The Hound of the Baskervilles

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1902

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-11

Chapters 12-15

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Background

Historical Context: The Rise of Reason in Literature

Sherlock Holmes does not believe in ghost stories; instead, he is one of the new breed of thinkers who appear in fiction during the Industrial Age, who point to the success of the scientific method in banishing superstitions and finding rational explanations for unusual phenomena. Of the problem surrounding the death of Sir Charles Baskerville, Holmes exclaims, “It is evidently a case of extraordinary interest, and one which presented immense opportunities to the scientific expert” (9). In Holmes’s hands, a tale of terror gets reduced, like a chemical reaction, down to a pure solution of greedy murder.

The idea of the supremacy of reason became popular in the fiction of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Dracula, published four years before the Baskervilles novel was serialized in The Strand magazine, pits an ancient monster of legend against modern scientist Abraham Van Helsing, who reasons out how to vanquish the demonic creature.

In 1895, HG Wells published his masterpiece, The Time Machine, an early work of science fiction that imagined time travel as a technical possibility during an era of rapidly advancing scientific discoveries. The story’s hero, the Time Traveler, discovers a far-distant future in which humans have devolved back into a culture of slavery. Miracles of human technical achievement lie untended in museums, gathering dust while humans regress into a kind of unthinking conformity. Wells argued that misaligned social and political policies, combined with technological advances untethered to human wisdom, would lead to this unhappy outcome. He argues that intellect, well applied, might prevent such a disaster.

These authors believed that the ancient fears and limitations of humans can be pushed aside by science and rational thought. Holmes’s deductive powers and the use of basic scientific principles are part of that late-19th-century trend in literature. (Guides for Dracula and The Time Machine are available at SuperSummary.com.)

Scientific Context: Forensic Science at the Turn of the Century

Forensic science, the analysis of physical, chemical, biological, and other technical evidence for clues about crimes, was still in its infancy in 1890s Europe. Primitive analysis of bullets and chemical poisons occurred as early as the 18th century, but it took luminaries such as Alfonse Bertillon—mentioned in the story as a rival to Holmes and developer of a systematic approach to measurements of human physiology—to bring scientific methods to the attention of police departments. The first fingerprint bureaus opened in the 1890s, and by the early 1900s simple blood tests became available.

Part of Holmes’s appeal at the time is that he is ahead of the police in the use of forensics. In the stories, Watson often finds his friend blending chemicals, peering through microscopes, or measuring footprints. Tobacco ash, dirt on shoes, marks on the hands, handwriting, typefaces, and other minor details become major clues in Holmes’s analytical system. His analysis of bullets and use of fingerprints predates police practice by more than a decade.

Holmes’s study of the walking stick is itself a basic example of forensic science. Another is the analysis of the warning message to Sir Henry made from scissored newsprint: The small scissor cuts were formed by “nail-scissors,” at the time usually possessed by women. This proves to be true when the owner of the scissors, Beryl Stapleton, comes forward. A third example of forensics occurs when Dr. Mortimer reads aloud from an old manuscript. Holmes quickly identifies the paper on which it is written and dates its manufacture to about 1730; indeed, the writing on the paper dates to 1742.

Holmes thus uses a variety of forensic techniques in his investigations. His approach adds a dash of glamor to the stories and gives Holmes advantages against opponents that other investigators do not yet have. Although his methods were available and not figments of science fiction, his systematic approach inspired the further development of forensic science. (Schwartz, Roy. “The fictional character who changed the science of solving crime.” CNN, 20 May 2022.)

Literary Context: Holmes as an Enduring Literary Figure

The Sherlock Holmes mysteries aren’t the first popular detective stories in the west—that distinction belongs to Edgar Allan Poe’s fictional hero C. Auguste Dupin, who solves a case in the 1841 story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and returns in two other tales.

Doyle borrows many elements from Poe—including the brilliant, if eccentric, hero, his loyal narrator, the foolish police, the use of careful observation, and the “ratiocination” or reasoning out of the clues to be resolved. But Doyle’s work differs by presenting an ending that ties up loose ends in a way that validates smart readers’ efforts to solve the crime themselves. This a major development in crime fiction and an approach followed by most later mystery writers.

Another innovation is the sophisticated criminal. Holmes declares of Rodger “Stapleton” Baskerville that “never yet have we helped to hunt down a more dangerous man than he” (66). Holmes elsewhere does battle with a brilliant, ruthless crime lord named James Moriarty, who nearly kills Holmes. The arch-criminal concept filters down through English literature to the popular James Bond novels and films, in which fiendish geniuses challenge the British spy’s wits in the extreme.

The first Sherlock Holmes short stories appeared in the early editions of The Strand magazine, which began publication in 1891. By 1893, Doyle wanted to direct his literary efforts into other channels, so he killed off Holmes in the story “The Final Problem.” Outraged fans pressured the author to revive the character—20,000 of them quit their subscriptions to the magazine—and in 1901 a new adventure, The Hound of the Baskervilles, appeared in serialized form in The Strand.

The case takes place in the years just prior to Holmes’s apparent death. The novel’s great popularity brought The Strand to its highest circulation, and dozens more stories and a fourth novel followed. Conan Doyle explained away Holmes’s death simply by having him survive his fight to the death with Moriarty and then go into hiding until he could bring the remaining opponents to justice.

The Hound of the Baskervilles draws much of its popularity from its position in the Sherlockian canon: Holmes’s return, even if only in a story that takes place before his alleged death, caused a sensation. The novel also contains elements of the adventure and horror genres that were growing rapidly at the time.

Doyle’s tales are well written and tightly structured, which gives them a sheen that helped legitimize crime stories and give them a prominent place in literature. The works established the modern mystery genre, took it from obscurity to great popularity, and helped make it one of the most enduring forms of fiction.