hardboiledbaby: (watsonwoes ch20 1st)
[personal profile] hardboiledbaby

Title: A Matter of Integrity
Author: [livejournal.com profile] mainecoon76
Pairing: Adler/Norton, Holmes/Watson
Length: 3,350
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: none
Verse: ACD books

Author's summary:
It is a curious thing when a celebrity whom you’ve never truly met is widely considered your most prominent suitor. Irene Norton sets out in search of some answers, and discovers that sometimes the truth is a delicate matter.

Reccer's comments:
A Scandal in Bohemia begins with the line, "To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman." And yet Holmes and Adler barely interact in person: they exchange but a few words, and each time either one or the other is in disguise. So why would Dr Watson say "she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex"? Inquiring minds want to know. One mind in particular has a personal interest:

I could not help but wonder what exactly it had been about my story that had made such a strong impression on the famous detective. I had read his adventures; I knew it was neither the first nor last time he had been outwitted by an opponent. Perhaps it truly was no more than the fact that I happen to be female, or perhaps Dr Watson had simply wished to give his stories a romantic note. Nevertheless, I wondered.
This lovely fic came out of the latest round of the [livejournal.com profile] acd_holmesfest fanworks exchange, and was written with an eye towards (paraphrasing the author's notes) giving a female character agency, complexity, and an inner life apart from being a love interest. She succeeds, and brilliantly. [livejournal.com profile] mainecoon76 gives us an Irene that is true to canon: neither a villain nor a temptress, but a capable and intelligent woman, thoughtful and perceptive, who can hold her own against anyone, even the famed consulting detective. All the characters are voiced perfectly, in fact, and the glimpses we get of Mr and Mrs Norton together are especially delightful.

TL;DR: [livejournal.com profile] mainecoon76's Irene Norton, née Adler = HEADCANON ACCEPTED

[identity profile] chapbook.livejournal.com
Title: Chez les bêtes
Author: breathedout
Pairing: Irene Adler/Various, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette/Mathilde de Morny
Length: 12,923
Rating: E
Warnings: Underage Sex
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Le Havre, 1908. The Child is mother of the Woman.

Reccer's comments: BBC's version of Irene Adler is a character I've had problems connecting with (unlike Doyle's Irene), primarily because the writing for ASiB is chaotic and full of holes, leaving us with an Irene who to me feels more like a symbol than a fully realized personality. In contrast, BreathedOut's brilliant history AU, which moves Irene to early-twentieth-century England and France, presents the reader with a raw and ferocious young woman who feels very human, with her artistic talents, youthful uncertainty, love for her mother, and her capacity to manipulate. The cultural beliefs of turn-of-the-century working- and middle-class Britons are on full display here, demonstrating how very difficult it is for a working-class woman, even one with Irene's abilities, to struggle against these values and expectations. As a result, Irene's attempts to escape the expected routine of grueling, poorly paid, and often unsafe "respectable" work, as well as the conventional roles of wife and mother are all the more powerful.

Alternating the past and present throughout the story effectively shows how "The Woman" came to be in a process neither direct nor easy. It's that structure that allows Irene's epiphany to feel earned rather than a bolt out of the blue. I look forward to seeing this Irene meet Violet Hour's Sherlock and John in the next installment of the Unreal Histories series. I suspect it will be a memorable confrontation!

Excerpt: Read more )
[identity profile] unovis.livejournal.com
Hi!
Just a few words on our tags and tagging your recs.

Tags are useful search tools for grouping the recs by categories: by pairing, genre, content, and sources for the stories or other fanworks.

We ask that reccers attach tags that are relevant to the works they rec. You don't have to add everything that applies-- for example, not a character tag for everyone who might appear in the story, or every theme or content. But if Molly has a significant cameo, say, that you think people searching for her might appreciate, then by all means list her in a tag. Likewise if you think this is the addiction story people should read, then use the content: addiction tag.

The required aspects to tag are pairing (if it applies), relationship genre (i.e., gen, slash, or het*), and verse (the source: ACD books, Sherlock BBC, Granada, etc.).

The easiest place to see all of the tags available is in this list of tags.

Tagging is enabled only for the author of the post and the mods. Only the mods can add new tags. We have a beginning list up now, anticipating likely categories and characters. We'll add more as recs are made, if characters and pairings, for example, aren't covered already. You can request a new tag to be added by commenting here or by contacting one of the mods. Keep in mind, again, that we'll be adding character tags as additional characters appear in recs.

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been abbreviated as SH and JW in pairings and some other places (e.g., content: sick jw). Since this recs comm is open to all versions of Sherlock Holmes, it seemed the simplest way to identify the characters. Lestrade, Gregson, and Dimmock are listed as "inspector" following ACD book canon, and Moriarty is listed only once by his (their) surname alone. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is abbreviated throughout as ACD.

*We won't add a category for "slash-if-you-squint" or similar invitations for the reader to see subtext in a story. If the author hasn't labeled her work as slash, then it's genre: gen or genre: friendship.

Profile

221b_recs: (Default)
A Sherlock Holmes Recs Community

November 2018

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930 

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 23rd, 2025 06:36 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios