The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the moor, the footprints of a gigantic hound beside him. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must protect the young heir from the family curse. By Arthur Conan Doyle (1902). A public-domain classic.
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How it begins Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a “Penang lawyer.” Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring.“Well, Watson, what do you make of it?” Keep reading →About this story
A family on the edge of Dartmoor has a legend: a huge spectral dog that hunts the Baskervilles. When Sir Charles is found dead on the moor, with something strange about the ground around him, his heir is warned not to go out on the moor at night. Holmes sends Dr Watson down to the moor to watch over him.
Arthur Conan Doyle published it in instalments in The Strand Magazine from 1901, and as a book in 1902. It is the best known of the Holmes stories, and it came after Doyle had tried to end the series by killing Holmes off, so readers were glad to see him again. For much of it Holmes is away, and Watson has to do the thinking.
- Themes
- Legend against reason, fear, loyalty, detection
- Good for
- A spooky read on a long evening; anyone who wants a Holmes story with a gothic setting
- Worth noticing
- How much Doyle gives you through Watson’s letters and journal.
Chapters
- 1Mr. Sherlock Holmes10 min · 14 Oct
- 2The Curse of the Baskervilles17 min · 14 Oct
- 3The Problem13 min · 14 Oct
- 4Sir Henry Baskerville18 min · 14 Oct
- 5Three Broken Threads15 min · 14 Oct
- 6Baskerville Hall16 min · 14 Oct
- 7The Stapletons of Merripit House22 min · 14 Oct
- 8First Report of Dr. Watson12 min · 14 Oct
- 9The Light upon the Moor [Second Report of Dr. Watson]29 min · 14 Oct
- 10Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson16 min · 14 Oct
- 11The Man on the Tor20 min · 14 Oct
- 12Death on the Moor21 min · 14 Oct
- 13Fixing the Nets15 min · 14 Oct
- 14The Hound of the Baskervilles19 min · 14 Oct
- 15A Retrospection18 min · 14 Oct