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
Sherlock Holmes (play) to "Elementary, my dear fellow! Elementary!" (in the final 1935 text; Act II Scene II). The 1976 Samuel French reprint has the phrase "Oh, this is elementary, my dear Watson" (Act I Scene III; though the scene has been placed in a different act, it is the same scene as above), but it is unclear which of the earlier versions is the basis of this reprint. It was also Gillette who introduced the famous curved pipe as a trademark Holmes prop. Sherlock Holmes (play) Sherlock Holmes is a four-act play by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on