[.ca] The Hound of the Baskervilles (ISBN 0440937582)

From Amazon.com:
We owe 1902's The Hound of the Baskervilles to Arthur Conan Doyle's good friend Fletcher "Bobbles" Robinson, who took him to visit some scary English moors and prehistoric ruins, and told him marvelous local legends about escaped prisoners and a 17th-century aristocrat who fell afoul of the family dog. Doyle transmogrified the legend: generations ago, a hound of hell tore out the throat of devilish Hugo Baskerville on the moonlit moor. Poor, accursed Baskerville Hall now has another mysterious death: that of Sir Charles Baskerville. Could the culprit somehow be mixed up with secretive servant Barrymore, history-obsessed Dr. Frankland, butterfly-chasing Stapleton, or Selden, the Notting Hill murderer at large? Someone's been signaling with candles from the mansion's windows. Nor can supernatural forces be ruled out. Can Dr. Watson--left alone by Sherlock Holmes to sleuth in fear for much of the novel--save the next Baskerville, Sir Henry, from the hound's fangs? Many Holmes fans prefer Doyle's complete short stories, but their clockwork logic doesn't match the author's boast about this novel: it's "a real Creeper!" What distinguishes this particular Hound is its fulfillment of Doyle's great debt to Edgar Allan Poe--it's full of ancient woe, low moans, a Grimpen Mire that sucks ponies to Dostoyevskian deaths, and locals digging up Neolithic skulls without next-of-kins' consent. "The longer one stays here the more does the spirit of the moor sink into one's soul," Watson realizes. "Rank reeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay ... while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet ... it was as if some malignant hand was tugging us down into those obscene depths." Read on--but, reader, watch your step! --Tim Appelo

The Hound of the Baskervilles:
_The Hound of the Baskervilles,_ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a classic Sherlock Holmes mystery that will keep the reader guessing from cover to cover. Set in Nineteenth Century England, the tale of murder and a family curse will hold the reader's attention until the end. When Sir Charles Baskerville mysteriously dies and the heir to his estate is threatened, the real mystery begins. Doyle's masterful writing style is easy to follow and flows so well the book will be over before the reader realizes it. I enjoyed this Sherlock Holmes mystery because it is easy to read and it flows well. For me, a person that does not usually like classics- or mysteries for that matter, I really enjoyed this book. The story kept my interest and it kept me guessing throughout the entire book. This story is not a thriller, but it is still a good mystery. For someone who prefers John Grisham suspense or a CSI type story line, this book is probably not for them. However, for someone who enjoys simple mysteries and likes to play the role of detective as they read, I would recommend this book.

The Hound of the Baskervilles:
The Hound of the Baskervilles is about one of the adventures of the famous Sherlock Holmes. He's done some excellent sleuthing and interviewing in this 256 page mystery. You might be a little uninterested at the start because it begins a little slow and the language is a little out of date, but if you stick with it for a few pages you'll see how intriguing the mystery is. The tension raises and raises until you find out if the case is of the supernatural or just criminal. Sir Charles Baskerville has just died and the very wealthy Baskerville estate in England is now in the hands of young Sir Henry Baskerville. Sir Charles seems to die of the cursed family hound that Hugo Baskerville brought upon the family 300 years ago. Sir Henry is now in terrible fear of the moor which is always the place that this hound of doom strikes. Right from when Charles arrives in London strange things start happening. He also gets an interesting and mysterious warning. This book is truly great because sometimes you may think you know the culprit but it turns out that you're wrong. The person you think is the culprit is just doing something entirely un-expected and it adds more mysteries to the crime. Sherlock Holmes has to risk it all and lie even to his best friend and assistant, the narrator, Watson. The setting of the moor is the perfect place for the legend to exist because of all the ancient structures and the Grimpen Mire. You'll have to read the book to understand what I mean. The book is an excellent adventure for all ages and isn't too long of a read.

The Hound of the Baskervilles:
I really enjoyed reading The Hound of the Baskervilles. I thought it was very exciting and suspensful. Conan Doyle uses a very elevated vocabulary which may not be appropriate for young people. Also Conan Doyle does a great job of illustrating to us what Baskerville Hall might look like and what the moor may seem like at midnight on a cloudy evening. He also depicts the characters very well and he did a great job with the death scenes. I was a little dissappointed that the book was not more scarey. It was not the best I have ever read but The Hound of the Baskervilles was certainly a great book.

Mystery on the Moor:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has created perhaps the best detective in Sherlock Holmes. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is narrated by the faithful Watson, a man of genius not quite on par with that of Holmes, the master mystery solver. Holmes is forever quizzing Watson to see things the way he does, to figure out the mysteries of small things, like a walking stick left behind by a visitor. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" tells the story of Henry Baskerville, a man who has inherited his family's home and fortune (as the supposed final heir), but also their apparent curse. His uncle was recently found dead on the grounds of Baskerville Hall, with little explanation for his death. The locals are sure as to the cause; it is the mysterious hell-hound that haunts the moors that was the cause of his death. The local doctor brings the matter to Holmes and Watson and they are charged to protect the young Henry Baskerville from a similar fate, as well as to solve the mystery of the hound. While trying to gather facts for his intrepid employer, the faithful Watson narrates the strange happenings among Sir Henry's neighbors, wanting to add his own theories, but leaving the mystery solving to his much-admired mentor. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes a well-paced narrative that builds to a climax that is still exciting even when we know the real mystery behind the hound. At the end, it is Holmes and not his faithful sidekick Watson, who reveals the tricks of his trade and how he solved the mystery that no one ever suspected. Doyle has created a wonderful pair of complementary characters in Holmes and Watson and it is a joy to read their adventures.

An intriguing and suspenseful detective story.:
First I must make a note of the fact that this is the first and only Sherlock Holmes story I've read thus far. Therefore I cannot offer any kind of comparison between "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and Doyle's other works. I will simply give you my thoughts about it as a story in and of itself. The book is simply written and easy to understand, but the plot remains engaging throughout. It is not overly complicated, but neither is it too simplistic or predictable. The Baskerville family has passed down the legend of a giant black hound that plagues the residents of Baskerville Hall, bringing a swift end to any that dare venture alone onto the nearby moor at night. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead upon the moor with the pawprints of a large dog in the earth nearby, the case is presented to Sherlock Holmes in hopes of unraveling the mystery and ensuring the safety of Sir Charles's nephew and Baskerville Hall's new occupant, Sir Henry Baskerville. Too busy to investigate the matter himself, Holmes sends his friend and assistant, Dr. Watson, out to Baskerville Hall in his stead. Watson is the narrator of the story, and we see threads of the mystery slowly unravel as he makes his reports back to Holmes. Other reviewers have complained about the fact that Holmes is not the central figure in this particular novel, but I actually liked the way the story was done. And as we find out toward the end of the book, Holmes actually plays a larger part than he initially appears to. I must admit, though, that it was a bit depressing to see Watson toil away at investigating and drawing conclusions only to have Holmes repeatedly inform him that his conclusions are wrong. Watson does most of the drudge-work but gets very little in return. The style of the writing was very appealing to me. The story has a very dark, gothic feel, and is full of suspense. Doyle's descriptions make the eerie moor feel very real. For a book written a century ago, it is still very reader-friendly. The only part where I thought the book dropped off a little was in the last few chapters. For all the build-up and suspense, the climax of the story is much too short and quickly resolved, leaving a feeling of unreality. Also, Doyle concludes by having Holmes simply recite to Watson all the details of his sleuthing that were left out of the action of the book. I think the rule "Show, don't tell," is a good one when it comes to literature, and I would rather have actually seen Holmes come to his conclusions as the story progressed. Overall, though, I did enjoy the book, and look forward to reading more of Doyle's work. My one last word of advice regards this particular edition of the book (the 1993 Signet Classics printing with Afterword by Frederick Busch). There are numerous typos that really should have been caught and corrected before publishing (most, curiously, are instances where the letter "t" is inexplicably replaced with the letter "b"). I would recommend looking for a different version that is more competently edited.