Stories, serialized in magazines such as ‘The Hound of The Baskervilles’ were very popular in Victorian times, the Victorians obviously enjoyed the novel as it increased the effect of terror and mostly suspense such as cliff hangers at the end of chapters. The novel was so popular that the creators and publishers sold out every issue and had to keep up with the demand so they made more copies.
The other reason for why this particular book was so popular is because the Victorians invented ‘gothic’ fiction which suggests that if they invented it they must enjoy reading it.
‘The Hound of The Baskervilles’ shows the characteristics of gothic fiction in most chapters in the story by describing the moon for example, “I saw beyond the trees a broken fringe of rocks and the long, low curve of the melancholy moon”.
In Victorian times they didn’t have television or any other audio/visual appliances so they would read more.
So as gothic fiction was very popular then, it sold a lot of copies.
There are lots of different types of gothic settings; we know this because of these quotes, “A half moon broke through the nights of racing clouds” and “A deathly silence lay upon the old house”.
Also other novels such as ‘Dracula’ and ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ are two examples of gothic fiction stories written in Victorian times which were just as popular as ‘The Hound of The Baskervilles’.
It was said that gothic fiction was used by authors to express the Victorians’ fears and emotions; this could be a good reason why they liked gothic fiction so much.
The novel uses images and ideas taken from gothic fiction so it can make it clearer to the reader and so they can visually picture what is happening in the story.
Proof that the Victorians liked detective novels. We can tell that they must have liked them because they were the people who invented the detective fiction. Some traditional parts of a detective story are;
A seemingly perfect crime- which is that people thought a supernatural hound murdered Sir Henry Baskerville. No one will suspect the real murderer, because they think it is the hound, also needed is a wrongly accused suspect known as a red herring and a startling and unexpected ending, where the detective reveals all where in this novel it is that Stopelton was actually a member of the Baskerville family who would inherit the dead mans fortune.
The Hound of the Baskervilles used almost every traditional parts which could have helped the Victorians enjoy reading the book.
The readers must have tried to solve the mysteries before the ending which would have been part of the fun of reading the novel.
Cliff hangers worked so well when they first started to publish this novel because the sold each chapter in monthly installments in a magazine, so in order for people to keep buying the magazine they thought of leaving the end of chapters on a cliff hangers.
Two examples of cliff hangers from The Hound of The Baskervilles are when, ‘Dr Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered, “Mr Holmes, they were the foot prints of a gigantic hound”. At the end of chapter 2.
At the end of chapter 11, it talks about how footsteps approached and a shadow fell across the opening of the hut. “It is a lovely evening, my dear Watson”, said a well known voice. “I really think that you will be more comfortable outside than in”.
