The Hound of the Baskervilles
Holmes's most famous case. Sir Henry Baskerville inherits a Devonshire estate said to be cursed by a supernatural hound. Watson goes ahead as Holmes's spy on the fog-shrouded moor — where a very real danger is hiding in plain sight.
The most famous of the four Holmes novels, and the one that most rewards a cast, because Holmes is absent for a third of it. Watson is alone on Dartmoor writing letters to an empty room, and the people he is surrounded by — a Canadian baronet, a butler with a secret, a naturalist too pleased with himself, a woman warning him in whispers — have to carry the book on their own. Doyle builds the moor out of voices heard at a distance: a convict on the tor, a cry that might be an animal, neighbours who each explain the legend slightly differently. Fifteen chapters, about five hours, and the best structured thing in the canon.
The voices that carry it
Stapleton is the test. He has to be genial for four hours and then be re-heard entirely in the last twenty minutes, so the performance holds back rather than hinting. Barrymore, guilty of the wrong thing, is the other one worth listening for.
Chapter one plays without an account. Start listening to The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Voice cast
12 characters plus the narrator, each with their own voice. All the voices of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
- Sherlock Holmes — The world's only consulting detective. Razor-sharp analytical mind, cold precision, theatrical wit. Appears primarily at the bookends of the case while Watson operates in Devonshire.
- Dr. Watson — Holmes's loyal companion, sent alone to Dartmoor as Holmes's eyes. A former army surgeon, earnest and brave, increasingly unnerved by the moor's atmosphere.
- Sir Henry Baskerville — The young Canadian-raised heir to the Baskerville estate. Blunt, energetic, unafraid — a frontier personality transplanted into the English aristocracy.
- Dr. Mortimer — A thin, nervous country doctor and amateur scientist who brings the Baskerville case to Holmes. Earnest and scholarly, slightly fussy.
- Stapleton — A naturalist and entomologist on the moor, seemingly friendly and intellectual. In reality a ruthless Baskerville heir who has trained a phosphorus-painted hound to terrorise his victims to death.
- Beryl Stapleton — Stapleton's wife, kept as his prisoner and accomplice under the pretence of being his sister. South American in origin, cultured, beautiful, and living in barely suppressed terror.
- Mrs. Barrymore — The housekeeper at Baskerville Hall, secretive and tearful. Her cries in the night unsettle Watson; she is sheltering her fugitive brother Selden on the moor.
- Barrymore — The bearded butler of Baskerville Hall, stiff and formal, concealing his nightly signals to the escaped convict Selden on the moor.
- Mrs. Laura Lyons — A typist in Coombe Tracey, daughter of the eccentric Frankland. Stapleton used her romantic feelings for him to manipulate her into luring Sir Charles to his death.
- Selden — A notoriously violent escaped convict hiding on the moor — Mrs. Barrymore's brother. Wild, desperate, dangerous.
Chapters
- Chapter 1: Mr. Sherlock Holmes
- Chapter 2: The Curse of the Baskervilles
- Chapter 3: The Problem
- Chapter 4: Sir Henry Baskerville
- Chapter 5: Three Broken Threads
- Chapter 6: Baskerville Hall
- Chapter 7: The Stapletons of Merripit House
- Chapter 8: First Report of Dr. Watson
- Chapter 9: The Light upon the Moor [Second Report of Dr. Watson]
- Chapter 10: Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson
- Chapter 11: The Man on the Tor
- Chapter 12: Death on the Moor
- Chapter 13: Fixing the Nets
- Chapter 14: The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Chapter 15: A Retrospection
About this recording
Do I need to have heard other Holmes stories before this one?
No. The Hound of the Baskervilles is self-contained and is where many listeners start. It is set before Holmes's apparent death, but nothing in the plot depends on the earlier cases.
Is it a horror story?
It is a detective novel written in the shape of one. The supernatural is raised seriously and explained naturally, and the atmosphere — fog, the moor, a hound heard before it is seen — is the reason people remember it.
How long does it take to listen to?
About five hours across fifteen chapters, with thirteen separate character voices. Chapter one plays without an account if you want to hear the cast before committing to the whole book.