tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post648428940367332899..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: So barren, and so mysterious - out on the moors with The Hound of the BaskervillesAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-69234704698283512842016-04-22T14:05:01.556-05:002016-04-22T14:05:01.556-05:00Yes, characters who have escaped their texts, like...Yes, characters who have escaped their texts, like Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and Dracula.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-44129513323878217082016-04-22T13:35:15.898-05:002016-04-22T13:35:15.898-05:00Holmes and Watson have moved out of literature and...Holmes and Watson have moved out of literature and into mythology so the question of how good the novels and stories are is irrelevant. We know all about Holmes and Watson without ever needing to read Doyle.Roger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51264288642827706662016-04-22T08:14:05.150-05:002016-04-22T08:14:05.150-05:00Worn out, no, that was great. I completely unders...Worn out, no, that was great. I completely understand how the stories can be so often imitated yet be a dead end, how they can look more unique <i>after</i> so many imitations.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-8767225134393983282016-04-22T02:28:35.645-05:002016-04-22T02:28:35.645-05:00I led a seminar on the history of Detective Fictio...I led a seminar on the history of Detective Fiction beginning with the Dupin stories, then to The Moonstone (still the greatest detective novel ever), to Silver Blaze and A Scandal in Bohemia plus Hound of the Baskervilles, and ending with Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death, one of Poirot's finest ratiocinative recitations. What makes Hound singular is that the reader is solving at least some of the crime contemporaneously with Holmes (and in Silver Blaze, also) while in most of the stories we simply are spectators or bystanders to his greatness. The genre developed in ways that left Doyle's work more like an island than part of the stream (to strain a metaphor), and perhaps that's why modern readers find A Study in Scarlet and the other two little novels so vastly inferior as novels, no matter how rich they are with Holmesian lore. A recent column on Dickens and Star Wars (yes) highlights our continuing fascination with serial fiction and how characters develop, something that Holmes aficionados have had difficulty proving (not without trying, of course). Holmes and Watson have life changes, but do they really change as characters over the arc of the Canon? I'm not so sure, certainly not with the clarity that a contemporary practitioner like Elizabeth George uses to give her detectives a multi-book arc that, in many cases, threatens to overshadow the mysteries contained within the novels (one senses from the recent series "Grantchester" that something similar is happening there). At the end of the day, however, I have concluded that Doyle's Holmes stories stand alone in their greatness; they are impervious to criticism from their devotees, and beyond the reach of literary historians. They are a fabulous dead end in the developmental chain, the Neanderthal whose mystery and uniqueness improves with time, but whose like we shall never see again, having been absorbed by the force of what many would consider the inferior strain of detective fiction generally. Having said that, I suspect I have worn out my welcome, and will move on...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00014242874264804584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86588725553304222312016-04-20T09:10:02.248-05:002016-04-20T09:10:02.248-05:00You can see the evolution of the genre in these Do...You can see the evolution of the genre in these Doyle stories and novels. With the first books, there is not really a detective genre. By <i>Hound</i>, there is, and that book becomes an exemplar.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-20004462737170572902016-04-20T02:25:41.001-05:002016-04-20T02:25:41.001-05:00You're right, you know - Baskervilles really *...You're right, you know - Baskervilles really *is* the most successful Holmes novel. Doyle's short stories are a perfected form, and the best Holmes things to read. I hadn't really thought about it before, but the other two novels are flabby and really have too much going on that isn't to do with Holmes. But the short stories are concentrated wonderfulness, and I *do* love Hound very much. <br /><br />kaggsysbookishramblingsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14785515979326875312016-04-19T22:37:35.956-05:002016-04-19T22:37:35.956-05:00Holmes has a savory but strong flavor, I guess.
...Holmes has a savory but strong flavor, I guess. <br /><br />I can see your issue with the neatness. With that setting, and setup, a little more weirdness or uncertainty would be interesting. Maybe that has to be someone else's later Holmes story, not Doyle's.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14874317406829568252016-04-19T17:00:21.261-05:002016-04-19T17:00:21.261-05:00I agree about the daring - and the pleasure - of t...I agree about the daring - and the pleasure - of taking Holmes out and then, so dramatically, bringing him back. It works beautifully. I don't care much for the hyper-cleverness of the Holmes stories (too bloodless for me, by and large), but I've come to really like <i>Hound</i>. It's also perfect for teaching because it so neatly (maybe too neatly) sets up the supernatural vs. natural explanation thing that is so key to Holmes's usual methods and values, and then allows for a bit more wonder and actual mystery than usual.Rohan Maitzenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12111722115617352412noreply@blogger.com