At the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions that a former tenant of
his family's house, a priest, had left three books. The third book was the
"Memoir of Vidocq", the memoirs of a French policeman and master of disguise.
The boy says he liked this book the best because its "leaves were yellow". He
was probably attracted to the book for two reasons. First it looked old and
mysterious and secondly, it contained the kind of story which would interest a
young boy. Also, these books are not what a person would expect a Catholic
priest to have in his library. So if this priest has non−religious literature
in his library, then how devout can an average churchgoer be expected to be?
This turns out to be the case for the narrator, who confuses religious idealism
with romance. He has not yet learned how to separate the religious teachings of
his school with the reality of his secular life. Part of his understanding at
the end of the story involves his finally
separating those two aspects of his life. Thus the "yellow pages" are the first
clue that Araby will have learn the difference between reality and his romantic
ideals.
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