How many works does the canon of Sherlock Holmes consist of?

Traditionally, the canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the 56 short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this context, the term "canon" is an attempt to distinguish between Doyle's original works and subsequent works by other authors using the same characters.

The traditional canon—usually capitalized by aficionados of the Sherlockian game as "the Canon"—consists of four novels and 56 short stories. The description of these 60 adventures as the Sherlock Holmes canon and the game of applying the methods of "Higher Criticism" to it was started by Ronald Knox as a playful use of the traditional definition of Canon as an authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture.