Notes

Dramatisations and dramatic readings of "A Scandal in Bohemia" often

use the British English pronunciation of "Irene" with a long final "e"
(eye-REE-nee). Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes (where she was played by Gayle Hunnicutt) used the French
(and also German and Dutch) pronunciation (ee-RAY-nə). Her surname is
the German word for "eagle".

"Adventuress" in the 19th century (and earlier) was a designation barely

above "courtesan" or "lightskirt" in terms of social acceptability. It
suggested strongly that she was out, by any means necessary, to
ensnare a rich husband, or at least protector.

Adaptations

In his fictional biographies of Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe, William

S. Baring-Gould puts forth an argument that Adler and Holmes
reconnected after the latter's supposed death at Reichenbach Falls.
They performed on stage together incognito, and became lovers.
According to Baring-Gould, Holmes and Adler's union produced one
son, Nero Wolfe, who would follow in his father's footsteps as a
detective.

Perhaps the most important post-Conan Doyle contribution to the

Holmes/Adler canon is a series of mystery novels written by Carole
Nelson Douglas featuring Irene Adler as the protagonist and sleuth,
chronicling her life after her famous encounter with Sherlock Holmes
and which feature Holmes as a supporting character. The series
includes Godfrey Norton as Irene's supportive barrister husband;
Penelope "Nell" Huxleigh, a vicar's daughter and former governess who
is Irene's best friend and biographer; and Nell's love interest Quentin
Stanhope as supporting characters as well. Historical characters such
as Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Alva Vanderbilt and Consuelo Vanderbilt,
and journalist Nellie Bly, among others, also make appearances. In the
books, Douglas strongly implies that Irene's birth mother was Lola
Montez and her father possibly Ludwig I of Bavaria. Douglas provides
Irene with a back story as a pint-size child vaudeville performer who was
trained as an opera singer before going to work as a Pinkerton detective.

In the 1976 film Sherlock Holmes in New York, Adler helps Holmes and
Watson to solve a bank robbery organized by Moriarty. She has a child
whose father is undisclosed, but who has Holmes-like intellectual
powers.

Irene Adler later appeared in the 1992 TV movie Sherlock Holmes and
the Leading Lady, where she was played by Morgan Fairchild opposite
Christopher Lee as Holmes.

She is portrayed by Rachel McAdams in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes

in which it is assumed - contrary to Conan Doyle's statement in the
original story - that she and Sherlock Holmes did become lovers. She is
also seen in a brief cameo at the beginning of Sherlock Holmes: A Game
of Shadows where James Moriarty dismisses her from her employment
and seemingly murders her with tea infested with tuberculosis. Her
"death" was never actually shown on screen. Some believe that she
actually isn't dead and that it was just made to look like death.

Irene Adler also appears in the television series Sherlock, played by Lara
Pulver. She appears in two episodes, as a major character in "A Scandal
in Belgravia", and in Sherlock's Mind Palace sequence during John's
wedding in "The Sign of Three". In this series, she is portrayed as a
dominatrix who flirts with Sherlock in order to get information from him
for Moriarty. She leads him to believe that it had all been for show and
she had no feelings for him, but her phone was unlocked by the code 'I
AM SHERLOCKED'. At the end of the episode John is told that she has
been beheaded but chooses to tell Sherlock that she is in witness
protection in the United States. We actually find out that Sherlock had
saved her and staged her death. In this series, she is only referred to by
Sherlock as "The Woman".
In the television series Elementary, she is played by Natalie Dormer and
is discovered at the end of season one to be Jamie Moriarty, Sherlock's
nemesis.