The Book Report Episode #26

Episode #25

The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Story Two: The Sign of the Four

Some Spoilers Ahead

The Book

This is continuing with the book, from my to-be-read bookshelf. I received this book as a gift from a friend, who passed a few years ago when we took a trip to the Sherlock Holmes museum, in London.

This edition of the book: was published by Wordsworth Editions Limited. Part of the Wordsworth Library Collection in 2007. Published with the original illustrations from the original work. The first complete stories book was published in 1928.

The Sign of the Four was published in the February 1890 edition of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine.

What Did I Think

Since the first story, Sherlock and Watson have had a couple of adventures. But Watson does reference their first adventure.

Watson still wants to know if Sherlock’s detective skills are a trick. He does this by letting him take a look at a pocket watch. Sherlock correctly deducts who the watch belongs to, and can add a history of what his brother has done with the watch. Plus the reason behind it.

Watson still can not quite believe it but finally lets it go.

The main story of this book is about thieves who steal from and kill a man. Then they have their stolen items stolen, and they then give chase to find the person who stole from them and when found they then kill the person who did it. One of the gang is not happy with this.

This isn’t revealed until near the end of the book, after reading two stories, so far. This seems to be the pattern of the novels. Discover a problem, investigate the possible crime, work out who did it, capture the criminal and have the criminal tell their story.

But the adventure to get to that story is an adventure in itself.

The characters search high and low over London, the Thames and Kent, in search of the murderers and thieves. And the murderers themselves, have been chasing their prey, who escaped from India.

Using the help of the local constabulary, the police boat and Toby, the mongrel sniffer dog. They even climbed up and down a building. Sherlock and Watson eventually catch the villains.

This, in itself, makes this story a better read than, The Study in Scarlet.

The Sign of the Four

The sign of the four is the group of the original four people who worked together to steal the jewels. And kill a man. The man with the wooden leg, Johnathan Small created the sign.

The Audiobook

If you would like to watch the Jeremy Brett Episode: Click Here.

Love

It seems to have come a bit too quickly but Watson falls in love and finds his Mrs Watson. The lady Miss Mary Morsten, arrives to ask for help at the story’s beginning. Watson is unsure he is worthy of the position of husband and love due to her wealth and status. But this is all resolved, at the end of the novel. Sherlock, of course, knew this could happen. He is sad, but happy for them both. But he still doesn’t want to lose his friend.

Today, Dr Watson would be looked down on. Only admitting his love, and proposing marriage, after finding out the inheritance she would get was lost. He would feel a lesser man if the opposite were to happen.

The camaraderie of Holmes and Watson is what holds the story together, like Mulder and Scully and Turner and Hooch. Although they will soon separate, they cannot be without each other’s friendship and adventure, even though Sherlock would be a sort of tutor for John, in the world of Holmes. Watson helps him not be alone. Even if, he feels he doesn’t need it.

The British stiff upper lip shows itself through the stories. No feelings. Just get on with it and fix or solve the problem. I love it.

Would I Recommend

This is a great little adventure. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to continue their travels through crime deduction and mystery. Although this story was more adventure than mystery it would be a good addition to anyone’s reading list.

Would you like to purchase your very own copy?

You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA. Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/ USA, Barnes and Noble and eBay UK/ USA.

Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library.