title: Sherlock Holmes: Selected Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
author:  Arthur Conan Doyle 
description: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish writer who studied medicine before becoming the writer of the famous Sherlock Holmes series.
zlib_text: **About Doyle:**  
  
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a compilation of twelve short Sherlock
  Holmes stories that was published on October 31st, 1892 and written by Sir
  Arthur Conan Doyle. The character, Sherlock Holmes, was previously introduced
  to the world in a novel called A Study in Scarlet in a Christmas 'annual.
  
  
  # Part 1  
  A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA
  
  
  ##  Chapter 1
  
  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 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. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and
  observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed
  himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with
  a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for
  dra