The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Last week, to take my mind off of current events (pick your news nightmare), I re-read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the best known of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Published in 1902, and at just 249 pages, the cultural shelf life of this book is beyond phenomenal. 

The case to be solved in this book is to uncover the true story behind a "supernatural" hound that has become the curse of the Baskervilles, an artistocratic British family with a hereditary estate – Sir Charles Baskerville has died mysteriously, and the new heir is Sir Henry Baskerville, who had been living in Canada.  The estate, Baskerville Hall, is quite remote, in the moors of the west country.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s output of Sherlock Holmes novels (4) and short stories (56) is impressive enough, but the Sherlock Holmes franchise, now in its second century, also includes countless republications in countless languages, audiobooks, radio programs, theater productions, television shows, and an exhaustive list of movie adaptions – and still growing, having lost none of its popularity. The books are now in the public domain, so there will be more.  When I finished reading the book, I watched the 1983 movie version on Amazon Prime starring Ian Richardson and Donald Churchill which was well done. I'm also a fan of the Sherlock Holmes series on Netflix.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are two of the world’s best-known fictional characters – along with the likes of David Copperfield and Huck Finn.  There is a reason for that, people, including me, like them.

Recommendation:  Yes, fun and relaxing.