| "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Arthur Conan Doyle | |
 Holmes examining the drawing, 1903 illustration by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine | |
| Original title | The Dancing Men |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | December 1903 |
| Series | The Return of Sherlock Holmes |
"The Adventure of the Dancing Men" is a Sherlock Holmes story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as one of 13 stories in the cycle published as The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1905. It was first published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in December 1903, and in Collier's in the United States on 5 December 1903.
Conan Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" third in his list of his twelve favourite Holmes stories.[1] This is one of only two Sherlock Holmes short stories where Holmes' client dies after seeking his help.[2] Holmes's solution to the riddle of the dancing men rests on reasoning that closely resembles that of Legrand in Poe's "The Gold Bug."
The original title was "The Dancing Men," when it was published as a short story in The Strand Magazine in December 1903.[3]
- ^ Temple, Emily (22 May 2018). "The 12 Best Sherlock Holmes Stories, According to Arthur Conan Doyle". Literary Hub. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
- ^ The other is "The Five Orange Pips", part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- ^ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1998). David Stuart Davies (ed.). The Best of Sherlock Holmes. Wordsworth Classics. p. 250.