Robert W. Chambers

Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) studied art in Paris in the late 80’s and early 90’s, where his work was displayed at the Salon. However, shortly after returning to America, he decided to spend his time in writing. He became popular as the writer of a number of romantic novels, but is now best known as the author of “The King In Yellow”. This is a collection of the first half of this work of short stories which have an eerie, other-worldly feel to it; but the stories in the second half are essentially love stories, strongly coloured by the author’s life as an artist in France.

The King in Yellow

Robert Chambers

The King in Yellow, the forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it. A book of short stories first published in 1895 by Robert W. Chambers, is named after a fictional play with the same title which recurs as a motif through some of the stories. The book has been described by as a classic in the field of the supernatural. There are ten stories in total, including the first four, "The Repairer of Reputations," "The Mask," "In the Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign." It is the book that inspired many, including H.P. Lovecraft, up to the recent HBO series True Detective.

Bárbara Deoti

Chambers Robert William

The book is named after a fictional play with the same title which recurs as a motif through some of the stories. The first half of the book features highly esteemed weird stories, and the book is described by S.T. Joshi as a classic in the field of the supernatural.

Matthew Royal

Shockingly little on the King in Yellow; I was expecting much more in the vein of HP Lovecraft, but it was a bargain bin version of Henry James instead. The first story was fine, the rest were the sort of pretentious male fantasies you'd expect "Frasier"'s Niles Crane to write in his personal diary. Skip everything after part 2.

this was actually a kindle promo(?) for true detective that includes lovecraft’s ’call of cthulhu’ & bierce’s ‘inhabitant of carcosa’ & that no longer exists on amazon (excepting, i guess, folks who retain it after downloading it years ago). no isbn, asin, issn, or intro, preface, or anything but the texts. just fyi for yer information.

ps. its title (the king in yellow & other stories featured on true detective) & cover (artistic rendering of rust’s blackbird hallucinations) show it for what it is: a marketing cash grab based on the show’s popularity b/c a) none of the stories are actually “featured” on the show, & b) no blackbird hallucinations exist w/i the book.

pps. none of this detracts from the quality of the material, which is almost universally top-notch. i’m surprised chambers seemed mostly forgotten until the publicity the show created reintroduced him to a new audience. he was a pretty talented & surprisingly modern writer. maybe time truly is a flat circle.

james pryor marlowe

this was actually a kindle promo(?) for true detective that includes lovecraft’s ’call of cthulhu’ & bierce’s ‘inhabitant of carcosa’ & that no longer exists on amazon (excepting, i guess, folks who retain it after downloading it years ago). no isbn, asin, issn, or intro, preface, or anything but the texts. just fyi for yer information.

ps. its title (the king in yellow & other stories featured on true detective) & cover (artistic rendering of rust’s blackbird hallucinations) show it for what it is: a marketing cash grab based on the show’s popularity b/c a) none of the stories are actually “featured” on the show, & b) no blackbird hallucinations exist w/i the book.

pps. none of this detracts from the quality of the material, which is almost universally top-notch. i’m surprised chambers seemed mostly forgotten until the publicity the show created reintroduced him to a new audience. he was a pretty talented & surprisingly modern writer. maybe time truly is a flat circle.

A Book of Short Stories The King in Yellow By Robert W. Chambers A Classic Publication The King in Yellow is a book of short stories by American writer Robert W. Chambers, first published by F. Tennyson Neely in 1895. The book is named after a fictional play with the same title which recurs as a motif through some of the stories. The first half of the book features highly esteemed weird stories, and the book has been described by critics such as E. F. Bleiler, S. T. Joshi and T. E. D. Klein as a classic in the field of the supernatural. There are ten stories, the first four of which ("The Repairer of Reputations", "The Mask", "In the Court of the Dragon", and "The Yellow Sign") mention The King in Yellow, a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it. "The Yellow Sign" inspired a film of the same name released in 2001. The British first edition was published by Chatto & Windus in 1895

A Book of Short Stories

Tilde C

Chambers uses a remarkably modern language for his time, and is occasionally as cleverly witty as, say, Pratchett, but it was the pre-Lovecraftian mad horror that drew me to this book. All the short stories involding the king in yellow are wonderfully creepy and curious -- but I was somwhat disappointed the recurring motifs of madness and the titular play are all done with after the four first stories, then it's a series of love stories from there on out. They're good love stories (this is where his dry wit shines) and I adore the bohemian settings he uses for them, but they feel dissonant to the horror stories that preceded them. Had this collection been published today I'm pretty sure any editor would at least have reshuffled the order of stories so the change didn't feel so abrupt.

The supernatural stories that make up Robert W. Chambers's classic piece of weird fiction are tied together by a play that brings madness to all who read it: The King in Yellow. It's a book that draws readers in with an irresistible yet innocent opening act, then drives them insane with the poisonous words of Act 2. It's a book that cannot be suppressed, spreading like a disease from city to city, continent to continent. An influence on writers from H. P. Lovecraft to Neil Gaiman, The King in Yellow is one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction. In this dangerously unputdownable graphic-novel adaptation, I. N. J. Culbard brings to life a thrilling tale of horror that will make readers laugh and cry and tremble with fright . . . Read at your own risk.

Maggie Gordon

That was... odd. Given that The King in Yellow is an important part of weird fiction, I should have expected that. I can't speak to how good the adaptation is as I have never read the original. I do feel like I was missing something though, throughout the piece. The connections between the stories felt tenuous, and the narrative didn't seem to hang together, even in the individual stories. Perhaps this was a cause of the graphic format. It don't really think this story was particularly suited to being portrayed in images. I feel like it probably relied heavily on prose. Well, at least I feel inspired to read the original!

Rhiannon Jerrom

I can appreciate why some people love this book and the idea of the story was very intriguing to me but I just found it difficult to read and exceptionally dull.

The King in Yellow

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