15 Faces of Sherlock Holmes' Irene Adler (And Why She Did Nothing Wrong)

Irene Adler is one of Sherlock Holmes most enduring (and only) female, beloved characters. There’s basically the nanny/landlord/maid and her. Or in some adaptations Watson. Always good to get a girl Watson in there. 

Despite being in exactly one story and referenced in what could scarcely even be called several others, Irene Adler has endured – The Woman, the one woman to beat Sherlock Holmes, basically the only woman the borderline chauvinist Holmes respected in the entire series (save for his nanny/maid/landlady, and maybe the Queen). She’s been beloved and loved back since the very first adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. 

An opera singer who is engaged to marry a nice man is at the center of a potential scandal, as she has photographic evidence of a dalliance a royal took with her years back. He gets Holmes to investigate, and after a brief fake-out and a false fire, he finds where she stores the pictures — but before he can do more, she figures out his game and flees, even taking the photos, almost as if the humiliation is the point, tricking him in his favorite game – disguises. This makes Sherlock Holmes respect this one woman of all women, and gained her fame and acclaim forever more. 

Here’s how Irene Adler has never done anything wrong, any version of her… and boy howdy are there a lot of them.