Mission Impossible ?. Review on The Hound Of The Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle

Presence of the supernatural–admit it or not, most of us believe that supernatural elements do exist, but then how many of us can vouch having experienced something that is supernatural, having seen something uncanny?Can we even prove it?

I have heard stories of supernatural things which are supposed to have happened to our own family centuries ago, but how do I know that these stories are not just mere rumours flowing down the family through many generations?Yet most of the family members have full faith in these stories.The point is–sometimes we all, so called ‘practical people’, fail to show our practicality.

Yet there is one practical man who has no faith in anything but facts and evidence, with “so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development”(can anyone help me with the meaning of what I just quoted?)and whose indifference to whether the earth moves round the Sun or the Sun moves round the earth makes you wonder at his sanity, who thinks that there can be nothing supernatural in this world.Yes, it’s Mr.Sherlock Holmes of 221 Baker Street.You seriously don’t think Holmes needs an introduction–he is the world’s greatest fiction detective, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.Holmes is no less than a super-hero.Sherlock Holmes is the master of criminology;he can solve any complicated case on earth with his super-brain and to top it all, he has a crude sense of humour as well.Sherlock Holmes works not for money but for his passion for the job.With his ever faithful room-mate, Dr.Watson, who assists him in most of his important cases and is generally the narrator of the events as well, Holmes can work wonders.

In the Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Watson are challenged with an unnatural case unlike any they have ever solved in their lifetime.Dr.Mortimer comes to Baker Street to inform Holmes about the Curse of the Baskervilles according to which any Baskerville would be killed by a phantom hound, if he stirs out at night over the moorland of Devonshire, as a punishment for the wicked conduct of one of their ancestors, Hugo Baskerville, some centuries ago.Dr.Mortimer, neighbour and friend of the late Sir Charles Baskerville, a man of science is even inclined to believe that the death of Sir Charles might have been caused by some supernatural element and was an outcome of the curse of the Baskervilles.Sir Charles had died due to a severe heart-attack caused by some terrible sight which he had seen just before his death(so horrified was he with the fearful sight that instead of running towards the Baskerville hall, he ran from it)and beside his body, Dr.Mortimer has discovered the footprints of a gigantic hound.So Mortimer consults Holmes as to the suitability of taking Sir Henry, the sole heir of the huge Baskerville estate, to Devonshire.Both Sir Henry and Holmes agree that if some supernatural element is at work then if it can do harm to Sir Henry in Devonshire then why not in London.So they decide to take Sir Henry to the moor and that Dr.Watson would accompany him and report all the things that happen there.To summarize the main points:

--Sir Henry has been closely followed by an intelligent man in London and he had been warned to keep away from the moor by someone.

--When Watson and Sir Henry reach the moors they learn that a notorious convict has escaped and was hiding somewhere in the moor.

--Some villagers vouch to have heard the baying of a hound from somewhere around the Great Grimpen Mire.

--The Stapletons(brother and sister), the neighbours and the Barrymores, care takers of the Baskerville hall, all seem to be hiding something or the other.

--The wailing of a female at the dead of the night in the Baskerville Hall;Barrymore stealthily walking about the house at nights.

--The remains of a letter to Sir Charles which he received on the very day of his death which asked him to meet the writer with initials L.L.at the gate of the Baskerville hall where Sir Charles met his death.

--The mysterious man on the tor whom Watson had seen one night. And another death upon the moor.

Now its upto Holmes and his faithful Watson find a solution to all these problems and save Sir Henry from his impending danger.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is quite unique and different from the other stories and Holmes’ novels.Here Holmes takes a big risk of fighting a criminal about whose existence everyone has a doubt, who is believed to be a supernatural element.For once, we see Watson taking over the case(or so he thinks), as Holmes says he is too busy to come down to the place of action, and we see Watson showing his deduction skills.The Hound Of the Baskervilles is bound to send a chilling sensation down your spine.At one point in the book, you even find the invincible Holmes enthralled by the sight which had caused two deaths upon the moor.The way the moor has been described by the author at night, the sounds that come from the moor which correspond a hound’s baying, the sobbing of a woman at night, or even the description of Watson’s looking through his window towards the moor freezes the very blood of your veins.If it doesn’t–well then you must be a scary spirit yourself.

The Hound Of the Baskervilles is certainly the most popular Holmes’ novel(but according to me, not necessarily the best).At some points you might feel that the plot has been unnecessarily complicated and extended, or that it’s a little too-far fetched to believe in.Last week when I finished reading it for the third time, even then I was equally eager, like the first time, to know how it ended. No matter how many times you read it, you are bound to get scared out of your wits(I was awake till six in the morning after reading the climax for the third time-it scared me so much!).A fool I had been to think that “Oh I have read it twice already and I know how the end’s gonna be like, there’s nothing to be scared of!”So even though it’s a must-read for everyone(and if you have not already read it, then drop whatever you are doing and go get the book), don’t ever read it alone, no matter how brave and bold you think you are.It’s better not to take chances!