The Sign of the Four (1890) is the second Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. A young governess, Mary Morstan, comes to Baker Street with a strange puzzle: every year she receives a pearl from an unknown benefactor. The case leads Holmes and Doctor Watson to a murder, a stolen Indian treasure and a chase on the Thames, and Watson to his future wife.
The story
Mary Morstan's father, an army officer, vanished ten years earlier. Since then she has received a pearl every year, and she is now invited to a mysterious meeting. With Holmes and Watson she meets Thaddeus Sholto, who reveals that his father and hers shared a treasure brought back from India.
When Thaddeus's brother is found dead next to an empty treasure chest, with a paper bearing the sign of the four, Holmes follows the trail with the help of a dog named Toby and a band of street boys. The case ends with a steam-launch chase on the Thames and the long confession of Jonathan Small, who tells the story of the Agra treasure.
A commission from America
The novel was written at the request of Joseph Marshall Stoddart, the American editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, and appeared in its February 1890 issue in Philadelphia and London. It was published as a book later the same year.
Its background reflects the British Empire: the treasure was stolen during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and part of the action takes place in a convict settlement in the Andaman Islands.
Holmes and Watson
The novel shows Holmes at his most eccentric. It opens with him injecting cocaine out of boredom, to the despair of Watson, a doctor, and closes on the same note. In between, he demonstrates his methods by deducing the history of Watson's watch.
For Watson the case is a turning point: he falls in love with Mary Morstan and the novel ends with their engagement. Its success, together with that of the short stories in The Strand Magazine from 1891, made Holmes world famous.
Anecdotes
A dinner at the Langham
In August 1889 Stoddart invited Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde to dinner at the Langham Hotel in London and commissioned a short novel from each of them. Doyle delivered The Sign of the Four, and Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray, both published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.
Four or the Four?
The title was The Sign of the Four in Lippincott's, but the first book edition, published in London in October 1890, already shortened it to The Sign of Four, and both forms have been used ever since. The phrase in the story refers to the four men who swore to share the treasure.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Sign of the Four the first Sherlock Holmes story?
No. It is the second novel, after A Study in Scarlet (1887).
Who is Mary Morstan?
A young governess who brings the case to Holmes; Watson falls in love with her and they become engaged at the end of the novel.
When was The Sign of the Four published?
In February 1890, in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, and as a book later in 1890.