Sign of the Four

'I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.'

Mary Morstan receives a large pearl through the post once a year without any clue as to the sender. When her intriguing correspondent requests a meeting, Holmes and Watson take on the case. Together the trio race through London to uncover the secrets of the Sholto family, who hold the key to uncovering the whereabouts of Mary's father and the existence of a treasure stemming from a crime committed years ago in India.

The Sign of the Four has been a crucial part of the Sherlock Holmes canon since its first publication in 1890. It explores theft, betrayal, and murder in the larger context of the British Empire at a time of national upheaval, and the novel's flashbacks to India during the 'Mutiny' and its aftermath call into question the consequences of that imperial venture. Caroline Reitz's new introduction and notes draws attention to some often-overlooked context of the story, such as its original publication in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, its representation of imperial violence, and changing gender roles.

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Arthur Conan Doyle

Caroline Reitz is Associate Professor of English literature at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the City University of New York Graduate Center. She specializes in Victorian literature and culture as well as contemporary female detective fiction and is co-editor of Dickens Studies Annual. She is the author of Detecting the Nation: Fictions of Detection and the Imperial Venture (2004) and numerous journal articles and chapters.

Darryl Jones (General Editor) is Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin, where he teaches nineteenth-century literature and popular fiction. He is the author or editor of ten books, including the Oxford World Classics editions of M. R. James's Collected Ghost Stories, Arthur Conan Doyle's Gothic Tales, H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau, as well as Horror: A Very Short Introduction.