The Hound of the Baskervilles
Read this if you…
- want the best Sherlock Holmes novel
- want super early mystery novel that's actually good
- want a quick, light, easy book
Skip this if you…
- want serious thought-provoking literature
- hate detective/mystery novels
The 
Take
Shorty easy and fun. Nothing mindblowing. The Holmes man on the moor reveal was great
Depicted in Art
On the moor at night the maiden lies dead in the grass; the wicked Hugo and his hound discovered beside her body.
Sidney Paget, 1901
Frontispiece of the 1902 Newnes first edition — the dark moor with the spectral hound looming, the title image of the serial.
Sidney Paget, 1902
The enormous black hound, jaws agape and muzzle glowing pale, bounds out of the moorland mist at the hidden detectives.
Sidney Paget, 1901
Sir Henry Baskerville, in morning dress at the Northumberland Hotel, holds up the recovered old brown boot that had vanished from his room.
Sidney Paget, 1901
Holmes empties his revolver into the flank of the black hound as it falls on the moor path; Watson and Lestrade close in.
Sidney Paget, 1902
Holmes in top hat and frock coat points down a London street at a hansom cab; Watson at his side, both in pursuit.
Sidney Paget, 1901
The escaped convict Selden's snarling, bestial face appears over the lip of a moorland tor as Watson and Sir Henry approach in moonlight.
Sidney Paget, 1901
Recommended Editions
Penguin Classics
2001
Christopher Frayling knows the Dartmoor sources cold and the notes on Conan Doyle's collaboration with Bertram Fletcher Robinson are the real draw here. A smart, unfussy reading edition.
Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!
Notable Quotes
Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!
Screen & Stage
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Film · 1939
Sidney Lanfield
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Film · 1959
Terence Fisher
Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, NBA legend & Sherlockian, b. 1947: "My favorite Holmes novel … a compelling mixture of gothic atmosphere and noirish grittiness."
- G.K. Chesterton, novelist & critic, 1874–1936: "Conan Doyle triumphed, and triumphed deservedly, because he took his art seriously."
- Jorge Luis Borges, writer, 1899–1986: Thinking now and then of Sherlock Holmes is one of the good habits we have left.
- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States, 1884–1972: "I had read all of the Holmes novels before I was twelve years old."