Hound of the Baskervilles
An ancient curse unmasked as a calculated murder weapon.
The hound of the Baskervilles is the fearsome, supposedly supernatural dog at the centre of Arthur Conan Doyle's third Sherlock Holmes novel, serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902 and set largely on Dartmoor in Devon. A family legend dating from the time of the English Civil War tells how Sir Hugo Baskerville was killed by a demonic hound said to have haunted Dartmoor ever since.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Language
- English
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Genre
- Detective fiction, Gothic fiction
- Publisher
- George Newnes Ltd
- Illustrator
- Sidney Paget
- Cover artist
- Alfred Garth Jones
- Series
- Sherlock Holmes
Lore & Background
Dr. James Mortimer brings the legend to Holmes after his friend Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead in a yew alley with an expression of horror on his face; the death is put down to cardiac arrest, but Mortimer had noticed large canine paw prints near the body. Holmes asks Watson to act as bodyguard to the heir, Sir Henry, on Dartmoor, while he investigates in secret. The culprit is Jack Stapleton, really Rodger Baskerville II, who had bought a savage black hound and painted it with phosphorus to make it look diabolical, hoping it would remove the other heirs. Despite thick fog, Holmes, Watson and Inspector Lestrade kill the hound when Stapleton sets it on Sir Henry.
Reader's Guide
Doyle was helped with the legend and the local colour by the Daily Express journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson, with whom he explored Dartmoor in June 1901. The novel was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and its success led to the character's eventual revival.
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