The Hound of the Baskervilles Characters

(Click the character infographic to download.) In earlier Holmes novels like A Study in Scarlet, Watson really fades into the background. We know that he is a combat vet and a medical doctor, sur...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Doctor James Mortimer starts out the novel as a figment of Watson's imagination. By looking at Doctor Mortimer's forgotten walking stick, Watson gue...

Even though Sir Charles never appears directly in The Hound of the Baskervilles, we owe the guy the respect of mentioning him here since his death is the reason for the story. Actually, over the co...

Like Sir Charles before him, Sir Henry is more of an excuse for the novel's plot than a fully developed character in his own right. Watson comes out and tells us that Sir Henry is a true "descendan...

(Click the character infographic to download.) Since Conan Doyle is a good detective story writer and not an idiot, he doesn't introduce Stapleton, the villain of The Hound of the Baskervilles, w...

(Click the character infographic to download.) You know the classic detective story cliché, "The butler did it?" Well, Barrymore is the butler at Barrymore Hall. And he does seem suspicious: fir...

Mrs. Barrymore intrigues Watson because of the apparent contradictions in her character. She doesn't look like a deeply emotional person. In fact, Watson describes her as "a heavy, solid person, ve...

Most of what we know about Beryl we find out from other people after the Baskerville mystery has been resolved. We know she's Stapleton's wife, rather than his sister, as he originally claimed. We...

Laura Lyons, not Lois Lane as we originally suspected, is the mysterious "L.L." who writes a note to Sir Charles arranging to meet him at his driveway the night he dies. By writing this letter and...

At first, Mr. Frankland of Lafter Hall comes across as a pretty minor character, one of Sir Henry's gentleman neighbors whom Doctor Mortimer mentions in passing when describing the neighborhood of...

We never actually meet Selden as a character, but he's clearly supposed to catch our attention as a possible threat to Sir Henry and to the neighborhood in general. After all, he's an escaped convi...

Anthony is the name of a servant at Merripit House. He's known the Stapletons for several years, at least since their time in Yorkshire under the name of "Vandeleur" and possibly as far back as the...

Cartwright is a London kid whom Holmes hires to do a bunch of odd jobs for him. Like an intern, except he gets paid. Watson describes him as a "lad of fourteen, with a bright, keen face" (4.116). A...

John Clayton is the cabdriver who carries a disguised Stapleton through London as he follows Sir Henry. Holmes traces John Clayton based on his cab number. Talking to Clayton about his bearded pass...

At the start of the novel, Doctor Mortimer doesn't know of Stapleton's connection to the Baskerville family. He believes that the next heir to the estate after Sir Henry would be this cousin of Sir...

There isn't much of Lestrade in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Lestrade's a policeman from Scotland Yard; he and Holmes frequently clash over whether Holmes' creative deductions are believable or n...

Perkins is the Baskerville Hall groom. A "groom" in this case is not the opposite of a bride. It's a kind of servant who looks after a wealthy family's horses and drives their horse-drawn carriages.

Wilson is the manager of the messenger service in Chapter 4 where Cartwright, Holmes' temporary kid assistant, works. Wilson is loyal to Holmes because Holmes helped to save his "good name, and per...