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 serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely in Dartmoor, Devon, in England's West Country and follows Holmes and Watson investigating 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.[3]
One of the most famous stories ever written,[3] 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".[4] In 1999, a poll of "Sherlockians" ranked it as the best of the four Holmes novels.[5]
Plot
From left: the titular hound; Holmes spotting a clue in the portrait; and the death of the hound.
In London, 1889, Dr. James Mortimer asks for the aid of Sherlock Holmes, beginning by reading him a legend 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 pursued her, swearing a curse upon himself in his mad rage. Hugo's companions later found the girl dead of fear, and Hugo killed by a demonic hound. The dog is said to have haunted Dartmoor ever since, causing the premature death of many Baskervilles.
Mortimer explains that his friend, the philanthropicbaronet Sir Charles Baskerville, took the legend very seriously. Sir Charles, who had a weak heart, had retired to Baskerville Hall in 1887, after amassing a fortune in South Africa. When the baronet's body was later found in a yew alley, with an expression of horror on his face, the death was attributed to cardiac arrest; however, Mortimer had secretly noticed large canine paw prints near the body. Sir Charles had been the eldest of three Baskerville brothers, and Sir Henry, the Canadian son of the deceased second brother, is Sir Charles' heir. The rather immoral third brother, Rodger, died of yellow fever in South America in 1876. Mortimer, the executor of Sir Charles's will, fears it might not be wise to bring Sir Henry to Dartmoor, in view of the possible supernatural dangers.
Though Holmes dismisses the legend as a fairy-tale, he meets with Sir Henry when the new baronet arrives in London. It transpires that strange things are already happening to Sir Henry; one of his old boots has been stolen, he has received an anonymous letter warning him against the moor, and someone has been following him in a hansom. Mortimer reveals that Sir Henry's inheritance is about £740,000 (equivalent to £103,000,000 in 2023[6]); in view of these high stakes, Holmes asks Watson to act as Sir Henry's bodyguard, and to investigate things in Dartmoor.
Upon arriving in Dartmoor, Watson, Mortimer and Sir Henry learn that Selden, a convicted murderer, has escaped from Princetown Prison and is loose on the moor. At Baskerville Hall, they are introduced to John and Eliza Barrymore, the married butler and housekeeper. Watson sends detailed accounts of his investigations to Holmes, particularly focusing on the neighbourhood residents. The Stapleton siblings stand out; Jack is over-friendly, drops hints about the hound, and warns Watson against attempting to cross the dangerous Grimpen Mire. His sister Beryl, without his knowledge, repeatedly tries to get Sir Henry to flee back to London. Another neighbour, Mr. Frankland, is a perpetual busybody and troublemaker, including threatening to bring a lawsuit against Dr. Mortimer for excavating nearby barrows. Sir Henry falls in love with Beryl Stapleton, though her brother strongly objects to the romance.
Barrymore repeatedly sends candlelight signals to someone on the moor. Following Barrymore one night, Watson and Sir Henry discover that Selden is Mrs. Barrymore's younger brother, and that she and her husband have been leaving food out for him. During an unsuccessful attempt to catch Selden, Watson sees a strange man standing on a tor.
Watson and Sir Henry learn from Barrymore that Frankland's estranged daughter Laura had once written to Sir Charles. After a failed attempt to interrogate Laura, Watson investigates the man on the tor and learns that it is Holmes, who has been investigating in secret to hide his direct involvement. Holmes reveals that Jack Stapleton is the murderer, and Beryl is his wife, abused and forced into posing as his sister; however, Holmes does not have enough proof to convince the authorities.
Holmes and Watson hear a man fleeing from a baying hound, and later find that Selden has fallen from a cliff and died. Barrymore had given Selden Sir Henry's discarded clothes, and Stapleton's hound, having been set on the trail with Sir Henry's stolen boot, had confused the scent. Later, after dining at Baskerville Hall, Holmes reveals to Watson that the portrait of Sir Hugo Baskerville bears a remarkable resemblance to Stapleton.
Holmes decides to use an unwitting Sir Henry as bait; he orders him to visit Stapleton that evening, and then walk across the moor on foot. Holmes and Watson then pretend to leave for London, but instead hide near Stapleton's house with Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. Despite thick fog, they manage to kill the hound when Stapleton unleashes it after Sir Henry. They go to Stapleton's house to arrest him, but find he has bound his wife to a column and fled into the mire, presumably drowning. Holmes remarks that he considers Stapleton one of his most cunning adversaries.
Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer depart on a sea voyage, to repair the baronet's shattered nerves. After they leave, Holmes explains to Watson that Jack Stapleton was really Rodger Baskerville II, the secret son of Sir Charles' youngest brother. A physical and spiritual throwback to Sir Hugo Baskerville, Rodger II had bought a savage black hound and painted it with phosphorus to make it look diabolical; either by fright or direct attack, he hoped the dog would remove all the other heirs so that he could inherit the Baskerville fortune. He had promised Laura marriage, and convinced her to lure Sir Charles out of his house on the night of the murder. Unable to save Sir Charles, Beryl had sent the anonymous letter to Sir Henry to thwart her husband's further schemes.
Origins and background
Baskerville Hall, formally Clyro Court, may have inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles.The ruins of Fowelscombe House, a possible model for Baskerville Hall (2008).
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.[7]
He was assisted with the legend of the hound and local colour by a Daily Express journalist named Bertram Fletcher Robinson (1870–1907), with whom he explored Dartmoor in June 1901; Robinson received a 1⁄3royalty payment that amounted to over 500 pounds by the end of 1901.[8]
Doyle may also have been inspired by his own earlier story (written and published in 1898) of a terrifying giant wolf, "The King of the Foxes".
Inspiration
His ideas came from the legend of Squire Richard Cabell of Brook Hall, in the parish of Buckfastleigh, Devon,[9] which was the fundamental inspiration for the Baskerville tale of a hellish hound and a cursed country squire. Cabell's tomb survives in the town of Buckfastleigh.[10][11][12]
Cabell lived for hunting, and was what in those days was described as a "monstrously evil man". He gained this reputation, among other things, for immorality and having sold his soul to the Devil. There was also a rumour that he had murdered his wife, Elizabeth Fowell, a daughter of Sir Edmund Fowell, 1st Baronet (1593–1674), of Fowelscombe.[13] On 5 July 1677, he died and was buried in the sepulchre. The night of his interment saw a phantom pack of hounds come baying across the moor to howl at his tomb. From that night on, he could be found leading the phantom pack across the moor, usually on the anniversary of his death. If the pack were not out hunting, they could be found ranging around his grave howling and shrieking. To try to lay the soul to rest, the villagers built a large building around the tomb, and to be doubly sure a huge slab was placed over the top.[14]
Moreover, Devon's folklore includes tales of a fearsome supernatural dog known as the Yeth hound that Conan Doyle may have heard.[15]
Weller (2002) believes that Baskerville Hall is based on one of three possible houses on or near Dartmoor:[16] Fowelscombe in the parish of Ugborough, the seat of the Fowell Baronets; Hayford Hall, near Buckfastleigh (also owned by John King (d.1861) of Fowelscombe) and Brook Hall, in the parish of Buckfastleigh, about two miles east of Hayford, the actual home of Richard Cabell.[9] It has also been claimed that Baskerville Hall is based on a property in Mid Wales, built in 1839 by one Thomas Mynors Baskerville. The house was formerly named Clyro Court and was renamed Baskerville Hall towards the end of the 19th century. Arthur Conan Doyle was apparently a family friend who often stayed there and may have been aware of a local legend of the hound of the Baskervilles.[17]
Still other tales claim that Conan Doyle was inspired by a holiday in North Norfolk, where the tale of Black Shuck is well known. The Gothic-revival style Cromer Hall, where Conan Doyle stayed, also closely resembles Doyle's vivid descriptions of Baskerville Hall.[18]
James Lynam Molloy, a friend of Doyle's, and author of "Love's Old Sweet Song", married Florence Baskerville, daughter of Henry Baskerville of Crowsley Park, Oxfordshire. The gates to the park had statues of hell hounds, spears through their mouths. Above the lintel there was another statue of a hell hound.[19]
Technique
The novel incorporates five plots: the ostensible 'curse' story, the two red-herring subplots concerning Selden and the other stranger living on the moor, the actual events occurring to Baskerville as narrated by Watson, and the hidden plot to be discovered by Holmes. The structure of the novel starting and ending in the familiar setting in London is used to ‘delimit the uncanny world associated with the Gothic landscape of the moors', with varying degrees of success.[7] Doyle wrote[citation needed] that the novel was originally conceived as a straight 'Victorian creeper' in the style of Le Fanu, with the idea of introducing Holmes as the deus ex machina arising only later.
Publication
The Hound of the Baskervilles was first serialised in The Strand Magazine in 1901. It was well-suited for this type of publication, as individual chapters end in cliffhangers. It was printed in the United Kingdom as a novel in March 1902 by George Newnes Ltd.[20] It was published in the same year in the United States by McClure, Philips & Co.[21]
Original manuscript
In 1902, Doyle's original manuscript of the book was broken up into individual leaves as part of a promotional campaign by Doyle's American publisher – they were used in window displays by individual booksellers. Out of an estimated 185–190leaves, only37 are known still to exist, including all the leaves from Chapter11, held by the New York Public Library.[Note 1] Other leaves are owned by university libraries in the United States and by private collectors.[21]
A newly rediscovered example was sold at auction in 2012 for US$158,500.[23] Another one was sold in 2021 for $423,000.[24] The existence of the 37th leaf became publicly known in 2018; it was put up for auction in 2022, but did not sell.[25]
Adaptations
The Hound of the Baskervilles has been adapted in various forms of media.
Film and television adaptations
Over 20film and television versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles have been made.
Edith Meiser adapted the novel as six episodes of the radio series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The episodes aired in February and March1932, with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr.Watson. Another dramatisation of the story aired in November and December1936, with Gordon as Holmes and Harry West as Watson.[39]
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 dramatisations of the entire canon, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson.[44] 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 SirCharles Baskerville.[45]
In 2011, Big Finish Productions released their adaptation of the book as part of their second series of Holmes dramas. Holmes was played by Nicholas Briggs, and Watson was played by Richard Earl.[47]
In 2017, Bleak December released an abridged full-cast production for Cadabra Records with Sir Derek Jacobi as Holmes.[49]
In 2020, Lions Den Theatre released a new adaptation of the novel written and directed by Keith Morrison on the company's YouTube channel. An early version of the play was performed in various locations around Nova Scotia in 2018.[50]
In 2022, The Hound of the Baskervilles was adapted and conducted as a "concert drama" by Neil Brand, with the music directed by Timothy Brock, and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Mark Gatiss and Sanjeev Bhaskar played Holmes and Watson, respectively. The production was recorded at the Barbican Hall on 20 December, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 22 January 2023.[52] A filmed recording of the reading was broadcast for BBC Four on 25 December 2023.[53]
Stage
Prolific playwright Tim Kelly adapted the story for the stage in 1976.[54] One production was at Boston's Theater Loft in 1982.[55]
In 2007, Peepolykus Theatre Company premiered a new adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Adapted by John Nicholson and Steven Canny, the production involves only three actors and was praised by critics for its physical comedy. Following a UK tour, it transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London's West End. The Daily Telegraph described it as a ‘wonderfully delightful spoof’, while The Sunday Times praised its ‘mad hilarity that will make you feel quite sane’. This adaptation continues to be presented by both amateur and professional companies around the world.[56]
Stage performances have also been performed in the UK in dramatisations by Joan Knight, Claire Malcolmson, Harry Meacher, and Roger Sansom, among others. Meacher's version has been produced three times, each time with himself the actor playing Holmes.[57]
In 2021, an adaption for the stage by Steven Canny and John Nicholson for Peepolykus, directed by Tim Jackson & Lotte Wakeman toured the UK produced by Original Theatre Company and Bolton's Octagon Theatre.[59] It was a continuation the adaptation that was directed by Lotte Wakeman for English Theatre, Frankfurt, Jermyn St Theatre and Octagon, Bolton.
Video games
The Hound of the Baskervilles is utilised in the final case in The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures in which the protagonist teams up with Herlock Sholmes (Sherlock Holmes in the original Japanese version) to investigate mysteries based on various entries in the Holmes chronology. In particular, the manuscript of The Hound of the Baskervilles is a key part of the case.[60]
Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles is a casual game by Frogwares. It departs from the original plot by introducing clear supernatural elements. Despite its non-canonical plot, it received good reviews.[61]
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the second tale from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Collier's (US) on 31 October 1903 and in The Strand Magazine (UK) in November 1903.
The stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been very popular as adaptations for the stage, and later film, and still later television. The four volumes of the Universal Sherlock Holmes (1995) compiled by Ronald B. De Waal lists over 25,000 Holmes-related productions and products. They include the original writings, "together with the translations of these tales into sixty-three languages, plus Braille and shorthand, the writings about the Writings or higher criticism, writings about Sherlockians and their societies, memorials and memorabilia, games, puzzles and quizzes, phonograph records, audio and video tapes, compact discs, laser discs, ballets, films, musicals, operettas, oratorios, plays, radio and television programs, parodies and pastiches, children's books, cartoons, comics, and a multitude of other items — from advertisements to wine — that have accumulated throughout the world on the two most famous characters in literature."
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1981 Soviet television film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. It was the third instalment in the TV series about adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1959 British gothic mystery film directed by Terence Fisher and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is based on the 1902 novel of the same title by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It stars Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Sir Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville and André Morell as Doctor Watson. It is the first film adaptation of the novel to be filmed in colour.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1939 American gothic mystery film based on the 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Directed by Sidney Lanfield, the film stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson. Released by 20th Century Fox, it is the first of fourteen Sherlock Holmes films produced between 1939 and 1946 starring Rathbone and Bruce.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 2002 television adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 novel of the same name.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1978 British comedy film spoofing the 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It starred Peter Cook as Sherlock Holmes and Dudley Moore as Dr. Watson. A number of other well-known British comedy actors appeared in the film including Terry-Thomas, Kenneth Williams and Denholm Elliott.
Sherlock Holmes is the overall title given to the BBC Radio 4 radio dramatisations of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories, with Bert Coules as head writer, and featuring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Dr Watson. Together, the two actors completed radio adaptations of every story in the canon of Sherlock Holmes between 1989 and 1998.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1937 German mystery film directed by Carl Lamac and starring Peter Voss, Fritz Odemar and Fritz Rasp. It is an adaptation of the 1902 Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam and on location at the neo-Gothic Moyland Castle. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Wilhelm Depenau and Karl Vollbrecht.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1983 British made-for-television mystery thriller film directed by Douglas Hickox, starring Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes and Donald Churchill as Dr. John H. Watson. It is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a Canadian television film directed by Rodney Gibbons and starring Matt Frewer and Kenneth Welsh. The film is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel of the same name.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1932 British mystery film directed by Gareth Gundrey and starring John Stuart, Robert Rendel and Frederick Lloyd. It is based on the 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, in which Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate a suspicious death on Dartmoor. It was made by Gainsborough Pictures. The screenplay was written by Edgar Wallace.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1921 British silent mystery film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Eille Norwood, Catina Campbell and Rex McDougall. It is based on the 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. It was made by Stoll Pictures, Britain's largest film company at the time. It was the first British film adaptation of the famous novel.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1972 American made-for-television mystery film directed by Barry Crane and starring Stewart Granger as Sherlock Holmes and Bernard Fox as Doctor Watson. The movie is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1982 British television serial made by the BBC. It was produced by Barry Letts, directed by Peter Duguid, and starred Tom Baker as Sherlock Holmes and Terence Rigby as Doctor Watson. The adaptation aired as a four-part serial. The serial is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. The music score was composed and conducted by Carl Davis.
"The Hounds of Baskerville" is the second episode of the second series of the BBC crime drama series Sherlock, which follows the modern-day adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and was first broadcast by BBC One on 8 January 2012. It was written by co-creator Mark Gatiss, who also portrays Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's brother in the series, and was directed by Paul McGuigan. The episode is a contemporary adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous works.
Der Hund von Baskerville is a 1914 German silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, the first film adaptation of the work. According to the website silentera.com, the film was considered lost, but has been rediscovered; the Russian Gosfilmofond film archive possesses a print, while the Filmmuseum München has a 35mm positive print.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is a 1929 German silent mystery film directed by Richard Oswald and is an adaptation of the 1902 Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. The film stars Carlyle Blackwell as Sherlock Holmes and George Seroff as Dr. Watson, with Betty Bird, Alexander Murski, and Livio Pavanelli in supporting roles. It tells the story of Holmes (Blackwell) investigating the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, believed to be caused by a supernatural hound haunting the Baskerville family. This was the last Sherlock Holmes adaptation of the silent film era.
Richard Cabell, of Brook Hall, in the parish of Buckfastleigh on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, is believed to be the inspiration for the wicked Hugo Baskerville, "the first of his family to be hounded to death when he hunted an innocent maiden over the moor by night", one of the central characters in Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-2), the tale of a hellish hound and a cursed country squire. When asked in 1907 about his inspiration for this story, Conan Doyle wrote in reply: "My story was really based on nothing save a remark of my friend Fletcher Robinson's that there was a legend about a dog on the moor connected with some old family". Cabell's tomb survives in the village of Buckfastleigh.
Sherlock Holmes is the overall title given to the series of radio dramas adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories that aired between 1952 and 1969 on BBC radio stations. The episodes starred Carleton Hobbs as Sherlock Holmes and Norman Shelley as Dr. Watson. All but four of Doyle's sixty Sherlock Holmes stories were adapted with Hobbs and Shelley in the leading roles, and some of the stories were adapted more than once with different supporting actors.
↑ Spiring, Paul R.; Pugh, Brian W. (25 May 2011). Bertram Fletcher Robinson: A Footnote to the Hound of the Baskervilles Kindle Edition. London: MX Publishing. pp.1075–1137. ISBN978-1904312406.
1 2 Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.125, pedigree of Cabell of Buckfastleigh
↑ Roy, Pinaki (2022). "Reclaiming the Elementaries of Context: Ponderings on Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles". Popular Literature: Texts, Contexts, Contestations. Ibidem Press. p.168. ISBN978-3838216669.
↑ Weller, Philip, The Hound of the Baskervilles – Hunting the Dartmoor Legend, Devon Books, Halsgrove Publishing, c.2002, quoted in
↑ Payton, Gordon; Grams, Martin Jr. (2015) [1999]. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater: An episode guide and handbook to nine years of broadcasting, 1974–1982 (Reprinteded.). McFarland. p.195. ISBN9780786492282.
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