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If you only know one Sherlock Holmes story by name, there is a good chance it is this one. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" has the famous ingredients: an old family curse, a lonely moor wrapped in fog, a great house at the end of a dark road, and a detective who prizes evidence. It is also one of the easiest places for a new reader to start, because it stands completely on its own. This introduction covers only the opening setup. Nothing here touches the solution or what happens once the story reaches Devon.
Who wrote it, and when
Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and died on 7 July 1930 in Crowborough, Sussex. He trained and worked as a doctor, and in 1900 he volunteered as a physician at a field hospital in Bloemfontein during the Second Boer War.
By then, Doyle had already tried to stop writing about Holmes. In 1893 he published "The Final Problem," meant to close the series so he could spend more time on historical novels. Readers were not pleased. Eight years later, after a walking trip on Dartmoor in June 1901 with the journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson, who helped him with the legend of the hound and the local color, Doyle returned to his detective. The story is set earlier than "The Final Problem," so it fits neatly into the existing timeline.
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" ran in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902 and was published as a book by George Newnes in Britain in March 1902, with an American edition the same year. It is the third of the four Holmes novels.
Where the story begins
The book opens with a small puzzle. A visitor has called at 221B Baker Street and left his walking stick behind. Its silver band carries an inscription to James Mortimer from a group of his friends, along with the year 1884. Watson tries his hand at deducing what kind of man owns it. Holmes then builds on Watson's reasoning and goes much further. It is a perfect warm-up, and it shows the method in miniature before the real case arrives.
The owner, Dr. James Mortimer, soon returns. He brings an old manuscript dated 1742 that tells the legend of Hugo Baskerville, a wicked ancestor said to have been killed on the moor by a monstrous hound. Mortimer has not come about ancient history, though. Sir Charles Baskerville, the current head of the family, has just been found dead at the end of a yew alley on his estate. The official explanation is heart failure. Mortimer has his doubts, because of what he saw on the ground nearby.
The heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, has just arrived in London from Canada. Before he has even settled in, he receives an anonymous message made of words cut from a newspaper:
As you value your life or your reason keep away from the moor.
Then one of his new boots goes missing from his hotel. Holmes sends Watson to accompany Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall, with instructions to report the facts and leave the theories to him. What Watson finds on the moor is for you to discover.
What makes it worth reading
The first pleasure is atmosphere. Many Holmes stories live in the fog and gaslight of London, but this one moves out to the open moor, and Doyle makes the landscape feel like a character. There is a lovely moment on the train when Sir Henry sees the moor for the first time and cannot take his eyes off it, and a long dusk drive toward the Hall that sets the mood for everything after. The book blends a detective story with something close to a ghost story, and the pull between an old legend and a modern detective gives the story its particular flavor.
The second is Watson. Sent ahead to observe and report, he has to rely on his own eyes and judgment for a good stretch of the book. Readers who are used to seeing him as Holmes's admiring companion get to watch him act on his own, and he turns out to be an engaging guide.
The third is how complete it feels. It is a compact novel, yet it has room for several memorable characters, a strong sense of place, and plenty of the deduction that made Holmes famous. It has stayed popular for well over a century: it appeared on the BBC's Big Read list of the UK's best-loved novels in 2003, and a 1999 poll of Sherlockians ranked it the best of the four Holmes novels.
Who will enjoy it
This is a natural first Holmes book for anyone who knows the detective from film or television but has never read the originals. It suits readers who like their mysteries with a strong setting, a touch of the supernatural, and an old house full of shadows. It also works well for those who have read a few of the short stories and want to see how Holmes and Watson handle a full-length case. And if you simply enjoy a good story about a legend that might or might not be true, this one was made for you.
Pick up the walking stick in chapter one, and you will already be halfway to the moor.
Sources
- Project Gutenberg, "The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle" (eBook #2852; contents of chapters 1-6 and the quoted line) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2852/2852-h/2852-h.htm
- Wikipedia, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (third of four Holmes novels, Strand Magazine serialization dates, UK and US book publication, circumstances of writing, Dartmoor trip with Bertram Fletcher Robinson, setting, opening setup, BBC Big Read and 1999 Sherlockian poll) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles
- Wikipedia, "Arthur Conan Doyle" (birth and death dates and places, Boer War service as a volunteer physician, "The Final Problem" in 1893 and the public reaction) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle