Discussion Post: The Hound of the Baskervilles

[spacemutineer.livejournal.com]

It's our first novel, Hound of the Baskervilles! As always, here are a few thoughts and questions to get you started. Please add your own and discuss away!

- After a long stint of short stories, how did you find diving into a novel? Did you like it more or less than the shorter cases? I loved getting in-depth with the case and characters first-hand, but it's hard not to love The Hound of the Baskervilles. It has it all: action, love, danger, suspense.

- HOUN skirts the line of the horror genre with a spectral demon dog roaming and killing, a notoriously brutal murderer on the loose, and a foggy mire swallowing horses live and screaming. Did you like that dark, scary tone? What did you think of the possibility of the supernatural here? Could a true Sherlock Holmes story ever actually have the paranormal, with Holmes being such a devoted realist? What would happen if he did have to confront the unnatural?

- Watson is terrific in HOUN. He gets volunteered on a moment's notice to take a trip for weeks on end to escort a man under likely mortal danger. And he's excited to do it. It's wonderful to have so much time with him alone for a change and discover more about him and his kind, sturdy character.

- HOUN has an enormous number of film/tv/radio adaptations, and it's interesting to see how they vary from the text. There's a lot of excitement here so it lends itself well to media adaptation. What's your favorite version? I'm partial to Granada's overall, but I actually have a soft spot for Ian Hart's Watson in that BBC tv movie version. He's valiant and tender and he stands up for himself just as well as he stands up for others. If only he had a more worthy Holmes in Richard Roxburgh.

- Any predictions for how they'll handle HOUN on BBC's Sherlock in the next series, if you're watching that?

Comments

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

oh god not another version in the works :(

but as for the book - it's just terrific!
the fact that most adaptations flounder in Holmes' absence, whilst the book definitely does not, is a testament to the narrative tension, character interest and descriptive prowess at Conan's Doyle's command, he was at the top of his game.

i'd have to go with Hammer's Hound as my favourite (just as a movie) - i have a soft spot for the Len-Film Russian version too. Granada's version... disappointed me (one of the very, very few from that series to do so), Brett was never happy with it either apparently.
There have certainly been some weird and wonderful versions down the years!

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The Hound of the Baskervilles has to be the story most associated with Sherlock Holmes and for good reason. It is a great story, with lots of excitement, character build up and general uncertainty. Sometimes there can be an air of predicability with some of the short stories, here anything can happen.

I'm looking forward to BBC's Sherlock version, because I don't think it will be like any of the previous versions.

[darkest-alchemy.livejournal.com]

I actually don't like Hound much. Except for a handful of the later stories it's probably my least liked story. Holmes is just out of the picture for far too long and I don't really like stories where Holmes is on his own or Watson is on his own, plus really I think it goes on for too long. I do love Granada's version because I adore Brett and Hardwicke anyway and Holmes and Watson seem to be pining for each other all the while they're apart and it's very sweet when they're reunited. I also love the BBC's 2002 film. Ian Hart is one of my absolute favourite Watsons. Though I do quite like Roxburgh's Holmes too despite his many flaws. I think I like that though too because it is heavily altered from canon.
I haven't seen most of the others though. I just can't really stomach that many of them. I much prefer the short stories and the ones that haven't been done to death as far as adaptations go.