44 pages • 1 hour read
Arthur Conan DoyleThe Sign of the Four
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1890A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though raised Catholic and educated at a Jesuit school, he declared himself agnostic as an adult, earning the ire of his wealthy extended family (Klinger, Leslie S. “The World of Sherlock Holmes.” The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Vol 1. Norton: 2005, xxii).
Doyle attended medical school and trained as a physician. In 1882, he set up his own practice and soon married his first wife, Louise Hawkins, with whom he had two children. In 1897, Louise was diagnosed with tuberculosis and began to deteriorate. During this time, Doyle met and fell in love with Jean Leckie, though he maintained a platonic relationship with her out of respect for his wife (Klinger, xxxiii). When Louise died in 1906, he married Jean and had three more children with her. They lived together in Sussex until Doyle’s death by heart attack in 1930.
Doyle is most celebrated for creating Sherlock Holmes. He first devised the character around 1886, inspired by the famous Dr. Joseph Bell, with whom Doyle had studied at University of Edinburgh (Klinger, xxiii). The first Sherlock Holmes story, the novel A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887, followed by The Sign of Four in 1890. However, it was not until Doyle published the first short story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” in July 1891 that Sherlock Holmes became one of the most iconic characters in British literature.
Doyle grew tired of Holmes quickly, professing as early as November 1891 that he wanted to kill the character off, which he did in the December 1893 issue of Strand Magazine in the story “The Final Problem” (Klinger, xxxii). Doyle preferred his other works, also respected though not as beloved as the Holmes stories, including the Professor Challenger books and The Lost World. However, public outcry convinced Doyle to bring Holmes back to life in 1903. Doyle wrote 56 short stories and 4 novels about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Literary Context: The Enduring Popularity of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes remains one of the most beloved and recognizable fictional characters in English literature. He has been portrayed by dozens of actors and his story has been extended from Doyle’s original canon by dozens of writers who have depicted Holmes facing down new criminals, magic, vampires, Lovecraftian horrors, and even time travel. Holmes maintains enduring popularity to this day and has inspired many developments in detective and mystery fiction.
Within Doyle’s canon, Sherlock Holmes has a full life, told in the accounts written by his friend and biographer, Dr. John Watson. The first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, details the first meeting between Holmes and Watson in 1881, when Watson returns to London from Afghanistan, invalided from the British Army. Holmes has recently found a flat at 221B Baker Street but cannot afford the lease on his own; he invites Watson to be his flat-mate and a friendship is born.
Holmes is 27 upon his first meeting with Watson, having recently left university after two years of studying chemistry. He has an older brother named Mycroft. Holmes insists that Mycroft is far more brilliant than himself; however, Mycroft has no ambition and prefers to be left alone, pulling strings from the background. Holmes, on the other hand, has a passion for logic, deduction, and criminality. Using his brilliant logical reasoning and his knowledge of crime, the sciences, and human behavior, he consults with both private clients and the police to solve baffling mysteries and crimes.
Dr. John Watson’s accounts of his adventures with Holmes end in 1891, when Holmes supposedly dies in pursuit of the criminal mastermind, Professor James Moriarty. However, three years later, Holmes returns, revealing to Watson that he had faked his own death and gone into hiding. Upon his return, he continues solving cases with Watson until 1904, when he retires to start beekeeping. He returns to work only once, in 1912, to spy on the Germans just before World War I.
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