The Sign of the Four

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (18591930) was a Scottish physician and writer known around the world for his stories about detective Sherlock Holmes, which all but created the literary field of crime fiction and made the name Sherlock Holmes synonymous with detectives. Aside from the Sherlock Holmes stories, he was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. In December 1893, in order to dedicate more of his time to more "important" workshis historical novels Conan Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty apparently plunge to their deaths together down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem. The public was having none of it, however, and there was an outpouring of support for bringing Sherlock Holmes back, leading Conan Doyle to write a new story in 1901, The Hound of the Baskervilles. One of the Sherlock Holmes novels written by Conan Doyle was The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four. Set in 1887. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, 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. It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan. This edition is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and includes images of Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and scenes from the novel.