Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILES

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


A gigantic hound is the chief suspect in a murder hunt. Its footprints are found beside the body of sir Charles Baskerville, recently found dead, on the moors close to his Devonshire mansion.

Dr Mortimer, who relates these details to Holmes and Watson, more than half believes the legend that makes a supernatural hound the appointed doom of the Baskerville family.

He persuades Holmes to meet Sir Henry, the last of the Baskervilles, who has returned from Canada to claim his inheritance.

Watson accompanies Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall, where he encounters shifty servants, an escaped convict and various neighbours including the naturalist Stapleton, with whose sister Sir Henry falls in love.

However, the most likely suspect, a mysterious stranger, turns out to be none other than Holmes himself in disguise. Holmes, investigations reveal Sir Charles murderer, and Holmes sets a trap for him on the moors, using Sir Henry as bait.

The climax, the mystery of the gigantic hound is explained, and the treacherous, fog-wreathed Grimpen Mire claims another victim.

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his Sherlock Holmes novel on a true story. In the 17th Century, Richard Cabell of Buckfastleigh, Devon, UK, pursued his wife to the nearby moor, and stabbed her to death in a jealous rage. Her loyal hound leapt for his throat and killed him as he stabbed it. The ghostly dog haunts the Cabell family to this day.


Conan Doyle