Great Schools Trust Book 2: The Hound of the Baskervilles - Use this booklet to support your reading of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
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Great Schools Trust
Book 2: The Hound of the
Baskervilles
Use this booklet to support your
reading of ‘The Hound of the
Baskervilles’.
Great Schools Trust January 2021
Pre-Reading
What is ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ about?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic tale, featuring the famous detective
Sherlock Holmes and his side-kick Dr Watson, is an unforgettable and
haunting tale that will have you on the edge of your seat. Until the
discovery of the truth about a family curse, the mysterious hound that
terrorises the Grimpen Mire is a truly terrifying creature. Holmes and
Watson unravel the story that surrounds the death of Sir Charles
Baskerville, against the wild atmosphere of the Devon moors.
Focus on Words
What do the following words make you think of?
Unforgettable
Haunting
Truth
Curse
Mysterious
Terrorises
Wild
What is a mire? What is a moor?
Great Schools Trust January 2021
Pre-Reading
Who was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859 and died in 1930. He was
educated at Stonyhurst, and later studied medicine at Edinburgh University, where
the methods of diagnosis of one of the professors provided the idea for the methods
of deduction used by Sherlock Holmes.
He set up as a doctor at Southsea and it was while waiting for patients that he began
to write. His growing success as an author enabled him to give up his practice and
turn his attention to other subjects. He was a passionate advocate of many causes,
ranging from divorce law reform and the Channel Tunnel to the issuing of inflatable
life-jackets to sailors. He also campaigned to prove the innocence of individuals, and
his work on the Edjalji case was instrumental in the introduction of the Court of
Criminal Appeal. He was a volunteer physician in the Boer War and later in life
became a convert to spiritualism.
His greatest achievement was, of course, his creation of Sherlock Holmes, who soon attained
international status and constantly distracted him from his other work; at one time Conan Doyle killed him
but was obliged by public protest to restore him to life. And in his creation of Dr Watson, Holmes's
companion in adventure and chronicler, Conan Doyle produced not only a perfect foil for Holmes but also
one of the most famous narrators in fiction. Penguin publish all the books about the great detective, A
Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Sherlock
Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The What did Tim
Return Bowler, Holmes,
of Sherlock editor ofThe
LoveValley
Reading,
of Fear, His Last
Bow, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes and The Penguin Complete
say about the book?
Sherlock Holmes.
"Another stunning thriller. I read this when I was twelve and it was my first
Sherlock Holmes story. I've been a massive fan ever since. It's not just the double
act of Holmes and Watson that makes these stories so compelling. It's the way
Conan Doyle conveys evil. For all the quirkiness of the plots, the Holmes stories
carry a relentless sense of menace; and nowhere is this greater than in The Hound
of the Baskervilles with its dark mystery, its sinister characters and the bleak
Dartmoor location, said to be haunted by a demonic hound."
Great Schools Trust January 2021
Pre-Reading Great Schools Trust January 2021
Reading The Novel: Making Predictions
Can you judge a book by its cover?
Based on the cover, what are your
predictions about what it will be about?
Why do you think it is called ‘The Hound
of the Baskervilles’?
What does the blurb suggest?
Blurb
Excitement! Intrigue! Suspense! Horror!
Will Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson discover the truth behind the
fearsome legend of the beast with blazing eyes and dripping jaws?
Great Schools Trust January 2021
Summary: Chapter One Our first glimpse of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson is in their home office at 221b Baker Street in London. Watson examines a mysterious cane left in the office by an unknown visitor. Watson offers up his theory as to the origin of the walking stick, declaring that the inscription, "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," suggests an elderly doctor who was awarded the object after years of faithful service. Holmes encourages Watson's speculation, and the doctor continues, saying that the well-worn stick implies a country practitioner who walks about quite a bit. Holmes congratulates Watson, and goes on to examine the cane himself as Watson basks in the glory of Holmes' compliment. However, Holmes quickly contradicts almost all of Watson's conclusions. Holmes suggests that while the owner is clearly a country practitioner, C.C.H. actually means Charing Cross Hospital. The cane was probably presented on the occasion of the man's retirement from the hospital, and only a young man would have retired from a successful city practice to move to a rural one. Holmes goes on to suggest that the man must possess a small spaniel, given the bite marks on the cane, and, he playfully announces, given the appearance of master and dog at their front door. Great Schools Trust January 2021
Chapter One
Character Profiles: Holmes and Watson
Place in the evidence bags any quotes you can collect from Chapter 1 to support your reading.
What do you find out about Holmes’ and Watson’s characters?
Holmes Evidence Bag Watson Evidence Bag
Great Schools Trust January 2021
Read the following extract from Chapter 1. There is a vocabulary list to help you.
Excel - to do something brilliantly. Erroneous – incorrect, wrong.
Debt – to owe someone something. Fallacies – mistakes, lies.
Elementary – obvious. Inferences – guesses based on available
information.
Deductions – to work our clues.
Great Schools Trust January 2021
Exploring Chapter One 1. Write a summary of what happens in the extract on the previous page. 2. If you could ask Sherlock Holmes any question, what would you ask? 3. How would you feel if you were Dr Watson, and had a friend like Sherlock Holmes? 4. When you have read ALL of Chapter One, tell someone in your household what happened. Use the ‘5 finger method’ to help you. Great Schools Trust January 2021
Chapter Two: The Curse of the Baskervilles
Create a mind map to show what you understand by and the effect of the word ‘curse’.
Synonyms Associated
words
‘curse’
mind map
Feelings and Associated
moods genres
Narrative Intrigue
In Chapter Two, The Curse of the Baskervilles, Dr James Mortimer reveals his reason for
seeking out Sherlock: to help solve the mystery of a family curse.
The curse works as a narrative hook: it stimulates the interest of both Holmes and the reader.
Predict! Key Terms
What do you think happened to
Exposition is a plot device
Sir Charles Baskerville?
whereby important
What do you think will happen background information is
next at Baskerville Hall? inserted into the narrative.
Great Schools Trust January 2021A Hound of Hell
The language applied to the hound makes it sound as if it belongs in the horror rather
than crime genre.
Whether or not the hound really exists is the novel’s greatest enigma. Readers await
its reveal. In Chapter 14 – The Hound of the Baskervilles, Watson describes it thus:
‘A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as eyes
have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a
smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering
flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more
savage, more appalling, more hellish, be conceived than that dark form and
savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog.’
Pause for Thought
What vocabulary choices or
language features are most
effective and why?
Pause for Thought 2
Is the hound truly a supernatural being,
or will it be rationally explained?
Great Schools Trust January 2021Hyperbolic Hounds
Key Terms
Use hyperbole to transform
Hyperbole is exaggeration for one of these adorable mutts
effect and is not usually meant into ‘a hound of hell’.
to be taken literally.
exposition enigma hyperbole
Write a definition for each key term.
Give an example of each key term.
Write a paragraph explaining how Conan
Doyle makes effective use of these features.
Great Schools Trust January 2021Chapter III – The Problem
Read the chapter and make a list of reasons why
Holmes and Watson might have chosen to make
Baker Street their home.
221b Baker Street
Sherlock’s address is famous! It is second only to Downing Street
in the list of distinctive black front doors in London.
What effect is given by the
colour black?
What would be the effect of
changing its colour to red,
blue, green or pink?
Great Schools Trust January 2021Chapter Three talks about Devonshire, which we call Devon today.
Warrington
London
Devon
Compare these two paintings.
Victorian London Victorian Devon
What can you see on the Victorian London painting?
How does this look different from the painting of Victorian Devon?
Great Schools Trust January 2021Great Schools Trust January 2021
Chapter Six: Baskerville Hall
In Chapter VI – Baskerville Hall, Watson accompanies Sir Henry Baskerville and Dr
James Mortimer to Dartmoor; Holmes remains in London, on the pretence of
being engaged in another case. Watson records the following observations of the
journey as they approach Baskerville Hall:
Over the green squares of the fields and the low curve of a wood there rose in
the distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged summit, dim and
vague in the distance, like some fantastic landscape in a dream.
What mood is created by each of these words?
jagged summit dim
Does this sound like a good dream or a bad dream? How can you tell?
We had left the fertile country behind and beneath us. We looked
back on it now, the slanting rays of a low sun turning the streams
to threads of gold and glowing on the red earth new turned by the plough and
the broad tangle of the woodlands. The road in front of
us grew bleaker and wilder over huge russet and olive slopes, sprinkled with
giant boulders. Now and then we passed a moorland cottage, walled and
roofed with stone, with no creeper to break its harsh outline. Suddenly we
looked down into a cup-like depression, patched with stunted oaks and firs
which had been twisted and bent by the fury of years of storm. Two high,
narrow towers rose over the trees. The driver pointed with his whip.
‘Baskerville Hall,’ said he.
Watson is tasked with reporting back to Holmes in London. Write an account of his
arrival at Baskerville Hall, explaining the atmosphere of the place.
Great Schools Trust January 2021A Surprise Visitor
It later transpires that Holmes followed his companions and has been busy
secretly conducting his own observations from a secluded moorland hut.
He was thin and worn, but clear and alert, his keen face
bronzed by the sun and roughened by the wind. In his tweed
suit and cloth cap he looked like any other tourist upon the
moor, and he had contrived, with that cat-like love of
personal cleanliness which was one of his characteristics,
that his chin should be as smooth and his linen as perfect as
if he were in Baker Street.
How does Conan Doyle show that Holmes will not be
overwhelmed by the natural setting, or the mysterious
myth of the hound?
Describe Baskerville Hall…
…in three adjectives.
...using figurative language.
…in comparison to Baker Street.
Great Schools Trust January 2021Chapter Seven: The Stapletons of Merripit House Great Schools Trust January 2021
Hybrid Form – Chapter Seven
• Watson recounts Holmes’ cases in the past tense.
• However, the reliance on reported speech to propel the narrative
forward has the effect of putting readers in the heat of
the moment.
The spoken lines are delivered by Mr Stapleton and taken from Chapter Seven – The
Stapletons of Merripit House. Stapleton, it turns out, is the guilty party. He is the
true killer of Sir Charles Baskerville and he has fiendishly been using the legend of
the hound to his advantage.
His meeting with Watson in Chapter VII is the readers’ formal introduction to the
character, although his undetected presence is felt in earlier chapters.
As well as making them think ahead to solve mysteries, it is a creative convention of
crime fiction to make readers revisit and re-evaluate earlier scenes.
Pause for Thought
Which tense do you think is the
most effective for detective
fiction and why?
Great Schools Trust January 2021Chapter 8 - First Report of Dr. Watson
Modes of Narration
First person – the narrator is a character within the story (‘I’).
Second person – the narrator tells the story to another character (‘You’).
Third person – the narrator is a detached observer (‘He’, ‘She’, ‘They’).
What is the mode of narration in ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’?
Who is its narrator?
Is Watson an omniscient narrator? Give an explanation for
your answer.
As well as diary extracts, what other expository devices are
used? Think back to the rest of the text.
Why is Watson’s mode of narration effective for detective
fiction?
Key Terms
An omniscient narrator is
Godlike – they know
everything.
Great Schools Trust January 2021Switch
Watson is a fine reporter of events, but he is not omniscient.
A strength of first person narration can be the reader sharing the narrator’s
feelings about events, especially the puzzlement aroused by enigmas.
A weakness of first person narration can be the narrow viewpoint offered by one
person, particularly when they don’t see or understand everything.
Conan Doyle cleverly turns the weakness into a strength in Chapter Ten – The Man
on the Tor, when he surprises Watson and the readers by revealing the mystery
man to be…
Our protagonists are now going to trade places so
that Holmes becomes the narrator.
Pause for Thought
Is Holmes closer to being omniscient?
How might this affect the tone of
narration and its effect upon readers?
Great Schools Trust January 2021‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ - Telling Stories
Here is a summary of some key events at this point in the novel. Read it
and then try to re-tell the story from at least one different perspective.
There are soldiers stationed along the road leading to Baskerville Hall. A psychotic
murderer named Selden is on the loose – he has escaped from prison and is thought to
be hiding on the moors. The moors are a dangerous enough place as it is; they are
pitch-dark at night and people have drowned in their boggy pits.
Since arriving at Baskerville Hall, Watson has heard strange noises at night, including
people sneaking around and a woman sobbing. He suspects the butler Barrymore of
mistreating Mrs Barrymore. Eventually, he spies Barrymore creeping outside with a
light. Barrymore has been a loyal servant but being a beneficiary to the late Sir Charles
Baskerville’s will gives him a motive for murder.
Watson and Sir Henry resolve to watch Barrymore closely. One night, they catch him
holding a lamp to the window, seemingly communicating with another light out on the
moors. When Barrymore refuses to explain his actions, Sir Henry fires him on the spot.
Mrs Barrymore intervenes to explain that the other light is coming from her brother –
the convict Selden!
Mrs Barrymore accepts that her brother has committed despicable crimes, but
convinces the gentlemen that she was only doing her sisterly duties to help keep him
alive after he turned up at their door shivering and alone. Sir Henry forgives both his
servants but arms himself and heads out with Watson to capture Selden.
On the desolate moors, Sir Henry is frightened by a howling sound. Watson tries to remain
rational but even he must admit that it sounded very much like the cursed hound. They
are distracted by a movement and spot Selden. They give chase but the distance
between them is too great and the murderer disappears into the night. Then, they spot
the shadow of another figure outlined against the moon. A man has been watching
them all but in an instant, he too is gone.
Can you:
– tell the story above from the perspective of Selden?
– tell the story above from the perspective of Barrymore?
– tell the story above from the perspective of Mrs Barrymore?
– tell the story above from the perspective of any other character?
Great Schools Trust January 2021Sort It Out
Can you place these plot points in order?
The answers are on the next page when you are ready.
Great Schools Trust January 2021Sort It Out: Answers
Mini-mystery: who has left the engraved stick at 221b Baker Street?
Dr Mortimer reveals the ancient story behind the Baskerville curse of the
hound and its supposed connection to the recent death of Sir Charles.
Charles’ heir, Sir Henry, is being trailed in London by a mysterious figure. He has
already received a note of warning and had a boot stolen.
Watson accompanies Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall while Holmes concludes his
work in London.
The butler, Barrymore, and his wife are behaving suspiciously.
Jack Stapleton and his sister Beryl befriend Watson and Sir Henry. But Beryl
warns them off.
Barrymore, it transpires, has been aiding his brother-in-law who is an escaped
convict.
A letter addressed to Sir Charles shortly before his death is signed L.L.
A mystery man on the moors is revealed to be Holmes. He has been watching
everything.
Holmes has discovered that Stapleton (not his true identity) is next in line to
the Baskerville fortune.
Stapleton used Laura Lyons to lure Sir Charles onto the moor before releasing a
chemically-enhanced hound, the ferocious sight of which caused a heart attack.
Holmes sets a trap, using Sir Henry as bait. After dining with the Stapletons, Sir
Henry sets off across the moor and Stapleton is apprehended after again
releasing the phantom hound.
Pause for Thought
Could the order of
things have been
swapped?
What would have
Great Schools Trust January 2021Chapters Ten - Twelve Great Schools Trust January 2021
Chapter Fourteen – The Hound of the Baskervilles
Here is an extract from Chapter 14 – The Hound of the Baskervilles. Sir Henry is dining with the Stapletons at
Merripit House while Watson and Holmes observe from a distance. Sir Henry is being used as bait; his walk home
across the moor is intended to present Stapleton with the perfect opportunity for murder. Watson and Holmes plan
to catch Stapleton in the act but it remains unclear what part the hound plays in Stapleton’s crimes.
I have said that over the great Grimpen Mire there hung a dense, white fog. It was drifting
slowly in our direction, and banked itself up like a wall on that side of us, low, but thick and well
defined. The moon shone on it, and it looked like a great shimmering ice-field, with the heads of
the distant tors as rocks borne upon its surface. Holmes’s face was turned towards it, and he
muttered impatiently as he watched its sluggish drift. 5
“It’s moving towards us,
Watson.” “Is that serious?”
“Very serious, indeed—the one thing upon earth which could have disarranged my plans. He
can’t be very long, now. It is already ten o’clock. Our success and even his life may depend upon
his coming out before the fog is over the path.” 10
The night was clear and fine above us. The stars shone cold and bright, while a half-moon
bathed the whole scene in a soft, uncertain light. Before us lay the dark bulk of the house, its
serrated roof and bristling chimneys hard outlined against the silver-spangled sky. Broad bars of
golden light from the lower windows stretched across the orchard and the moor. One of them
was suddenly shut off. The servants had left the kitchen. There only remained the lamp in the 15
dining-room where the two men, the murderous host and the unconscious guest, still chatted over
their cigars.
Every minute that white woolly plain which covered one half of the moor was drifting closer
and closer to the house. Already the first thin wisps of it were curling across the golden square
of the lighted window. The farther wall of the orchard was already invisible, and the trees were 20
standing out of a swirl of white vapour. As we watched it the fog-wreaths came crawling round
both corners of the house and rolled slowly into one dense bank, on which the upper floor and
the roof floated like a strange ship upon a shadowy sea. Holmes struck his hand passionately
upon the rock in front of us and stamped his feet in his impatience.
“If he isn’t out in a quarter of an hour the path will be covered. In half an hour we won’t 25
be able to see our hands in front of us.”
“Shall we move farther back upon higher ground?”
“Yes, I think it would be as well.”
So as the fog-bank flowed onward we fell back before it until we were half a mile from the
house, and still that dense white sea, with the moon silvering its upper edge, swept slowly and 30
Greaton.
inexorably Schools Trust January 2021Chapter Fourteen – Questions
How does the author portray the setting of the
Grimpen Mire? You should focus on:
• lines 1-6;
• how the setting is described and its narrative function;
• the effect of the language used.
Sample Answer Structure
The Grimpen Mire is portrayed as . The author uses the words ‘ ___ ’, which
suggest that . This makes the reader feel .
What impression are you given of Holmes in this extract? You should consider:
• what he says and how he says it;
• his influence on Watson;
• how it fits with your wider knowledge of the character.
Sample Answer Structure
Conan Doyle shows Holmes to be . This is seen when . ‘ ’
implies that . He is also shown to be .
3. How does the author convey an atmosphere of anxiety and dread in this
extract?
You should consider:
• what is happening in the extract;
• how it is structured;
• the mood created by the author’s language choices.
Keywords
thoughts feelings tension tone anticipation
moving
Great Schoolsdeveloping
Trust January 2021 building imagery pathetic fallacyBack to the Future: The Final Chapter
Another convention of crime fiction is the scene, after the villain has been apprehended,
in which the detective offers an explanation that conveniently ties up any loose ends.
Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is a master of this!
The final chapter is titled A Retrospection. This brings the narrative fully
up to date.
Read the extract below and identify whether the verbs are in past, present
or future tense. They are underlined.
Dictionary
Retrospective
- looking
back; a
review of the
past.
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 in connection with the famous card
scandal of the Nonpareil Club, while in the second he had defended the unfortunate Mme.
Montpensier from the charge of murder which hung over her in connection with the death of
her step-daughter, Mlle. Carére, the young lady who, as it will be remembered, was found six
months later alive and married in New York. My friend was in excellent spirits over the success
which had attended a succession of difficult and important cases, so that I was able to induce
him to discuss the details of the Baskerville mystery. I had waited patiently for the opportunity,
for I was aware that he would never permit cases to overlap, and that his clear and logical mind
would not be drawn from its present work to dwell upon memories of the past. Sir Henry and
Dr. Mortimer were, however, in London, on their way to that long voyage which had been
recommended for the restoration of his shattered nerves. They had called upon us that very
afternoon, so that it was natural that the subject should come up for discussion.
Great Schools Trust January 2021Narrative Arc
climax
rising
action falling
Enter text here… action
exposition denouement
Having read the first part of
Holmes’ summary, do you find
this a satisfying conclusion?
Why, or why not?
Would you restructure the text
in any way?
Key Terms
climax
The moment of greatest intensity;
when the action comes to a head.
denouement
The final part in which all plot strands
are resolved.
Great Schools Trust January 2021After You’ve Read…Write a Book Review Great Schools Trust January 2021
After You’ve Read…Compare The Book Covers Great Schools Trust January 2021
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