Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What would The Hound of the Baskervilles look like from Sherlock Holmes' point of view? How do you think he would choose to tell the story? Would it still be as suspenseful from Holmes' perspective?
- [Spoiler alert!] In the 1988 Granada television version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, the story leaves open the possibility that Beryl Stapleton and Sir Henry might wind up in a relationship after all. However, the novel of The Hound of the Baskervilles totally shuts down that possibility. Do you think it is likely that Sir Henry could enter into a relationship with Stapleton's widow? Would that add anything to the novel? Why do you think that Granada television decided to portray Beryl in a more positive light than she appears in the book?
- What effect does it have on the tone of the novel that Conan Doyle draws these strong contrasts between London and Dartmoor? How do you think that The Hound of the Baskervilles would change if it were set only in Dartmoor, and if the London chapters were dropped from the novel?
- Did you guess the twist that Stapleton is Rodger Baskerville's son before Holmes comes out and tells you so in Chapter 15? Does Conan Doyle want you to be able to figure out the final conclusion of the mystery before it happens? Do you enjoy detective stories more or less when you can tell from the clues in the novel whodunit? Or 'fess up: are you one of those people who always reads the last pages first?
- In some ways, Sir Henry comes across as the damsel in distress in The Hound of the Baskervilles. He is so in over his head that he needs Holmes and Watson to save him from the plotting of Stapleton. How do you think The Hound of the Baskervilles would change if we read it from Sir Henry's perspective rather than Watson's?
- What if there were a ghost Hound of the Baskervilles in this novel? What if Sherlock Holmes discovered that all of his assumptions about a rational explanation were, in fact, not true? Would such a thing even be possible in a Sherlock Holmes story? How would the genre of The Hound of the Baskervilles change with a supernatural monster in it?