The Hound of the Baskervilles
A family curse. A desolate moor. An unexplained death. A monstrous dog. Arguably one of the most famous short stories of all time, The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four novellas about the great detective, and the first story Doyle wrote after Holmes’s (spoilers!) apparent demise in “The Final Problem.” It all comes together into a spine-tingling mystery that Watson's writing turns into a horror tale.
We discuss Watson's turn as a Gothic heroine, the genre-hopping joy of Hound, Dracula Daily, and how Sir Henry should have ended up with Beryl at the end of this one, actually.
Further reading:
The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
Dracula, Bram Stoker (also - Dracula Daily)
Degeneration, Fin-de-Siecle Gothic, and the Science of Detection: Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and the Emergence of the Modern Detective Story, Nils Clausson
The Savage Subtext of The Hound of the Baskervilles, David Grylls
The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson
The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty
The Exorcist (1973) dir. William Friedkin
The Southern Reach Trilogy - particularly Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong, Pierre Bayard
Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of the Stapletons, James Lovegrove
Listen to our narration of the story below!
Part 1: Chapters 1-3
“Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”
Part 2: Chapters 4-6
“It’s an ugly business, Watson, an ugly dangerous business, and the more I see of it the less I like it. Yes, my dear fellow, you may laugh, but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more.”
Part 3: Chapters 7-9
“But the moor with its mysteries and its strange inhabitants remains as inscrutable as ever. Perhaps in my next I may be able to throw some light upon this also.”
Part 4: Chapters 10-12
“That cold, incisive, ironical voice could belong to but one man in all the world."
Part 5: Chapters 13-15
“And now I come rapidly to the conclusion of this singular narrative, in which I have tried to make the reader share those dark fears and vague surmises which clouded our lives so long and ended in so tragic a manner."
The Hound of the Baskervilles is narrated by Jenna Hanchey. Jenna is a critical/cultural communication professor by day, and a speculative fiction author and audiobook narrator by...uh...earlier in the day. All of her work, whether research or creative, aims to imagine and enact better futures. Her fiction has been published in Daily Science Fiction, the Apex Patreon, and Stupefying Stories, and is forthcoming in Nature: Futures. For more of her audiowork, check out the Bloodlines series by Emily S. Hurricane.
Professional Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennahanchey
Website: www.jennahanchey.com