Gothic returns : the Hound of the Baskervilles

Allan, JM

Abstract

In bringing together the scientific detective and the supernatural beast of ancient legend, The Hound of the Baskervilles occupies a liminal position, poised between the rational positivism of detective fiction and the uncanny ambiguity of the Gothic. While these two genres appear, on the face of things, to be antithetical in method and intent, it is now widely recognised that they share a common ancestry, albeit one that was denied by early critics of detective fiction. It is important to note, however, that Doyle’s novel establishes, and indeed relies upon, a binary between science and superstition – the rational and the irrational – if only to reveal the boundary between them to be as slippery and permeable as the mire itself. This chapter will, therefore, explore the interaction of the very different topographies – geographical, psychological and symbolic – that dominate Doyle’s most famous and successful novel.

• Publication Date: May 26, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 17, 2020
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
• Series Title: Cambridge Companions to Literature
• Book Title: The Cambridge Companion to Sherlock Holmes
• ISBN: 9781316609590
• Publisher URL: http://www.cambridge.org/