The Hound of the Baskervilles

A Holmes novel that is more atmosphere than deduction: Holmes is offstage for most of the middle, and Watson's letters, the moor and the mire carry it. The mystery is clever and mostly fair, and the old prose takes a few pages to warm up. Four out of five (draft). Read it if: you want a gothic holmes mystery with a real sense of place; you like clues you can reread and check against the solution; you want a classic that is short and well plotted. Skip it if: you want holmes on every page: he is offstage for most of the middle; victorian sentences and dated attitudes put you off; you expect a ghost story: the book explains the hound.

Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. Who killed Sir Charles Baskerville, and how does a dog kill a man without touching him? The Hound of the Baskervilles ending, explained step by step. Full spoilers. The Hound of the Baskervilles ending explained →

The Hound of the Baskervilles summary, all 15 chapters: the legend, Watson's letters from Dartmoor, the stone hut, the fog and the ending. Full spoilers. The Hound of the Baskervilles Summary: Chapter by Chapter →

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are asked to protect Sir Henry Baskerville, heir to a Devon estate, after his uncle dies mysteriously and a family legend about a giant hound seems to be coming true. Watson goes to Dartmoor to watch over Sir Henry while Holmes stays behind in London, at least as far as Watson knows.

Arthur Conan Doyle. The Project Gutenberg text (ebook #2852) opens with a short letter to a friend named Robinson, who gave the author a West-Country legend. We give no publication year because the text does not state one.

The Project Gutenberg text has 15 chapters, and by our count about 59,600 words, which is roughly four hours of reading at a steady pace. Chapters 8 to 10 are told through Watson's letters and diary.

No. After the first few pages of chapter 6, Holmes is offstage until the last line of chapter 11, and the middle of the book is carried by Dr. Watson's letters and diary.

In our reading, no. The book mentions a few of Holmes's other cases in passing, but the mystery and its characters are introduced in the first chapters, so it works as a first Holmes novel.

The Project Gutenberg edition, ebook number 2852, is free to read online. That is the text we used for every page and video.