The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Summary & Quotes. it is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes (created by Arthur Conan Doyle) in the 1892 short story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze". Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Unusually, it was published simultaneously in separate editions for adults and children.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime book is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who is described as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties" living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Although Christopher's condition is not stated, the book's blurb refers to Asperger syndrome (which today would be described as an autism spectrum disorder), high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome. In July 2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that "The Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger's...if anything it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder", and that he, Haddon, is not an expert on the autism spectrum or Asperger syndrome.
 |
| The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time |
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Summary
One night, Christopher Boone finds his neighbor's dog dead in her front yard, with a pitchfork sticking out of it. Eek – we're off to an interesting start, that's for sure. Anyway, Christopher wonders who killed it, and decides to write a book in which he tries to figure it out, like a murder mystery novel.
Christopher has a disability – unspecified in the book, but which has been compared with an autism spectrum disorder called Asperger syndrome – that makes it difficult for him to understand social norms like body language and other forms of human interaction. He is, however, tremendously good at math and more logic-based skills (like writing a crazily-detailed daily schedule, or drawing intricate maps of places he's only visited once).
Christopher's neighbor, Mrs. Shears, finds him with her (now-dead) dog, calls the police, and Christopher has to spend a few hours in a jail cell. Eventually, his father comes to get him, and tells Christopher to not investigate the dog's death any further. So, in response, Christopher thinks of all kinds of ways to interpret his father's demand as specifically as possible… so he can still do all of his detective work while somehow not disobeying him.
He starts asking around the neighborhood to see if anyone knows anything about the dog's death. He decides that since Mr. Shears left his wife two years ago, perhaps he hates her, and killed her dog to make her sad. (Seems like a stretch, but you never know.) When Christopher's father finds out he's been asking people about the dog, he makes him promise he'll stop. Again. Christopher promises.
So, of course, Christopher continues talking to one of his neighbors, who tells him that his (Christopher's) mother and Mr. Shears were having an affair before he left Mrs. Shears. That's bad news. But Christopher tells her that his mother died two years ago, of a heart attack.
Christopher's father finds the detective book Christopher has been writing, in which he's recorded everything that has happened so far. He's really mad about it, and takes the book away. A few days later, Christopher searches the house for the book, and finds it hidden in his father's bedroom. But here's the kicker: he also finds a big stack of letters addressed to him, from his mother. He reads a few of them, and discovers that – wait for it – she's actually still alive! His father had been lying to him this whole time.
His father apologizes for lying, and also admits that he was the one who killed Mrs. Shears' dog. As it turns out, he has feelings for Mrs. Shears, and was mad that she didn't want to be with him. Whoa.
Christopher decides that living with his father is no longer such a great (or safe) idea – he is a dog-killer after all – and thinks it's best to move to London and live with his mother. Problem is, he's never gone anywhere by himself before, and has difficulty being in busy places and/or around large groups of people. The journey is, as we might then expect, incredibly challenging. First, after he runs away, his father enlists the police to try to find him. He manages to escape anyway, but then he's totally overwhelmed, being on his own like this. He repeatedly vomits and passes out and just feels horribly sick.
Hours and hours later, he arrives at his mother's apartment in London. She's living with none other than Mr. Shears. Christopher tells her that his father said she was dead, and she's horrified to learn this. When Christopher's father comes to find him, she demands he leave and insists that poor Christopher can live with her. But Christopher is afraid of Mr. Shears, and is quite eager to go back home to take an important exam that will help him get into university.
After about a week, he and his mom go back home, and Christopher takes the exam (even though he can't think straight, after not eating or sleeping for days on end). His mother gets a job and a not-so-nice apartment, which Christopher hates. Meanwhile, his father tries very hard to earn back his trust. He buys him a puppy (that's some brownie points right there), and Christopher begins spending some time at his house again.
He receives his exam results, and finds out that he got the best possible score. Having successfully traveled to London on his own, and solved the mystery of who killed the dog, he's sure he can do anything. We agree.
You may also like to read: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Book Summary
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Quotes
- “I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them”
- “Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.”
- “On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”
- “I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.”
- “I want my name to mean me.”
- “All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are.”
- “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.”
- “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery…and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.”
- “Everyone has learning difficulties, because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult.”
- “Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to them. It's just that scientists haven't found the answer yet.”
- “Most murders are committed by someone who is known to the victim. In fact, you are most likely to be murdered by a member of your own family on Christmas day.”
- “And then I thought that I had to be like Sherlock Holmes and I had to detach my mind at will to a remarkable degree so that I did not notice how much it was hurting inside my head.”
- “But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.”
- “Being clever was when you looked at how things were and used the evidence to work out something new.”
Questions about The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime Plot
What is the short summary of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? Overview. In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Boone, a brilliant teenage boy with Autism, sets out to solve the murder of his neighbor's dog. Written by Mark Haddon and published in 2003, the book has become a prize-winning bestseller translated into three-dozen languages.
What is the main message in the curious incident of the dog? Here are three main themes of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: family. honesty and trust. braving the unknown.
What do the dogs symbolize in The Curious Incident? There are two significant dogs in Christopher's life: Wellington and Sandy. Wellington's death symbolizes Christopher's loss of trust, and therefore Christopher's lost innocence. Before Wellington's death, Christopher trusted wholeheartedly in his father. Diagrams symbolize order in Christopher's mind.
How does the curious incident of the dog end? At the end of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher lives with his mother in Swindon and slowly reconciles with his father, who buys him a puppy named Sandy. Christopher passes his A-level mathematics exams, and his exemplary score helps him feel confident about his future as an adult.
What message or theme does the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time present about lying? Christopher explains that he cannot tell lies because telling lies is illogical. A lie, he reasons, means you say something that happened that didn't happen, which violates logic since only one thing ever happens at a particular time and place.
Why is it called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time may not roll off the tongue, but it does evoke quite a picture. And that's exactly how Mark Haddon felt when he read Arthur Conan Doyle's Silver Blaze.
Why does Christopher like dogs? Christopher likes dogs because they are smart, trustworthy, and easier to interact with than people. When Christopher finds Wellington's dead body, he writes: “You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating.
Who is the abuse in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? Christopher's father swears at and insults him, and has threatened to hit him on multiple occasions (47) which Christopher justifies as a reaction to his “Behavioral Problems.” It's implied, though not explicitly stated, that he knocks Christopher unconscious during a fight.
What is good about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? In true murder mystery fashion, readers are able to solve the mystery right along with Christopher, the protagonist and narrator. This makes the story more exciting because readers feel more engaged. Christopher is a 15-year-old boy with Aspergers Syndrome, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as it's called today.
Why did Christopher's father lie? Notably, he is extremely protective of Christopher. This impulse to protect Christopher and his desire to punish Christopher's mother for the way she left leads him to lie to Christopher about mother's leaving.