The film without the cuts. And the book itself.
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth.
Sherlock Holmes
A tall, spare detective who turns mud, paper, hats, and silence into facts.
Baker Street lodgings
The lit sitting-room where a frightened stranger's odd detail becomes Holmes's next case.
Why does the world's coldest reasoner reserve one unforgettable exception among all women?
Read →The Woman to Holmes
To Sherlock Holmes she is always _the_ woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.
Watson wants us to notice that Holmes's regard for Irene Adler is not love, and he protects Holmes's reputation even while admitting she got under his skin. This is the opening of "A Scandal in Bohemia," Watson looking back at the woman who outwitted Holmes. He insists the softer feelings are useless to a mind like his friend's, comparing emotion to dirt in a machine or a flaw in a lens. But he cannot finish without conceding that one woman does stand apart, which is the whole story he is about to tell.
A Scandal in Bohemia
A king begs Holmes to recover a compromising photograph — and the only person clever enough to hide it is the one woman who will beat him at his own game.
Holmes's magnifying lens
A small glass that turns scratches, ash, and mud into hard fact.
Dr. John Watson
A doctor-narrator whose loyalty makes Holmes's brilliance visible and human.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes World, as it plays on your phone
- Meet the people. 52 characters, each with a portrait, who they are and what they want.
- Walk the places. 40 places, each pictured, and what happens there.
- Follow the plot. The turns of the story, in order, so you always know where you are.
- Taste the original. 49 key passages in Arthur Conan Doyle’s own words, each with a short reading of what it is doing.
- The complete book. Every word, in a reader made for your phone. From any passage, one tap opens the book at that very page.
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