The Hound Of The Baskervilles Pdf

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The Hound of the Baskervilles 3 of 279 unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it.’ ‘I think,’ said I, following as far as I could the methods. From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes Hound of the Baskervilles Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays. Oct 01, 2001  Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by Project Gutenberg. Supposedly, this demon hound haunts the Baskerville family to this day. The latest Baskerville, Sir Charles, has also just died under Mysterious Circumstances. Sir Charles was known to be terrified of the Hound, and he was found lying dead just beyond his own driveway with an expression of.

The Hound of the Baskervilles
AuthorArthur Conan Doyle
IllustratorSidney Paget
Cover artistAlfred Garth Jones
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSherlock Holmes
GenreDetective fiction
PublisherGeorge Newnes
Publication date
1902[1]
Preceded byThe Final Problem (last story of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes)
Followed byThe Return of Sherlock Holmes
TextThe Hound of the Baskervilles at Wikisource

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. 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.[2]

One of the most famous stories ever written,[2] 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'.[3] In 1999, it was listed as the top Holmes novel, with a perfect rating from Sherlockian scholars of 100.[4]

  • 3Inspiration
  • 6Adaptations

Plot[edit]

The titular hound

Dr James Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes for advice after his friend Sir Charles Baskerville was found dead in the park surrounding his manor, in the moors of Devon. The death was attributed to a heart attack, but according to Mortimer, Sir Charles's face retained an expression of horror, and not far from the corpse the footprints of a gigantic hound were clearly visible. According to an old legend, a curse runs in the Baskerville family since the time of the English Civil War, when a Sir Hugo Baskerville abducted and murdered a woman in the mires of Dartmoor, only to be killed in turn by a huge demonic hound. Allegedly the same creature has been haunting the place ever since, causing the premature death of many Baskerville heirs. Sir Charles believed in the plague of the hound and so does Mortimer, who now fears for the next in line, Sir Henry Baskerville.

Even though he dismisses the whole curse story as nonsense, Holmes agrees to meet Sir Henry in London as soon as Sir Henry arrives from Canada, where his branch of the family had moved in the past. He is a young and jovial good-looking fellow, sceptical toward the grim legend and eager to take possession of Baskerville Hall, even though he has just found an anonymous note in the mail, warning him to stay away from the moor. When someone tries to shoot Sir Henry while he is walking down a street, however, Holmes asks Watson to go with the young man and Mortimer to Dartmooor, in order to protect Sir Henry and search for any clue about who is menacing his life.

Sherlock Holmes examining Dr Mortimer's walking stick
Sir Henry Baskerville
The Hound Of The Baskervilles Pdf
Holmes sees a clue in the Baskerville portrait
Watson meets Stapleton
Watson meets Miss Stapleton
The hound killed by Holmes

The trio arrives at Baskerville Hall, an old and imposing manor in the middle of a vast park, managed by a butler and his wife the housekeeper. The estate is surrounded by the moor and borders the Grimpen Mire, where animals and humans can sink to death in quicksand. The news that a convict has escaped from the local gaol and is hiding in the nearby hills adds to the barren landscape and the gloomy atmosphere.

There are inexplicable events during the first night, keeping the guests awake, and only in the daylight can Watson and Sir Henry relax while exploring the neighborhood and meeting the scarce but peculiar residents of Dartmoor. Watson keeps on searching for any lead to the identity of whoever is threatening Sir Henry's life, and faithfully telegraphs the details of his investigation to Holmes. Among the residents, the Stapletons, brother and sister, stand out: Jack is overfriendly and a bit too curious toward the newly arrived, while Beryl, a rare beauty, seems all too weary of the place.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Book Pdf Download

Distant howls and strange sightings trouble Watson during his long walks on the hills, and his mood gets no better even inside Baskerville Hall. Watson grows suspicious of the butler, who at night acts as if he was signalling from a window of the house with a candle to someone on the moor. Meanwhile Sir Henry is drawn to Beryl, who seems to be afraid of her brother's opinion on the matter. To make the puzzle more complex there are Mortimer, maybe too eager to convince Sir Henry that the curse is real; an old and grumpy neighbour, who likes to pry with his telescope into other people's houses; his daughter Laura, who had unclear ties to Sir Charles; and even a bearded man roaming free in the hills and apparently hiding on a tor where ancient tombs have been excavated by Stapleton for an unclear purpose.

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Unknown to everyone, even to his friend Watson, Sherlock Holmes has been hiding in the moor all the time and has solved the mystery. He reveals that the hound is real and belongs to Stapleton, who seduced Laura and convinced her to lure Sir Charles out of his house by night, in order to frighten him with the apparition of the legendary hound. Beryl is indeed Jack's legitimate wife, abused and forced into posing as his sister to seduce Sir Henry and expose him also to the fangs of the hound.

Unfortunately the collected evidence is not enough for a jury to condemn Stapleton, so Holmes decides to use young Baskerville as a bait to catch the criminal red-handed. Sir Henry will accept an invitation to Stapleton's house and will walk back after dark, giving his enemy every chance to unleash the hound on him. Holmes and Watson pretend to leave Dartmoor by train, but instead they hide near Stapleton's house with Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. Despite the dark and a thick fog, Holmes and Watson are able to kill the fearsome beast as soon as it attacks the designated victim, while Stapleton, in his panicked flight from the scene, drowns in the mire.[5]

Origins and background[edit]

Baskerville Hall, formally Clyro Court. It is thought this house may have provided Conan Doyle with the inspiration for The Hound of the Baskervilles
The ruins of Fowelscombe House, viewed in 2008, a possible model for Baskerville Hall
Cromer Hall
Crowsley Park House

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote this story shortly after returning to his home Undershaw 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.

He was assisted with the plot by a 30-year-old Daily Express journalist named Bertram Fletcher Robinson (1870–1907).

Inspiration[edit]

His ideas came from the legend of Squire Richard Cabell of Brook Hall, in the parish of Buckfastleigh, Devon,[6] which was the fundamental inspiration for the Baskerville tale of a hellish hound and a cursed country squire. Cabell's tomb survives in the village of Buckfastleigh.[7][8]

Cabell lived for hunting, and was what in those days was described as a 'monstrously evil man'. He gained this reputation, amongst 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.[9] 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.[10]

Moreover, Devon's folklore includes tales of a fearsome supernatural dog known as the Yeth hound that Conan Doyle may have heard.

Weller (2002) believes that Baskerville Hall is based on one of three possible houses on or near Dartmoor:[11]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.[6] 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 last 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.[12]

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 pre-Gothic Cromer Hall, where Conan Doyle stayed, also closely resembles Doyle's vivid descriptions of Baskerville Hall.[13]

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.

Original manuscript[edit]

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 185-190 leaves, only 36 are known still to exist, including all the leaves from Chapter 11, held by the New York Public Library. Other leaves are owned by university libraries and private collectors.[14] A newly rediscovered example was sold at auction in 2012 for US$158,500.[15]

Technique[edit]

The novel uses many traditional novelistic techniques which had been largely abandoned by the time of writing, such as letters, diary extracts, interpolated manuscripts, and the like, as seen in the works of Henry Fielding and, later, Wilkie Collins. It 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. Doyle wrote that the novel was originally conceived as a straight 'Victorian creeper' (as seen in the works of J. Sheridan Le Fanu), with the idea of introducing Holmes as the deus ex machina only arising later.

Publication[edit]

The Hound of the Baskervilles was first serialized 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 form of a novel the following year.[16]

Adaptations[edit]

The Hound of the Baskervilles has been adapted for many media.

Film and television adaptations[edit]

Over 20 film and television versions of The Hound of the Baskervilles have been made.

YearTitleCountryDirectorHolmesWatson
1914Der Hund von Baskerville, 1. TeilGermanyRudolf MeinertAlwin NeußNone
1914Der Hund von Baskerville, 2. Teil — Das einsame Haus
1914Der Hund von Baskerville, 3. Teil — Das unheimliche ZimmerRichard Oswald
1915Der Hund von Baskerville, 4. Teil
1920Das dunkle SchloßWilly ZeynEugen BurgNone
1920Das Haus ohne FensterErich Kaiser-Titz
1920Dr. MacDonalds Sanatorium
1921The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomMaurice ElveyEille NorwoodHubert Willis
1929Der Hund von BaskervilleGermanyRichard OswaldCarlyle BlackwellGeorge Seroff
1932The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomGareth GundreyRobert RendelFrederick Lloyd
1937The Hound of the BaskervillesGermanyCarl LamacBruno GüttnerFritz Odemar
1939The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited StatesSidney LanfieldBasil RathboneNigel Bruce
1951JighansaIndiaAjoy KarSishir Batabyal
as Detective Smarajit Sen
?
1955Der Hund von BaskervilleWest GermanyFritz UmgelterWolf AckvaArnulf Schröder
1959The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomTerence FisherPeter CushingAndré Morell
1962Bees Saal Baad[17](based on H. K. Roy's Nishachari Bibhishika,[18]
the Bengali adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles.[19])
IndiaBiren NagAsit Sen
as Detective Gopichand
?
1968Sherlock Holmes - 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'[20]United KingdomGraham EvansPeter CushingNigel Stock
1968Sherlock Holmes - 'L'ultimo dei Baskerville'[21]ItalyGuglielmo MorandiNando GazzoloGianni Bonagura
1971The Hound of the Baskervilles (Собака Баскервилей)[22]USSRA. F. ZinovievaNikolay VolkovLev Krugliy
1972The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited StatesBarry CraneStewart GrangerBernard Fox
1978The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomPaul MorrisseyPeter CookDudley Moore
1981The Hound of the Baskervilles (Собака Баскервилей)USSRIgor MaslennikovVasilij LivanovVitali Solomin
1982The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomPeter DuguidTom BakerTerence Rigby
1983The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomDouglas HickoxIan RichardsonDonald Churchill
1983Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville CurseAustraliaIan McKenzie & Alex NicholasPeter O'Toole (voice)Earle Cross (voice)
1988The Return of Sherlock Holmes - 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'[23]United KingdomBrian MillsJeremy BrettEdward Hardwicke
1995Wishbone - 'The Slobbery Hound'[24]United StatesFred Holmes'Wishbone'
(Soccer the Dog, voice of Larry Brantley)
Ric Speigel
1999Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century - 'The Hounds of the Baskervilles'[25]United States,
United Kingdom
Robert Brousseau, Scott HemingJason Gray-StanfordJohn Payne
2000The Hound of the BaskervillesCanadaRodney GibbonsMatt FrewerKenneth Welsh
2002The Hound of the BaskervillesUnited KingdomDavid AttwoodRichard RoxburghIan Hart
2012Sherlock - 'The Hounds of Baskerville'[26]United KingdomPaul McGuiganBenedict CumberbatchMartin Freeman
2015The Adventure of Henry Baskerville and a Dog[citation needed]
(Basukāviru kun to inu no bōken, バスカーヴィル君と犬の冒険)[27]
JapanMichiyo MoritaKōichi Yamadera (voice)Wataru Takagi (voice)
2016Elementary - 'Hounded'[28]United StatesRobert Hewitt WolfeJonny Lee MillerLucy Liu

Audio[edit]

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 and Crawford Logan as Watson and was broadcast in 1988 on BBC Radio 4. Following its good reception, Coules proposed further radio adaptations, which eventually led to the dramatisation of the entire canon for radio, starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson.[29] 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.[30]

Drawplus x5 download free. In 2014 L.A. Theatre Works released their production, starring Seamus Dever as Holmes, Geoffrey Arend as Watson, James Marsters as Sir Henry, Sarah Drew as Beryl Stapleton, Wilson Bethel as Stapleton, Henri Lubatti as Dr Mortimer, Christopher Neame as Sir Charles and Frankland, Moira Quirk as Mrs Hudson & Mrs Barrymore, and Darren Richardson as Barrymore.

Stage[edit]

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', whilst 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.[31]

Ken Ludwig authored an adaptation entitled Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery which premiered as a co-production at Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.) in January 2015 and McCarter Theatre Center in March 2015.[32]

Video games[edit]

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Text Pdf

The Hound of Baskervilles serves as the primary inspiration for the final case in Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken in which the protagonist teams up with Sherlock Holmes to investigate mysteries based on various entries in the Holmes chronology.[citation needed]

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.[33]

Related works[edit]

  • The movie The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1941) makes references to The Hound of the Baskervilles.
  • Disney cartoonist Carl Barks parodied this story with The Hound of the Whiskervilles (1960), starring Uncle Scrooge.[34]
  • A 1965 issue of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories (comic book) featured The Hound of Basketville, starring Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Gladstone Gander, and Pluto, as Sherlock Mouse, Doctor Goofy, Sir Gladstone Basketville, and the hound.
  • Stapleton reappears in Richard L. Boyer's version of The Giant Rat of Sumatra (1976). It turns out that he did not die, as Holmes and Watson assumed, but had escaped by another route, committing further crimes and vowing vengeance on Sherlock Holmes.
  • William of Baskerville, protagonist of Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose (1980), is a Franciscan friar and a sleuth, inspired by Sherlock Holmes and perhaps William of Occam and other real and fictional characters.
  • The hound of the Baskervilles is a character in Kouta Hirano's supernatural manga series Hellsing (1997-2008).
  • Spike Milligan satirised the novel in his book, The Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan (1997), combining elements of the original novel with the Basil Rathbone serials.
  • The Moor (1998), a novel in Laurie R. King's series about Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell, uses the setting and various plot elements, with Holmes returning to Dartmoor on a later case.
  • Pierre Bayard's book Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong (2008) re-opens the case and, by careful re-examination of all the clues, clears the hound of all wrongdoing and argues that the actual murderer got away with the crime completely unsuspected by Holmes, countless readers of the book over the past century—and even, in a sense, the author himself.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^'Facsimile of the 1st edition (1902)'. S4ulanguages.com. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
  2. ^ abRendell, Ruth (12 September 2008). 'A most serious and extraordinary problem'. The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  3. ^'BBC - The Big Read'. BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 31 October 2012
  4. ^'The Best Sherlock Holmes Stories'. Bestofsherlock.com. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  5. ^Connan-Doyle, Arthur, Sir. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Project Gutenberg.
  6. ^ abVivian, 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
  7. ^Spiring, Paul (2007). 'Hugo Baskerville & Squire Richard Cabell III'. BFROnline. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
  8. ^'Cabell Tomb — Buckfastleigh'. Devon Guide. 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
  9. ^Vivian, pp.125,370
  10. ^'Buckfastleigh Church'. Legendary Dartmoor. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2009.
  11. ^Weller, Philip, The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Hunting the Dartmoor Legend, Devon Books, Halsgrove Publishing, c.2002, quoted in [1]
  12. ^'Mansion said to have inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles on sale for £3m'. Wales Online.
  13. ^http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/weird/weird_sherlock_holmes.shtml
  14. ^Stock, Randall (10 June 2013). 'The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Manuscript Census'. bestofsherlock.com. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  15. ^'DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan (1859-1930). Autograph manuscript leaf from The Hound of the Baskervilles, first serialized in The Strand Magazine, August 1901-April 1902, published in book form by George Newnes, on 25 March 1902'. Christies. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  16. ^'Publication of the Hound of the Baskervilles'. History Today.
  17. ^https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055783/
  18. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 12 September 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. ^Chatterjee, ed. board Gulzar, Govind Nihalani, Saibal (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi cinema. New Delhi: Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 659. ISBN978-81-7991-066-5.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  20. ^Alan Barnes (2002). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. p. 182. ISBN978-1-903111-04-8.
  21. ^'L'Ultimo dei Baskerville (TV episode 1968)'. The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  22. ^Barnes, Alan (2011). Sherlock Holmes on Screen. Titan Books. p. 140. ISBN9780857687760.
  23. ^O'Connor, John J. (8 December 1988). 'Review/Television; Holmes, Hounds and Haunted Halls'. The New York Times. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  24. ^'Wishbone'. TV Guide. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  25. ^'Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century'. TV Guide. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  26. ^Teti, John (11 March 2016). 'Sherlock: 'The Hounds Of Baskerville''. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  27. ^The episode is based on 'The Adventure of the Dancing Men' also.
  28. ^Valentine, Genevieve (11 March 2016). 'Elementary aims high and falls short on adaptation'. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  29. ^Bert Coules. 'The Background'. The BBC complete audio Sherlock Holmes. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  30. ^Bert Coules. 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. The BBC complete audio Sherlock Holmes. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  31. ^'Licencing, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Peepolykus Theatre Company'. Peepolykus.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  32. ^Purcell, Carey (15 January 2015). 'Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Makes World Premiere Tonight'. Playbill. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  33. ^'Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles'. bigfishgames.com. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  34. ^Uncle Scrooge #29, Dell, 1960.

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Sherlock Holmes The Hound Of The Baskervilles Pdf

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Hound of the Baskervilles.
  • Read The Hound of the Baskervilles at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle–His Life, All His Works and More
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles at Project Gutenberg
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (Part I) at BFRonline.biz.
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (Part II) at BFRonline.biz.
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (Conclusion) at BFRonline.biz.
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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How It All Goes Down

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson are hanging around the apartment that they share (as platonic bros) when Doctor James Mortimer appears to consult Holmes about a very strange matter that occurred in his town of Dartmoor. While Baskerville Hall may be fictional, Dartmoor—with its beautiful, barren, boggy, hilly countryside—is definitely a real place.

Apparently, in the 1640s, a bad guy named Hugo Baskerville kidnapped a young woman and stuck her in his castle. When she escaped, he rode out after her. And when his friends went to find Hugo to stop him, they discovered two dead bodies. The girl had died of exhaustion and fear at being ridden down by a creepy madman on the moors (wetlands) at night. But Hugo Baskerville suffered a worse fate: his drinking buddies found him getting his throat torn out by a giant black dog from hell. Supposedly, this demon hound haunts the Baskerville family to this day.

The latest Baskerville, Sir Charles, has also just died under Mysterious Circumstances. Sir Charles was known to be terrified of the Hound, and he was found lying dead just beyond his own driveway with an expression of horror on his face. Doctor Mortimer strongly suspects that the ghost dog—the Hound—had something to do with it.

Doctor Mortimer doesn't want Holmes to investigate; he just wants to know if he should tell this to Sir Henry Baskerville, the new heir. He doesn't want to frighten the guy, but he doesn't want Sir Henry to become Devil Dog Chow, either. Holmes agrees to meet Sir Charles.

When Sir Henry arrives at Holmes' apartment with Doctor Mortimer, he has his own news. Someone has sent him a warning telling him to 'keep away from the moor' (4.11). Someone took one of his new brown boots and later on, one of his old black boots went missing. Holmes and Watson also discover a strange-looking man with a big beard following Sir Henry

Holmes sends Sir Henry back to Baskerville Hall and asks Watson to go along with him to investigate. Once they arrive, they find the place to be (a) huge, (b) rich, (c) old, and (d) gloomy.

Here are just a couple of reasons why no one in their right mind would want to be at Baskerville Hall: first, Sir Henry's butler Barrymore plans to quit his job and leave Sir Henry on his own. Barrymore's a prime suspect for Sir Charles' murder, since he and his wife benefited from Sir Charles' will; he also has a large beard. If that's not bad enough, there's news that a homicidal maniac named Selden has escaped from the nearby prison (a real prison). Between the crazed murderer and the butler, Sir Henry isn't exactly overjoyed with his new digs.

When Watson's out for a stroll, a man carrying a butterfly net (yeah, we know—weird) introduces himself as Stapleton, a neighbor of Sir Henry. He seems to know a lot about the Hound and Sir Charles' fear of it. He's also aware of Watson's relationship with Holmes.

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When Stapleton runs off to catch a butterfly, a woman suddenly approaches Watson, whom she mistakes for Sir Henry, and warns him to go back to London right away. When Stapleton returns, she immediately changes the subject. Turns out she's Stapleton's sister Beryl. When she figures out that Watson is not Sir Henry Baskerville she refuses to tell Watson why it's so important for Sir Henry to leave Baskerville Hall. Not looking good for Sir Henry.

Watson reports to Holmes that Sir Henry seems to be falling for Beryl Stapleton, which is upsetting Stapleton for some reason. And something else: at about 2:00AM, Watson saw Barrymore looking out at the moors and holding a candle up to the window. That guy is obviously hiding something. Could he be our murderer? (Cue the creepy organ music.)

A couple of nights later, Watson and Sir Henry find the butler standing at the same window with his candle. And there, out on the moors, they spot—another candle! Yep, the candle is some kind of signal. Sir Henry fires Barrymore on the spot for plotting against him, but Barrymore's wife appears and tells all. The candle out on the moor belongs to her brother, Selden, the psychotic murderer. They've been feeding him when he signals, because she can't bear to let him starve, no matter what awful things he's done. Watson and Barrymore try to track Selden down but he manages to escape. But Watson spots yet another unknown guy on the moors.

Barrymore tells Watson he knows why Sir Charles was in his driveway so late at night, despite his fear of the moors and the Hound. He got a letter signed 'L.L.' from a woman asking to meet him at that precise spot. Doctor Mortimer tells Watson there's a woman named Laura Lyons living nearby in Coombe Tracy. She's the disowned daughter of Mr. Frankland. Watson visits Laura Lyons, and while she finally admits to writing the note, she swears she never went to meet Sir Charles that fateful night.

But wait, there's more! Mr. Frankland tells Watson he's seen a boy bringing food to one of the Stone Age huts on the moors. He believes it's Selden, the murderer. But Watson guesses it's his mysterious man from the night before. Watson goes to the hut and lies in wait, only to find the man is Sherlock Holmes.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Pdf Oxford

Holmes apologizes to Watson for keeping him in the dark. His observations depended on secrecy, and feared that Watson couldn't help but give away Holmes' location. Holmes has discovered that Laura Lyons has been seeing Stapleton, and that she hopes to marry him. But she can't: the woman who Stapleton's living with as his sister? She's actually his wife. (Ick.) Suddenly, Holmes and Watson hear a horrible scream and rush out to find a corpse with a crushed skull at the bottom of a cliff. They think it's Sir Henry Baskerville, but in fact, it's Selden dressed in Sir Henry's clothing. Stapleton comes by and appears visibly shaken to see a dead body that's not Sir Henry. (More organ music.)

To prove that Stapleton is connected to the murders, Holmes lays a trap. He claims that he and Watson are going back to London but insists that Sir Henry go to Stapleton's house for dinner that night. Holmes and Watson plan to ambush Stapleton when he tries to kill Sir Henry.

Holmes and Watson visit Laura Lyons again. When she hears that Stapleton has a wife, she tells Holmes everything: that Stapleton dictated the letter she sent to Sir Charles, that he then insisted that she not keep the appointment, and that he bullied her into keeping silent about Sir Charles' death. They return to Stapleton's house to set up their trap.

As Sir Henry leaves the house, a giant black dog with flames jumping from its mouth and eyes gallops after him. The dog manages to bring down Sir Henry and to bite his throat. Holmes finally kills the dog, and they find Sir Henry freaked out but mostly okay considering he's just been mauled by Cujo's great-great-great-great-grandfather.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Analysis Pdf

The dead dog's fur had been coated in phosphorus. It was the terrifying sight of the glowing dog that frightened Sir Charles into a heart attack and drove Selden off the cliff to his death. Inside the house, they find Beryl Stapleton tied up and gagged. She leads them to his hiding place in a dangerous bog, but he's not there. They find Sir Henry's black boot sunk in the bog —Stapleton has been using it to train the Hound to follow Sir Henry's scent. Watson suspects that Stapleton lost his footing in the bog and wound up being sucked down, never to be seen again.

Back in London, Holmes ties up the loose ends for Watson: Stapleton was actually the long-lost son of Rodger Baskerville, Sir Charles' brother. Old Rodger had moved to South America many years before and died there. Young Rodger—a.k.a. Stapleton—moved to England with his wife and learned that he was in line to inherit the Baskerville fortune if he could only get rid of Sirs Charles and Henry. He used the legend of the Hound to try to do just that.

So that's it—Stapleton is lying at the bottom of the bog and Holmes and Watson are back in London. Score: Logic 1, Superstition 0.

All this talk of devil dogs is making us hungry. We'll be right back.

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