Doyle, Arthur Canon: The hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles

by Arthur Canon Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. As the son of a civil servant, he was educated at Stonyhurst School

and then spent a year in Austria, before taking a dergree in medicine at Edinburgh University. Later he began to write

detective stories and became the author of more than 50 books, including historical novels, science fiction, poetry an

other subjects.His most famous books with Sherlock Holmes are "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of Four"and "The

Hound of the Baskervilles".

In 1902 he was knighted Sir Arthur for his work in war propaganda "The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct"

After the death of his son, as a result of a wound in the First World War, Conan Doyle became spiritualist, and his later

work, "The Wanderings", became heavily concerned with this subject.

Sir Arthur died in 1930.

Characters:

Sherlock Holmes:

Dr.Watson: Assinstant of Holmes; he does the most work to solve the case.

Sir Charles Baskerville: was a very rich man, who lived in Devon, a moorland in Southengland.

Sir Henry Baskerville: the brother of Sir Charles who comes from America to take over the family estate in Devon

Mr. Stapleton: Neighbor of the Baskervilles in Devon

The Plot:

Sir Charles Baskerville dies in mysterious circumstances, apparently run to death by a ghost hound from the foggy

moors of England. Baskerville´s face bore an expression of terror and his body showed signs of exhaustion.Sherlock

Holmes and Dr. Watson are called in by Sir Henry, the brother of Sir Charles, to solve the difficult case. Holmes is

afraid, that when Sir Henry moves into Baskerville Hall, he could also be attacked by the hound. That´s why he sends

his friend Watson with Sir Henry so that he could protect him and that he could find out more clues for the case. Holmes

stays at first in London and gets letters from Watson: descriptions of neighbors, of the servants and of anything that

might be of relevance there.

Meanwhile in Devon, strange things occur to Watson: The servant of the Baskervilles behaves strange and in the night

he often hears strange noises.

Some days later Watson discovers Holmes in an old hut near the moor, who secretly came to Devon, because he thought it would be

better in order to solve the case and to find out more about the hound.

Holmes and Watson go to the Baskerville Hall and while looking at family portraits, they realize that Stapleton, who lived near the

Hall, was also a Baskerville.

Holmes now thinks that he could have been involved in the murder of Sir Charles.

One day when Sir Henry is on a visit at the Stapletons, Holmes and Watson follow him and hide in front of the house. When Sir

Henry walks home, they see that Stapleton opens a door, where a giant hound comes out, and follows Sir Henry. Holmes shoots the

hound in the last second. Then Holmes and Watson, chase Stapleton, who flees from them.

In his hurry Stapleton doesnt watch the path, sunks into the moor and dies.

A bookreport by Philipp. P