Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia in English with translation

Name: Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

A Scandal in Bohemia is one of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Hired by the King of Bohemia to retrieve a compromising photograph, Holmes meets his match in the brilliant opera singer Irene Adler. The story opens with Watson's portrait of Holmes as a reasoning machine with no room for emotion. In the original that portrait is built from precise formal words worth reading as Doyle wrote them.

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Language: English
First published: 1891
Levels: A2 · B1 · B2
Original: C1
Pages: 53

Languages you can read it in: 22

The opening, phrase by phraseExcerpt adapted to B1

To Sherlock Holmesshe is always the woman.¹

I have seldom heard himmention herby any other name.²

In his eyesshe is more important³than all other women.

It was notthat he felt any emotionlike love⁴for Irene Adler.

All emotions,and that one especially,were hateful⁵to his cold, exact,but perfectly balanced mind.

I think⁶he was the most perfect machinefor reasoning and observingthat the world has seen,but as a loverhe would have beenin the wrong position.

He never spokeof the softer feelings,⁷except with a joke⁸or a look of contempt.

They were excellent thingsfor an observer to study—they were goodfor discovering the secrets⁹of men’s motives and actions.

However,for a trained thinkerto allow such feelingsinto his own delicateand careful personalitywould be like adding somethingthat confuses him;it might makeall his mental results doubtful.

A piece of sand¹⁰in a sensitive instrument,or a crackin one of his own powerful lenses,would not be more disturbingthan a strong emotionin a person like him.

And yetthere was only one woman to him,and that womanwas the late Irene Adler,¹¹who had a doubtfuland suspicious reputation.

Phrase notes

¹she is always the woman.
Literallyshe is the only woman who counts
WhyThe stress falls on the: Irene Adler is not a woman but the woman — a single article carries the meaning.
²by any other name.
Literallyby a different name
WhyDoyle wrote "mention her under any other name" — under, where today by is more usual.
³she is more important
Literallyshe matters more
WhyThe original is "she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex" — eclipse, to outshine; her sex, women in general.
⁴like love
Literallysimilar to love
WhyDoyle wrote "any emotion akin to love" — akin to, related to, a phrase still current in formal English.
⁵were hateful
Literallywere repugnant
WhyThe original word is abhorrent: emotions "were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind".
⁶I think
LiterallyI suppose
WhyWatson actually says "He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine" — I take it, I assume.
⁷of the softer feelings,
Literallyof tender emotions
WhyDoyle's phrase is "the softer passions": passions in the older sense of feelings in general.
⁸except with a joke
Literallyexcept to mock them
WhyThe original reads "save with a gibe and a sneer": save means except, and a gibe is a mocking remark.
⁹for discovering the secrets
Literallyfor revealing the hidden reasons
WhyDoyle wrote "drawing the veil from men's motives and actions" — to draw the veil from something is to uncover it.
¹⁰A piece of sand
Literallya bit of grit
WhyThe original uses one word: "Grit in a sensitive instrument".
¹¹was the late Irene Adler,
Literallywas Irene Adler, now dead
WhyThe late before a name means deceased; Doyle adds "of dubious and questionable memory".

In the reader, every phrase has a breakdown: what it means and why.

About the text and the author

The story was published in The Strand Magazine in 1891 and collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (George Newnes, 1892). It opens with Watson's reflection in long sentences full of Latinate words — eclipses, predominates, abhorrent — and older turns such as save for except and I take it for I suppose. The excerpt on this page is the first page retold at level B1.

The description and phrase notes were written by AI and checked by a second model, November 13, 2026.

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Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia in English with translation

About the text and the author

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