Abbreviations for the Sherlock Holmes stories

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
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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