I first read The Hound of the Baskervilles when I was a child and much of it went over my head. Coming back to it as an adult, not one scrap of the plot had remained in my memory so I could enjoy the ‘whodunit’ mystery to its fullest extent. Or so I thought. The cover of my volume, a patterning of pinned butterflies and moths, seemed like a harmless (if a little odd!) design choice. That is, until the character of Mr Stapleton was introduced; an outwardly pleasant entomologist living out on the moors near Baskerville Hall. You see where I’m going with this? Well, an entomologist is a collector of butterflies and moths, and it suddenly clicked in my head that he would most likely turn out to be the murderer. Why could Penguin not have chosen a non-revealing cover featuring the titular hound, or if they wanted subtlety, Holmes’s pipe? That would have gotten the flavour of the novel across without providing a huge plot spoiler. I am aware that I may have also just ruined the plot for other readers, but so be it - Stapleton is the killer.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the most famous and best loved of all the Sherlock Holmes books, splicing the well-treaded detective genre with the gothic. Originally unintended to be part of the canon, Arthur Conan Doyle only decided to make it so when he realised that he already had a perfect leading male character in Holmes. The book is the first and only full length Sherlock Holmes novel, the rest being collections of shorter stories. It spans fifteen relatively short chapters, and is narrated by Dr. Watson, who is arguably the central protagonist considering that Sherlock himself is absent during much of the book. The story begins at 221B Baker Street with Holmes and Watson demonstrating their skills of intuition on a walking cane that an earlier caller left behind. The owner of the stick, a Dr. Mortimer from Dartmoor, soon returns to request an audience with the famous detective about some mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his friend, Sir Charles Baskerville. A hereditary curse involving a phantom hound persecuting members of the family line provides the back story for the events of the novel.
Holmes and Watson must unravel the mystery surrounding what Holmes declares to be their most dangerous case to date, in addition to protecting the baronet Sir Henry, nephew of the deceased Sir Charles and heir to the Baskerville estate. Watson accompanies Sir Henry to claim his property in Dartmoor, but not before he has been immersed in suspicious goings-on in London. The adventure cracks onward at a brisk pace, with its strongest points being Watson’s melancholic reflections on the wild landscape of the moor and the deep sense of sinister dread which surrounds the location. There are some genuinely haunting passages, but having spent most of my life in Devon and visited Dartmoor on numerous occasions, I did notice some glaring errors in Conan Doyle’s descriptions of the moor. Wild orchids are not rich in abundance at all, the great bittern mates in Spring, not Autumn, and nowhere on the moor is there a place even remotely resembling the treacherous Grimpen mire. Still, these remain minor quibbles; Conan Doyle was writing a suspense story and not a field guide.
There is no denying that The Hound of the Baskervilles is a page turner and being an example of late Victorian pulp literature, it can be easily rattled through in a day. Despite the sombre tone and grim atmosphere of the setting, the book is not without humour. A subplot involving an escaped convict hiding out on the moors prompts an amusing, typically bourgeois comment from Watson; "If he were safely out of the country it would relieve the tax-payer of a burden." It was small touches like these that turned what I considered a largely run-of-the-mill plot into something more appealing. In addition to droll character observations, I also enjoyed much of the gothic elements. The folklore of the spectral hound adds a depth of local zest which causes the reader to constantly speculate on the possibility of supernatural elements at work all the way to the dramatic climax with the beast itself. Not quite a masterpiece, but certainly an enjoyable read, I considered the book to be an inoffensive detective yarn suitable for a broad audience. I would recommend it to fans of the crime genre and also to fans of gothic fiction. If you haven’t read the book, or seen one of the numerous film adaptations, please accept my apology for the massive spoiler.
Rating: 3/5
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the most famous and best loved of all the Sherlock Holmes books, splicing the well-treaded detective genre with the gothic. Originally unintended to be part of the canon, Arthur Conan Doyle only decided to make it so when he realised that he already had a perfect leading male character in Holmes. The book is the first and only full length Sherlock Holmes novel, the rest being collections of shorter stories. It spans fifteen relatively short chapters, and is narrated by Dr. Watson, who is arguably the central protagonist considering that Sherlock himself is absent during much of the book. The story begins at 221B Baker Street with Holmes and Watson demonstrating their skills of intuition on a walking cane that an earlier caller left behind. The owner of the stick, a Dr. Mortimer from Dartmoor, soon returns to request an audience with the famous detective about some mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his friend, Sir Charles Baskerville. A hereditary curse involving a phantom hound persecuting members of the family line provides the back story for the events of the novel.
Holmes and Watson must unravel the mystery surrounding what Holmes declares to be their most dangerous case to date, in addition to protecting the baronet Sir Henry, nephew of the deceased Sir Charles and heir to the Baskerville estate. Watson accompanies Sir Henry to claim his property in Dartmoor, but not before he has been immersed in suspicious goings-on in London. The adventure cracks onward at a brisk pace, with its strongest points being Watson’s melancholic reflections on the wild landscape of the moor and the deep sense of sinister dread which surrounds the location. There are some genuinely haunting passages, but having spent most of my life in Devon and visited Dartmoor on numerous occasions, I did notice some glaring errors in Conan Doyle’s descriptions of the moor. Wild orchids are not rich in abundance at all, the great bittern mates in Spring, not Autumn, and nowhere on the moor is there a place even remotely resembling the treacherous Grimpen mire. Still, these remain minor quibbles; Conan Doyle was writing a suspense story and not a field guide.
There is no denying that The Hound of the Baskervilles is a page turner and being an example of late Victorian pulp literature, it can be easily rattled through in a day. Despite the sombre tone and grim atmosphere of the setting, the book is not without humour. A subplot involving an escaped convict hiding out on the moors prompts an amusing, typically bourgeois comment from Watson; "If he were safely out of the country it would relieve the tax-payer of a burden." It was small touches like these that turned what I considered a largely run-of-the-mill plot into something more appealing. In addition to droll character observations, I also enjoyed much of the gothic elements. The folklore of the spectral hound adds a depth of local zest which causes the reader to constantly speculate on the possibility of supernatural elements at work all the way to the dramatic climax with the beast itself. Not quite a masterpiece, but certainly an enjoyable read, I considered the book to be an inoffensive detective yarn suitable for a broad audience. I would recommend it to fans of the crime genre and also to fans of gothic fiction. If you haven’t read the book, or seen one of the numerous film adaptations, please accept my apology for the massive spoiler.
Rating: 3/5
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