(*First published in a serialized fashion by The Strand Magazine August 1901 - April 1902. SPOILERS AHEAD)
One must gather one's aplomb even if one happens to be a story. That's what happens here in this chapter titled First Report of Dr Watson. That, and we get a sort of playbill to boot. Also, a nice feature is its relative brevity and straightforwardness (unless that's redundant to say). A cleansing of the palate some, after the previous chapter's elongated whirling dervish routine.
We begin with an explanation as to what the heck we have here. Watson will be transcribing for us, his letters home to Holmes. All but one ominously tantalizing missing page mentioned as such in quite a subtle manner. I have questions! I don't even know what they are. Of eerie creepy note is that the date is set at Oct. 13th. "He asked for a 13, but they drew a 31." - The Offspring, Pretty Fly for a White Guy. It's a great date, though. If not a bit overtly on-the-nose.
We learn more of the moor's 'grim charm' from the pen of W. "When you are once upon its bosom..." another bit of personification to file alongside the previous and repeated 'melancholy.' We are also cued into a certain out-of-timeliness of the place. "you have left all traces of modern England behind you... you are conscious everywhere of the homes and the work of prehistoric people." This makes fresh as the previously-mentioned ivy, the horrible tale of the poor maiden of ye olde Baskerville lore.
Then W cuts out his own poetry and brings up the canonical Holmes' "complete indifference as to whether the sun moved round the earth or the earth round the sun." Neat take on dialog that. Then Doyle gets all Doylean in telling the reader through Watson just how absolutely surprising what he's about to read will strike him or her as. First, the escaped convict must be gone by now, for what food has he to eat? Fair enough.
Then, he expresses his concern regarding the Stapleton sibs. A lovely lady and a frail man, set miles alone and adrift upon the moor. Perkins the groom is offered up as guard but passed on by the pair. Then we learn that Henry has begun to show "a considerable interest in our fair neighbor." And rightfully-so, seeing as she is a dark beauty all 'tropical and exotic.' This is so odd, since her brother is so, well, not. He reads as if appearing as a strip of dried-out Scotch Tape.
Aside from no longer being sticky, Jack also might not be so nice. "You would find him an interesting study." Indeed, I feel H already has. We see that he does not take kindly to Henry's interest in his sister Beryl. Why though, he's such a catch?! Intriguing and all told, a bit more than a bit obvious. Oh, and Dr Mortimer is back and hot and heavy into another skull. Such a 'single-minded enthusiast,' he. He takes them to see more moor. More doubt is cast on the pale Barrymore. Why is his paleness so warily treated while (see previous Scotch Tape reference)?
We add another character to said playbill then, in one 'Mr Frankland, of Lafter Hall.' He loves to litigate. Loves the (British) law and the bogged-down goodness of a good suit. It's all a bit Dickens Bleak House (1852-53) Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Bleak House is an excellent mystery with no shortage of humor and Lafter Hall. LAUGHTER, see? I dunno. Your mileage may vary but I can't shake the connection. Regardless, Frankland's latest legal escapade is sure to leave him broke and broken, his large fortune depleted.
Then we revisit the telegram in a forced manner in order to further suspect that the butler did it. Also, his wife is quite dull in every way, apparently. The takeaway here (spoiler alert but not really. What exactly is an Easter egg?) is that we learn in order to smooth over Barrymore's ruffled feathers due to these icky suspicions, Sir Henry gives him some hand-me-down clothes. What an absolutely lovely gesture of friendship and trust. I was gonna throw these out, do you want to wear them instead? Yikes.
Finally, and get ready for this... steel your nerves, good man! The infamously light-sleeping Watson spies a long shadowed Barrymore carrying a candle. He follows him to an empty room where from its window, B seems to somehow be in some sort of communication with the moor. Come moorning, Watson tells Henry of this and they seemingly hatch a plan. What is it? "I will not speak about it just now, but it should make my next report interesting reading." UuuGH. Cliff-hanger.
This is all quite interesting reading. Page-turner reading. In fact, it's ten pounds of interesting puzzle pieces crammed into a five-pound interesting puzzle piece bag. We end feeling as we know so ::: very ::: much moore than we really maybe do. A superb and titillating chapter of primordial noir. I'd love a Spillane rewrite. This could read as a rewrite of Poe. Doyle at his finest and most Doyle.
By the by, I am unsure what those ten pounds would be worth in today's USD but I am eye-balling, with great interest, the calculator sitting to my left upon my desk.
ADDITIONAL HOUN
Thoughts on Chapter 7
Thoughts on Chapter 9
Online sources for this article: The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia (The Hound of the Baskervilles). You can read this tale in full there, so you know. READ MORE
This is all quite interesting reading. Page-turner reading. In fact, it's ten pounds of interesting puzzle pieces crammed into a five-pound interesting puzzle piece bag. We end feeling as we know so ::: very ::: much moore than we really maybe do. A superb and titillating chapter of primordial noir. I'd love a Spillane rewrite. This could read as a rewrite of Poe. Doyle at his finest and most Doyle.
By the by, I am unsure what those ten pounds would be worth in today's USD but I am eye-balling, with great interest, the calculator sitting to my left upon my desk.
ADDITIONAL HOUN
Thoughts on Chapter 7
Thoughts on Chapter 9
::: very :::