Warm Up for 2/19/16
•Answer this question in your notes:
WHAT DO YOU KNOW
ABOUT THE VICTORIAN
AGE? WHAT ABOUT
SHERLOCK HOLMES?
ENGLAND IN FLUX
Victorian Era
Changes in England
• England continued to expand
industrially under Victoria.
By 1848, England produced
as much iron as the rest of
the world combined.
• The number of people in
England doubled between
1801 and 1850, while cities
continued to grow.
• According to author Disraeli,
there were “two nations” in
England – the rich and the
poor.
Life for the Poor
• Many people believed that
this widespread death and
poverty was a trade for
England’s growing power
• If there was a depression
in the trade market, an
entire factory could be
unemployed. This led to
extreme poverty and urban
slums, leaving many
families in outdoor slums.
Potato Famine
• The 1840s brought the
Potato Famine to
Ireland. In two years,
a million people died.
• This brought many
more starving poor
into England’s already
crowded streets.
The Empire
• Up until the 1870s, most
Englishmen viewed the colonies
like India as economic burdens.
• With new commercial rivals, the
English viewed their colonies in
a new light: as means to expand
their trade.
• This is the era of “White Man’s
Burden” - The English believed
that it was their preordained
purpose to civilize the world.
The Victorian Era
A CHANGING SOCIAL CLIMATE
Religion and other changes
• The rise of science causes a serious
question of religion. This is the era of
Darwin and Freud.
• Writers no longer just wrote “art” –
they took on political responsibility in
their writing.
• This is the era of the novel.
• There is also a revival of the drama in
England.
• In the beginning of the Victorian
period, magazines printed novels in
installments. This declined in late
Victorian England, leading to a new
creation: the British short story.
Changing Climate
• With all the changes in
social and political issues,
the Victorians clung to one
thing: decorum and moral
values.
• This led to a prudish and
conservative view on life,
sexuality, class, and
language that this era is
famous for.
Most common themes in Victorian
Literature:
• Sexuality and gender issues
• Imperialism and the ethics of the
Empire
• Industrialism
• Innocence and morality
• Religion
• Fear and science
End of the Era—Changes for Women
• The Custody Act (1839) gave a mother
the right to petition the court for access
to her minor children and custody of
children under 7 and later 16.
• The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes
Act (1857)
• Married Women’s Property Acts
(1870)
• 1891 –Women gain divorce rights
• 1848 – First women’s college
established in London
• By the end of Victoria’s reign, women
could take degrees at 12 university
colleges.
Women’s Clothing
• Women's clothing symbolized their
constricted lives.
– Tight lacing into corsets and
cumbersome, multiple layers of
skirts which dragged on the ground
impeded women's freedom of
movement.
– Between 1856 and 1878, among the
wealthy, the cage crinoline was
popular as it replaced the many
layers of petticoats, but it was
cumbersome and humiliating.
– Sitting down, the cage rode up
embarrassingly at the front. The
skirts were so wide that many
women died engulfed in flames after
the material caught fire from an
open grate or candle.
Key Points to Remember
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England grew in size, power, and wealth in this era
Queen Victoria was the key to this era’s popularity
The population is characterized by “two nations”
Writers became political
This is the era of the novel
Women gained many rights during this period
The period emerges with much conservatism
Themes of religion, fear & science, industrialism, gender
Major changes in England– by the end of this era, England
does not even resemble the country it began with
1859 – 1930
Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
Overview
• British novelist, short story writer,
poet, doctor of medicine
• Born in Edinburgh, Scotland on
May 22, 1859
• Studied medicine at the
University of Edinburgh (where
he met Dr. Joseph Bell)
As a child…
• His father, a chronic alcoholic, was later
committed to an insane asylum
• He had a special bond with his mom:
– “In my early childhood, as far as I can
remember anything at all, the vivid stories she
would tell me stand out so clearly …”
– “My mother had been so splendid that I could
not fail her.”
As a teenager…
• His wealthy family members paid for him
to go to boarding school
• Athletic: cricket, football/soccer, sailing
• Smart: “He was often found, surrounded
by a bevy of totally enraptured younger
students, listening to the amazing stories he
would make up to amuse them.”
• SURPRISE! He decides to go to medical
school.
As a doctor…
• Opened his own medical
practice, but was
moderately successful
• In his down time, he
continued writing stories…
As an adult…
• Married Louise “Touie” Hawkins
– “gentle and amiable”
– They had 2 children.
– She died of TB in 1906.
• Married Jean Leckie in 1907 …
after meeting her in 1897
– They had 3 children:
Denis, Adrian, & Lena Jean
– He spoke his last words to her:
“You are wonderful.”
Death
• Found clutching his chest in the hall of his
home in East Sussex, England
• Died of heart attack on July 7, 1930,
aged 71
• Tombstone in New Forest, Hampshire
reads:
STEEL TRUE
BLADE STRAIGHT
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
KNIGHT
PATRIOT, PHYSICIAN & MAN OF LETTERS
Major works
• Sherlock Holmes: 4 novels & 56 short stories
– Originally published short stories monthly in the
Strand Magazine
– 1st novel, 1886: A Study in Scarlet, including
Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson
– 1st book of short stories (12): The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes , in 1892
– 2nd collection: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes,
in 1894
– “The Speckled Band” was written in 1907 and
performed as a successful play
Sherlock Holmes
• Most famous fictional detective of all time
• Based on Conan Doyle’s medical
professor, Dr. Joseph Bell - gifted at
observation, logic, deduction, and
diagnosis
• Lived at 221B Baker Street, London
• Many readers thought Holmes was REAL!
World’s Best Detective
• Courageous
• Clever
• Attention to details
• Eccentric
Dr. John Watson
• Assistant, sidekick
• Narrator – loyal, gentleman, observes
• Average intelligence
• Foil
R.I.P. Holmes
• After two novels and 24 short stories, Conan Doyle
grew tired of Holmes and wanted to spend his time
with more “important” work - so he killed him off
in the short story “The Final Problem” in 1893.
• How? In a battle with his nemesis, Professor
Moriarty! They both fall to their deaths at the
Reichenbach Falls.
• Readers were OUTRAGED!
– Wore black armbands
– Sent death threats to Conan Doyle
– Placed memorials at the Reichenbach Falls
But then…
• While vacationing in 1901, ACD was
playing golf with his friend,
Bertram Fletcher Robinson.
• Robinson told him of a local legend
about Squire Richard Cabell, a
monstrously evil man, whose death
came at the mouths of a pack of
huge, fire-breathing hounds (called
Black Shucks)…
• Conan Doyle could NOT pass this up…
and he didn’t really want to invent a new
detective, so to his readers’ joy, he made
Holmes his main character once again.
• Incidentally, he did not bring Holmes back
to life (yet), but he set the story at an earlier
time in Holmes’ life.
Holmes returns!
• Eventually, Conan Doyle did decide to bring
back Holmes, and he did so in a story called
“The Adventure of the Empty House.”
• Apparently, Holmes had faked his own
death to fool Moriarty’s henchmen.
• ACD went on to write 32 more stories and
one more novel before officially retiring his
famous detective.
Weird, but true…
• ACD wrote a book called The Coming of
the Fairies (1921).
• He was convinced that fairies existed and
proved it by adding photographs.
• The photographs were actually faked by two
young girls - the “fairies” were paper cutouts!
The Cottingley Fairies
Legacy of Holmes
• “Christopher Clausen asserts confidently that
‘few characters in all of literature are as
widely known as Sherlock Holmes.’”
• “221B Baker Street—or the closest thing to it
that can be identified in the modern London
thoroughfare—is a pilgrimage site for faithful
Holmes devotees from around the world.”
Ranks 9th on the Fictional
100
Most Influential Characters in
World Literature
“Each generation wants to
see its own Holmes in
action. At least twenty-one
plays have been based on
aspects of Holmes’s life.”
Film
“Holmes’s life in films is even
more spectacular. The
Guinness World Records
2000 lists him as the character
most often portrayed in film.”
“The Speckled Band”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVEkfct
Vle8
• For homework, you are to read the
“Speckled Band” and underline clues as you
read. Maintain notes of a detective to solve
the mystery.
– Do not cheat! Take this opportunity to see the
world through Sherlock’s eyes with your astute
observations.
References
Kocsik, Diana. “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Hound of
the Baskervilles.” SlideShare, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.
Pollard-Gott, Lucy. “Sherlock Holmes (9).” The Fictional 100,
2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.
Sherlock Holmes Online. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary
Estate, 2000. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.