Holmes is too busy to investigate the crime himself, so acts via proxy, sending Watson in his stead, which means that much of the story is related in epistolary fashion – much like Bram Stoker’s Dracula – through letters and reports from the doctor back to his friend in London. Holmes is asked to investigate a death that has been attributed to natural causes, but which features such gothic elements as a look of abject terror on the dead man’s face, a family curse dating back to the English Civil War and a gigantic hound. This fascination with the otherworldly is woven throughout a story that manages to incorporate such outré elements as Black Shuck and the Hellfire Club, while still giving Holmes plenty of opportunity to exhibit his astonishing abilities. Who doesn’t love glowing hellhounds?Ĭonan Doyle had a lifelong interest in the supernatural, and he’ll long be remembered as the most famous proponent of the Cottingley fairies photographs (which turned out to be hoaxes, not surprisingly). This is partly because it has a better title than the other three books, but doubtless also because it has been filmed more than any other Holmes story, and with good reason. Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the bestselling books of the 20th century and the best known of the Sherlock Holmes novels.
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