The Hound of the Baskervilles: No Adaptation Beats the Novel
Despite a few good attempts, no screen version of this Sherlock Holmes classic matches Arthur Conan Doyle’s prose.
This year is the 120th anniversary of one of my favourite novels of all time: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Although a somewhat tenuous reason for me to write a love letter to this splendid story, I’ll take any excuse. Existing almost as a spin-off compared with other Sherlock Holmes stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles takes an interesting sidestep from crime fiction into gothic horror. Another reason it feels like a spin-off is because Holmes disappears for a vast chunk of the narrative, leaving Watson with the bulk of the investigating.
The plot — about a supposedly cursed family line stalked by a bloodthirsty hellhound — is ripping, gripping stuff. The death that sets the story in motion is vividly and terrifyingly related, as is the subsequent background of Sir Henry Baskerville’s ancestor; a “profane and godless man” who supposedly sold his soul to the devil for assistance in abducting a woman.
The text drips with atmosphere and intrigue, and no matter how many times I read it, I get shivers. After I first read the novel, I managed to scare myself silly when camping on…