The King in Yellow, Part 1
'The King in Yellow, Part 1' Summary
The first four stories are loosely connected by three main devices:
- A play in book form entitled The King in Yellow
- A mysterious and malevolent supernatural and gothic entity known as the King in Yellow
- An eerie symbol called the Yellow Sign
These stories are macabre in tone, centering, in keeping with the other tales, on characters who are often artists or decadents, inhabitants of the demi-monde.
The first and fourth stories, "The Repairer of Reputations" and "The Yellow Sign", are set in an imagined future 1920s America, whereas the second and third stories, "The Mask" and "In the Court of the Dragon", are set in Paris. These stories are haunted by the theme: "Have you found the Yellow Sign?"
The macabre character gradually fades away during the remaining stories, and the last three are written in the romantic fiction style common to Chambers' later work. They are all linked to the preceding stories by their Parisian setting and their artistic protagonists.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1895Author
Robert W. Chambers
United States
Robert William Chambers was an American artist and fiction writer, best known for his book of short stories titled The King in Yellow, published in 1895. Chambers was born in Brooklyn, New York, to...
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