Sherlock and the Hound

 

But we hold several threads in our hands, and the odds are that one or other of them guides us to the truth. We may waste time in following the wrong one, but sooner or later, we must come upon the right.
- Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles

The well known tale of Victorian gothic mystery - I have a feeling you might know it. But do you? Do you ever notice how you think you know a tale, but realize as you read the book for the first time, you really never knew much at all? This is the danger of a story being so wide-spread and 'known' in society and displayed through various channels of entertainment. We think we know a story, but we actually only know a movie version or a brief synopsis given by someone online or that we heard somewhere, but in the end we don't turn to the original source material to read ourselves. This book I think is a good example of such a faulty knowledge. And I fall down as an 'Exhibit A' of one who thought I knew this tale, but didn't. Take this theme on a much larger philosophical scale and you can see some of the issues in our culture today.

In the introduction of this lovely clothbound Penguin Classics edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles it is noted that this story was meant for the page; all the adaptations for the screen don't cut it (I am paraphrasing for sheer brevity). The thing about movies or television adaptations is that most of them change certain aspects of the original story to fit their imaginations. It is good and/or bad, depending on how well an adaptation is done and on ones views on staying true to the original text.

I thought I knew a few things about this story somehow through osmosis of culture, yet when I opened these first pages, I knew not where this story was going. Which to me, was a thrill. I let Sherlock and his quips and comments make me smile as he converses with Watson. If you've seen the screen versions of this, but haven't read it, go read it.

Always will I be one to stand tall and say 'the book is always better' than the movie, tv, etc, and I hold firm to that notion. An entire focus/theme/metaphor/lesson of the author's intent can be removed from any adaptation, so really, it can become another author coming in to make it their own. But I want to know what the original text is saying, especially in the context of the time it was written. For that, the original text needs to be perused.

I loved getting to see all the quirky characteristics of Sherlock through the eyes of John Watson's writing including a few letters and diary entries. The little jokes and sarcastic remarks made me smirk throughout. This book is a rare longer story of Sherlock (most of the adventures are short stories), and it encompasses all the aspects of why you love these characters so much. The hauntingly atmospheric scenes in this mystery in the Devonshire countryside were set into my imagination by fluid detailed writing by Conan Doyle. So while there may be many threads our culture uses now to tell a story, I vouch for the page as the one I prefer. It may not be 'right' or wrong in terms of solving a mystery to the satisfaction of culture, but to me it is much more satisfying.