Assessing the Significance of the Cityscape to the Narrative of Detection: The Sign of Four, and Farewell, My Lovely

The Sign of Four is a detective novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was published in 1890. It is Conan Doyle’s second novel to feature detective Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is a master detective, known for his deduction skills, disguises and most importantly, his use of the city as means of solving mysteries. The cityscape plays a significant role in the narrative of The Sign of Four.

Conan Doyle uses real places found in London in The Sign of Four. It gives the novel a degree of realism, and Holmes the detective appears genuine to the reader. He certainly knows his way through the streets of London. At the beginning of the novel, Dr. Watson and Holmes are travelling across London to a meeting they know very little about. Watson questions his own knowledge of the route, saying “at first I had some idea as to the direction in which we were driving; but soon, what with our pace, the fog, and my own limited knowledge of London, I lost my bearings and knew nothing save that we seemed to be going a very long way” (Conan Doyle 26). Sherlock Holmes, on the other hand, is completely at ease during their destination, with Watson noting that “Sherlock Holmes was never at fault, however, and he muttered the names as the cab rattled through squares and in and out by tortuous by-streets” (Conan Doyle 26). At this point, Holmes almost begins to show off his knowledge of the city in front of Mary and Watson, as he orders their driver in one direction after the other: “Priory Road. Lark Hall Lane. Stockwell Place. Robert Street. Cold Harbour Lane. Our quest does not appear to take us to very fashionable regions” (Conan Doyle 26-27). It is this inclusion of real place names from London that gives this fictitious detective story...

... middle of paper ...

...r Conan. “The Copper Beeches.” The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. 2nd ed. Ed.Richard Lancelyn Green. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. 270-296.

• Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Sign of Four. Ed. Albert DePetrillo. London: BBC Books, 2012.

• Kayman, Martin A. “The Short Story from Poe to Chesterton.” The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Ed. Martin Priestman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 41-58.

• Knight, Stephen. Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction. London: MacMillan Press, 1980.

• McBratney, John. “Racial and Criminal Types: Indian Ethnography and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four.” Victorian Literature and Culture 33. Issue 1 (2005): 149-167.

• Reck, Tom. S. “Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles.” The Nation 221. Issue 21 (1975): 661-663.

• Widdicombe, Toby. A Reader’s Guide to Raymond Chandler. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001.