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At a Glance:
Full Title The Hound of the Baskervilles
AuthorArthur Conan Doyle
In-depth Facts:
Type of WorkNovel
GenreMystery
LanguageEnglish
Time and place writtenReturning from the Boer War in South Africa, Doyle wrote and published Hound of the Baskervilles in England in 1901.
Date of First Publication1901, serialized in The Strand; 1902, published by Newnes
PublisherGeorge Newnes, Ltd.
NarratorDr. Watson
ClimaxHolmes' secret plan comes to fruition when a guileless Sir Henry heads home across the moor, only to be attacked by the hound. Hindered by a thick fog and sheer fright, Holmes and Watson nonetheless shoot the beast and solve the mystery.
ProtagonistDr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes
AntagonistJack Stapleton
Setting (time)1889. Holmes notes that the date 1884, engraved on Dr. Mortimer's walking stick, is five years old.
Setting (place)The novel starts and ends in London, in Holmes' office at 221b Baker Street. Most of the rest of the novel takes place in Devonshire, at the imposing Baskerville Hall, the lonely moorlands, and the rundown Merripit House where Stapleton lives.
Point of ViewThe mystery is told entirely from Watson's point of view, although the author regularly switches from straight narrative to diary to letters home.
Falling ActionHolmes explains the intricacies of the case; Sir Henry and Mortimer head off on vacation to heal Henry's nerves
TenseModulates from past (as in Watson's narration of London events) to recent past (as in Watson's diary and letters)
ForeshadowingThe deaths of some wild horses prefigure Stapleton's own death by drowning in the Grimpen mire. There is a sense in which all the clues serve as foreshadowing for later discoveries.
ToneAt different times, the novel's tone is earnest, reverent (of Holmes), uncertain, and ominous.
ThemesGood and evil; natural and supernatural; truth and fantasy; classism, hierarchy, and entitlement
MotifsSuperstition and folk tales; disguised identities; the red herring
SymbolsThe moor (the mire); the hound
