Boekverslag : Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound Of The Baskervilles
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1580 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1580 woorden.
Primairy information
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Title: The hound of the Baskervilles
Subtitle: none
First published in: 1902
Number of pages: 174
Reading time: 5 hours
Account of my choice
I have chosen this book, because I had to read a book from around 1900. But the problem was, I did not know a lot of books from around 1900. When somebody told me this book was worth reading, I decided to read this book, because I had no idea what else to read.
Expectations beforehand
I was told this book was really worth reading it by a very reliable person. So I thought this book was quite good and exciting to read. But I also thought this bok would not be easy to read, because it was an old book.
First reaction retrospectively
I find this book:
exciting: very
carrying along: very
pathetic: a bit
funny: not
realistic: a bit
imaginative: not
interesting: a bit
original: a bit
easy to understand: not
This book did not make me think
This book was worth reading
I like this book, because it has a great possibility to project yourself into the story.
Summary
On the 14th of June the body of Sir Charles of Bakerville is found, lying in the garden of his Dartmoor house. Everybody thinks he died of a heart attack because he had a very weak heart. But his friend and doctor does not know what to think. He has seen the footprints of a large dog close to Sir Charles's body. Maybe the old man died of fright, because he has seen the curse of the Baskervilles: a giant dog, called the Hound of the Baskervilles. However, Dr. Mortimer does not believe in ghosts, so he visits Sherlock Holmes to clear up this mystery.
Sir Henry was the only living member of the Baskerville family. One day after his arrival in London, he and Dr. Mortimer go to see Holmes to discuss the whole case. Sir Henry tells Holmes that somebody has stolen one of his boots the day before and that he received a letter. There was only one sentence in the letter: "If you value your life keep away from the moor." The letter sounded like a warning that something was going to happen. So Holmes asks his assistant, Watson, to accompany Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer to Baskerville Hall.
At the station of Baskerville, they hear that an escaped prisoner is hiding in the moor and that he is very dangerous.
At Baskerville Hall, Watson and Sir Charles meet Mr. and Mrs. Barrymore, the servants of the house. They also meet the Stapleton’s, brother and sister, who live in Merripit house. Mrs. Stapleton warns Sir Henry that something terrible is going to happen.
One day Mrs. Barrymore comes to Watson with a burnt paper she found in the fireplace of Sir Charles’s study. He looks at the paper and reads: "Please, please, burn this paper and be at the gate of the moor by ten o'clock. L.L.". Watson finds, with a little bit of research, that the letters L.L. mean Laura Lyons, a lady who lives in Coombe Tracey and who is in love with Mr. Stapleton. When Watson pays her a visit and tells her about the letter he has found, she says, she wrote that letter because she had a money problem and Sir Charles would help her. However, that night, she never went to the gate because something happened but the woman would not tell what it was.
Watson finds, with the help of a friend, the hidingplace of a man. He had been in Baskerville all the time but it was safer if nobody knew he was there. Holmes has discovered that Stapleton is the enemy of Sir Charles, and that his sister actually is his wife. When the both of them walk to Baskerville Hall, they hear a terrible scream. When they arrive at the scene of the crime, they find a dead body. They recognise the clothes of Sir Henry Baskerville. They turn the body over and notice that it is not Sir Henry but the escaped prisoner. When it all comes out, the escaped prisoner got these clothes from Mrs. Barrymore. She is his sister.
Afterwards they go for the second time to Miss Lyons and they tell her that her fiancé is married. Now she is very upset and she begins to tell everything she knows. Mr. Stapleton pushed her to write the letter and he also said after she has written the letter not to go to the gate because he wanted to help her with her money problem.
Back in Baskerville Hall, Holmes looks at the picture of one of the grandparents of Sir Henry and he recognises the face of Mr. Stapleton, who is actually a member of the Baskerville family. Therefore, he must have been hoping to get Baskerville Hall and the
fortune after Sir Henry dies. That evening Mr. Stapleton has invited Sir Henry for dinner. After dinner, Sir Henry walks home across the moor. But what he does not know, is that Stapleton wants to kill him.
When he is about 200 metres from the house, a very large dog rushes out of the fog. It is the Hound of the Baskervilles. Luckily for him, Watson and Holmes are hiding behind the rocks and when they see the dog they start shooting, and finally kill the animal. Now, the hound is dead but they have not caught the murderer yet.
Mr. Stapleton must have heard the shots and he hides somewhere in the moor. They look for him but they do not find him. So they guess that he is fallen into one of the bog-holes on the moor.
That evening Holmes tells the whole story of Sir Charles's death. The evening of his death he went to the gate of the moor, but there was no Laura in sight.
Only Stapleton was hiding behind the hedges with his large dog. When he saw Sir Charles, he let his dog chase after him. Sir Charles Baskerville was killed because he had to run very fast.
And so the mystery of the ghostly Hound of the Baskervilles is solved.
Time and space
The story takes place in London, Baskerville Hall, the area around it and the little town Coombe Tracy in beginning of the 20th cetury. The story is told chronological.
The way of telling
The story is told in the first person, so you see the story through the eyes of dr. Watson, but there are some dialogues in between.
Personages
- Sherlock Holmes: an eccentric privé-ditective, who lives in Baker Street, London. He is very thin and tall and has amazing mental powers.
- Dr. Watson: a naive medical man, who is the right hand of Sherlock Holmes. He makes some stupid mistakes during the story, which serve to set off the superhuman intelligence of Sherlock Holmes.
- Sir Charles Baskerville: the owner of Baskerville Hall. He is a nice man. Homes and Watson are supposed to solve his mysterious death.
- Dr. Mortimer: a medical officer of Grimpen, Thorstey and High Barrow. He is the neighbour of Sir Charles and he asks Holmes to help.
- Çarthwright: a smart 14-year old kid, who sometimes helps Holmes and Watson with their investigation.
- Mr. Barrrymore: the butler of Baskerville Hall.
- Mrs. Barrymore: a large and serious woman, married with Barrymore.
- Frankland: an older man, who lives about 6 km. south of Baskerville Hall.
- Laura Lyons: Frankland’s only daughter. Sir Charles is helping her.
- Jack Stapleton: his true name is Roger Baskerville. He lives at Merripit House with his wife, but he pretends it is his sister. He tries to kill Sir Henry.
- Beryl Stapleton: Jack’s wife She comes from South-America and lives with a great fear because of her man. She refuses to help him when he tries to kill Sir Henry
- Sir Henry Baskerville: the nephew of Sir Charles, who lived in Canada. He is being left Baskerville Hall and 740.000 pounds.
Title, subtitle and motto
The title descirbes directly what the book is all about: the hound of the Baskervilles. There was a curse on the Baskervilles, because a giant hound was killing them all and Sherlock Holmes and his right hand Dr. Watson are supposed to solve that.
There is no subtitle
There is no motto.
Final judgement
I find this a very nice book, because it was quite exciting to read. Before I started reading this book I had no idea what it was about and when I read the first chapter I knew it was about Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective. So I was quite curious about the book, because I did know Sherlock Holmes, but I did not know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was his ‘creator’. I sat there with a book about Sherlock Holmes in my hands and I was even more curious to read the rest.
The book was exciting to read but it was quite hard to read as well, because it is an older book and this English is not so easy. But when I finished the book I was glad I had chosen this one and that I read it, because it was a great story. It was not very realistic, just like Sherlock Holmes himself but that was not so important for me, because I had a good time reading this book and I would reccommand it to everybody, because this book makes reading English for your list fun and not something that has to be done.
When you start reading it is a little hard, but when you have read a little more, it keeps getting easier.
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