Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Hound of the Baskervilles (originally published in 1901)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish writer, is best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, but he also wrote in many genres outside of detective novels. His science fiction stories include The Lost World, in which Professor Challenger embarks on an expedition to a South American plateau inhabited by dinosaurs and extinct animals.
Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. He worked as a doctor, but his practice was not very busy, leaving him plenty of time to invent stories. His first major work, A Study in Scarlet, was the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and opened a new era of detective stories. Doyle based the character of the detective on his university professor, Dr. Joseph Bell, whom Kipling recognized when he read the novel. In addition to his novels, he also published documentary works, and he is also credited with founding a football team. He was extremely interested in spirituality, joined the Freemasons and fought for the liberation of African colonies. He left a lasting mark in the history of literature.
Sherlock Holmes appears in a total of four novels and 56 short stories, which were originally published in 5 collections. There have also been numerous adaptations of the stories. We can usually learn about Holmes’ investigations from Dr. Watson’s stories, with only 4 exceptions: in two cases the detective himself tells the story, and in two we can read the story in third person.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third in the list of the novels and the first one I read. What was interesting for me was that Holmes remained in the background almost the entire time and Dr. Watson was at the center of the events. I won’t say more about the plot, because either everyone has heard of it or it’s better to start with as little information as possible. In the end, everything will be revealed anyway…
