Write about the descriptive writing and how it creates atmosphere In two detective mystery stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Georgina Harding

English Coursework

The author is a man who brought detective stories into the world.  The word detective had not been made until three years before Arthur Conan Doyle was born.  Before Arthur Conan Doyle people used to read criminals confessions. Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1859.  His parents were Charles Altamont and Mary Foley Doyle.   He was one of ten children and only seven of these survived.  Charles Altamont Doyle was a civil servant and Mary Doyle ran a boarding house.  In 1874 Arthur Conan Doyle passed his university matriculation exam.  During the summer of 1878 he worked as a doctor in general practise.  In 1879 Arthur Conan Doyle sold his first short story to Chambers’ journal.  Arthur received his masters in Biology in 1881.  In 1883, a short story entitled “Habakuk Jephson’s statement”  was published.   Arthur received a M.D in 1885.    Arthur started to write adventure stories to gain extra money.  He became a doctor in 1887.  His first Sherlock Holmes book came out in 1887.  The character was based on Edgar Allan Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin and Eugene Francois Vidoq.  By 1891 he had become a full time writer. In 1892 the first collection of Sherlock Holmes stories where published.  In 1917 the last Sherlock Holmes story was published.  By 1920 Arthur was one of the highest paid writer in London.  On July 7, 1930 Arthur Conan Doyle died from heart disease.

Sherlock Holmes was not a real person but when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about him he based him on a man called Dr Joseph Bell.  This man shared many qualities with Sherlock Holmes.  Although Sherlock Holmes was based on a dear friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, the sidekick to Sherlock Holmes Dr Watson was based on himself.  ‘The events in question occurred in the early days of my association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in Backer Street.”  This quote from The Speckled Band helps us to see that Arthur Conan Doyle, in the character of Dr Watson, is remembering how he lived with his friend.  (Look on Internet for the reasons for who the characters where based on.)

When someone starts to write a detective story they have to decide what the plot will be.  They need to decide what the crime is going to be.  Both of the detective stories, which Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, had the beginning of a crime at the start  and then at the end of the story had the solution.  In the story the writer has to think how not to give the plot away.  In both of Arthur Conan Doyle’s books there are clues for the reader that mislead us and other clues which help us to find out what the solution is.  ‘There is a trap-door at the back of that building… which could tell some strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless nights.’ man with the twisted lip.  This quote makes us think that Neville St Clair was thrown into that trap door; this is a misleading clue.

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 In all stories the writer must create tension to make people want to read on.  This is especially appropriate for a detective story.  Of course in a detective story there needs to be a victim of the crime as well as the suspect. In Speckled Band the suspect is Dr Roylett and the victims are Helen and Julia Stoner.  In the Twisted the Lip the suspect seems to be the tramp but at the end of the story we find out that Neville St Clair is the suspect because he was the tramp, the victim is Neville St Clair ...

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