The Hound of the Baskervilles

Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer."

Baskerville curse, Sir Henry threatened, moor surveillance, Stapleton unmasked, and phosphorescent hound destroyed form a tight single-case architecture with Gothic atmosphere and rational resolution, so plot scores 91.

"A dabbler in science, Mr. Holmes, a picker up of shells on the shores of the great unknown ocean. I presume that it is Mr. Sherlock Holmes whom I am addressing and not—" "No, this is my friend Dr. Watson." "Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard your name mentioned in connection with that of your friend."

Holmes, Watson, Sir Henry, Stapleton, Mortimer, and Beryl form a lean roster each functional to the case without unnecessary elaboration, so cast scores 88.

For a moment or two I sat breathless, hardly able to believe my ears. Then my senses and my voice came back to me, while a crushing weight of responsibility seemed in an instant to be lifted from my soul. That cold, incisive, ironical voice could belong to but one man in all the world. "Holmes!" I cried—"Holmes!"

Fifteen chapters with no padding — moor surveillance, night vigil, and Holmes's retrospective move with thriller efficiency; among the fastest Holmes reads, so pace scores 92.

From this point onward I will follow the course of events by transcribing my own letters to Mr. Sherlock Holmes which lie before me on the table. One page is missing, but otherwise they are exactly as written and show my feelings and suspicions of the moment more accurately than my memory, clear as it is upon these tragic events, can possibly do.

Watson's clear, unpretentious narrative perfectly suited to landscape and suspense; the Devonshire reports are model adventure writing, so prose scores 87.

Baskerville Hall, October 13th. MY DEAR HOLMES, My previous letters and telegrams have kept you pretty well up to date as to all that has occurred in this most God-forsaken corner of the world. The longer one stays here the more does the spirit of the moor sink into one's soul, its vastness, and also its grim charm.

Dartmoor — Baskerville Hall, Grimpen Mire, Neolithic hut, yew alley, moor at night — Gothic landscape with topographic precision; the setting is half the book, so world scores 93.

I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved upon it.

Holmes deduces Dr. Mortimer from his walking stick before the man arrives; the stick leads to the Baskerville curse manuscript — immediate display of method and mystery, so hook scores 90.

"He could not hope to frighten Sir Henry to death as he had done the old uncle with his bogie hound." "The beast was savage and half-starved. If its appearance did not frighten its victim to death, at least it would paralyze the resistance which might be offered."

Gothic atmosphere fused with rational detection — the phosphorescent hound is both supernatural terror and chemical fraud; template for scientific-romance detective fiction, so innov scores 89.

It was the end of November, and Holmes and I sat, upon a raw and foggy night, on either side of a blazing fire in our sitting-room in Baker Street. Since the tragic upshot of our visit to Devonshire he had been engaged in two affairs of the utmost importance, in the first of which he had exposed the atrocious conduct of Colonel Upwood.

Holmes explains Stapleton's entire course with characteristic clarity; Sir Henry restored, Stapleton lost in the Mire — satisfying but expository rather than dramatic, so ending scores 88.