# The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901) > The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published Aug 1901 – Apr 1902: publication record, synopsis, a verified quotation and sources. Canonical page: https://lineageofshadows.com/works/hound-of-the-baskervilles/ Title: The Hound of the Baskervilles Author: Arthur Conan Doyle Attribution: Part of the Sherlock Holmes canon (see sherlock-holmes). Form: Novel First appearance: Aug 1901 – Apr 1902 (timeline year 1901) Part of: [Sherlock Holmes](https://lineageofshadows.com/works/sherlock-holmes/) Themes: Detection, The house, The supernatural, Inheritance ## Publication record - Serial, Aug 1901 – Apr 1902: The Strand Magazine, George Newnes, London. Nine monthly instalments with 60 illustrations by Sidney Paget; the US Strand ran September 1901 to May 1902. [1, 2] - Volume, 25 Mar 1902: George Newnes, London. 16 illustrations by Sidney Paget; US edition McClure, Phillips & Co., 15 April 1902. [1] ## Synopsis Dr James Mortimer calls on Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street with an old family manuscript about a spectral hound said to have hunted the Baskervilles of Devon since the seventeenth century. His friend Sir Charles Baskerville has just been found dead on his own estate, and the heir, Sir Henry, has come from Canada to take up Baskerville Hall. Holmes, claiming other business in London, sends Dr Watson to Dartmoor to watch over Sir Henry and report. Watson finds fog, a convict loose on the moor, a mire that swallows ponies and neighbours with reasons of their own. The question is whether the legend is a story or a method. ## Setting 1889 (per the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia), before 'The Final Problem'. Places: Dartmoor; Baskerville Hall; Grimpen Mire; London [1, 3] ## From the text > “A man’s or a woman’s?” Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered. “Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!” Chapter 2 (The Curse of the Baskervilles). Project Gutenberg ebook #2852: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2852 (Gutenberg file does not name its source edition; text follows the book (15 chapters), not the 1901-02 Strand instalments) ## Facts - Doyle dedicated the book to his friend Fletcher Robinson: 'It was to your account of a West-Country legend that this tale owes its inception.' [3] - The Strand serial ran in nine monthly numbers from August 1901 to April 1902 with 60 illustrations by Sidney Paget; the Newnes book followed on 25 March 1902 with 16. [1, 2] - The novel was written after 'The Final Problem' (December 1893) had apparently killed Holmes, but is set in 1889, before that story's events; his return in 'The Empty House' came in October 1903. [1, 4, 5] ## Threads in - Descends from: a West-Country (Dartmoor) hound legend told to Doyle by Fletcher Robinson: Doyle's own dedication credits Robinson's account of a West-Country legend with the book's inception. [3] ## Notes on dates and attribution - The novel was written after 'The Final Problem' (1893) but is set in 1889, before that story; the 1889 setting rests on the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia summary (the Gutenberg text does not state the year). ## Sources 1. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles (accessed 2026-10-09) 2. The Strand Magazine, Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/The_Strand_Magazine (accessed 2026-10-09) 3. The Hound of the Baskervilles (ebook 2852). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2852/pg2852.txt (accessed 2026-10-09) 4. The Final Problem, Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Final_Problem (accessed 2026-10-09) 5. The Adventure of the Empty House, Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Empty_House (accessed 2026-10-09)