The Many Roads to Baskerville Hall

You just can't have too many copies of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

When our younger son, now thirty-three, was in high school, he once failed a test on The Hound of the Baskervilles. His excuse was that couldn't get a copy of the book to read. I went into my library and counted. I had more than forty copies of the book (any of which he could have borrowed).

That was long ago. I now have many more copies of The Hound. When I see an interesting edition that I don't own, it's hard for me to resist buying it.

I'm now re-reading the book in a fascinating 2002 edition from Viking, part of that publisher's The Whole Story series of classics. The colorful illustrations by Nicollet are dramatically unusual, almost cartoonish, and highly engaging. Many pages also include illustrated annotations aimed at the general reader. They interesting, though far from the detail of a Baring-Gould or Klinger.

Several other editions I have are also noteworthy. The 2006 Candlewick Press edition is lavishly illustrated with highly evocative sketches by Pam Smy in muted colors. Unusually, the text itself is in blue. The North Point Press version from 1986 sets the proper mood with black and white photos by Michael Kenna.

Those are all hardback editions. Naturally I have many paperbacks. Two of them are in Italian, Il mastino dei Baskerville, and the wide difference in the translations is fascinating. (I just learned from Paul D. Herbert, B.S.I., that The Hound has been translated into Piedmontese, the language of the Piedmont region of Italy.) Also interesting is a Signet edition I have from 1967 with an introduction by William S. Baring-Gould.

The 2000 Aladdin Classics edition contains a foreword in which Newberry Award-winning author Bruce Brooks boldly states: "The Hound of the Baskervilles is the perfect mystery, perhaps even the perfect novel."

What do you think? Does Brooks go too far or is The Hound in fact the perfect mystery?

One thing is for sure: It's the perfect book to buy again and again. One never seems to run out of editions worth adding to the shelves.

Baker Street Beat Goes to Dartmoor

My friend, neighbor, and high school classmate Nino Catanzaro not long ago went to Dartmoor. On a visit to the former Duchy Hotel in Princetown, now a visitor center, he took with him a copy of my Baker Street Beat.

In this photo taken at the Duchy, Nino's British friend Dennis Moore is holding my book on the left of the photo and Nino is holding a nice edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles, which he later gave me as a gift. Sherlock Holmes, the Hound, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are behind them on the stairs.

None of my books was ever before in such good company!

The Duchy is significant because Arthur Conan Doyle and Bertram Fletcher Robinson stayed there in 190, forever associating the place with The Hound of the Baskervilles. Paul Spiring, a true expert on Robinson and the whole issue of his contribution to The Hound, clarified their relationship with the hotel in a Facebook message to me:

"ACD and BFR only stayed there for a night or two. ACD wrote to his mother when he was there, and said that he had already written half of it - presumably the first five London-based chapters. The remainder was written in the following two months presumably from notes that were crafted at the Duchy."

Paul wrote about this extensively on his website.

My wife and I plan our own pilgrimage to Dartmoor next June, and I will take with me a copy of Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Devon. In this book, Brian W. Pugh, Paul R. Spiring and Sadru Bhanji have put together an invaluable guide for a wandering Sherlockian such as yours truly.

Who Was Watching Baskerville Hall?

In its May 28, 1914 edition, The New York Times reported on the arrival of Sir Arthur Conan aboard the White Star Liner Olympic for his first visit to the United States in 20 years. Before dealing with more serious issues, the newspaper reported:

By a coincidence there was a passenger on the list named R.H. Baskerville. Sir Arthur, when his attention was called to the name, smiled and said that he did not believe the passenger was related to the owners of “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

To see a photo of the real Henry Baskerville, check out page 185 of Bertram Fletcher Robinson: A Footnote to The Hound of the Baskervilles by Brian W. Pugh and Paul R. Spiring. Mr. Baskerville, who died on March 28, 1962 at the age of 91, was coachman to the Robinson family for 20 years.

Almost since its publication in 1902 there has been speculation as to how much of The Hound was the work of Conan Doyle and how much was contributed by Fletcher Robinson. The Pugh-Spiring book describes how Henry Baskerville changed his story over the years.

What’s your favorite movie version of The Hound of the Baskervilles?