28 January 2021
The Hound of the Baskervilles
We owe The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs?
Many Holmes fans prefer Doyle's complete short stories, but their clockwork logic doesn't match the author's boast about this novel: it's "a real Creeper!" What distinguishes this particular Hound is its fulfillment of Doyle's great debt to Edgar Allan Poe--it's full of ancient woe, low moans, a Grimpen Mire that sucks ponies to Dostoyevskian deaths, and locals digging up Neolithic skulls without next-of-kins' consent. "The longer one stays here the more does the spirit of the moor sink into one's soul," Watson realizes. "Rank reeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay ... while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet ... it was as if some malignant hand was tugging us down into those obscene depths." Read on--but, reader, watch your step! --Tim Appelo
| Title | : | The Hound of the Baskervilles |
| Edition Language | : | English |
| ISBN | : | null |
| Format Type | : |
Readers Also Enjoyed The Hound of the Baskervilles
-
(A) 85% | ExtraordinaryNotes: It establishes setting in gaps between deductions, treating the moor like a living thing: an alien primordial wasteland....
-
My Grandpa Cannon loved this story, and he often told of a time when he went to see a "picture show" about the Hound of the Baskervilles. "It scared the willies out of me," he said, and then he and hi...
-
(781 From 1991 Books) - The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5), Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle feat...
-
The Hound of the Baskervilles.A slavering demon dog from the pits of Hell, sent to hunt down the males in the cursed line of the Baskervilles as reparation for the evil deeds of their ancestor!Sounds ...
-
‘’It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.’’ The task of safeguarding a family estate has been bestowed on a young heir. But there is a problem,. A dark ...
-
In the sometimes cold, wet, windy region of southern England called Devonshire, where the land gradually disappears and the stormy sea can be seen, there was a legend of a demonic hound that haunted t...
-
I think this is my favorite Arthur Conan Doyle story. What a combination; you have a mystery, a horror story with a demon like wolfhound, set on a dark English moor. I've never seen an English moor, b...
-
All the stars! Sherlock Holmes is at his inscrutable and logical best, Dr. Watson is his devoted self and manages to actually be helpful, and the mystery is a solid one, with a gothic feel to it. And ...
-
Classic and so good! I am glad I finally read this.I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes, but I am not sure I have ever actually read any of the books. Throughout my life, I have seen many Holmes movies ...
-
It's hard to believe that I've never read Doyle's most famous Sherlock Holmes tale until now. I don't even know why I've been putting this off, the short stories that I've read about the well-known de...