A Scandal in Bohemia by Valeria Rubiconi https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc By Arthur Conan Doyle en-us 2017-10-02 17:56:15 UTC 2026-01-13 09:59:30 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padletuploads.blob.core.windows.net/prod/91810442/dd51ae808a8fb2e5db9690001ca0fae8/Group.svg valeriarub https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193138713 As “A Scandal in Bohemia” begins, it is March, 1888. The recently married Dr. John Watson happens by his old bachelor quarters at 221B Baker Street and finds Sherlock Holmes pacing the floor in the brilliantly lit rooms. Since Watson has married and settled into domestic tranquillity, Holmes, for whom the life of the emotions would be grit in his machinery, has been alternating between cocaine-induced dreams and his fiercely energetic solutions of mysteries abandoned by the official police. On this evening, Holmes takes an unusual assignment, unlike those of the two previously published cases, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. Indeed, Watson indicates that this is the first case in which Holmes fails, and his defeat comes at the hands of a woman, Irene Adler, an American singer, actress, and adventurer “of dubious and questionable memory,” now deceased.


It may be because this is one of the earlier Holmes tales that it deviates so interestingly from the pattern of solution that later came to dominate these stories. This story strikingly resembles its great predecessor, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter,” in which Auguste Dupin determines the hiding place of a woman who is apparently of the French royal family and then recovers a letter being used to blackmail her. Like Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Holmes surprises his friend early in the story with an accurate account of Watson’s recent activities based on details about the condition of his shoes.


Holmes’s task is to locate and recover a photograph...

]]> 2017-10-02 17:58:17 UTC https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193138713 valeriarub https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193141646 Instead of creating a fictional state for the king of the tale, Conan Doyle chose to insert a fictional dynasty into a true nation: the Kingdom of Bohemia was at that time under the control of the Habsburgs, and the sovereigns of Austria carried the title of King of Bohemia. Nevertheless, there was never a Scandinavian kingdom, although the surname von Saxe-Meiningen was the one of Saxony-Meiningen's then reigning family.]]> 2017-10-02 18:03:08 UTC https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193141646 valeriarub https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193144366
Of her is said to be born in New Jersey in 1858. Although not explicitly mentioned, her surname ("German Adler" means "eagle") might suggest that she has German origins; however, there are other possible interpretations as well. He had tried a career in the world of opera singing as a contralto and, in demonstrating his skills, he knew he had performed at the Milan Scale and as a primate at the Warsaw Opera Theater. At about 30 years old, Adler had retired from scenes and moved to London.

Dr. Watson refers to her as "the late Irene Adler" (in Italian, "was Irene Adler") at the time of the publication of the story. The causes of his death are unknown. However, it has been hypothesized that the reason for his premature withdrawal from the scenes was a health problem he had concealed.]]> 2017-10-02 18:07:21 UTC https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193144366 valeriarub https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193148755 What I love about this story is that it makes you wonder about Sherlock's feelings for Irene Adler. Indeed, he was a misogynous, but I'm sure there was an exception with "the woman". I guess he saw so much of him in her. She was intelligent, clever, and beautiful. She showed him that a woman can be as equally or even smarter than a man. Plus, she was the first person to defeat him, the greatest detective of all time! He probably felt humiliated, but at the same time, fascinated... Anyways, my point is that he might have acted like a machine, but he was not one. He was human. He had feelings because we all have; therefore, I am more inclined to believe that love or not love he did felt something special for her.]]> 2017-10-02 18:15:17 UTC https://padlet.com/valeriarub/ymaq6ns5n8lc/wish/193148755