The Yellow Face

Want to read this along with me? This essay is part of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1894. I used the epub version found on Feedbooks.com.

“The Yellow Face” is an unusual story in the canon for two different reasons. The first and most immediately noticeable reason is that it details one of Holmes’ failures (which Holmes has been no stranger to in the previous collection of short stories). Although the truth of the situation does eventually come out, Holmes is quite wrong about the nature of the mysterious person in this story. And Holmes is actually surprisingly modest about his failure at the very end of the story:

“Watson,” said he, “if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little over-confident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper ‘Norbury’ in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you.”

The second and more surprising reason is that this story not only addresses interracial marriage in Victorian London, but it does so sympathetically. Granted, it was not illegal in England to have a child of mixed race (unlike other countries at the time), but it was certainly considered to be shameful. Even though Mrs. Munro claims she “cut myself off from [her] race” in marrying a black man,¹ Doyle doesn’t hold back from painting the situation as anything but loving and accepting. In fact, this story is one of the more sentimental stories in the canon. This is amazingly tolerant for the 20th century, let alone the 19th.

To change focus to Doyle himself for a bit, this liberal attitude isn’t surprising. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was known for political campaigning and taking on hopeless causes. At the turn of the 20th century, he wrote a couple of pieces about the UK’s role in the Boer War and volunteered as a doctor. He ran for office twice (but failed both times). He worked to reform the Congo Free State, and wrote passionately about the horrors going on there. He also personally investigated at least two criminal cases, and managed to get both men (George Edalji and Oscar Slater) exonerated as a result. Doyle was a man of strong convictions, and they absolutely come out in this story.

Switching back to some canon watching, there’s another great scene of physical object deduction. It’s on par with “The Blue Carbuncle,” although it doesn’t really relate to the case at hand. In a twist, though, Watson isn’t in awe of the deduction, but instead tries to reconstruct Holmes’ work (to limited success). And some of Watson’s writing starts to show his own budding deduction ability:

“From every gesture and expression I could see that he was a reserved, self-contained man, with a dash of pride in his nature, more likely to hide his wounds than to expose them.”

In fact, Watson is actually comfortable criticizing Holmes’ theory:

“What do you think of my theory?”

“It is all surmise.”

On the other hand, Watson is a bit more of an apologist for Holmes’ drug use in this story.

Save for the occasional use of cocaine, he had no vices, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence when cases were scanty and the papers uninteresting.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it in previous essays, but there are a number of editorial changes between the British and American editions of the canon, which is part of the reason why I go back and research the story with the British version after I write these. One thing I noticed on my first read was that the child was never actually mentioned in having a yellow face, which seems to contradict the title of the story. However, a look over the British edition shows that the sentence “It was of a livid chalky white” originally read “It was of a livid dead yellow,” and thus is the mystery solved.

More bits of canon watching:

• There’s another bit of backwards continuity, as there’s a reference to the upcoming story “The Musgrave Ritual.” (My research showed that in the original British edition it’s a reference to “The Second Stain,” but either way they are stories yet to be published.)
• There’s also another reference to Holmes’ boxing skill: “Few men were capable of greater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen…” Interestingly, my research on this story turned up an 1896 book by Doyle called Rodney Stone, a Gothic mystery about boxing, so certainly Doyle seemed to know a lot about the sport. I’ve downloaded the book to read at some point in the future.
• The page-boy not only makes another appearance, but he even speaks!
• Another example of Holmes’ disregard for the law: “Of course, legally, we are putting ourselves hopelessly in the wrong; but I think that it is worth it.”

“The Yellow Face” is a wonderful story, and probably one of my favorites.