The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes.
Originally serialized in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set in 1889 largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of Holmes and Watson investigating the case of the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin.
This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.
One of the most famous stories ever written, in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel". In 1999, a poll of "Sherlockians" ranked it as the best of the four Holmes novels.
Plot
In London, Dr James Mortimer asks for the aid of Sherlock Holmes. He recounts the legend of a curse that has run in the Baskerville family since the time of the English Civil War, when Sir Hugo Baskerville kidnapped a farmer's daughter.
When the girl escaped, Hugo made a deal with the devil and pursued her. Hugo's companions found the girl dead of fear and Hugo killed by a demonic hound, which has haunted Dartmoor ever since, causing the premature death of many Baskerville heirs.
Mortimer says that his friend Sir Charles Baskerville, who took the legend seriously, was found dead in the yew alley of his estate, Baskerville Hall, on Dartmoor.
A locally noted philanthropist, Sir Charles had retired to his family estate in 1887 after some years in South Africa, where he had made a fortune through shrewd investments. His death was attributed to a heart attack, but his face had an expression of horror, and not far from his body were the footprints of a gigantic hound.
Origins and background
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote this story shortly after returning to his home Undershaw in Surrey from South Africa, where he had worked as a volunteer physician at the Langman Field Hospital in Bloemfontein during the Second Boer War.
He had not written about Sherlock Holmes in eight years, having killed off the character in the 1893 story "The Final Problem". Although The Hound of the Baskervilles is set before the latter events, two years later Conan Doyle brought Holmes back for good, explaining in "The Adventure of the Empty House" that Holmes had faked his own death.
As a result, the character of Holmes occupies a liminal space between being alive and dead which further lends to the gothic elements of the novel.
The Hound of the Baskervilles has been adapted for radio for the BBC by Bert Coules on two occasions. The first starred Roger Rees as Holmes, Crawford Logan as Watson and Matt Zimmerman as Sir Henry and was broadcast in 1988 on BBC Radio 4. Following its good reception, Coules proposed further radio adaptations, which eventually led to the 1989-1998 radio series of dramatizations of the entire canon, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. The second adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, featuring this pairing, was broadcast in 1998, and also featured Judi Dench as Mrs. Hudson and Donald Sinden as Sir Charles Baskerville.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 4 novels about Sherlock Holmes. (1 - A Study in Scarlet, 2 - The Sign of The Four, 3 - The Hound of the Baskervilles, 4 - The Valley of Fear.
(2) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, (12 short stories) followed the novels.
(3) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, (11 stories) followed by
(4) The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 13 stories.
(5) His Last Bow, 8 stories followed by
(6) The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes, 12 stories and finally
(7) The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 10 stories by the BBC. All other Holmes stories would fall under this banner.
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