Readings by Patrick Horgan, published by Decklin's Domain under License from Worldtainment / Voice Factory International, formatted as mp3 tracks on a data CD that may be read by most laptops and PCs and transferred to a portable player. Provided for personal use only.



The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle and published in 1901, occupies a central place in the Canon of Sherlock Holmes stories, falling between the much mourned death of the hero in 1891 (reported in 1893) and the presentation of his triumphant return in 1903. Doyle emphasized that this book was a reminiscence rather than a resurrection, but it has peculiar features which suggest that it could be more than that. The fact that the great detective is apparently missing for six of the fifteen chapters would surely make a reader of that time connect this absence with the one he had been bemoaning for the last eight years. He might derive some comfort from the fact that the villain of this book, Stapleton, goes to a watery grave in Grimpen Mire, and Holmes himself is rescued in the nick of time from a similar fate. Does this mean that he may have escaped from his watery death at Reichenbach Falls? Be that as it may, this work has by far the strongest writing and character development of the four books Doyle wrote in novel form. It has been the basis of several popular movies.



Total running time 10 hours



A Study in Scarlet, the first Holmes book, had gone through several editions when an American editor of Lippincott's Magazine decided to ask for another volume to make up a companion edition. He invited Doyle to lunch for the purpose along with Oscar Wilde. What a treat it would have been to be a fly on the wall during that meeting! The result was the second Holmes book, "The Sign of Four" and Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray". One may suspect that the character of the super aesthete Bartholomew Sholto owes a little to Wilde, who had already been satrized in "Patience", a work by another Sir Arthur.



The magazine edition appeared in London and America in February 1890, and the book came out a few months later. It commences with the first appearance of the famous hypodermic containing the "seven percent solution" which signals that Holmes is bored with life, and goes on to mention Watson's legacy from his time in Afghanistan. Now he suffers from a wounded leg, whereas when he met Holmes in the first book it was a shoulder injury, described in medical detail. Clearly things are occurring on more than one level.



Mary Morstan, later to become Mrs Watson, wants Holmes to come as a witness to the rediscovery of the treasure stolen by four men in India, including her father as an accessory. When they reach the house of Bartholomew Sholto they find him murdered under very peculiar circumstances, and the treasure is missing. Was the murderer a child or a monkey? Holmes figures it out, and as in the first book there is a long overseas flashback to the circumstances of the theft in India.