final thoughts on The Sign of Four, + first and last

The (in)famous Mormon interlude in A Study in Scarlet may have been a little clunky but I still think I preferred that to the second Holmes novel. Too many characters that want to tell the story "FROM the beginning." And the beginning went back a ways. It was like hanging out with someone who didn't know who to edit their own stories. Interesting detail about the 1857 war in India though which led me to a Google Books result of a version with an appendix by Shafquat Towheed about Doyle's treatment of the uprising (surprisingly accurate given he didn't witness it first-hand.)

Some of the dialogue though feels very contemporary. I'd heard of course about Holmes's predilection for cocaine but it's funny that he shoots up to keep his mind busy and interesting that Doyle book ends the story with him fixing. And then there's the Watson and Mary Morstan business. They hang out for a few hours total and decide to get married. I had never even heard that Watson was married so I googled it and Doyle evidently thought it was a bad idea too and she vanishes without explanation later on. Let the bromance continue unfettered.

First:

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantelpiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case.

Last:

"The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. "You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?"

"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up for it.