Hound of the Baskervilles Spoiler FREE thread

Hound of the Baskervilles

Perhaps the most famous of all the Sherlock Holmes stories, it is written quite late in the canon. How did you find it? How did you get on reading it? What book/edition/work are you reading it from?

I haven't read it since I was a kid, so this should be fun. I've got an old paperback that I think was my husband's and before that, his sisters' copy. One of three, so who knows which girl originally bought it. The cover is so cheesy it's great -



magnum easy eye indeed, there are about 100 words per page.

Wow, I read this forever ago....!

I don't think I've ever read it before - only seen it performed on screen... but one of my most vivid childhood nightmares emanated from one of those, so I have high expectations ;-)

Will not start reading in another four days or so, though (depending on how fast I finish my present read).

I have a lovely, hard cover edition of all the Sherlock Holmes stories at home. But it's really slow today at the store, so I cheated and just downloaded The Hound of the Baskervilles to my Kindle. Guess I'll start reading now...

My husband has the penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes that his father gave to him when he was about 10yo. I've read the first two stories from that but am now reading the 'Adventures of ...' on the Sony. Four more short stories to go and then I'll start on Hounds which I've already got downloaded. I like the short stories a lot more than the two longer stories (A Study in Scarlet and Sign of the Four). It'll be interesting to compare Hounds.

I'm getting it via DailyLit. I'll get the first email tomorrow.

O.K. Mine is in a collection of Holmes tales. I just spent a good 40 minutes in my paint program fixing the cover so I could post it here. Now if I can figure out how to do that. Anyway, my copy is considerably more beat up than this, it is a huge paperback, but I love it because of the original illustrations and the two column format.

I just got it from Amazon on my Kindle for $.99! I'll read it tonight, I think.

Mine's in a collection too:

I just downloaded my copy for free! I love all the free books!

This is my husband's copy:

Just downloaded the free one for my Android Kindle App.

I gave up trying to read comfortably while holding that huge hardcover. Read it on my iPad instead. Going over to the spoiler thread now!

I am a real fan of Sherlock Holmes. I am rereading HotB from this volume:



I have previously read it in this volume:



What I love so much about the Annotated editions is that they give so much historical, geographic, etc. background - the stories become much richer as a result.

I confess that we have five different versions of this in the house. And yet, I had the impulse to buy the lovely new Penguin hardcover edition just last week in order to participate in this group read.

Ah, I was just thinking I would enjoy an annotated version, but hadn't gotten around to looking for one. It will probably be a serendipity-used-bookstore thing for me if I ever do purchase one, but it's nice to know it is out there.

Here's what I loved about the Baring-Gould, MrsLee...

Not only did it put me in a Holmes mood, but it put me in a cozy "middle-20th century" mood - the book was written in the early 1960s, and shows it. I read it cover-to-cover (both volumes) back in 84-85 - wow - 25 years ago! I still refer to it, and I remember the time spent reading it as much as I do what I read.

My copy is boxed away with almost all of my books. I downloaded a free copy to my laptop.

ok, here's something I don't understand. In ch. 5 they talk about the Baskerville estate money totaling 740,000 pounds and on the next page there's this -

"House, land, and dollars must go together."

?? Is dollars a slang term for money? Strange given its an actual currency here and there. I can't recall coming across it before.

Sir Henry Baskerville (who makes that comment) has been living in Canada so I would assume that he makes reference to the currency of the country most familiar to him. In context, his point is that the 740,000 pounds must go to whomever carries the responsibility for upkeep of the estate.

well, duh! oh I feel so dumb. Thanks.

Mustn't feel dumb, Bookmarque. At least you spotted it. :) Slid right past me, although there are a few instances where Henry's jargon jars me, then I remember he is from Canada.

Canadian jargon? Now you've got me curious, eh?
I started yesterday but only made it to about page 15 before sleep won out, so I haven't met Henry yet.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through. I'm having such a hard time concentrating for very long on anything, so I have like 10 books going at once, and I'm not even exaggerating. It's kind of embarrassing.

How very appropriate that the Folio Society reprint should be set in the typeface called Baskerville.

Baskerville is also one of the font options in the iPad ebook reader app. So naturally, that's what I read The Hound in.

24- I don't know if it's Canadian, but it certainly wasn't the "voice" of an Englander and if it was meant to be American, it didn't quite ring true.

oh! I have had such a hard time finding awake time to read. Maybe this weekend I will make some more progress!

I would like to read Holmes too, I just don't know if I would like the stories...

Which is the best edition to have/read?

Naturally, I like the Folio Society one -- easy to read, beautifully made, well illustrated. But it's not cheap, and may not be the world's greatest idea if you're not sure you want to add it to your collection of Special Books.

Finished it. One passage gave me a laugh, on pg. 165 of my little paperback, ch. 10, say Dr. W -

"I am certainly developing the wisdom of the serpent, for when Mortimer pressed his questions to an inconvenient extent I asked him casually to what type Frankland's skull belonged, and so heard nothing but craniology for the rest of our drive."

Hilarious. You can tell he hangs around Holmes a good deal.

#32 - That is also my husband's technique of getting people to stop asking him questions. :)