Abbreviations for the Sherlock Holmes stories

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

In order to facilitate the study of Sherlock Holmes, the title of the 62 stories have been reduced to 4 letters. Jay Finley Christ did it for 60 stories in 1947. We have added 2 for The Field Bazaar and How Watson Learned the Trick.

Abbreviations are built on a simple rule: take the 4 first letters of the title, ignoring "The ... of".

For example:

  • The Adventure of the Gloria Scott is GLOR
  • The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax is LADY
  • The Problem of Thor Bridge is THOR

There is some exceptions to this rule:

  • The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton is CHAS because the firstname Charles is often reduced to Chas. in english.
  • The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb is ENGR because "engr" is the usual abbreviation for "engineer" in USA.
  • The Adventure of the Three Gables is 3GAB
  • The Adventure of the Three Garridebs is 3GAR
  • The Adventure of the Three Students is 3STU


Abbreviations




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