Arthur Conan Doyle's Fiction

Arthur Conan Doyle's fiction ranges from detective stories to historical and scientific adventures. The Sherlock Holmes narratives place observation and the testing of explanations at the centre of a mystery, with Dr Watson often recording both the investigation and the friendship behind it. London streets, country houses, and unfamiliar visitors bring different parts of society into the detective's rooms. Works such as The Hound of the Baskervilles combine a disturbing atmosphere with the gradual recovery of an intelligible chain of events. The contrast between appearances and evidence gives these stories their characteristic movement.