Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson face a mystery on the moors in this classic caper from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A country doctor has come to 221B Baker Street, the lodgings of famed detective Sherlock Holmes, with the eerie tale of the Hound of the Baskervilles. The legend warns the descendants of the Baskerville family never to venture out on the moors that surround their ancestral home, for fear that they will meet the devil-beast that lurks there. Such a story sounds preposterous to any man of reason, but now Sir Charles Baskerville is dead—and the footprints of a giant hound have been found near his body. Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend Dr. John Watson agree to investigate the truth of the matter. They will soon learn that in this case, nothing is quite as it seems.... The most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles is a classic of masterful detection and hair-raising suspense.   Includes an Afterword by Anne Perry “The whole Sherlock Holmes saga is a triumphant illustration of art’s supremacy over life.”—Christopher Morley Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. After nine years in Jesuit schools, he went to Edinburgh University, where he received a degree in medicine in 1881. He then became an eye specialist in Southsea, with a distressing lack of success. Hoping to augment his income, he wrote his first story, A Study in Scarlet. His detective, Sherlock Holmes, was modeled in part after Dr. Joseph Bell of the Edinburgh Infirmary, a man with spectacular powers of observation, analysis, and inference. Conan Doyle may have been influenced also by his admiration for the neat plots of Gaboriau and for Poe’s detective, M. Dupin. After several rejections, the story was sold to a British publisher for £25, and thus was born the world’s best-known and most-loved fictional detective. Fifty-nine more Sherlock Holmes adventures followed. Once, wearying of Holmes, his creator killed him off, but was forced by popular demand to resurrect him. Sir Arthur—he was knighted for his defense of the British cause in The Great Boer War—became an ardent spiritualist after the death of his son Kingsley, who had been wounded at the Somme in World War I. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in Sussex in 1930. Table of Contents   Title Page Copyright Page Dedication   Chapter 1 - Mr. Sherlock Holmes Chapter 2 - The Curse of the Baskervilles Chapter 3 - The Problem Chapter 4 - Sir Henry Baskerville Chapter 5 - Three Broken Threads Chapter 6 - Baskerville Hall Chapter 7 - The Stapletons of Merripit House Chapter 8 - First Report of Dr. Watson Chapter 9 - Second Report of Dr. Watson Chapter 10 - Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson Chapter 11 - The Man on the Tor Chapter 12 - Death on the Moor Chapter 13 - Fixing the Nets Chapter 14 - The Hound of the Baskervilles Chapter 15 - A Retrospection   Afterword Selected Bibliography BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859. After nine years in Jesuit schools, he went to Edinburgh University, where he received a degree in medicine in 1881. He then became an eye specialist in Southsea, with a distressing lack of success. Hoping to augment his income, he wrote his first story, A Study in Scarlet. His detective, Sherlock Holmes, was modeled in part after Dr. Joseph Bell of the Edinburgh Infirmary, a man with spectacular powers of observation, analysis, and inference. Conan Doyle may have been influenced also by his admiration for the neat plots of Gaboriau and for Poe’s detective, M. Dupin. After several rejections, the story was sold to a British publisher for £25, and thus was born the world’s best-known and most-loved fictional detective. Fifty-nine more Sherlock Holmes adventures followed. Once, wearying of Holmes, his creator killed him off, but was forced by popular demand to resurrect him. Sir Arthur—he was knighted for his defense of the British cause in The Great Boer War —became an ardent spiritualist after the death of his son Kingsley, who had been wounded at the Somme in World War I. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in Sussex in 1930.   With more than ten million copies sold worldwide, Anne Perry is indisputably one of the world’s most popular mystery writers. She is noted for her memorable characters, historical accuracy, and exploration of social and ethical issues. Her story “Heroes” won the 2000 Edgar Award for the short story. She lives in a small fishing village on the remote North Sea coast of Scotland. SIGNET CLASSICS Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250