THE SIGN OF FOUR BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

- The Sign of Four (SIGN) is a Sherlock Holmes novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle
first published in the Lippincott's Magazine in february 1890. This is the 2nd
Sherlock Holmes story.
http://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Sign_of_Four#Untold_Stories
+Lippincott's Monthly Magazine was an American magazine published from 1868 to
1915, when it relocated to New York to become McBride's Magazine. It merged with
Scribner's Magazine in 1916.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described how he was commissioned to write the story over
a dinner with Joseph M. Stoddart, managing editor of the Lippincott's Monthly
Magazine, at the Langham Hotel in London on 30 August 1889. Stoddart wanted to
produce an English version of Lippincott's with a British editor and British
contributors. The dinner was also attended by Oscar Wilde, who eventually
contributed The Picture of Dorian Gray in the July 1890 issue. Doyle discussed what
he called this "golden evening" in his 1924 autobiography Memories and
Adventures.
http://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Lippincott%27s_Magazine
- Holmes could never have lived anywhere else but London, says Lycett, author
of the recent biography The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times
of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. London was the hub of the empire. In addition to the
Houses of Parliament, it had the sailors hostels and the opium dens of the East End,
the great railway stations. And it was the center of the literary world.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/sherlock-holmes-london-10998186/?
no-ist
- Its also full of the examples of the hocus-pocus Victorian notion of science
[]Unfortunately, some of the other ways in which this book is very Victorian
include helpless and frail ladies in distress, class prejudice, and blatant racismwith
references to savages becoming increasingly frequent as the story progresses.
This was ultimately part of why the plot itself didnt work for mebut more on that
soon[] but I think its the weakest of the Sherlock Holmes novels Ive read so far,
and I can certainly see why isnt as popular as A Study in Scarlet or The Hound of
the Baskervilles. It hasnt aged nearly as well. One thing I very much liked was the
Holmes/Watson dynamics. Im not sure whether this is a heretic thing to say, but I
like Dr Watson a lot more than I like Sherlock Holmes. But what I like the most is
seeing them together. It's Watsons presence that humanises Holmes. Its the fact
that we see the great detective through his loyal friends eyes that keeps the
formers arrogance, detachment and cold calculating nature from ever becoming

off-putting or unpleasant. Watson is kind, and Watson admires Holmes; therefore,

we grow to like him as well.
http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/2010/01/sign-of-four-by-sir-arthur-conan-doyle.html
- The Sign of Four is a masterclass in the usefulness of networking in the modern
metropolis. I can totally understand why my professor chose this novel to represent
the Victorian era. Not only is there a constant anxiety of dirty foreigners, but there's
this arrogance about the superiority of the city, the thriving throbbing city of
London, where people do drugs, have boat chases, send superfluous wires and
telegrams. Sherlock Holmes without London makes no sense whatsoever. His true
formidable prowess comes from the ability to navigate the modern metropolis,
something hitherto not as impressive in the pre-Industrial era.
Of course, part of the Industrial Era's power is their dominance of the colonies. In
The Sign of Four, the treasure that everybody seeks is the money of the East,
symbolized by the gems and emeralds. Notice that even the wealth itself is a form
foreign to the Victorians. Instead of inheritances or wills or pages or sterling, the
wealth is baubles and shiny stones.
The plot of the novel does not function without the colonies. This grid can be laid
onto the dominator/controlled relationship. In a power dynamic, there is always one
party that oppresses the other. However it is not a zero sum game. Certainly, the
power dynamic swings in a subtle way. England becomes dependent on the wealth
gained from India. In return, India develops a power over England. They require the
wealth of India just as the plot of Sign of Four requires the wealth of India.
http://alayoftheland.blogspot.com/2012/01/sign-of-four.html
from: https://markoftheredpen.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/sherlock-holmes-andvictorian-culture/
- We know that he is not rich: the entire reason why Watson and Holmes are
introduced to one another (in the novel A Study In Scarlet) was because Holmes
needs a flatmate to help him afford his rent (Doyle 16)[] This would place Holmes
firmly in the middle class of Victorian society, a professional gentleman who must
keep up an appearance of relative wealth while not being wealthy enough to avoid
the need for an occupation.
Living as a middle-class English gentleman in Victorian times was not
always easy. For one thing, it was a financial tightrope. For a man wishing to
keep above the level of the working-class, the world of 1881 was not a cheap
one (Harrison 92). The rent that Watson and Holmes share would have
probably been about four pounds a week, and would have been about as
cheaply as the pair could live without damaging their social standing (Harrison
92), but we know that Watsons army pension is only eleven shillings and

sixpence a day (Doyle 15), about 3.8 pounds per week, while Holmes
employment is sporadic. No wonder the doctor and detective are each looking
for a flatmate! Add to their rent the cost of the various forms of social
entertainment they engage in as much to keep up their social positions as for
personal enjoyment (dining out, going to violin concerts, playing billiards), and
it becomes clear that the reason Holmes saves and re-uses his dottles
(charred, foul-tasting tobacco found at the bottom of a pipe after it has been
smoked) might be out of financial necessity (Harrison 92-95).
- *notion of the gentleman
- It is in Holmes own education that he begins to depart from Victorian norms. In
all we have examined so farin class, in finances, in dress, in politicsHolmes has
not varied from the culturally acceptable, even the usual, but his education is a
somewhat unusual one.
Holmes later mentions that he was at College for two years (Doyle 374), which
means that Holmes shortened his stay at the University by at least one year
(Harrison 2), leaving without a degree. By the time Watson meets Holmes, years
later, Holmes is already established as a private consulting detective, but is also
pursuing research at St. Bartholomews Hospital: Watson at first thinks he is a
medical student, but his friend Stamford says he doesnt know what he is going in
for. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of outof-the-way knowledge which would astonish his professors (Doyle 16). He did not
appear to have pursued any course of reading which might fit him for a degree in
science of any other recognized portal which would give him an entrance into the
learned world, yet within eccentric limits his knowledge was so extraordinarily
ample and minute (Doyle 20). So in essence, Holmes was a college drop-out who
continued to audit classes and pursue his own academic path.
- Many would think of Holmess use of narcotic drugs as departures from Victorian
norms. Throughout the stories, Holmes uses cocaine and occasionally morphine as
stimulants when he does not have a mystery to keep his mind occupied. This,
however, was not necessarily a departure from what was acceptable. there was,
at the time when Holmes began to take cocaine, no popular prejudice against drugs
or drug-takers (Harrison 154), at least not the drugs which Holmes indulged in.
Watson disapproved, but not as much as he disapproved when he worried that
Holmes had begun to indulge in opium (Doyle 232), apparently a less sociallyacceptable drug, as an opium addict is described as an object of mingled horror
and pity to his friends and relatives (Doyle 229). []. So here we have no
deviation from what the Victorians found acceptable.
- *religion and science
- Doyle had a hard time reconciling his Catholic upbringing with the scientific desire
for truth (Owen 66), and so became an agnostic (67).

It is in this post-Darwin upheaval that Holmes lives and thrives. Holmes

himself is a reader of Darwin: in A Study In Scarlet he quotes from Descent of
Man about how the power of producing music has existed in humankind before the
power of producing speech (Doyle 37, Keating 38). Holmes has a rationalistic,
deductive approach to life, using the tools of scientific inquiry to aid in his career
(Keating 20), which would have seemed anachronistic in a pre-Darwinian age, but
which was cutting-edge thought in the Victorian era.
In a striking link to Darwin, Holmes even seems to place great emphasis
on biology and descent, favoring nature over nurture in his explanations
for criminal behavior.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE

Extra reference: (TLTR)
https://www.mckendree.edu/academics/scholars/issue18/appell.htm
Victorian Ideals: The Influence of Societys Ideals on Victorian Relationships by
Felicia Appell
http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/victorians-and-the-hidden-self
Victorians and the Hidden Self: Cultural Contexts for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Hana Layson and Jules Law

- Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 in Lippincotts
Monthly Magazine
http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2011/02/textual-history-picture-ofdorian-gray-frankel.html
- The Victorian era was an era of Covers. Your reputation became the primary
interest of an average person. As Basil Hallward puts it every gentleman is
interested in his good name. The Victorian Era was when the image of the English
Gentleman was formed. As people, most notably, gentlemen, began to care more
about their reputation, hypocrisy was spawned. People, began to hide their dark
desires, and their misdeeds, while presenting a respectable face to the public.
Sexuality was deemed unhealthy during the Victorian Era. Many doctors wrote
about the health hazards of excessive sexuality. Many different devices were
designed in order to impede sexual impulses. Thus, Prostitutes, Masturbators, and
homosexuals emerged as social problems

- estimates that there were about 80,000 prostitutes in London alone, which was
about 3% of the London population. Dorian Gray is seen coming out of the foulest
den in London, and from dirty houses.
Also, open marriages existed, even during the Victorian Era. Lord Henry plainly
displays the openness of his marriage. He states that
one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for
both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am
doing. When we meetwe do meet occasionally, when we dine out together, or go
down to the Dukeswe tell each other the most absurd stories with the most
serious faces. My wife is very good at itmuch better, in fact, than I am. She never
gets confused over her dates, and I always do. But when she does find me out, she
makes no row at all. I sometimes wish she would; but she merely laughs at me.
https://hojunester.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/the-picture-of-dorian-gray-a-mirror-ofthe-victorian-era-era-of-hypocrisy/
- The idea of a double life of outwardly playing a respectable role while inwardly
pursuing an existence that crossed the boundaries of acceptable behaviour is
central to the plot of the novel.
The idea lying behind Aestheticism, the controversial theory of art that was newly
fashionable at this time, was that art should be judged purely by its beauty and
form rather than by any underlying moral message (art for arts sake). This is
exemplified in the novel by the dandyish Lord Henry Wotton. Lord Henry advocates
the hedonistic pursuit of new experiences as the prime objective in life.
http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-picture-of-dorian-gray-artethics-and-the-artist
- The ending of this novel was problematical for late Victorian readers. Wilde's odd
preface, which reads like an aesthetic's version of Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," warns
that "there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book" (5) and that "those who
read the symbol do so at their peril" (6). Nevertheless many did read the symbol
and wondered whether the book were moral or immoral. Did it say that conscience
cannot be denied and that all people who do deny it become self-destroying
monsters? And if so, was suicide then justifiable as a kind of self-extermination of
evil) Or did it say, as a reviewer for the Daily Chronicle surmised, that sensation is
all?
http://www.victorianweb.org/books/suicide/06g.html
- The purity and innocence of women were central values in the Victorian era.
Women were expected to be pure until marriage. Their reputations could be ruined
easily. A single girl could not spend time alone with a young man. She must be
protected by a chaperone at all times. This, however, was not true for the men, who

could have several mistresses. Indeed, a womans life was ruined if there were even
rumors that she had had a lover. During this time books about adulatory and its
consequences were published, books such as Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary.
In both of these, the female protagonists suffer horribly as a result of their adultery.
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry has heard of Dorians love for Sibyl Vane
and thinks that Dorian Grays soul had turned to this white girl and bowed in
worship before her. (Page 57) In other words, part of Sibyls attraction is her purity
as denoted by the word white.
Another theme related to sexuality which is pervasive in The Picture of Dorian Gray
is homosexuality. Homosexuality is something that has started to gain acceptance
in modern society. However, until the second half of the last century, homosexuality
was a criminal offense. Oscar Wilde, who lived during the Victorian era, was charged
with that offense. Today he can be seen as a role model for homosexual people.
Although, Oscar Wilde edited out many reference to the desire which Basil Hallward
felt for Dorian, enough of the theme remained the first edition of the book to elicit
strong criticism for the homoeroticism (Alex Ross).
http://podgray.weebly.com/victorian-sexuality.html