wilde_book_reviews 's review for:

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

3.5

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Four short stories written back in 1895 yet so well written, I found it very easy to get into.

Each story is linked by a fictional play, 'The King in Yellow' where legend tells that everyone who read it are driven insane.

The plots are clever and you sit waiting for the twist in each tale. 

This collection is classed as a one of the most important works in American supernatural history and an inspiration to many authors, including HP Lovecraft.

Here's a brief summary of the four short stories: 

1. The repairer of reputations is a strange story told from the point of view of a man who is gradually going insane after reading the play, 'The King in Yellow.'  Set in a world where black Americans are banished to form their own country, suicide is legal and actually welcomed with the creation of lethal chambers on street corners.

2. The Mask. A sculptor has created a liquid, which when something is submerged, the clear liquid becomes like milk and then pearlescent before a ray of light is emitted. Retrieving the sunken object at that precise moment reveals that it has become marble. Very handy for a sculptor.

3. In the court of the dragon. A gentleman walks into a church seeking some peace and quiet, listening to the preachers sermon to distract his mind from a play he has just read. He hears the organist making a row and then watches them leave the church. A minute later he watches the same organist leave the building via the same route again.

4. The Yellow Sign. An artist paints his regular nude model in his studio next to the church. Out of the window, he is disturbed to see the pale, deadened face of the church Watchman. It disrupts his thoughts and he realises he's ruining his painting. As he tries to remove the paint, the more he is ruining it. His model tells him of a dream she's had, where shes stood at that same window, looking out one night, to see a horse drawn hearse driven by that same man. In the coffin is the artist. He has had the same dream....

Obviously the tales are of their time but I don't think they would cause offense.

They're certainly not scary but a few are thought provoking.

Coming in at just 155 pages it's not going to take up much of your time.