The Sea-Raiders and The Yellow Face and The Goblin Who Stole A Sexton

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The Sea-Raiders is a very different story to The Yellow Face and

The Goblin Who Stole A Sexton but it still entertained the late 19th

century readers

A study of the author’s use of settings in a range of short stories

showing knowledge of literacy context.

Introduction

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These short stories were written over about hundred years ago these

stories were a very different approach in the Victorian era. Many

people had newfound literacy skills and the demand for popular reading

skills. Britain and a lot of other people liked reading magazines and

newspapers this entertained them. The genre that was most popular was

mystery, horror, detective and supernatural.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became famous in this era for his short stories

about a fictional detective called Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle

has been a doctor for several years. His trusted partner Dr Watson who

helped him solve the many cases, the detective was called in to

investigate always accompanied him. The two partners can be seen at

work in ‘The Yellow Face’, which was published in the 1894.

‘The Yellow Face’ is set in typically Victorian suburbia was a story

about a mystery that Holmes is called into investigate. A man called

Grant Munro comes to Holmes London office in an agitated state because

he believes his wife was hiding a terrible secret. They are a typical

Victorian couple that have been married for a couple of years he goes

to working the city and she stays at home to manage the household.

This was very common in the Victorian marriages that their wife would

hand over of any financial independence to her husband. Although she

has signed over her money and Munro allows her access to it was

unusual in the Victorian times. When she asks for £100 and won’t say

what for so he becomes suspicious he thought that is might be for a

new dress or something. So he asked her ‘What an earth for?’ so she

said to him ‘You said that you were only my banker, and bankers never

ask questions, you know’.

The reader sees Holmes at his best in this story his powers of

observation are particularly noticeable following Munro’s departure,

when Holmes examines the pipe he has ‘left-behind’. Holmes pays an

amazing attention to detail and consider by the reader to be an

excellent detective even though his theory is proved wrong at the end.

The story is set in London, Baker Street where Holmes and Watson live

and Norbury, a small village outside London, which is where the

Munro’s live. Effie Munro appears to have been and independent woman

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