Ha! Wish I knew! Well, it’s written in Sir Arthur’s amazingly musical English, which, though easy to read, is so charming, old-fashioned and soothing. I have read books by the same author unrelated to Mr Sherlock Holmes and his investigations; I don’t think they are written anywhere as well as the Sherlock Holmes series. I might be biased, being a huge lover of the detective story genre — but that’s neither here, no there. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” stands out even among other Sherlock Holmes stories, and no wonder it has been filmed so many times, especially in the UK, where two different directors did two different films with the same name in 1982 and in 1983 (which means they were working on them almost at the same time) — not to mention all the others, ranging from 1921 to 2002! All those directors and producers must have been sure of success.

Is it due to the natural attractiveness of large animals (similar to the effect dinosaurs have on us)? Is it due to the austere and somewhat sinister charm of the moor, described by the author with such precision that you don’t have to go to England at all, let alone Devonshire, to feel it? Or did Sir Arthur actually surpass his own genius while writing this masterpiece?

It grabs the reader’s attention from the start — with the scary legend of the past — and keeps it till the very end. It contains just the right mixture of action, mystery, love and humour to make sure the reader isn’t going to be tired. It makes us worry beyond words, when Sir Henry’s life is so endangered by the fog that Holmes, Watson and Lestrade barely manage to save him in the last moment, thus turning the novel almost into a thriller — but an old-fashioned, mild one. Still, I don’t know why I’m so attracted towards this particular book.

I should add a few words about the 1981 year’s film shown on TV several times since in my country. It’s quite close to the original plot — as close as a film can get — but with a few charming additions to make it more TV-like. Barrymore, with his unforgettable “Porrige, Sir!”, has made his way into our folklore immediately, becoming part of our proverbs and jokes. This was catering to the common stereotype, of course — we all know the English eat porrige all the time, don’t we? — but it was funny nevertheless. Every boy in our class was talking about nothing else but “The Hound of the Baskervilles” at the time when it was on TV for the first time.