The Sign of the Four
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of the Four
PLOT SUMMARY: Mary Morstan solicits Holmes and Watson to help discover the identity and motive behind the anonymous person who has been sending her a priceless pearl once a year. The legacy of a lost treasure partly claimed by her late father lead the duo into a web of intrigue and murder. At the conclusion of this adventure, Dr. Watson succesfully proposes marriage to Miss Morstan.

NITS:
In A Study in Scarlet, Watson clearly stated his war bullet wound was in his shoulder. Yet, for this adventure, it has mysteriously transferred itself to his leg.

CHRONOLOGICAL CONUNDRUM: Does this adventure take place in 1887 or 1888? There are clues throughout the novel that point to both years. The time-reference to other years seems to place it in 1888, but Doyle's definite dating of other cases such as "A Scandal in Bohemia" (March 1888) and "The Five Orange Pips" (September 1887), both of which are supposed to take place after Watson's marriage to Mary Morstan, argue for 1887. Also there is the matter of the pearls Mary receives in the mail each year. She says that she got the first one in 1882 and now has six. That would bring us to 1887.
Of further confusion is the month. The letter Mary received the day she visits Holmes and Watson is dated, July 7, but Watson later refers to the month as being September.

The Sikhs Johnathan Small co-signed the treasure pact with all bear unlikely Mohammedian names.
By Me on Friday, January 07, 2000 - 11:11 am:

What a turd Watson is. At the beginning he challenges Holmes to make deductions from his brother's watch. When Holmes tells Watson his deductions, which are correct, Watson gets mad at him!

By kerriem. on Sunday, February 04, 2001 - 7:44 pm:

Well, they aren't exactly the kind of deductions you'd enjoy hearing tossed off as an intellectual exercise. Holmes could have at least prefaced his comments with something like 'Are you sure, Watson, that you want me to tell you..."

Meanwhile...you bet those are 'unlikely Mohammedian names'! Only one of them is even surnamed 'Singh.'
Taken together with the 'fierce and astonishingly ugly' African pygmy that assists Small, the incident doesn't exactly show Doyle off well, open-minded-wise. Of course, he was writing a pulp action-adventure story, not a serious (in his mind) novel, but it's still an unattractive blot on the Holmesian landscape.

By kerriem. on Sunday, February 04, 2001 - 7:44 pm:

Well, they aren't exactly the kind of deductions you'd enjoy hearing tossed off as an intellectual exercise. Holmes could have at least prefaced his comments with something like 'Are you sure, Watson, that you want me to tell you..."

Meanwhile...you bet those are 'unlikely Mohammedian names'! Only one of the so-called Sikhs is even surnamed 'Singh.'
Taken together with the 'fierce and astonishingly ugly' African pygmy that assists Small, the incident doesn't exactly show Doyle off well, open-minded-wise. Of course, he was writing a pulp action-adventure story, not a serious (in his mind) novel, but it's still an unattractive blot on the Holmesian landscape.

By kerriem. on Sunday, February 04, 2001 - 7:47 pm:

Oops. :<

By Joe King on Tuesday, February 06, 2001 - 2:10 pm:

Quite a few of ACD's discriptions seem rather UPC these days, of the top of my head a couple of bad ones include a "Firey" Welshwoman & a "Coal Black Negress".

By Sir Rhosis on Friday, November 05, 2004 - 8:41 pm:

I think the title is actually "The Sign of Four" isn't it--no "the."

In one of the British Dr. Bell/Doyle "Murder Rooms" television mysteries a few years ago, Dr. Bell does a "reading" of Doyle's watch, which we are to suppose inluenced that scene in Doyle's Holmes book. These stories are themselves fictional though.

Sir Rhosis

By Richard Davies on Saturday, November 06, 2004 - 4:22 am:

If I recall the 1st edition was called The Sign Of The Four but all other versions have been called The Sign Of Four. I don't know what caused this to change, but the 1st title is a comes of the tounge easier.

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