Understanding character as the engine of Victorian detective fiction A mystery is only as compelling as the people at its centre. The Sign of Four gives us three major characters whose personalities […]
Holmes is the voice of reason — but the novel is haunted by what reason cannot explain Sherlock Holmes is, above all else, a rationalist. He believes in evidence, logic, […]
Reading Doyle’s novel as a document of Victorian imperial anxiety When Sherlock Holmes solves a mystery, he restores order. But whose order? And at what cost? The Sign of Four is set […]
How Conan Doyle built a genre — and what makes this novel tick as a story The Sign of Four (1890) is Arthur Conan Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes novel, and it […]
