The Wolfe Pack is a literary society devoted to Rex Stout 's character Nero Wolfe .
37-536: As publicity for William S. Baring-Gould 's book Nero Wolfe of West 35th Street , Viking Press ran a "Mammoth New Nero Wolfe Contest" in The New York Times Book Review . Four years later, John McAleer began working on what would become Rex Stout: A Biography . McAleer obtained the contest mailing list and began correspondence with one of the fans, Ellen Krieger. Krieger desired to form a literary society devoted to Wolfe and McAleer provided
74-503: A riding crop or when Sherlock fails to deduce anything from her naked body. In an interview to the Guardian , Steven Moffat , co-creator of the series, states that, "in the original, Irene Adler's victory over Sherlock Holmes was to move house and run away with her husband. That's not a feminist victory." However, to most critics, the misogyny behind the character was apparent in the final scenes. Adler's power becomes temporary as she
111-634: A "post-feminist metamorphosis" by providing her autonomy over her body where she can maneuver her sexuality to exert control over the male-centered narrative. Through a liberal feminist lens, Adler's sexualized role names and confronts the power of men to the male audience in order to defy the patriarchal structure. However, this deviation from the source material has become heavily criticized as problematic in nature. By "sex-ing" up her character, postmodern adaptations "failed to re-appropriate [Adler] from its Victorian original by falling back on dominant masculine discourses." Critics attribute this deviation to
148-475: A Holmes–Adler connection." Carole Nelson Douglas wrote a series of eight novels and six short-stories focusing on Adler, beginning with Good Night, Mr. Holmes which details the events of "A Scandal in Bohemia" from her point of view, and continuing her other adventures in numerous locations around the world. The Young Adult series Sherlock, Lupin and Me is about the adventures a young Irene Adler has with
185-519: A dancer who became the lover of Ludwig I of Bavaria and influenced national politics. Montez is suggested as a model for Adler by several writers. Another possibility is the actor Lillie Langtry , the lover of Edward, the Prince of Wales . Writing in 1957, Julian Wolff, a member of the literary society The Baker Street Irregulars , comments that it was well known that Langtry was born in Jersey (she
222-453: A kneeling powerless bundle of indigo-blue wraps that set off her tear-sodden face. The luminous skin of her ‘battledress’, of the naked female body-as-weapon, is supplanted by a crestfallen figure in a hijab. In a stereotypically Victorian fashion that does not feature in Doyle's text, Adler's use of her own body as a means of power turns her into a fallen woman who has to be punished, banished to
259-594: A son William (d. 1966) and a daughter Judy. He was creative director of Time magazine 's circulation and corporate education departments from 1937 until his death. In 1955, Baring-Gould privately published The Chronological Holmes , an attempt to lay out, in chronological order, all the events alluded to in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Three years later, Baring-Gould wrote The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New, Arranged and Explained with his wife, Lucile "Ceil" Baring-Gould. The book provides
296-467: A wealth of information about nursery rhymes and includes often-banned bawdy rhymes. In 1967, Baring-Gould published The Annotated Sherlock Holmes , an annotated edition of the Sherlock Holmes canon. Baring-Gould also wrote The Lure of the Limerick , a study of the history and allure of limericks, published in 1967; it included a collection of limericks, arranged alphabetically, and a bibliography. In 1969
333-495: A young Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin . Despite Adler's brief appearance in the Sherlock Holmes canon, she has become the sole woman character the audience associates with Holmes in contemporary adaptations. With the character's popularity, comes a significant change in canon where Adler is framed as a romantic liaison of Holmes. Heavier emphasis is placed on her "body" and physical representation by hinging on tropes of sexuality. Modern reinventions of Adler almost always attempt
370-406: Is an agent of Professor Moriarty and obeys his instructions without any independent arc of her own, functioning as a pawn and an intellectual inferior compared to her male counterparts. In the scene where she dresses in front of Holmes, kisses him passionately and drugs him before leaving him handcuffed to the bed is observed by Rhonda L H Taylor that, "[h]er overt sexuality is a weapon used with
407-433: Is later revealed to still be under the mercy of the men around her, who still have the real authority and control. Even in a dominatrix framing where the woman occupies a dominant role, they are still following the orders of their male counterpart and focusing on the satisfaction of a male consumer. Some critics defended Adler's portrayal in her initial scenes, pointing to moments when she physically overpowers Sherlock with
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#1732791819187444-421: Is lost and control over her is reinstated to Sherlock. As Katzir and Farghaly writes, “Irene fears bodily injury. Her phone, the sensitive information stored within it, both protects and endangers Irene's body...its loss exposing her to physical harm.” In between Sherlock, Moriarty or Mycroft Holmes, all three men have more power and resources to force Adler to be compliant in order to survive. Her overall role in
481-408: Is revealed to be a confederate to Jim Moriarty 's schemes. As she remarks in the episode's final moments, “I had a bit of help. I had all this stuff, and never knew what to do with it. Thank God for [Jim Moriarty].” Later, Sherlock claims victory over her by deducing her emotions with his cold rationality, once again encasing the autonomy of the woman within masculine boundaries. Moriarty's protection
518-773: The Nero Award and the Black Orchid Novella Award are presented. The group publishes a journal, The Gazette: the Journal of the Wolfe Pack , which is distributed to members. Marvin Kaye compiled selected articles and fiction from The Gazette into two books, The Nero Wolfe Files and The Archie Goodwin Files. William S. Baring-Gould William Stuart Baring-Gould (1913 – 10 August 1967)
555-420: The "sensationist urge" to make modern Victorian adaptations more "sexy and sexual" by "introducing nudity and sexually risqué narrative elements." Guy Ritchie 's Irene Adler is straightforwardly Holmes' love interest. In both films, she claims authority by weaponizing her sex appeal. Her power is mostly equated with her clothing or the absence of it. As opposed to the autonomous agency of Doyle's version, Adler
592-499: The King of Bohemia says, "Would she not have made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity she was not on my level?" Holmes dryly replies that Adler is indeed on a much different level from the King. The beginning of "A Scandal in Bohemia" describes the high regard in which Holmes held Irene Adler: To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates
629-446: The King to fear she may attempt to blackmail him with a photograph of the two. The events of the story unfolds when the King seeks out Holmes' skills to retrieve the photograph from Adler after multiple attempts has proved fruitless. Despite his cunning plans, Holmes spectacularly fails to seize the compromising photograph, having been outwitted by Adler. His perspective on the investigation changes when Holmes realizes that he has been on
666-401: The cleverness of women," requests a photograph of Adler in lieu of payment from the King and leaves, "without observing the hand which the King had stretched out to him." He keeps her photograph locked up as a reminder of his respect for her intellectual prowess. Adler's career as a theatrical performer who becomes the lover of a powerful aristocrat had several precedents. One is Lola Montez ,
703-403: The detective only exhibits a platonic admiration for her wit and cunning. Despite this, some derivative works reinterpret Adler as a romantic interest for Holmes or as a former love who later regularly engages in crime. Retrospectively, the original story, written in 1891, is viewed as a more progressive and feminist interpretation of Adler. From the television shows Sherlock and Elementary to
740-537: The dinner; Eleanor Sullivan, then-editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine ; and Dilys Winn, founder of Murder Ink, the West Side mystery bookstore that sponsored the dinner. At the dinner, guests received a questionnaire to determine interest in an ongoing Wolfe Pack society. Six months later the society was born. Over the course of the numerous novels and short stories, Rex Stout gave numerous addresses for Wolfe's brownstone . In 1996, The Wolfe Pack investigated
777-521: The embarrassing photograph of her with the King. Holmes had then asked for and received this photo from the King, as payment for his work on the case. In derivative works, she is frequently used as a romantic interest for Holmes, a departure from Doyle's story where he only admired her for her wit and cunning. In his Sherlock Holmes Handbook , Christopher Redmond writes " the Canon provides little basis for either sentimental or prurient speculation about
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#1732791819187814-547: The episode reinforces the prostitution paradigm, that all women are sexual property of men. Rather than belonging to one man, Adler functions as "public property" and her only real use is her sexual function. It follows the trend of women's role in the Sherlock series as "conduit[s] for male power...as the object of sexual dominance, they are necessary to release that power. But they do not acquire power themselves; it is, instead, passed on to Holmes." In her final appearance in
851-487: The episode, a hijab-clad Adler is rescued by Sherlock from the hands of a terrorist cell in Pakistan. This scene garnered widespread criticism. In the essay “Postfeminism and Screen Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes Stories: The Case of Irene Adler”, Antonija Primorac observes, "By the end of the episode, the dangerously sexual female nude body of the metropolitan center is displaced into a Pakistani desert and transformed into
888-551: The film Sherlock Holmes , each portrayal depicts several notable qualities Adler possesses, such as her independence, adaptability, and intelligence; but there is a common issue each portrayal has in trying to mesh these qualities with seduction and manipulation. Irene Adler appears only in " A Scandal in Bohemia ". Her name is briefly mentioned in " A Case of Identity ", " The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle ", and " His Last Bow ". According to "A Scandal in Bohemia", Adler
925-449: The former colonial space and saved by the hero." Different pronunciations of Irene Adler's first name have been proposed. The traditional British pronunciation of the name is "Eye- ree -nee", which has been used for Adler's first name in some adaptations, including the BBC 1989–1998 radio series . The standard American pronunciation of the name, "Eye- reen ", would be appropriate since Adler
962-470: The intent and result of disorienting Holmes and making him appear foolish, an emasculating (sic.). This Adler uses her female nudity as a disguise/deception to best Holmes, rather than assuming the canonical Adler's disguise as a young man to accomplish the same goal." One of the most controversial takes on Adler is an episode of the BBC series Sherlock titled " A Scandal in Belgravia ". Her introduction
999-642: The issue and found that only one possibility matched the description given in the stories: 454 West 35th Street. With the aid of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation , the group had a commemorative plaque placed at the address. "On this site stood the elegant brownstone of the corpulent fictional private detective Nero Wolfe. With his able assistant Archie Goodwin, Mr. Wolfe raised orchids and dined well, while solving over seventy cases as recorded by Rex Stout from 1934-1975." The Wolfe Pack holds an annual Black Orchid Banquet, at which
1036-476: The name: The Wolfe Pack. The first Nero Wolfe dinner was held in 1977 at The Lotus Club in New York City . The dinner, entitled "Maitre D'tective: Rex Stout," honored John McAleer and his book Rex Stout: A Biography , recently published by Little, Brown and Company . There were 131 guests who included Otto Penzler editor, publisher, and owner of The Mysterious Bookshop which would open two years after
1073-513: The time in ambiguous association with " courtesan " ) who has "the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men." Five years after their secret romance, the King has been arranged to marry Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meiningen, a young Scandinavian princess. However, he fears her conservative family would call off the wedding if any evidence of his former liaison with Adler were ever revealed to them. Meanwhile, Adler moves to England and plans to marry Godfrey Norton, causing
1110-463: The whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. [...] And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory. This "memory" is kept alive by a photograph of Irene Adler, which had been deliberately left behind when she and her new husband took flight with
1147-445: The wrong side of the affair all along. In a handwritten letter addressed to him, Adler reveals that she has hidden the photograph simply for the purpose of protecting herself against the monarch's wrath. She writes, "As to the photograph, your client may rest in peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly wronged." Holmes, who "used to make merry over
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1184-452: Was a noted Sherlock Holmes scholar, best known as the author of the influential 1962 fictional biography Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting Detective . He was the son of William Drake Baring-Gould (1878–1921), a grandson of Sabine Baring-Gould and a descendant of John Baring . He married Lucile "Ceil" Marguerite Moody (1914–2010) in 1936. They had
1221-432: Was a response to criticism across the internet over the domination of male characters in the first season of the show while the female characters are always portrayed to be "arrested, avenged, ridiculed or rescued." Thus in the first episode we are presented Adler, an antagonist who uses her sexuality through her dominatrix position in order to gain secrets and other information to blackmail her clients. In reality however, she
1258-609: Was born in New Jersey or Chelsea, London in 1858. She had a career in opera as a contralto or soprano , performing at La Scala in Milan, Italy, and a term as prima donna in the Imperial Opera of Warsaw , Poland. In Poland, she became the lover of Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and King of Bohemia . The King describes her as "a well-known adventuress" (a term widely used at
1295-478: Was called the " Jersey Lily ") and Adler is born in New Jersey. Langtry had later had several other aristocratic lovers, and her relationships had been speculated upon in the public press in the years before Doyle's story was published. Another suggestion is the dancer Ludmilla Stubel, the alleged lover and later wife of Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria . Adler earns Holmes's unbounded admiration. When
1332-662: Was featured in the short story " A Scandal in Bohemia ", published in July 1891. Adler is one of the most notable female characters in the Sherlock Holmes series, despite appearing in only one story. While not technically a criminal and bearing no malice towards Holmes, she outsmarts him and evades his traps. Sherlock Holmes refers to her afterwards respectfully as "the Woman". In the original Doyle story, Watson notes Holmes has no romantic interest in Adler or in women in general, pointing out
1369-551: Was published posthumously Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-fifth Street: The Life and Times of America's Largest Private Detective , a fictional biography of Rex Stout 's detective character Nero Wolfe ; in this book, Baring-Gould popularised the theory that Wolfe was the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler . Irene Adler Irene Adler is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . A former opera singer and actress, she
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