The Sign of Four
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1890 · Paper 1 Section B
Context
Published in 1890, the novella reflects the height of the British Empire and Victorian anxieties about colonial wealth, racial otherness, and the darker consequences of imperialism. Conan Doyle uses the detective genre to explore how treasures plundered from India breed greed, violence, and moral corruption at home, while Holmes's cocaine habit hints at the ennui beneath Victorian respectability.