Audiobook · read by volunteers
Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
Read by Laurie Anne Walden · 15 chapters · 5 h 52
About the book
What really killed Sir Charles Baskerville? He was found dead on the grounds of his Devon estate, and local people whisper of an ancient family curse and a gigantic hound that haunts the moor. When the heir, Sir Henry, arrives from Canada to take possession, Dr. Mortimer asks Sherlock Holmes for help. Holmes sends Dr. Watson to the lonely hall on Dartmoor, where mists, bogs, sudden cries in the night and a collection of puzzling neighbours make it difficult to know whom to trust. Arthur Conan Doyle builds suspense with great skill, and the atmosphere of the moor is as vivid as any character. It is the most famous of all Holmes novels, and a gripping listen from start to finish.
Introduction
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish physician and writer who created Sherlock Holmes in the late 1880s. After he had Holmes die in a struggle at the Reichenbach Falls in 1893, public demand for the detective grew so great that he eventually brought him back. The Hound of the Baskervilles, serialised in 1901 and 1902, was written in the interval, and it is set at an earlier time in Holmes's career.
The novel is a mixture of detective fiction and Gothic tale. It uses the landscape of Dartmoor, with its prehistoric stones, its marshes and its legends, to create an atmosphere in which the supernatural seems always at hand, while the plot is firmly rooted in reasoning and observation. Much of the story is told through Watson's letters and diary, so that the reader follows events from the point of view of an honest but fallible narrator, while Holmes is present only in glimpses for a large part of the book.
It is often ranked as the best of the four Holmes novels, and it has been adapted for stage, screen and radio many times.
The recording has fifteen chapters and lasts almost six hours. It is read by a LibriVox volunteer. Its chapters are short and the pace is steady, so it works well in nightly instalments. It is an ideal choice for a dark evening, for those who know the story and for those who do not.
Public domain
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text