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WT Sharpe · 03-03-2014, 06:37 PM

Just finished The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was a re-read, as I've read all four novels and all 56 short stories when I was younger, but as it's been, I suppose, some 30-odd years since reading the last one (with the exception of A Study in Scarlet, which I re-read with the MobileRead Book Club), there were still a few surprises. For someone who had no idea that the Earth orbited the sun (and keep in mind that he wasn't a modern American), his knowledge of far-reaching trivia that has nothing to do with crime is surprising. Surely, he was being a little less than candid with the good doctor when he told him in the first book how he felt the mind was like an attic and anything not directly related to what he was doing had to go. And as he was quoting Goethe in the original German as well as other writers in this story, Holmes surely had more of a knowledge of literature than he led his friend to believe in A Study in Scarlet.

As for the adventure, it was fast-paced and enjoyable until the last chapter, where the villain of the story recited his life history. That seemed to me to drag a bit, and as the case was by that time solved, I was anxious to see his summation wrapped up.

03-03-2014, 06:37 PM	#19110
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,072 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	Just finished The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was a re-read, as I've read all four novels and all 56 short stories when I was younger, but as it's been, I suppose, some 30-odd years since reading the last one (with the exception of A Study in Scarlet, which I re-read with the MobileRead Book Club), there were still a few surprises. For someone who had no idea that the Earth orbited the sun (and keep in mind that he wasn't a modern American), his knowledge of far-reaching trivia that has nothing to do with crime is surprising. Surely, he was being a little less than candid with the good doctor when he told him in the first book how he felt the mind was like an attic and anything not directly related to what he was doing had to go. And as he was quoting Goethe in the original German as well as other writers in this story, Holmes surely had more of a knowledge of literature than he led his friend to believe in A Study in Scarlet. As for the adventure, it was fast-paced and enjoyable until the last chapter, where the villain of the story recited his life history. That seemed to me to drag a bit, and as the case was by that time solved, I was anxious to see his summation wrapped up. Last edited by WT Sharpe; 03-03-2014 at 08:04 PM.