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The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Confession time: I heart Sherlock Holmes.

George and I have been watching the old Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Bratt on DVD. It’s remarkable good, even considering the dated production and the inadvisable amount of blush worn by the actors.

So I jumped at the chance to add The Hound of the Baskervilles to my Reading Project reading list. And I know what you’re thinking: it’s commercial, not literary fiction. But to that, I say pfft. If Sherlock Holmes doesn’t qualify as a classic, than what does? The Heart of the Matter? West With the Night? No. I refuse to live in a world where that bilge is given higher props than the great Sherlock Holmes.

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, our favorite sleuth is set on a most vexing case, one that involves a phantom dog that’s been hunting generations of Baskervilles upon the moors of Devonshire. The hound is reported to be a great beast with wild red eyes, and whose cries carry on the wind, terrifying the simple-minded villagers. Of course, a supernatural dog is no match for the masterful Holmes, whose intellectual prowess is exceeded only by his egotism.

Holmes quickly makes swift work of the case, exposing the villain and, well, scaring the shit out of his client. But so what if the client if forced to take a year’s vacation to convalesce? In the end, Holmes was victorious! And that’s all that matters.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a solid A.

More on The Reading Project here.

Posted 28 May 2006 at 06:11 PM