The Sign of Four (CN-SG022) The Colemans Notes Study Guide
Mystery. Treasure. Betrayal. Justice.
A comprehensive, exam-focused guide to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four, created primarily for GCSE and A Level students.
Follow Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson through the complete mystery, from Mary Morstan’s unexplained pearls and the disappearance of her father to the Agra treasure, the murder at Pondicherry Lodge and the dramatic pursuit of Jonathan Small.
With full-page analysis of all 12 chapters, this guide explores both the detective story and the wider ideas behind it — including deduction, justice, greed, revenge, friendship, Victorian society and Britain’s imperial relationship with India.
INCLUDED
✓ Complete plot summary
✓ Full-page analysis of all 12 chapters
✓ Sherlock Holmes
✓ Dr John Watson
✓ Mary Morstan
✓ Jonathan Small
✓ The Sholto family
✓ Major Sholto and Captain Morstan
✓ Character relationships
✓ Holmes’s detective methods
✓ Watson as narrator
✓ Treasure, wealth and greed
✓ Justice, crime and revenge
✓ Loyalty, friendship and love
✓ Evidence and deduction
✓ Victorian London
✓ The Agra treasure
✓ India and imperial context
✓ Detective and adventure-fiction conventions
✓ Gothic atmosphere and suspense
✓ Language, form and narrative structure
✓ Alternative interpretations
✓ Key quotations explained
✓ Top 10 revision quotations
✓ Key scenes and turning points
✓ GCSE and A Level examination guidance
✓ Five detailed essay plans
✓ Five sample examination answers
✓ Practice examination questions
✓ 25 Exam & Revision Questions
✓ Quick Revision Checklist
✓ Quick Recall
✓ Advanced GCSE / A Level Exam Toolkit
The guide is designed to help students move from knowing the mystery to understanding how Conan Doyle constructs it, giving particular attention to narrative perspective, detective methods, setting, suspense and the novel’s moral and imperial questions.
CLASSIC LITERATURE COLLECTION 2 — £39.95
Also available in the six-guide Coleman’s Notes® Classic Literature Collection 2:
The War of the Worlds • Pride and Prejudice • The Sign of Four • Blood Brothers • A Taste of Honey • Never Let Me Go
Individual The Sign of Four Guide — £6.95
UNDERSTAND • ANALYSE • REVISE • SUCCEED
