Literary notes about sallow (AI summary)
Literature employs "sallow" as a vivid descriptor to evoke a sense of pallor, unhealthiness, or even moral decay in both characters and settings. Authors use it to paint an image of a complexion that is not only physically wan and yellowish but also imbued with emotional weight—as when a character’s tear-wet face is described as fierce and sallow ([1]) or when an elderly man’s appearance is rendered with a careworn, sallow facade ([2]). At the same time, "sallow" stretches its reach to scenery and atmosphere, lending a muted, almost lifeless quality to landscapes or interiors that mirror the underlying tone of the narrative ([3], [4]). This multifaceted usage enriches the textual imagery, suggesting that a sallow hue carries both physical and symbolic implications across diverse literary contexts.
- She lifted a fierce, sallow, tear-wet face.
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - Is an elderly, sallow-faced, rather gaunt, gray-hair'd man, a widower, with children.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - The fields were sallow with the impure light, and all were tinged in monochrome, as if beheld through stained glass.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - These rooms, above-stairs, were extremely numerous, and were painted all over exactly alike, in a yellowish white which had grown sallow with time.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James
