Mystery · Detective
The Sign of the Four
A missing father, a box of pearls and a chase down the Thames after stolen treasure.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
A pearl a year
A young governess, Mary Morstan, comes to Baker Street with a strange story. Her father, an army officer, disappeared ten years ago. Six years ago a newspaper advertisement asked for her address, and since then a large pearl has arrived by post every year, with no word of who sent it. Now a letter asks her to meet a stranger that evening, and says she may bring two friends. Holmes and Watson go with her, into a story of a lost treasure from India, a locked room, a man with a wooden leg and a night chase by steam launch down the Thames. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it for an American magazine, Lippincott’s, after a London dinner in 1889 at which Oscar Wilde also agreed to write The Picture of Dorian Gray; it appeared in 1890.
Why it works for learners
The book is short, fast and full of movement: cabs through foggy streets, a strange suburban house, a dog following a scent across London, a race on the river at night. Every scene is easy to picture. Watson falls in love, and his feelings, spelled out plainly, make this warmer than most Holmes stories. The vocabulary covers the city, the river, treasure, chases and the night. The last chapter is a long story told by a criminal, set partly in British India and shaped by the attitudes of 1890.
Which level to start at
B1 suits most learners; the plot is direct and the chase is thrilling at any level. A2 readers who know the characters will manage. From B2 you’ll appreciate the opening chapter, a sharp portrait of Holmes bored and restless between cases.
Read next
- A Study in Scarlet, where Holmes and Watson meet
- The Moonstone, another treasure from India and a crime in an English house
- Treasure Island, another man with one leg, another hunt for treasure