skygiants | (no subject)

My roommates and I were discussing good and bad choices in Irene Adler Fiction recently, which led directly to my notalgia-purchase of Good Night, Mr. Holmes, the first in a series of Irene Adler Mystery Novels that I devoured as a preteen.

The most charming thing that this book does is give Irene Adler her very own Watson: Nell Huxleigh, a Respectable Parson's Daughter whom Irene discovers in danger of living on the streets in the first chapter and immediately carries off and deposits in her apartment to live there forever and narrate all her adventures.

Nell is a great narrator for multiple reasons: a.) she's a fantastic embodiment of the trope 'primly respectable woman consistently surprises and scandalizes own self with capacity for Adventure'; b.) she's extremely judgy about everything and it's very funny c.) she doesn't care at ALL about Sherlock Holmes, which means that the books also care relatively little about Sherlock Holmes, which makes for a really refreshing change from the vast majority of Irene Adler Appearances in media!

Also Nell/Irene/Geoffrey Norton is a great OT3; Irene and Geoffrey get off on the wrong foot while Irene is investigating his missing family Marie Antoinette diamonds and Nell spends the entire rest of the novel attempting to convince her two crushes that they really would like each other, she promises, if they just gave it a chance, maybe she should read more of their letters out loud to each other to convince them?

Relatedly: this is very much the kind of book that's like 'how did Irene and her canon husband meet? OBVIOUSLY she was hired by TIFFANY to investigate his MISSING FAMILY MARIE ANTOINETTE DIAMONDS!' It fully luxuriates in gratuitous references, unnecessary historical cameos, and hilariously dramatic additions to canon events; it's completely cheesy and I kind of love it. Moments that made me laugh the hardest:

- Irene and Nell encounter the murderer from A Study in Scarlet in a taxi, who immediately recaps the entire story for them, bleeds on them dramatically, hands them some Significant Jewelry and wanders away
- Irene and Nell Solve the Mystery of Who Poisoned Irene's Boyfriend's Father (The King of Bohemia)
- Irene and Nell dig up buried treasure in Oscar Wilde's backyard (and do not give any of it to Oscar Wilde, who could probably use it)

...ok I have to talk a little more about the gratuitous Oscar Wilde cameos because there are so many of them and I'm really not sure that Carole Nelson Douglas fully understands that Oscar Wilde was either a.) a satirist or b.) gay? But she definitely understands that he was Aesthetic!

Anyway, stay tuned for future adventures, including Irene Adler And Her Husband And Their Spinster Watson Meet Nellie Bly, Irene Adler And Her Husband And Their Spinster Watson Hang Out With Sarah Bernhardt, and Irene Adler And Her Husband And Their Spinster Watson Fight The Golem of Prague.

Threaded | Flat

Very curious how you deal with Oscar Wilde purely as A Look, but I guess that is how children's media often handles The Gay?

I remember Good Night, Mr Holmes! I loved Nell and her Horrors over her own adventurousness and her complete disinterest in Holmes.

I don't think I ever managed to get my hands on the rest of the series - unless I might have made it to the second book? I have vague memories - but once the local library is open again... (I seem to be saying this a lot, lately.)

And it's three bucks on Kindle! SOLD!

....I was trying Lawrence Wright's new up-to-the-nanosecond fictional plague thriller, which is being praised to the skies, and oh dear God it's so bad. I was somewhat disappointed by Going Clear (Janet Reitman's book is much better) but this is something else. Spinster Watson sounds like a good remedy!

I love Nell so much, and I'm glad you do, too. :-) They are totes TOTES an OT3, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it.

It's such a fun book! I adore the Nell/Irene/Geoffrey OT3. *reminds self to look into the rest of the series*

This sounds like so much fun.

I read that first one! Wow, memories. Maybe I should go back to this series.

Ohhhhh, I remember these! I am sure I read them way too young to appreciate the cheesiness; I should totally reread! I think I even have this one around here somewhere... *rummages*

I should totally go back to this series! I was charmed by it as a teenager, too, but I went quite against the spirit of the thing by always skipping to the few Holmes and Watson cameos! For this reason, the book I remember the most is the one later in the series where Nell's Sort Of Boyfriend Turns Out To Have Encountered Watson In The War and His Mysterious Traveling War Wounds Are Explained Dramatically.

But I do remember liking Nell very much and also being delighted at a series that actually let Irene be in love with her husband for once! :)

I've never heard of these! But this caught my eye:

Nell Huxleigh, a Respectable Parson's Daughter whom Irene discovers in danger of living on the streets in the first chapter and immediately carries off and deposits in her apartment to live there forever and narrate all her adventures.

Wonderful!

...ok I have to talk a little more about the gratuitous Oscar Wilde cameos because there are so many of them

I'm dying! And totally going to see if I can hunt these down!

(You have a gift of finding delightful-sounding books, btw. Following this journal was one of my best moves!)

Don't forget Irene and Co hang out with Bram Stoker, Irene and Co take on Jack the Ripper, and Irene and Co visit America (and Irene might be the daughter of Lola Montez!)

I enjoyed these so much as a teen! I feel the urge for a reread now -- I still have the first two books, but they're at my parent's house in a different country atm. I didn't realize it at the time, but this series and the Granada adaptation were formative for how I viewed Irene Adler and her relationship with Holmes. Every adaptation afterwards that tried to pair them off romantically made me go >.<, even if they were relatively well done.

These do sound like a lot of fun! And I love Nellie Bly, so.

Irene Adler And Her Husband And Their Spinster Watson Fight The Golem of Prague.

Wait, seriously? Don't fight the Golem of Prague!

[edit] OH MY GOD CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS SHE WROTE THE MIDNIGHT LOUIE SERIES I.E. HARDBOILED MYSTERIES STARRING A BLACK CAT WITH A CHANDLERESQUE INTERNAL NARRATIVE I READ SEVERAL OF THESE AS A CHILD BECAUSE HEY ANTHROPOMORPHIC FICTION THE WAY THIS AUTHOR THINKS IS A NATIONAL TREASURE

Edited 2020-05-09 19:31 (UTC)

This sounds super cute! I look forward to hearing about Irene Adler's further hijinks!

I have to admit, I am FOREVER LAUGHING at the choice to include ACD's original story at the end of the book, but also... I sort of wish she hadn't... because it brought into sharp relief many of the book's weaker points, which I had been determinedly trying to ignore because it's frothy silliness aimed at kids... BUT IT WAS FUN SILLINESS ANYWAY

And I do very sincerely appreciate Carole Nelson Douglas's commitment to giving us an Irene Adler story that does not revolve, emotionally or plot-wise, around Sherlock Holmes! Much as I love Holmes, and I definitely do, part of the fundamental appeal and characterization is that she has her own goals and priorities and they have nothing to do with him.

But WHY would you fight the Golem of Prague??? Am slightly concerned…

These otherwise sound like some truly excellent brain candy. Perhaps this will at last get me out of my fiction slump!

this sounds AMAZING, wow. I need to find it immediately.