The Sherlock Mystery: The Movies And Shows VS The Original Stories

The Character of Irene Adler, Then and Now

One striking difference from Conan Arthur’s books to the show, Sherlock, is in the character of Irene Adler. In Doyle’s stories, Irene Adler had no criminal connections (she’s linked to Moriarty in the show) and Sherlock had no obvious romantic interest in her.

In Doyle’s work, she appears in the shortest of Sherlock Holmes short stories, and is more of a prop than a fully fleshed out character as she is becoming in the show. In the show she is shown to be Sherlock’s female equivalent, with unabashed intellectual prowess and the addition of an awareness of her charms, which Sherlock may have but remains unaware or uninterested in.