The Sign of the Four The Sign of the Four The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring the fictional detective. The story is set in 1888. "The Sign of the Four" has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had
Canon of Sherlock Holmes paragraphs cut, appears as the preface to "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes". "How I Made My List" (1927) This is the sequel to the article mentioned above. In it, Conan Doyle listed what he thought were the best Holmes adventures. He noted that had he been able to include stories from "The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" he would certainly have included "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" and "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client". The list is as follows: Richard Lancelyn Green's "The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes" also includes five prefaces to the various editions of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels,