And then, there is the famous codeword: Norbury…
(Quick comment on the Featured Image: it is faithful to the scene as described in the story, but a child described as ‘Yellow’ would be much lighter-skinned than this drawing…)
Who would have imagined that Sir Arthur was, in his own way via these Sherlock Holmes stories, an anti-slavery activist, as well as anti-classist?
I am so glad that I found a better reading of these short stories, as the story The Adventure of The Yellow Face was absolutely worth purchasing the entire volume in order to have at hand and read again and again, although I think I’ve already memorized those last minutes of the story from listening to it over and over, tears streaming down my face each time.
I wonder if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was aware of the epithet “High Yellow” for those of us with very light complexions in the Black community?
At first reading, I thought that these short disconnected stories tend to lose my interest, especially with so many bad readers each for different story. LibriVox does have a few different versions of this anthology, but I don’t find it worth trying to find a third version.
My second favorite quote from this set of stories is:
‘“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.” ‘
“He lifted the little child, kissed her, and… I think I am a better man than you give me credit for.”
You are.
We can Do Better.
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Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS
Shira