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cinnapseudon 's review for:
The King in Yellow
by Robert W. Chambers
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If you’re reading this online, find the 1902 Harper edition on Archive.org (not Google, whose scan is partially defective). It omits “In the Court of the Dragon,” one of the weird stories and a good one, but is overall significantly better typeset and has markedly better grammar.
Some of the short stories are excellent in terms of plot and characters; others are flatter than cardboard; the prose is uniformly eh and the author’s punctuation is pretty bad in the editions from before he had an editor. I technically DNFed this three times.
Nevertheless, when it is good it is really good. “The Repairer of Reputations” is perhaps my favorite short story for the delightful scheming politician-assassin of a narrator, though obligatory disclaimer that Chambers emphatically did not understand whatever mental illness he’s trying to portray. “The Mask” is painfully accurate in its depiction of Alec’s suppression of his love in favor of self-abnegating loyalty, with my source being that, aside from the love triangle, I have been there. “The Street of the Four Winds “ is short but haunting, and stayed with me long after I read it.
The romances in the weird stories of this book also don’t fall into the wooden-lovers business Chambers is so used to, with the partial exception of “The Demoiselle d’Ys,” which is nevertheless enjoyable for the information on medieval falconry.
I also have an intense and long-running special interest in The King in Yellow, so derive from that what opinions you will.
Some of the short stories are excellent in terms of plot and characters; others are flatter than cardboard; the prose is uniformly eh and the author’s punctuation is pretty bad in the editions from before he had an editor. I technically DNFed this three times.
Nevertheless, when it is good it is really good. “The Repairer of Reputations” is perhaps my favorite short story for the delightful scheming politician-assassin of a narrator, though obligatory disclaimer that Chambers emphatically did not understand whatever mental illness he’s trying to portray. “The Mask” is painfully accurate in its depiction of Alec’s suppression of his love in favor of self-abnegating loyalty, with my source being that, aside from the love triangle, I have been there. “The Street of the Four Winds “ is short but haunting, and stayed with me long after I read it.
The romances in the weird stories of this book also don’t fall into the wooden-lovers business Chambers is so used to, with the partial exception of “The Demoiselle d’Ys,” which is nevertheless enjoyable for the information on medieval falconry.
I also have an intense and long-running special interest in The King in Yellow, so derive from that what opinions you will.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Murder, War
Minor: Animal death, Gore, Grief, Cultural appropriation