LEVEL 3 Teacher’s notes Teacher Support Programme A Scandal in Bohemia Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Beeches are mysteries involving strange disappearances EASYSTARTS and marriage problems. Holmes solves each mystery through his keen observation of tiny details and his instinctive insight into human nature. LEVEL 2 A Scandal in Bohemia The King of Bohemia comes to London to visit Sherlock Holmes in disguise. He fears that his marriage to the LEVEL 3 King of Scandinavia’s daughter is in danger because of Irene Adler. Adler, his former girlfriend, has a photo of them which he worries may cause a scandal. The King LEVEL 4 of Bohemia urgently needs Sherlock Holmes to scheme a plan to find the picture so that it can be destroyed. Disguised as a priest, Holmes succeeds in finding out About the author where the picture is hidden, but before he can get hold LEVEL 5 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the most popular of it, Adler flees the country with her new husband. She fiction writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth sends Holmes a letter telling him how she saw through his centuries. He was born into an Irish Catholic family, on scheme, but promises never to use the picture. No one LEVEL 6 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He studied medicine ever beat Sherlock Holmes but Irene Adler. at Edinburgh University and became a doctor. Conan The Red-Headed League Doyle had a resemblance to his fictional character Ezekiah Hopkins is the red-haired American leader of Dr Watson, Holmes’ faithful friend, both in nature and a unique League in London for only red-headed men looks. However, Conan Doyle’s Irish ancestors gave him above the age of twenty-one. Jabez Wilson, a shop owner a wilder, Celtic streak that ran through his life and in Coburg Square, starts working for the League in the writings. Also, Conan Doyle was as keen as Holmes mornings, leaving his assistant Mr Spaulding, who spends in his powers of observation. long hours in the underground room developing pictures, He joined the Society for Psychical Research and for in charge of the shop. Mr Wilson works for the League nearly thirty years carried out a series of experiments in for some time but one day he is shocked to find that the telepathy and spiritual investigations. Finally, at the peak League has been mysteriously closed. Mr Wilson tells of his literary career, he wrote two books on spiritualism. Holmes about the League, who realises it was merely Conan Doyle rather resented the success of his Sherlock an excuse invented by Mr Spaulding to make Mr Wilson Holmes books, feeling that they overshadowed his more leave his shop. Spaulding is really John Clay, a criminal, and important historical and scientific books. he spent the time digging a hole towards the City Bank to For more details see the Introduction. steal thirty thousand gold pieces from the bank. Clay gets to the bank and discovers only Holmes and men from Summary Scotland Yard. The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes was created by The Boscombe Lake Mystery Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887, and is one of the most The Turners and the McCarthys live in Mr Turner’s farms famous detectives in English literature. This collection by Boscombe Lake. Miss Turner and young McCarthy of six short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and his are in love but Mr Turner is against their marriage. One friend Dr Watson is typical of Conan Doyle’s writing day Mr McCarthy is found dead and his own son is the of detective fiction. In A Scandal in Bohemia, Holmes first suspect. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson travel is approached by royalty to solve a problem. The Red- there to solve the mystery. Holmes discovers the killer is Headed League is the tale of an ingenious deception. The Mr Turner, who has just a month to live. Holmes makes Boscombe Lake Mystery involves murder, blackmail and him sign a letter confessing his crime and promises him romance. The Blue Diamond is the humorous tale of a that if young McCarthy is freed, Miss Turner will never theft that goes wrong. The Single Man and The Copper know what he did. The letter explains how McCarthy pearsonenglishreaders.com © Pearson Education Limited 2016 A Scandal in Bohemia - Teacher’s notes 1 of 3 LEVEL 3 Teacher’s notes Teacher Support Programme A Scandal in Bohemia met Turner in Australia, when they were both young, and son, wear a blue dress which belonged to his daughter EASYSTARTS witnessed Turner’s stealing gold, killing men and escaping now living in America, and cut her hair short. Miss Hunter to England. McCarthy followed Turner and blackmailed initially turns down the offer but she reconsiders it, and him by telling him that if his daughter did not marry his asks Holmes for advice. Miss Hunter starts working for son he would reveal his past. Turner finally loses his mind the Rucastles and finds her tasks odd. She has to read LEVEL 2 and kills McCarthy. Holmes tells the police and young by the window in Miss Rucastle’s dress and wave away a McCarthy is set free. Miss Turner never learns the true male passerby. She also discovers a secret room in the story about her father. attic and senses that someone is locked up inside. Holmes LEVEL 3 The Blue Diamond and Watson go to ‘The Copper Beeches’ and find that Mr Rucastle actually hired Miss Hunter to impersonate his Mr Peterson asks Sherlock Holmes for help telling him own daughter, who was locked in the attic, and to send that a chicken and a hat, with the name ‘Mr Baker’ written LEVEL 4 Mr Fowler, her suitor, away to prevent their marriage and on it, are to be given to a Mrs Henry Baker. Holmes keep the money his daughter’s late mother had left her. is to find the woman but discovers that Lady Morcar’s famous ‘blue diamond’ is inside the chicken. Holmes LEVEL 5 Background and themes knows about the missing ring and how a repairman, When Sherlock Holmes was ‘born’ in 1887, Victorian John Horner, was blamed for the theft. Yet, the chicken society was in a state of unease as new ideas questioned evidences something else, so he places an advertisement traditional beliefs. The Industrial Revolution had brought LEVEL 6 in the newspaper searching for Mr Henry Baker. Baker about the rapid development of industry, railways, eventually shows up but can only provide the name of the commerce and engineering. Along with this came man he bought the chicken from. Holmes and Watson revolutionary scientific theories (like Darwin’s theory of talk to many men involved in the purchase of the chicken evolution), which shocked many people. Many wealthy until he interrogates Mr Ryder, who finally confesses to Victorian families also felt threatened by the rise of the having stolen the blue diamond and framed innocent new class of rich factory owners who often exploited John Horner. their workers. The Single Man Tales of mystery, where social problems were rarely Sherlock Holmes is to help the titled but penniless Lord confronted, grew in popularity during the Victorian age. Simon to find Miss Hatty Doran, his newly-wedded, Holmes’ solution to the mysteries he is presented with well-off missing bride. Holmes finds out that a dancer are always reached through reason, but because of Conan who used to date Lord Simon tried to stop the wedding, Doyle’s interest in the supernatural, there is often an but failed, and that Miss Doran disappeared after seeing air of the irrational about them. They are written with a mysterious man at the church. Miss Doran’s clothes imagination and sometimes with a sense of the macabre. appear inside the lake and everything suggests murder. Holmes finds a note written on a hotel bill signed by a Although the crimes in these short stories are all different, F.H.M., Frank H. Moulton, and this solves the enigma. they are connected by several themes. The theme of Holmes finds the missing bride and the mysterious man marital and family issues, and in some cases, the marital and learns that they were secretly married, against her disputes even hinge on disagreements between a child father’s will. Soon after their wedding, Mr Moulton went and their parents. Blackmail and theft are also common to New Mexico in search of gold and was reported dead. themes to a few stories. Yet all stories illustrate the loss Miss Doran ended up marrying Lord Simon to please her of moral values and social ethics to self-interest and father, but saw her ‘late husband’ alive on her wedding enrichment. day and decided to run away with him. Discussion activities The Copper Beeches Miss Violet Hunter is a jobless teacher who used to be Before reading paid four pounds a month. She is offered a new position 1 Discuss: Favourite private detectives Tell students to write down the names of their at one hundred and twenty pounds a year by Mr Rucastle, favourite detectives in film and literature and to think to move to his house, ‘The Copper Beaches’, teach his of their characteristics. Then tell ask them to decide which the most effective traits are. pearsonenglishreaders.com © Pearson Education Limited 2016 A Scandal in Bohemia - Teacher’s notes 2 of 3 LEVEL 3 Teacher’s notes Teacher Support Programme A Scandal in Bohemia Introduction After reading 10 Write: A Special Diary EASYSTARTS While reading 2 Discuss and write: A special writer Ask students to do the following writing activity: Divide the class into pairs.