Introducing: The Book Club
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What is the significance of The Hound of the Baskervilles in literature?
Hello, it is Richard and Marina, and we have a very special guest today, don't we, Richard?
We do indeed. We are joined by, I don't know if you know the podcast, The Rest is History. Heard of it. Yeah. Dom Sandbrook from that show.
Oh.
You know him? Yeah. The one who isn't married to Zendaya. Yeah. He has a new podcast.
I absolutely love this podcast, by the way. Hello, Dominic.
Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard. Thank you so much for having me on the show. It's a big fan of the show. It's a big treat to finally come on.
Well, I'm very excited to talk about The Hound of the Baskervilles, which is one of your ones coming up, I believe. Is that right?
Yeah, it is. So a bit of background. Tabby and I worked on The Rest Is History for a long time. And we used to bicker about books a great deal. So we did a few bonus episodes for The Rest Is History Club. And you'll probably remember the scenes of people sobbing with joy in the streets, huge crowds assembling, just how much people enjoyed those episodes. So we then decided to roll it out as its own show, which we've been doing for a few weeks. And The Hound of the Baskervilles was always quite high on the list of books that we would do because I know, Joey, your producer was slacking off The Hound of the Baskervilles in the email chain beforehand.
I mean, he's a liability.
It was an incorrect opinion, I believe.
Joey's a great man, but he's not flawless. No, none of us is perfect, Richard. That's true. And Joey lets himself down with that because I think The Hand of the Baskervilles is great. I think it's the most popular Sherlock Holmes story for a very good reason because it's the blend of the supernatural and the rational. And I think that's the tension at the heart of it that people always really enjoy.
Why did he not call your podcast Book Bicker?
How did Arthur Conan Doyle come to write The Hound of the Baskervilles?
Book Bicker. Yeah. Yeah.
I just think the alliteration would be annoying, wouldn't it? Okay.
Well, listen, I've been in the business a long time, but that's fine.
I think it's a Ron Seal title, the book club, no? Isn't that the technical term? It does what it says on the tin. You know what it's about. It's people talking about books. That's all it is.
You do with the hand of the basketball as well, if I can do a link like that. Oh, that's good. And I'll tell you, didn't he develop it slightly with like a newspaper man? Someone from the Daily Express at the time. Because it's so like those stories. You know, every summer there's a story that there's a panther on the Dartmoor or whatever it is like that. And I'm always like, oh my God, this story is so ridiculous. Anyway, let me have a quick look at it. And about halfway done, I'm like... No, actually, no, because there could really be one.
But it's always a cat next to a tree, but the tree is smaller than you think it is. Yeah, the beast of Bodmin.
Yeah, but you think you'll like that, but then after a while you start thinking, well, I don't know, maybe there's something in this. And I always feel that when I've read The Hound of the Baskervilles, that you start thinking, okay, of course there's not some hellhound at least. And after a while you're thinking, actually, maybe there is. I don't know.
That's it. So you're dead right. Now, before I came on the show, I mentioned to you, to your horror, that this was like coming on North Norfolk Digital. And actually, it was born in North Norfolk. So Alan Partridge's Hinterland, for those people who don't know. So Arthur Conan Doyle, he'd killed off Sherlock Holmes in 1893. And then in 1901, he's on holiday with this bloke called Fletcher Robinson, who, as you say, is a journalist. And they went on a golfing holiday, I think at Cromer. And basically, it's pouring with rain or it's too windy. So they sit inside. They've got nothing to do. And Fletcher Robinson says, oh, would you like to hear a story about a big black dog on a moor? And he tells Conan Doyle this story.
Now, Richard, as a man who makes a considerable amount of money from writing books, you'll enjoy this element of the story.
Is the art for me more than that, Don?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the significance of The Hound of the Baskervilles in literature?
0:03–1:42
2
How did Arthur Conan Doyle come to write The Hound of the Baskervilles?
1:42–3:47
3
What themes are explored in The Hound of the Baskervilles?
3:47–7:46
4
Why is the character of Sherlock Holmes so enduring?
7:46–14:54
5
How does the narrative structure impact the story's tension?
14:54–21:41
6
What role do the supporting characters play in the mystery?
21:41–23:15