The late Victorian setting of The Hound of the Baskervilles is an orderly one. In it, each person has a role to fill, and when every role is suitably filled, society prospers. But the social order is endangered by those bent on its destruction, and the villains come in many disguises.

The opening scenes place Sherlock Holmes in the comfortable surroundings of his home at 22IB Baker Street in London. But quickly the action shifts to the dreary "Grippen Mire," a vast moor or bog-marsh area of England. This bleak and deserted wasteland provides a startling contrast to Holmes's refined London world. Reason seems to break down, and the atmosphere becomes eerie when it appears that a supernatural creature is responsible for the terrifying happenings on the moors.

Conan Doyle carefully recreates both the Baskerville family history and the outlying areas around Baskerville Hall.

The myth of the...