The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle · first published 1900
38% recommend54% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Atmospheric Sherlock Holmes mystery set on a gothic moor, featuring a tightly plotted investigation. It serves as an entry point to the Holmes stories and is a favorite within the series.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set in 1889 largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Holmes and Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
The rise of universities
Charles Homer Haskins
Recommended by 2 · mentioned by 22 recommend · 2 mention2 recommend · 22 recommend
2022–2024Slouching Towards Utopia
Bradford DeLong
Recommended by 3 · mentioned by 43 recommend · 4 mention3 recommend · 43 recommend
2010–2026Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 135 recommend · 13 mention5 recommend · 135 recommend
2010–2026Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 154 recommend · 15 mention4 recommend · 154 recommend
2007–2026Sherlock Holmes
Charles Verral, Arthur Conan Doyle
Recommended by 18 · mentioned by 3618 recommend · 36 mention18 recommend · 3618 recommend
Study in Scarlet
Arthur Conan Doyle
Recommended by 4 · mentioned by 204 recommend · 20 mention4 recommend · 204 recommend
Walden by Thoreau - on self reliance and nature De architectura By Vitruvius - classical construction and architecture Song of Myself by Whitman - poetry Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle - thriller
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗…by L. Sprague de Camp (1954). Looks at Atlantis and other lost continents as rhetorical devices in ancient history and philosophy, 20th century pseudoscience/pseudohistory, and science fiction. "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902). My favorite Sherlock Holmes tale yet. Really embraces the themes of gothic literature. "The Rise of Universities" by Charles Homer Haskins (1923). Three short lectures…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2023” ↗Nonfiction: - The Goal, Eli Goldratt - changed the way I thought about getting things done. The Theory of Constraints is important to anyone who makes things. Fiction: - Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I love me some Sherlock Holmes, and nothing is more Sherlock Holmes than Hound of the Baskervilles. Terrific writing, great story, spooky setting. Love it.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗Ever since I read The Hound of the Baskervilles five years ago I've been hooked on the Sherlock Holmes stories. I think I've read every single one. I didn't realize Arthur Conan Doyle wrote other genres, I'll have to check those out.
on “Arthur Conan Doyle and The Strand” ↗…of Sherlock Holmes The Sign of Four The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes The Valley of Fear The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes The Return of Sherlock Holmes His Last Bow The Hound of the Baskervilles If you are a sysadmin, network engineer with vulnscanning experience, IT forensics expert or a reverse engineer, you might feel at home, because deductive reasoning it's right here.
on “YouTube Addiction” ↗Doyle's inspiration for his stories was always based in his own experiences and people he knew. Hound of the Baskervilles was written after Doyle visited Devonshire. He admitted in his later years that the most glaring mistakes were when he wrote about places or occupations which he had no real history with - for example…
on “New book suggests Arthur Conan Doyle based Moriarty on George Boole” ↗…Women" by Louisa May Alcott "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle "Dracula" by Bram Stoker "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling Non-Fiction: "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu "The Republic"…
…message from someone who stumbled onto something new. Enjoy! Here's a peek at the list: * Lost Continents by L. Sprague de Camp (1954) * Slouching Towards Utopia by J. Bradford DeLong (2022) * The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902) * The Rise of Universities by Charles Homer Haskins (1923) * Colonial New England on 5 Shillings a Day by Bill Scheller (2010) * The Book of Yōkai by Michael Foster (2015)
on “Interesting Books I've Read in 2023” ↗Using the character’s name is not simply remaking The Hound of the Baskervilles over and over. The recent TV series is both set in the modern day and has 154 episodes, that’s mostly reskinning a detective show not copying decades old scripts. I don’t mind the idea of The Hulk fighting…
on “Copyright doesn't need 95 years to get the job done” ↗Once downloaded a copy of Hound of the Baskervilles, broken into chapters as separate files. Each chapter was almost exactly the same length, within a few hundred characters, showing that it had been serialized first and chapters were sized for publication.
on “Ask HN: How to level up your technical writing?” ↗…lowered reading scholastic scores, the overall lack of reading, and the consumption of entertainment that requires little reading. Stuff like the "Treasure Island" (#34), "Oliver Twist" (#56), and "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (#66) still rates rather high up on Young Adult literature sales by Amazon's reported numbers, even if romance and such is the top 5-10. They're reading.
on “US High school students' scores fall in reading and math” ↗…regardless of that I think its just not readable. I would kick out two of the Lord of the ring books, one is enough and it's not like each of them had a different impact. Maybe even more subjective, The Hound of the Baskervilles is important and well known and everything, but does it really held up when you read it today? If not, which would be my opinion, should it be on the list regardless? And I'd consider replacing Thomas…
on “Books of the Century by Le Monde” ↗…English-speaking authors are maybe unexpectedly quite popular (Hemingway and Fitzgerald are there, and I think it is deserved; Dickens and Mark Twain should have been), but I would not think about Ulysses. > The Hound of the Baskervilles is important and well known and everything, but does it really held up when you read it today Crime is an important genre and Sherlock Holmes is quite popular (even though I would personally put something…
on “Books of the Century by Le Monde” ↗In The Hound of the Baskervilles: When he shoots the hound just in time to save Sir Henry, Watson notes that Holmes "breathed a prayer of gratitude." In "The Adventure of the Empty House": He attributes his survival over Professor Moriarty…
on “Interactive Warhammer 40k Galaxy Map” ↗