritualism where he believed it was possible to communicate with the dead. He traveled and lectured extensively on this until 1929, when due to exhaustion, he died of a heart attack.

There's some other bits and pieces that I left out, but I think it's pretty easy to see how Doyle was able to write the complex character of Sherlock Holmes! Over this next week read chapters 1 and 2. First post about the reading goes up next Thursday!