The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow

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.
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Reviews

Photo of Matthew Royal
Matthew Royal@masyukun
2 stars
Feb 13, 2023

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.

Photo of Tilde C
Tilde C@slettlune
4 stars
Oct 15, 2022

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.

Photo of Maggie Gordon
Maggie Gordon@maggieg
3 stars
Aug 13, 2022

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!

Photo of Rhiannon Jerrom
Rhiannon Jerrom@rhiannon_j
2 stars
Jun 8, 2022

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.

Photo of Pam Sartain
Pam Sartain@certainlygeeky
3 stars
Nov 9, 2021

An enjoyable version of the King in Yellow with the same stories from the book.

Photo of Matt Wilson
Matt Wilson@natisdad407
4 stars
Oct 15, 2024
Photo of Maya
Maya@silentmini
3 stars
Jan 12, 2024
Photo of Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Index Librorum Prohibitorum@darrycowl
4 stars
May 31, 2022
Photo of Tobias V. Langhoff
Tobias V. Langhoff@tvil
4 stars
Feb 24, 2024
Photo of N.C
N.C@quince
4 stars
Dec 28, 2023
Photo of Michael Cowell
Michael Cowell@chaosweeper
5 stars
Sep 12, 2023
Photo of Zoul
Zoul@zoul
3 stars
Jul 21, 2023
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g.@georgias
4 stars
Jun 27, 2023
Photo of Liam Harper
Liam Harper@ljharper
4 stars
Jan 19, 2023
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Jeff@stormwarning
3 stars
Jan 3, 2023
Photo of Jasmine
Jasmine@jasmeaniethebookish
3 stars
Sep 16, 2022
Photo of Edward Steel
Edward Steel@eddsteel
4 stars
Sep 1, 2022
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Is@norriei
3 stars
Jun 5, 2022
Photo of Mark Wadley
Mark Wadley@markplasma
4 stars
Mar 8, 2022
Photo of Maxie Froelicher
Maxie Froelicher@colonelwinnant
2 stars
Feb 2, 2022
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Dani@erudani
4 stars
Sep 7, 2021
Photo of Leafling
Leafling@leaflinglearns
4 stars
Sep 1, 2021
Photo of Owen Kraft
Owen Kraft@owen
3 stars
Aug 15, 2021
Photo of Raymie Smith
Raymie Smith@raymie
3 stars
Aug 9, 2021

Highlights

Photo of Bárbara Deoti
Bárbara Deoti@barbaradeoti

Oh the sin of writing such words - words which are clear as crystal, limpid and musical as bubbling springs, words which sparkle and glow like the poisoned diamonds of the Medicis!

Page 70
Photo of Bárbara Deoti
Bárbara Deoti@barbaradeoti

The mask of self-deception was no longer a mask for me, it was a part of me. Night lifted it, laying bare the stifled truth below; but there was no one to see except myself, and when the day broke the mask fell back again of its own accord.

Page 40
Photo of Bárbara Deoti
Bárbara Deoti@barbaradeoti

I snatched the thing out of the coals and crept shaking to my bedroom, where I read it and reread it, and wept and laughed and trembled with a horror which at times assails me yet.

Page 5