The Sign of the Four

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of the Four: Foil 1 key example

Chapter 1 — The Science of Deduction
Explanation and Analysis—Romancing the Square:

In Chapter 1, the reader meets the detective Sherlock Holmes and the unconventional—and highly principled—methods that he employs in his detective work. Holmes explains his philosophy of "detection" through simile and allusion:

'Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.'