by Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. He began his career as an eye doctor, writing in his spare time to supplement the mediocre income from his struggling practice. Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887, and the publication of The Sign of Four in 1890 solidified the character's popularity with the reading public and launched Doyle's rise to fame as a writer. Other Sherlock Holmes stories followed until 1893. The publication of The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901 marked the return of Sherlock Holmes after an absence of eight years, a period in which Doyle focused on other literary endeavors. Many consider it the best of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Events in History at the Time the Novel Takes Place

The later Victorian era. The ascension of Queen Victoria to...