ENGLISH HUMOUR AND SATIRE IN CONAN DOYLE’S CREATIVITY

Abstract

This article deals with the peculiarities of English humor, satire and irony. The analysis of the importance of humor, satire and sarcasm is given. English humor is compared to American one. Speaking about English national character, the author highlights an unofficial rule “The importance of not being earnest”, their ability to self-irony and willingness to tell jokes or accept everything with humor. The topicality of the research is determined by the success of Conan Doyle’s books and the necessity of taking his books into consideration. Conan Doyle’s novels (“The study in scarlet”, “Sherlock Holmes at death”, “The empty house”) and his stories and narratives are given to show English humour and irony. The author goes on to say that satire was applied only to the police-officers (The character of Leistreid is described even with sarcasm). Along with the detective stories and novels of Conan Doyle, his science fictional novels and stories are characterized (“The lost world”, “The Poisoned belt”, “When the world screamed”, ”The Maracot deep”). Different kinds of humor are compared. In the end, the author concludes that humor is an integral part of Conan Doyle success”. As a conclusion, the author says about the peculiarities of English humor and its influence on the long lasting popularity of Conan Doyle’s creativity.