The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes of the Speckled Band" as his overall favourite. Arthur Conan Doyle began writing while studying medicine at university in the late 1870s, and had his first short story, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", published in September 1879. After eight years, "A Study in Scarlet", Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, was published by Ward Lock & Co. The novel was well received, but Doyle was paid little for it, and despite a sequel novel, "The Sign of the Four", which was published in Lipincott's Monthly Magazine, he shifted his focus to short stories. In early 1891, the first editor of "The
Canon of Sherlock Holmes the short story was adapted from the play, this is the reason that the narrative is told in third person rather than by the traditional narrator Watson. Some claim that the play originally appeared in an early draft of "Sherlock Holmes" (above) and was later removed, with some elements finding their way into "The Adventure of the Empty House" before the entire play was resurrected, some years later, into "The Crown Diamond" and "The Mazarin Stone." Arthur Conan Doyle rarely gave interviews or publicly discussed his character. However, the following is a list of Conan Doyle essays on his character