The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Hound of the Baskervilles
The cover of the first edition
AuthorArthur Conan Doyle
IllustratorSidney Paget
Cover artistAlfred Garth Jones
LanguageEnglish
SeriesSherlock Holmes
GenreDetective fiction, Gothic fiction[1]
PublisherGeorge Newnes Ltd
Publication date
25 March 1902[2]
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Preceded byThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 
Followed byThe Return of Sherlock Holmes 
TextThe Hound of the Baskervilles at Wikisource

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely in Dartmoor, Devon, in England's West Country and follows Holmes and Watson investigating the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.[3]

One of the most famous stories ever written,[3] in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novel".[4] In 1999, a poll of "Sherlockians" ranked it as the best of the four Holmes novels.[5]

  1. ^ Buzwell, Greg (15 March 2014). "An introduction to The Hound of the Baskervilles". Retrieved 8 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Publication of the Hound of the Baskervilles". History Today.
  3. ^ a b Rendell, Ruth (12 September 2008). "A most serious and extraordinary problem". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  4. ^ "The Big Read – Top 200 Books (2003)". BBC. 2 September 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  5. ^ "The Best Sherlock Holmes Stories". Bestofsherlock.com. Retrieved 23 June 2014.