This novel was first published in lippincott magazine in February 1890. 1889 On August 30th, at the dinner of London Rum Shop, Joseph M. stoddart, editor-in-chief of the magazine, wanted to seek some literary lovers in Britain and publish an English version of lippincott. I hope Doyle can continue to write a novel about Sherlock Holmes because I have read Conan Doyle's research on blood characters before. Oscar Wilde was invited at that time, and he finally got the publication of his only novel, Dorian gray, in July of the following year. Later, Doyle praised this as a "golden night" in his autobiography Memories and Adventures published in 1924.
This novel was named "Signs of Four People" in the February edition of lippincott Monthly (1890), and met readers in London, England and Philadelphia, USA. At that time, the British edition of the magazine sold for a shilling, or 25 cents. The surviving copies also sold for thousands of dollars.
In the next few months, the novel was reprinted in various parts of Britain and renamed as "sign of four" (four-word title). /kloc-The novel in June of 0/0 was published in the form of a book by Spencer blackett. No matter in Britain or America, the second "the" in the first edition has been omitted.
Although the four-character title is the most popular novel, the two versions have been in the same market for many years. It should be pointed out that when talking about the stories of the four characteristics, most of them use the novel text with five-word titles, that is, "four characteristics".
If the study of blood characters is Conan Doyle's first cry, then The Signs of Four can be said to be the beginning of its success. 189 1 year, he published a series of short stories in The Strand magazine, thus making the image of Sherlock Holmes a household name.