Not a Good Sign

My freshly begun journey through the complete stories of Sherlock Holmes next brought me to Doyle's second Holmes novel, The Sign of the Four. I found it to be a weaker effort than the initial A Study in Scarlet, with a number of significant problems.

Chiefly among them is an overly convoluted plot. In retrospect, I question less the bizarre technique Doyle used of inserting five unrelated chapters in A Study in Scarlet to explain the motivations of his criminal; the final chapter of The Sign of the Four is by far the longest in the novel, and it entails the villain pouring out every detail of the last decade of his life as explanation for his criminal deeds. A least the weird approach taken in A Study in Scarlet allowed events to be dramatized rather than narrated.

The overly long and twisted back story in The Sign of the Four is only one of three major chapters in the book where the "action" is recounted to us by a secondary character rather than experienced by the characters themselves. Early on, the client appears and spends a chapter relating her dilemma to Holmes and Watson. A few chapters later, the three of them encounter a new character who then spends another entire chapter retelling his back story. Fully one-quarter of the book thus consists of essentially "telling" instead of "showing," a cardinal sin of narrative fiction that renders almost any novel inert.

Doyle does work in the other nine chapters to undo a lot of the damage with a fairly thrilling adventure. There's are nighttime chases across London and back, and a climactic chase down the river Thames in the final act. In the middle is a rather fun adventure with a scent-detecting dog, and a nice fleshing out of the character of Watson as he meets a significant love interest.

But as Watson comes into greater clarity, Holmes gets a bit muddier. His drug habit is introduced in this novel, though the stranger oddity for me comes as a consequence to Doyle turning him into a master of disguise. The case finally comes unraveled when Holmes disguises himself as an old man to do some reconnaissance -- an interesting enough development. But then he returns from his investigations and decides to trick Watson and a Scotland Yard detective with the same disguise, having a go at them for a page or two before revealing his true identity. The two flaws here are, firstly, that it cheapens Watson more than strengthens Holmes; the fact that Watson can't even recognize his own roommate and best friend makes him look more stupid than it makes Holmes look brilliant. Secondly, and the larger issue, is that Holmes doesn't seem to have any credible reason for the charade. The Holmes of my perception (gleaned from sources other than Doyle, admittedly) suffers fools; he is not entertained by them. He would derive no pleasure from trying to fool his friends and acquaintances, he'd only be wasting everyone's time -- his most of all. An inconsistent treatment of the character.

As for the other main thing I took away from The Sign of the Four, I wouldn't call it bad now, but it does give me concern for the future. The plot seemed to be establishing a formula for Holmes' adventures. A Study in Scarlet was a case revolving around Mormonism (or Doyle's perception of it, at any case); apparently the thing to make the mystery sensational and unusual was to take people and elements from outside 19th century London. The same formula applies in The Sign of the Four, with Mormonism being replaced by a dwarf islander, Sikh thugs, and Indian treasure. Thus far, the villains of Holmes stories seem to be to be built upon demonization of foreign cultures. And while that's understandable in the context of the time the stories were written, I feel I may not be entertained in the long run if the stories continue to follow this formula.

I rate The Sign of the Four a C. The Watson elements of the novel are compelling, but the rest is a bit of a jumbled mess.