Book One: The Hound of Baskervilles

When I chose to read "The Hound of Baskervilles" I was hoping that the story would give me a bit more information about London the city, rather than just telling me about the people. While this book did have wonderful descriptions of the scenery, most of the descriptions were of places that either aren't real or only directly related to the places that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were visiting in order to find clues.

Despite this slight fallback, I did get a sense for what the people in London at the time might have really spoken and acted like. Considering that the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote this story in the early 20th century, the language used felt very appropriate for lack of better words. The speech was somewhat formal compared to what I am used to, not Shakespearean by any means, but a little bit more "educated" sounding, (something I am not against seeing more of in the slightest). For example:

"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes...

People today don't often use phrases such as, "You excel yourself". It's a relatively simple phrase, but it is one that isn't used much anymore. All of the writing in this book is this way, from Holmes's witty and somewhat egotistical banter, to Watson's, still highly educated, but more identifiable speech. What I mean by identifiable is that he seems a bit more like the average person. Homes often comes off almost like a super-human with his deductive and observational abilities. Watson is very clever in his own right and he tries very hard to solve the case before Holmes does, which is something that the reader attempts to do as well, (at least that was the case for me).

In conclusion, I feel that more than anything, I have a better understanding of the people from London in the early 20th century. There is a certain level of class that was upheld by almost all citizens, (at least that seemed the case in this story) and several of the people in the city appeared to have at least some type of education. I would like to now do some research about London in real life and see if there are any statistics about education at the time. Even literacy rates would be helpful, but I think I would like to find some articles and graphs about this.

English Honors Proposal

London, England: 1900-1910

For my honors project, I would like to research London from 1900-1910. My reason for choosing this time is because many important events happened at the turn of the century. The industrial revolution had only just begun, Europe was about to fall into a depression, and London was right in the center of many of these events.

Not only was London becoming a more industrial place, but it was also struggling with issues such as racism and sexism as well. While these things were, (and still are) occurring in several places all over the world, I thought it would be interesting to compare the social issues America was struggling with against another predominantly English country.

So far, I have chosen the books “The Golden Bowl” by Henry James, “Night and Day” by Virginia Woolf, “The Prestige” by Christopher Priest, and “The Hound of the Baskervilles“ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I plan on reading “The Golden Bowl” because it explores the relationships between men and women and questions the idea of men being the dominant gender. It appears to have a strong heroine that fights against sexism in a “peaceful” way.

I chose the novel “Night and Day” for similar reasons. The females in this story appear to be very strong and seek equality between themselves and the men in the story. From what I have heard, this story also gives rather in-depth descriptions of the city, (London) itself, drawing the reader farther into the setting.

I chose the story “The Prestige” for a few reasons. This book really brings the industrial revolution into play. It apparently takes a somewhat modern look at the battle over electricity, (this book was written fairly recently, so it talks a lot about the competition between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla). Following the theme of competition, the book thoroughly examines the competitive nature of humans and if violence is truly instinctual.

I know that my final novel is a little bit obscure considering it is a part of the Sherlock Homes series, but I feel that it relates to my topic. The Sherlock Holmes series focuses heavily on the landscape, which can give me a really in-depth view of London in the early 20^th century. My reason for choosing “The Hound of Baskervilles” rather than one of the early novels is mainly because “The Hound of Baskervilles” was the first novel in the series to take place in the 20^th century, (the preceding novels were all written before 1900). I believe that this book will give me the visual of London that the other three won’t, as well as look into social and economical issues.

As for my historical documents and other readings, I would like to look more into the city itself. I believe that with the four novels I have picked out, I should have a fairly decent grasp of how people interacted with each other in London at the turn of the century. What I need more information about now is about the actual city itself. Because of this, I would actually like to find some old travel guides of London to get a better grasp of the land. I would like to know which famous landmarks that existed at the turn of the century are and aren’t still there.

I would also like to find some statistics about the population in London at the turn of the century and compare it with its population today. I think it would be interesting to see not only how much the population ahs grown or shrunken by, but also how racially diverse London is now. I would also like to read up on some events happening in history during my time period. I know that World War One hadn’t quite started yet, but I’m sure some events that lead up to it had. The industrial revolution had just started, so just seeing what type of butterfly effect that created could be fascinating.