Trollheart

Title: “A Scandal in Bohemia”
Year first published: 1891
Type: Short story
Chronology: First short story, third adventure overall
Location(s): Baker Street; Briony Lodge, Serpentine Ave, St. John’s Wood; Gross & Hankey’s, Regent Street; Church of St. Monica, Edgware Road
Date: March 20 1888
The crime: Blackmail
The mystery: Where the photograph has been hidden
The time (if given): 7:45 PM



The Players
The victim(s): His Majesty Wilhelm Gottreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, heir to the throne of Bohemia (let’s just call him the King of Bohemia, huh?)
The accused or suspected: Irene Adler, a former lover
The arrested: None; not a criminal case
The investigating officer(s): None; too delicate an issue for the police to be involved
The advocate(s): None; the correct suspect is known and does not disguise the fact
The real culprit(s): Irene Adler
Others: Godfrey Norton, Irene Adler’s fiance and then husband

The clues: None; Holmes has to trick Irene Adler into revealing the location of the photograph
The red herring(s): None
Disguise(s) affected by Holmes: Groom, Priest
The breakthrough: When Holmes causes a false fire alarm to be raised
How the case is solved: Holmes finds out where the photograph is by the above means, but before he can retrieve it Irene Adler and her new husband depart for foreign shores.
The result: Inconclusive; Adler susses Holmes out and leaves the next day, leaving the king a letter promising not to reveal the photograph, as she has fallen in love and no longer wants her revenge.

Famous Firsts

First time Holmes’ case involves a royal or aristocratic client

Deductions made by Holmes which have nothing to do with the case:

Observation: That Watson has gone back into practice.
That he has been wet recently and that he has a clumsy, careless maid.


Before the case

Living apart from him now, Watson drops in on Holmes and finds him awaiting the arrival of the king.

Synopsis:

No longer living with Holmes since his marriage, which took place, or was alluded to, at the end of the second novel, The Sign of the Four, Watson calls in on him and finds him awaiting a visitor. This turns out to be the King of Bohemia himself (though disguised, a ruse Holmes quickly sees through) who wants him to help him recover a photograph which a certain Irene Adler has. The king used to walk out with Irene, and now he is getting married, but Irene is upset and is threatening to release the photograph, which is of the two of them together, and would ruin his upcoming marriage.

Holmes begins by disguising himself as a groom (no, not that kind: the sort that looks after horses) and checking out all the gossip he can. He finds out that Irene Adler has a man, a guy called Godfrey Norton, and in the course of his investigations he gets swept up into their marriage ceremony, standing as best man, to his great surprise and considerable amusement. His humour changes though when it becomes clear the now-married couple are about to leave the country, and he has to put his own plan into action without delay. He sets it up so that there is a paid crowd outside Irene’s house, and asks Watson to throw in a smoke rocket at his signal. He is disguised again, this time as a priest, and when Irene gets out of her carriage he feigns being assaulted. She then has him brought into the house. Watson, at Holmes’ signal, throws in the rocket and raises the cry of “fire!” Irene rushes to where the photograph is being kept, and Holmes, having noted its location, makes himself scarce.

As they return to Baker Street though, someone greets them, and it is only later Holmes realises that for once he has been outsmarted; the greeter is Irene, and she has seen through his plan. However all is well; married now and with no need or wish to harm the king, she leaves him a letter promising that he is safe; the photograph will never be used. The king leaves happily, and Holmes reflects on having met all but his match.

After the case

Not much. Realising he has been beaten, and by a woman, no less, Holmes asks the king for the photograph of Irene Adler, which he keeps on his desk to remind him of her.

Comments:

For the first short story about Holmes this is an interesting one, though on face value not so much. It’s a poor mystery - not a mystery at all, rather a sort of puzzle: how to find the photograph and get it out of Irene’s hands? But as an illustration of how fallible Holmes may be at times, it works well. Given that Doyle has spent the last two novels building his character up to almost mythological, godlike proportions, it’s telling that he has him taken down a peg here. And by a woman. Although Holmes thinks he has outsmarted Irene, he has not: he has overplayed his hand and she has seen him. It’s mere lucky chance that she gets married, otherwise the likelihood is that, seeing the king had engaged Holmes, she might be angry and make good on her threat.

So in a way here again, fortune plays a very prominent part in Holmes’ case. As he was lucky to break the case in The Sign of the Four, here his mission could have failed entirely but for the circumstances changing. And really, when you think about it, it’s sort of a poor plot device, isn’t it? I mean, if Irene is in love, why is she threatening the king? Surely this is not a whirlwind romance (though it does seem in the nineteenth century that people got married almost after saying hello for the first time!) so if she’s had this going for a while, why the vitriol against the king? In fact, Holmes remarks that the photograph she possesses could become a double-edged sword, for if her new husband were to see it, he might break off the engagement.

I therefore find it a bit of a flailing in the dark in terms of solving the dilemma. I won’t presume to say how I would have written it, but I can think of better ways to have ended the story. It’s one of few characters, too, unlike many of the later ones; he was probably tired of dealing with a cast of people in his novels (though in fairness they were quite thin on the ground too), and I would have thought a poor choice to kick off the series. I mean, when it gets right down to it, what is it? A lost/stolen property case really. No murder, no shify individuals, and nobody gets in a sticky situation over a five pound note.

I do admit I find Watson’s readiness to break the law, when Holmes asks him, a little hard to understand. The doctor is known as a law-abiding man, and up to this has not been involved in anything that could be said to be in any way illegal. Of course he trusts his friend, but he doesn’t even raise an objection, or ask what it is he has to do. When Holmes says “You don't mind breaking the law?” He replies “Not in the least.” That really doesn’t seem like him, and I think it’s put over a little too glibly to ring true. And then Holmes asks if he would risk being arrested? Well, I suppose in for a penny, and if you’ve attested to your willingness to walk on the wrong side of the law, you must expect that it might end in a jail cell. But Watson is a married man now, with his own responsibilities and his own practice, therefore his reputation - to say nothing of that of his wife - would be at stake if it goes wrong, so I think he should at least have hesitated a little.

The choice to bring in Irene Adler, who could have been as powerful an adversary - or helpful an ally - for Holmes as Moriarty (of which I’ll speak later) and then to cut her right out of the stories is to me an odd one. Why introduce such a powerful female figure and then write her out in the same story? Was Doyle afraid his readers would not take to the idea of a woman being smarter than his sleuth? Did he worry that Holmes’ effectiveness might suffer if he had to keep matching wits with “the woman”, or was he concerned that the emotionless being he had created might suddenly turn soft?

All things taken into account, I have to say I find this a poor story and though Doyle is reputed to have claimed it as one of his favourites, it’s not one of mine. It has its moments, but the ending is a very damp squib and I felt like I was left with a feeling of “so what?”

Character Study

King of Bohemia: Meh. You don’t learn much about him, other than that he sowed his wild oats when young (what else is new?) and is now worried his chickens are going to come home to roost. He’s a plot device really, not a character, and there’s little to say about him.

Irene Adler: Despite the admiration Holmes has for her, I don’t really see it. She has hidden the photograph away cleverly, yes, but was it really possible no experienced burglar would have thought of looking where it ends up being? And what special powers does she exhibit, other than being able to see through Holmes’ disguise and turn the tables on him? We learn she’s a fiery, tempestuous woman who has moved in royal circles and has a nasty side that allows her to contemplate the ruin of someone she once loved. Not a very endearing trait. If she had been allowed stick around, come back later in other stories maybe she might have been made more of, but here she’s woefully underused I feel.


The story in 100 words or less.
(The Tealdeer version)

The King of Bohemia contracts Holmes to get back an embarrassing photograph held by Irene Adler, who he once loved, a photograph that could threaten his upcoming marriage. Holmes uses trickery to cause the woman to reveal the location of the photograph. She gets married and no longer cares, and leaves the country. The king is safe and his marriage can proceed.

The Holmes Hit List
0
Running total: 3

The Holmes Body Count

Direct: 0
Indirect: 0
Incidental: 0
Historical: 0
Total: 0
Running total: 11

Satisfied Customer(s)?

Very much so. The king does not get his photograph back, but believes Irene Adler when she says she no longer wishes him any harm. If there’s a disappointed person here, it’s Holmes, when he realises he has been duped. But his client is happy so this is a YES.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018