Sherlock Holmes, master of rational deduction, the very image of refined reason, faces in The Hound of the Baskervilles an exquisitely cunning opponent who takes the form of a mysterious unknown evil that prowls the moor, a seemingly supernatural power. “I have hitherto confined my investigations to this world,” observed Holmes, “but to take on the Father of Evil himself would, perhaps, be too ambitious a task.”

But neither Holmes nor his steady companion Dr. Watson shrinks from the challenge when their audacious opponent enters the affair in the guise of Holmes himself. The gauntlet thrown, an unsettling sequence of mysteries follows. Only the prodigious powers of Sherlock Holmes can penetrate the veil of deception that surrounds the Baskervilles.

One of Holmes’s first deductions results from his superb knowledge of typefaces, and he would have no difficulty in recognizing the Baskerville types employed by Andrew Hoyem in his design for the fine Arion Press edition, here in its first trade publication. Ornamented with calligraphic initial letters drawn by Ward Dunham and featuring photographs by Michael Kenna capturing perfectly the mystery, tension, and melancholy of the moor, this edition is the most fitting presentation ever of Conan Doyle’s classic.