The Hound of The Baskervilles (SH #5)

The Hound of The Baskervilles is beautifully pompous in an entirely adorable way. There's not much scary about it, but riveting nonetheless due to the literary flair of the author. It's suspense in the nicest possible way.

There are a lot of similarities between Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells due to the simplicity and straightforwardness of their writing styles. They both bound along at an incredible pace as words flow with imagination off the charts. It's such concise writing but still extremely fluid and inventive.

Although this book is high on detail, it's nicely summarised to reach a satisfying conclusion, instead of going on and on until you're dizzy. Arthur Conan Doyle is fantastic at that, but sometimes concludes a little too quickly for my liking, with sudden jolts, changes, convenient conclusions and a need to round things up.

The writing style was more joyous and decadent back then, less focused on bullet points, facts, credibility and potential death by social media. I totally respect the way Baskervilles lets itself go to indulge the reader, like most everything written on Sherlock Holmes, as amazingly refreshing and never conceited or pretentious. Just marvellously old fashioned.

Hound of the Baskervilles is a good read because it's a complete story with a decent conclusion, unlike most of Conan Doyle's shorter stories that are brilliant but end way too soon.

I also understand why Arthur Conan Doyle reportedly hated Sherlock Holmes. He had such skill as a writer, but pumped out too many convenient and unsatisfying memoirs for his own liking.