Irene Adler appears in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia," which was published in The Strand Magazine in 1891.
Ms. Adler made such an impression on the reading public that she became one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes characters, even though she only appeared in this one story.
She also made such an impression on Sherlock Holmes that started calling her "the woman" and rarely used her proper name when he referred to her.
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.
In a later story, "The Five Orange Pips," Sherlock remarks that he has seldom been outsmarted on a case:
I have been beaten four times—three times by men, and once by a woman.
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I have been beaten four times—three times by men, and once by a woman.
That woman is the woman, Irene Adler.
The reason that Irene Adler is of concern to the king of Bohemia is that she possesses certain letters written to her by the king, and certain photographs in which they appear together, which the king sent to her during a relationship they had five years previously. The king wants Sherlock Holmes to retrieve these documents and photographs.
When the king consults Sherlock, he has recently become engaged to a young Scandinavian princess, whose family would not think very highly of the king's impropriety in his relationship with Ms. Adler and might call off the wedding.
The king has tried everything he can think of to recover the letters and photographs —including burglary, having Ms. Adler's luggage stolen, threatening her, and offering to pay outright for their return—but all of his attempts have failed, and Ms. Adler is now threatening to send the letters and photographs to the princess.
Sherlock Holmes is the king's last hope to recover the letters and photographs, and Ms. Adler, "the woman," proves a worthy adversary to Holmes in his quest to obtain them from her.