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FictionClassic · out of copyright

A Scandal in Bohemia

Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891

A king hires Sherlock Holmes to recover a photograph from the one person who turns out to be cleverer than both of them.

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Free from Project Gutenberg. Print editions are sold by many publishers.

Story map

4 chapters, one picture each

  1. Chapter 1

    A Royal Visitor

    A masked visitor arrives at Baker Street and is soon unmasked as the King of Bohemia. Before his royal wedding he needs a compromising photograph back from the singer Irene Adler.

  2. Chapter 2

    The Groom in Disguise

    Holmes watches her house dressed as an out-of-work groom and follows a hurried cab. He ends up as the surprise witness at her wedding.

  3. Chapter 3

    Smoke and a Sliding Panel

    Disguised as a clergyman, Holmes is carried into her sitting room after a staged street fight. A smoke rocket and a cry of fire make her reveal where the photograph is hidden.

  4. Chapter 4

    The Woman

    By morning she has left London with her husband and the photograph, leaving a letter that shows she saw through it all. Holmes asks for only one reward: her portrait.

Who will love it

Mystery readers who enjoy a clever opponent more than a clever detective.

Public domain: the author died in 1930, so copyright has expired in India; published in 1891, so also public domain in the US. Source: Project Gutenberg. Summaries are Dog Ear's own and the pictures are original; no text from the book is shown.