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
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes was played by John Wood, John Neville, Patrick Horgan, Robert Stephens and Leonard Nimoy. Frank Langella played Holmes in a 1981 production for HBO. In 1923 the play "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" ran for 130 performances at the Princes Theatre, London. It was written by Arthur Rose and J. E. Harold Terry, and starred Eille Norwood as Holmes and H. G. Stoker as Watson. One of the performances was attended by Conan Doyle. The play "Sherlock's Last Case" by Charles Marowitz ran on Broadway in 1987, starring Frank Langella. "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" by Jeremy Paul was staged