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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
slow-paced
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
not for me
Absolutely fantastic. The tone, the quasi-magical world building, the humor and the constant sense of menace.
Robert W. Chambers had sort of a split personality in his writing, which is demonstrated fairly well by this collection. In the first four stories, the true "King In Yellow" stories, he shows a nice talent for creepy tales in the Poe/Bierce tradition, with some interesting proto-sf elements in the first story, "The Repairer of Reputations." The subtle (and possibly self-contradictory) interlinkages between the stories seems like they could have influenced H. P. Lovecraft (a full-throated admirer of Chambers' work) to do the same.
All of his stories have a romantic component, which only becomes more pronounced as the collection goes on, and the last two stories are not even vaguely horror, just tales of Magic Parisian Dream Girls and not too interesting for me. In the middle are stories like "The Demoiselle d'Ys" and "The Street of the Four Winds," which are strongly romantic, yes, but in a Gothic way and have nice supernatural touches. The most interesting, if inscrutable, of the stories has to be "The Prophet's Paradise," which isn't really a story so much as little verbal dioramas, where Chambers plays with repeated and syncopated phrases to good effect.
One of the "straight" romantic stories, "The Street of the First Shell," deserves a mention, because it's set during the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Chambers does a really really good job of portraying the sense of doom and chaos for the citizens of Paris and the expatriate Americans trapped alongside them, and he does a sort of Saving Private Ryan thing with a sortie scene that seems very modern for being over a century old.
Overall I definitely recommend checking the stories out: the entire book is out of copyright and can be read online at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8492
But once you're done with "The Street of the First Shell," everything else is optional.
All of his stories have a romantic component, which only becomes more pronounced as the collection goes on, and the last two stories are not even vaguely horror, just tales of Magic Parisian Dream Girls and not too interesting for me. In the middle are stories like "The Demoiselle d'Ys" and "The Street of the Four Winds," which are strongly romantic, yes, but in a Gothic way and have nice supernatural touches. The most interesting, if inscrutable, of the stories has to be "The Prophet's Paradise," which isn't really a story so much as little verbal dioramas, where Chambers plays with repeated and syncopated phrases to good effect.
One of the "straight" romantic stories, "The Street of the First Shell," deserves a mention, because it's set during the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Chambers does a really really good job of portraying the sense of doom and chaos for the citizens of Paris and the expatriate Americans trapped alongside them, and he does a sort of Saving Private Ryan thing with a sortie scene that seems very modern for being over a century old.
Overall I definitely recommend checking the stories out: the entire book is out of copyright and can be read online at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8492
But once you're done with "The Street of the First Shell," everything else is optional.
What to make of a collection of stories that is one part Lovecraftian horror, one part bohemian decadency, and another part romantic fantasy? You have to separate them from one another, so that the collection isn’t much of a collection at all, but rather, a pile.
The jump from story four (containing the last mention of the King in Yellow) to story five (on to painters in Paris, I guess) couldn’t be more crude. At first you become drawn into the haunted mythos of the titular tome, you explore it further, looking for answers, drawing connections - and then - suddenly - Roberts tears it away from you, finished. It’s a disappointment to say the least. The Repairer of Reputations amazed me. The last story - I couldn’t even finish it.
Lesson learned: to regard short stories within a collection as adjacent to one another. Houses of the same neighborhood. They should differ, of course, but it is better for them to compliment each other, so that you may walk down a street and admire their chemistry, their collective charm. A modern glass home beside a log cabin - it’s an awkward look. Every architect knows to take into account the context of their surroundings first and above all else before mapping out a project. That way, it may stand properly.
The jump from story four (containing the last mention of the King in Yellow) to story five (on to painters in Paris, I guess) couldn’t be more crude. At first you become drawn into the haunted mythos of the titular tome, you explore it further, looking for answers, drawing connections - and then - suddenly - Roberts tears it away from you, finished. It’s a disappointment to say the least. The Repairer of Reputations amazed me. The last story - I couldn’t even finish it.
Lesson learned: to regard short stories within a collection as adjacent to one another. Houses of the same neighborhood. They should differ, of course, but it is better for them to compliment each other, so that you may walk down a street and admire their chemistry, their collective charm. A modern glass home beside a log cabin - it’s an awkward look. Every architect knows to take into account the context of their surroundings first and above all else before mapping out a project. That way, it may stand properly.
yes, there is something maddening in artistry. more so in beauty. "i pray god will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world…”
[more to follow, perhaps]
[more to follow, perhaps]
The supernatural horror first six stories were neat, but then he abandoned that genre altogether and it bored me to death. Felt like I was reading a different book, but Chambers's writing style had me interested enough to finish it. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god" slaps tho
I enjoyed the first handful of tales, but I’ve heard that it loses it’s weird fiction-edge at around the midpoint of the book. Ending at Chambers’ short The Yellow Sign was undoubtedly a high note to end on.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The idea of King In Yellow is one that I really like. A piece of media that drives all that see it insane, though unfortunately the content of the Novella wasn’t as hard hitting as I would have liked.
Comprised of 3 shorter stories involving the King In Yellow, an in universe play banned and buried by the worlds governments being discovered or otherwise looked at by the leads none of the stories go as hard with that concept except the 1st
I suppose a large part of my, I don’t want to call it disappointment in king in yellow was the hype around it. You can’t deny it’s an influential book in the genre but maybe it’s the age of the story or the concept not being used to its full potential but I found it to be a very ‘fine’ novella.
I’d recommend Mark z. Danieluski’s House of Leaves in place of King in Yellow for a story that drives its story readers mad.
Comprised of 3 shorter stories involving the King In Yellow, an in universe play banned and buried by the worlds governments being discovered or otherwise looked at by the leads none of the stories go as hard with that concept except the 1st
I suppose a large part of my, I don’t want to call it disappointment in king in yellow was the hype around it. You can’t deny it’s an influential book in the genre but maybe it’s the age of the story or the concept not being used to its full potential but I found it to be a very ‘fine’ novella.
I’d recommend Mark z. Danieluski’s House of Leaves in place of King in Yellow for a story that drives its story readers mad.