The Sign of Four (The ^AOxford Sherlock Holmes) - Hardcover

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192123165 ISBN 13: 9780192123169

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

When a woman who has received mysterious pearls in the mail is asked to meet her correspondent, Holmes and Watson are called in on the case. A terrible death and vanishing treasure lead to an epic chase through the dawn streets and along the River Thames in this spellbinding mystery.

About this title

From the Publisher

"Barker adapts character voices adroitly, showing an especially uncanny ear for stuffed-shirt aristocrats."

From the Back Cover

Arthur Conan Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes novel is both a detective story and an imperial romance. Ostensibly the story of Mary Morstan, a beautiful young woman enlisting the help of Holmes to find her vanished father and solve the mystery of her receipt of a perfect pearl on the same date each year, it gradually uncovers a tale of treachery and human greed. The action audaciously ranges from penal settlements on the Andaman Islands to the suburban comfort of South London, and from the opium-fuelled violence of Agra Fort during the Indian ‘Mutiny’ to the cocaine-induced contemplation of Holmes’ own Baker Street.

This Broadview Edition places Doyle’s tale in the cultural, political, and social contexts of late nineteenth-century colonialism and imperialism. The appendices provide a wealth of relevant extracts from hard-to-find sources, including official reports, memoirs, newspaper editorials, and anthropological studies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192123165
• ISBN 13: 9780192123169
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Roden Christopher