History Literature / TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles

* Jerkass: Hugo Baskerville is clearly painted as such, he abducted a woman with the clear intention of raping her and when she escaped, he set loose his hounds to tear her apart.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In the 2021 AudioAdaptation the origin of the hound is left a mystery, after Holmes has solved the case and decides his off-the-cuff [[ScienceMarchesOn theory of phosphorus is incorrect]] he and Watson return to where to body was left to study the corpse of the hound, only to find it has disappeared…

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Stapleton is a murderous villain who had chained and practically starved his own hound to death in order to make it an effective AttackAnimal, he even feeds Dr. Mortimer pet spaniel to the hound, luckily he meets his well deserved fate in the mire.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In the 2021 AudioAdaptation the origin of the hound is left a mystery, after Holmes has solved the case but decides his off-the-cuff [[{{ScienceMarchsOn}} theory of phosphorus is incorrect]] he and Watson return to where to body was left to study the corpse of the hound, only to find it has disappeared…

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Stapleton is a murderous villain who practically had chained and practically starved his own hound to death in order to make it an effective AttackAnimal, he even feeds Dr. Mortimer pet spaniel to the hound, luckily he meets his well deserved fate in the mire.

** Downplayed with the principal case. Lestrade actively participes at the case resolution and cames from London to arrest the villain. But he is the only police officer who participates, and he does much less than Watson and Holmes. In add, he is the only policeman participating at the resolution, the other ones found absolutely no clue. To be fair, the Hound of Baskerville was a case where Holmes himself struggled to solve it, common policemen never had a chance.
** Played straight with the Selden case. Not only he was arrested by Holmes years before the novel. But in add, he escaped from his penitentiary, and none of the policemen or soldiers sent to capture him succeed.

* ScoobyDooHoax: The Hound isn't paranormal after all; it is merely an enormous dog painted with phosphorous to make it glow in the dark.

* VillainousLineage: It is suggested that the villain has inherited his criminal tendencies from his notorious ancestor Hugo Baskerville. Despite the fact that the two men were separated in time by 2 centuries (17th to 19th).

* HighHeelFaceTurn: Both female characters involved with the villain end up helping the heroes... but they subvert it:

* ParanormalInvestigation: Subverted in that Holmes, though conceding the possibility of the Hound being a supernatural creature, deliberately excludes it from his considerations, on the grounds that if it truly ''is'' such an entity, there is nothing Holmes can do about it in any case.

* InTheBlood: It is suggested that the villain has inherited his criminal tendencies from his notorious ancestor Hugo Baskerville. Despite the fact that the two men were separated in time by 2 centuries (17th to 19th).

* BrokenBird: Beryl Garcia-Stapleton and Laura Frankland-Lyons are both beautiful women with {{dark and troubled past}}s that have completely fucked them over.

* HypocriticalHumor: Most of the litigious Frankland's cases are contradictory in nature and involve holding to completely opposite principles. In one example, he gloats over simultaneously winning a case which enables a neighbour's land to be used for a public path under public right-of-way laws, and winning another case which closes off a local park to the public under privacy laws. He apparently cares more for proving himself right rather than upholding any particular legal principle, or even whether or not winning his case would actually accomplish anything useful. This is a large part of why he isn't very popular with his neighbors.

* LoveForgivesAllButLust: [[spoiler:Stapleton's wife, who he passes for his sister,]] was his reluctant partner in crime until she discovered he was making advances towards another woman (whether or not he actually intended to propose is not known), which finally caused her to snap, forcing him to tie her up before she can warn the heroes. [[spoiler:Too bad for him she'd already gone out to remove the pegs that marked a safe route through the moor.]] [[spoiler:Stapleton]] himself nearly screws up his own plans when he finds himself unable to ''not'' act like a CrazyJealousGuy one seeing her being wooed by Sir Charles (despite her not looking happy about it).

* HellIsThatNoise: Watson hears the Hound's apparent howling from a distance twice. Both times, he describes the sound as essentially "demonic".

* SwampsAreEvil: The whole region surrounding the Grimpen Mire is talked about with much dread from most characters, be it because of the legend, the mysterious prehistorical settlements or the deadly mire itself. The narration itself loves talking about how gloomy and miserable-looking the place is.

* SwampsAreEvil: The whole region of the Grimpen Mire is talked about with much dread from most characters, no thanks to the Hound legend surrounding it (and even then, it doesn't need the legend at all to be actually deadly). The narration itself loves talking about how gloomy and miserable-looking the place is.

* SwampsAreEvil: The whole region of the Grimpen Mire is talked about with much dread from most characters, no thanks to the whole legend surrounding it. The narration itself loves talking about how gloomy and miserable the place is.

** Sir Henry's stolen shoe at the start of the story. [[spoiler:Stapleton was using it to incite the titular hound with Henry's smell.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Stapleton shows Watson the Grimpen Mire and notes that the boggy moor is certain death to anyone who wanders in and doesn't know the way out.[[spoiler: Foreshadowing Stapleton's own death.]]

''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' has been adapted and parodied many times, in nearly every possible medium, the most famous being the 1939 film which was the first to star Creator/BasilRathbone and Nigel Bruce. Tropes for that adaptation should go [[Film/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles here.]] For the ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' episode go [[Recap/SherlockS02E02TheHoundsOfBaskerville here.]]

* EvenEvilCanBeLoved/EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Demonstrated with the two criminals in the story. [[spoiler: The escaped SerialKiller Selden is still loved by his sister Elisa Barrymore, and when she hears of his accidental death she is grief-stricken. In contrast, Stapleton has forced his wife through abuse into following his commands, and as the only one close to him, she is absolutely delighted on hearing of his death.]] Watson even mentions in the tale, "Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him."