“…nor yet was it that of the body of Hugo Baskerville lying near her, which raised the hair upon the heads of these three dare devil roysterers, but it was that, standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon…”
This passage is an excerpt from Dr. Mortimer’s manuscript, detailing the curse of the Baskervilles, and how it originated. Here he describes the hound like creature attacking Hugo Baskerville. It is a supernatural and frightening tale, and as he reads it to Sherlock Holmes and Watson, the message and the depth of the story really set in for the reader. This passage explains the first time the curse of the Baskervilles has ever taken place, and then later goes on to say that each heir of Hugo Baskerville has met similar fates, usually a bloody death, or a mysterious one. Dr. Mortimer believes that the hound is behind the deaths of the heirs. This origin story is already, in the next few chapters, very important in relation to the characters and their actions. Holmes, Watson and Dr. Mortimer meet with Sir Henry Baskerville, the last Baskerville left, and warn him about this curse, which he previously knew nothing about, being in London, far away from the dreaded moor.
This quote is surprisingly gothic and sensational for a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The way it depicts this horrific creature is supernatural. It leaves the reader wondering how there can possibly be a scientific explanation for it. The way we come about it is through Dr. Mortimer’s report. Interestingly, the information comes so far removed from the source. The book follows this pattern by “leaving” Holmes in London and having this through the lens of Watson’s diary. The reason perspective is so important in not only this [assage but the whole novel is because it leaves the reader in the most suspense. Without seeing into the brain of the great Sherlock Holmes, the reader has to develop their own hypothesis.