The Hound of the Baskervilles, part 1!

Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for anyone who loves mysteries and detective stories. We’re making our way through the 19th-century stories that helped the genre evolve. Next up: Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1902 novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

This turn-of-the-century, Gothic-inspired spine-tingler includes a spectral hound and a decidedly hands-off Sherlock Holmes. The Hound of the Baskervilles is considered by many to be Arthur Conan Doyle’s best — and one of the most gripping and suspenseful murder mysteries ever written.

How to Read It: Buy it on Amazon, find a copy at a used bookstore, or read it for free (courtesy of Project Gutenberg).

Estimated Reading Time: 4 hours. Share your thoughts and check out the questions below!

Scientific Method: Conan Doyle uses Mortimer’s walking stick to introduce the reader to Sherlock Holmes (much in the same way that Edgar Allan Poe introduces Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”). Holmes, in turn, uses the walking stick to test Watson’s deductive skills. How do you feel about Holmes’ scientific method of deduction?

A Complex Friendship: In that first scene, Holmes tells Watson, “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” Holmes expresses his appreciation for his friend in a condescending way. However, Watson seems content being Holmes’s muse, noting, “his words gave me keen pleasure.” Why is Watson flattered by Holmes’s rudeness? Is Holmes’s hubris excusable?

Setting: Let’s talk London vs. Dartmoor. The Grimpen Mire is unstable ground. It seems to represent the idea that Dartmoor is stuck in the past. There’s poetic justice to the fact that Stapleton eventually gets dragged down into it.

All the Spies: A man spies on Sir Henry in London, Barrymore keeps watch for Selden, Holmes spies on Stapleton, Franklin peers out his telescope, Watson and Henry spy on Barrymore, and Cartwright spies on Watson.

Communication: “One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects—if, indeed, one may call it a defect—was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment. Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise ….” What do you think? Is this communication style a “defect”?

Brain Attic: Holmes says, “Intense mental concentration has a curious way of blotting out what has passed. The barrister who … is able to argue with an expert upon his own subject finds that a week or two of the courts will drive it all out of his head once more. So each of my cases displaces the last.”

Lies and Deceit: Even though The Hound of the Baskervilles emphasizes the importance of truth and justice, almost everyone lies in the book. The Barrymores lie about Selden, the Stapletons lie about their relationship (and about most everything else), Watson lies to Mr. Frankland, and Holmes lies to Watson. When is deceit justified?