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{{Short description|Short story by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2016}}
{{refimprovemore citations needed|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox short story <!--See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]]-->
| name = The Adventure of the Yellow Face
| image = Paget Holmes Yellow Face child.jpg
| caption = "HeGrant liftedMunro thelifts littleLucy child."whilst Effie looks on, 1893 illustration by [[Sidney Paget]] in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]''
| title_orig =
| translator =
| author = [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series = ''[[The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes]]''
| genre = [[Detective fiction]] [[short stories]]
| published_in = [[Strand Magazine]]
| publication_type =
| publisher =
| media_type =
| pub_date = February 1893
| english_pub_date =
| preceded_by = [[The Adventure of the Cardboard Box]]
| followed_by = [[The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk]]
| wikisource = The Yellow Face
}}
"'''The Adventure of the Yellow Face"''', one of the 56 short [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories written by Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], is the third tale from ''[[The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes]]''. It was first published in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]'' in 1893the withUnited originalKingdom illustrationsin byFebruary 1893, and in ''[[SidneyHarper's PagetWeekly]]'' in the United States on 11 February 1893.<ref name="Smith 76"/>
 
One of Doyle's sentimental pieces, the story is remarkable in that Holmes' deduction during the course of it proves incorrect. According to [[Dr. Watson]]:
<blockquote>"...where he failed it happened too often that no one else succeeded... Now and again, however, it chanced that even when he erred the truth was still discovered."</blockquote>
 
==Synopsis/plot==
[[File:The Adventure of the Yellow Face by William Henry Hyde 1.jpg|thumb|Holmes examines the visitor's pipe, 1893 illustration by W. H. Hyde in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'']]
Sherlock Holmes, suffering from boredombored due to a want of cases, returns home from a walk with Dr. Watson early in spring to find he has missed a visitor but that the caller has left his [[smoking pipe (tobacco)|pipe]] behind. From it, Holmes deduces that he was disturbed of mind (because he forgot the pipe); that he valued it highly (because he had repaired it with silver bands which cost more than the pipe cost, rather than replacedreplacing it, when it was broken); that he was muscular, left-handed, had excellent teeth, was careless in his habits and was well-offnot needed to practice economy.
 
None of these deductions isare particularly germane to the story: they are merely Holmesian logical exercises. When the visitor, Mr. Grant Munro (whose name Holmes observed from his hatband) returns, Holmes and Watson hear the story of Munro's deception by his wife Effie. She had been previously married in America, but her husband and child had died of [[yellow fever]], whereupon she returned to England and met and married Munro. Their marriage had been blissful&mdash;"We have not had a difference, not one, in thought, or word, or deed," says Grant Munro&mdash;until sheEffie asked for a hundred pounds and begged him not to ask why. Two months later, Effie Munro was caught conducting secret liaisons with the occupants of a cottage near the Munro house in [[Norbury]]. Grant Munro has seen a mysterious yellow-faced person in this cottage. Overcome with jealousy, he breaks in and finds the place empty. However, the room where he saw the mysterious figure is very comfortable and well furnished, with a portrait of his wife on the mantelpiece.
 
Holmes, after sending Munro home with instructions to wire for him if the cottage was reoccupied, confides in Watson his belief that the mysterious figure is Effie Munro's first husband. He postulates that the husband, having been left in America, has come to England to [[blackmail]] her.
 
After Munro summons Holmes and Watson, the three enter the cottage, brushing aside the entreaties of Effie Munro. They find the strange yellow-faced character, and Holmes peels the face away, showing it to be a mask, and revealing a young girl who is half-black. It is then revealed that Effie Munro's first husband was John Hebron, an African-American lawyer;, hewho did die in America, but their daughter, Lucy, survived. At the time Effie came to England, she could not bring Lucy with her, as the child was still ill enough that the transition might have exacerbated her state. But later, after she and Grant were married, Effie got word that Lucy was alive and well. Upon hearing of this, Effie became overcome with desire to see her child again, so she asked for the hundred pounds and used it to bring Lucy and her nurse to England, and installed them in the cottage near the Munro house. She feared, however, that Grant might stop loving her if he found out that she was the mother of a [[mixed race]] child, so all the while, she had made every endeavour to keep Lucy's existence a secret.
 
Both Watson and Holmes are touched by Munro's response. Watson observes:
Line 40 ⟶ 43:
 
Holmes excuses himself and Watson, and, that evening, after they have returned to Baker Street, says:
<blockquote>"Watson, if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident 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."</blockquote>
 
== Treatment of race ==
 
Doyle's sympathetic treatment of [[interracial marriage]], between an Englishwoman and a black lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, appears extraordinarily liberal for the 1890s. Though the story has the widow treating her dead husband's race as a secret whose revelation might entail negative reactions, the marriage is not illegal in Britain, and her second husband's loving response is reported approvingly by Watson. This story, however, should be set alongside Doyle's stereotyped caricature of a thuggish black boxer, in "[[The Adventure of the Three Gables]]" (1926).<ref name="Loewen">{{cite book | last1 = Loewen | first1 = James | title = Teaching What Really Happened | publisher = Teachers College Press | year = 2010 | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-8077-4991-3}}</ref>
 
== Publication history ==
"The Adventure of the Yellow Face" was published in the UK in ''[[The Strand Magazine]]'' in February 1893, and in the US in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' on 11 February 1893. It was also published in the US edition of ''The Strand Magazine'' in March 1893.<ref name="Smith 76">Smith (2014), p. 76.</ref> The story was published with seven illustrations by [[Sidney Paget]] in the ''Strand'',<ref name="Cawthorne 77">Cawthorne (2011), p. 77.</ref> and with two illustrations by W. H. Hyde in ''Harper's Weekly''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000020243371&view=1up&seq=135 |title=Harper's Weekly. v.37 Jan.-June 1893. |website=HathiTrust Digital Library |access-date=11 November 2020}}</ref> It was included in the short story collection ''[[The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes]]'',<ref name="Cawthorne 77"/> which was published in December 1893 in the UK and February 1894 in the US.<ref>Cawthorne (2011), p. 75.</ref>
 
==Adaptations==
===Film and television===
"The Yellow Face" was dramatised for [[BBC Radio 4]] in 1992 as part of [[Bert Coules]]' complete radio adaptation of the canon, starring [[Clive Merrison]] as Holmes and [[Michael Williams (actor)|Michael Williams]] as Watson, and featuring [[Helena Breck]] as Effie Munro.<ref>▼
The story was adapted as a short film released in 1921 as part of the [[Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series)|Stoll film series]], featuring [[Eille Norwood]] as Holmes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eyles|first=Alan|title=Sherlock Holmes: A Centenary Celebration |url=https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle|url-access=registration|year=1986 |publisher=Harper & Row |page=[https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmesce0000eyle/page/130 130] |ISBN=0-06-015620-1}}</ref>
 
The story is also alluded to in the [[BBC]] [[television]] series ''[[Sherlock (TV series)|Sherlock]]'' where a yellow [[smiley face]] is painted on the wall of Sherlock's flat. Additionally, quotes from the story are used as plot points in "[[The Lying Detective]]". In addition, the town of Norbury from the story is represented in the episode "[[The Six Thatchers]]" in the form of Vivian Norbury, the main adversary of the episode.▼
 
===Radio===
[[Edith Meiser]] adapted the story as an episode of the American radio series ''[[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (radio series)|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]]'' that was broadcast on 14 January 1932, with [[Richard Gordon (actor)|Richard Gordon]] as Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Watson.<ref>Dickerson (2019), p. 41.</ref>
 
▲"The Yellow Face" was dramatised by Gerry Jones for [[BBC Radio 4]] in 1992 as partan episode of the [[BertSherlock Coules]]'Holmes complete(1989 radio adaptationseries)|1989–1998 ofradio the canon,series]] starring [[Clive Merrison]] as Holmes and [[Michael Williams (actor)|Michael Williams]] as Watson,. andIt featuringfeatured [[Helena Breck]] as Effie Munro.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://merrisonholmes.com/memoirs.php
Line 55 ⟶ 69:
|author=Bert Coules}}</ref>
 
The story was adapted for radio in 2005 as part of ''[[The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]]'', a series on the American radio show ''[[Imagination Theatre]]'', with [[John Patrick Lowrie]] as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson. It was the first episode in the series.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.old-time.com/otrlogs2/classicsh_sw.log.pdf |website=Old-Time Radio |title=The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Broadcast Log |last=Wright |first=Stewart |date=30 April 2019 |access-date= 1 May 2020}}</ref>
▲The story is also alluded to in the [[BBC]] [[television]] series ''[[Sherlock (TV series)|Sherlock]]'' where a yellow [[smiley face]] is painted on the wall of Sherlock's flat. Additionally, quotes from the story are used as plot points in "[[The Lying Detective]]".
 
==References==
;Notes
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
;Sources
* {{cite book |title=A Brief History of Sherlock Holmes |last=Cawthorne |first=Nigel |author-link=Nigel Cawthorne |publisher=Running Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0762444083}}
* {{cite book |last=Dickerson |first=Ian |author-link=Ian Dickerson |title=Sherlock Holmes and His Adventures on American Radio |publisher=BearManor Media |year=2019 |isbn=978-1629335087}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Daniel |title=The Sherlock Holmes Companion: An Elementary Guide |publisher=Aurum Press |year=2014 |edition=Updated |orig-year=2009 |isbn=978-1-78131-404-3}}
 
==External links==
*{{wikisource-inline|The Yellow Face}}
*{{commonscatcommons category-inline}}
*{{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/arthur-conan-doyle/the-memoirs-of-sherlock-holmes|Display Name=''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'', including ''{{PAGENAMEBASE}}''|noitalics=true}}
 
{{SH-memoirs}}
{{Authority control}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventure of the Yellow Face, The}}
[[Category:18941893 short stories]]
[[Category:Anti-racism]]
[[Category:InterracialFiction romanceabout ininterracial fictionromance]]
[[Category:Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle|Yellow Face, The Adventure of The]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Strand Magazine]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Harper's Weekly]]
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