• 1001 BYMRBYD Challenge
  • About Zee
  • Book Challenges 2010
  • Rory Gilmore Reading List
  • Zee’s Book Reviews

Wordly Obsessions

~ … the occasional ramblings of a book addict …

Wordly Obsessions

Tag Archives: Holmes

Quick Review | ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

19 Thursday Aug 2010

Posted by mywordlyobsessions in 1001 Book Challenge, 50 Books A Year, Book Review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

1001 book list, 50 books a year, arthur conan doyle, book review, Holmes, Jude Law, Robert Downey, Sherlock Holmes, Watson, Wizard of Oz


Hound of Baskervilles Sherlock HolmesHound of Baskervilles Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book Challenges: 1001 BYMRBYD , 50 Books a Year (no.44)

“Everyone knows SHERLOCK HOLMES. Now is the time to rediscover him.”

These were the words on the back cover of my edition of ‘Hound of the Baskervilles‘, and I wholly agree. In fact I must say I had no idea Sherlock Holmes was so much fun! Again, here is a popular book (indeed, a cast of characters) that has been depicted extensively in cartoons and film, the latest being the blockbuster ‘Holmes’ starring the lovely Jude Law and notoriously unhinged Robert Downey Jr. Perfect casting as far as I’m concerned, but it always bugged me that I had never actually met with the real ‘Holmes’, the original, untampered version thought-up by Doyle. So I decided it was time I found out what made this literary figure so great in the crime-fiction genre.

As with ‘The Wizard of Oz’, I couldn’t help approaching the story with a certain mish-mash of varying images of the legendary Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson. On the whole, I was expecting a pedantic, slightly scary/ crazy guy (complete with quintessential English dry humour), whose brain is permanently hard-wired with an unusually uncanny level of intelligence. And to an extent I found the above to be a staple part of his character, so I was pleased that they kept pretty much to Doyle’s creation. However, what I discovered in this book was a much darker version of the detective. For one, he smoked a rare type of tobacco rumoured to be cannabis which can be seen in this novel. He is also reputed to be a cocaine user, who oddly abhorred the tought of visiting an opium den for his fix. The drugs were, of course, perfectly legal back in 19th century England and didn’t cause the slightest stir back then; but having them connected to a character of clear logic with today’s knowledge of the drugs puts Holmes in totally different light, suddenly giving him a depth that suggests a men battling with his inner demons. And his oddball attitude certainly supports this theory, especially since his way of looking at the world is so very different from the rest of us.

Of course, discovering the ‘real’ Holmes wasn’t the only positive. Dr. Watson turned out to be made of much sterner stuff than his TV/ film counterparts. He is an intelligent man, with a wit that only just falls short of Holmes’ brand of prodigious divining.

As far as the story goes, Doyle keeps to the usual time-honoured rules of crime-fiction by ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’. The narrative is also handsomely varied between third-person story-telling, diary entries and the favourite ‘epistolary’ style of its’ day. The plot starts off at a rather good pace with no time wasted in establishing a gothic ambience with the legend of a hell-hound that dogs the ancient Baskerville family. The size of beast and its terrible penchant for human flesh puts a slightly ‘lycan’ spin on the whole mystery, but this is soon dissipated as Holmes starts unravelling what he terms as a yarn spun by a most singular and diabolical adversary.

There are plenty of action-packed moments, and the ending was especially satisfactory which is a must for a mystery novel. Having looked at the other titles in this series and I’m glad to see they are slightly more gory and have a wider scope in terms of location and plot.

3/5 stars to a good rollicking tale!

View all my reviews »

Related articles
  • Hound of the Baskervilles sniffs out wide audience (greatpenformances.wordpress.com)
  • The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics) (stuffinsidebooks.com)
  • Killing Sherlock Holmes (messinmyheart.wordpress.com)
  • meilufay’s #CBR4 review #66 A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan-Doyle (cannonballread4.wordpress.com)
  • 7 Books You Should Read This Winter (dangerouslee.biz)

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • More
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

RSS Links

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 635 other followers

Blog Stats

  • 335,460 hits

My Visitors

free counters

Recent Posts

Top Posts

  • Book Review | 'Veronika Decides To Die' - Paulo Coelho
  • Famous Quotes | Edgar Allan Poe
  • Book Review | 'Rape: A Love Story' by Joyce Carol Oates
  • Famous Quotes | Oscar-worthy Wilde Witticisms
  • Book Review | 'The Running Man' by Stephen King
  • Book Review | 'Kitchen' by Banana Yoshimoto
  • Hymn to Isis | (3rd-4th Century)
  • BBC's 'The Big Read' Top 100 Books - How Many Have You Read?
  • Book Review | 'A Streetcar Named Desire' by Tennessee Williams
  • Cambridge University Reading Test

The best of the best of the best…

Bookish tweets

  • @ChrisEvans My favourite scene 😂😂 That and the line #CSIKFC. HILARIOUS! 5 days ago
  • RT @Epic_Women: If you don`t understand my silence, then you don`t deserve my words. 6 days ago
  • RT @Epic_Women: When you choose to forgive those who have hurt you, you take away their power. 1 week ago
  • RT @om_eye_goodness: last year, i went on a date with a dude and when i told him i was reading Animal Farm again, he laughed obnoxiously fo… 1 week ago
  • RT @Epic_Women: Never change who you are just because you're afraid of losing them. If they really love you, your imperfections won't matte… 1 week ago
Follow @WordlyObsession

Pinning stuff on boards is fun!

Follow Me on Pinterest

What’s on the Shelf?

Reading Wishlist!!

WP Book Bloggers List

For finding things…

50 books a year 1001 book list angela carter audiobook Benjamin Lebert book challenge book review books che guevara childrens fiction chinua achebe comic books crazy Dr. Gonzo dystopian edgar allan poe fantasy fear and loathing Fiction frankenstein goodreads gothic fiction Grapes of Wrath gustave flaubert Haruki Murakami hubert selby jr humour hunter s thompson ian fleming Indian literature Its monday what are you reading? japan japanese japanese horror story jm coetzee John Steinbeck Jorge Luis Borges kazuo ishiguro kurt vonnegut l. frank baum literary fiction literature liz jensen love story meme midnights children oscar wilde Paul Auster peter ackroyd poetry readalong religion roberto bolano Robert Rankin romance rory gilmore reading list rum diary ryu murakami salman rushdie science fiction short story stephen king sylvia plath teaser tuesday the motorcycle diaries the rapture Tokyo toni morrison Top Ten Tuesday United States ursula le guin virginia woolf war wondrous words wednesday writing

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: