The King in Yellow

The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask and The Yellow Sign are the highlights, as well as the excerpts in the chapter headings. The rest of the stories range from okay to dull. All in all an okay short story collection. Would have rated it higher if it included only the essential Weird Fiction stories and the Prophet's Paradise.

4/5 if not for being dragged down by the horrifically boring 2nd half which contains a string of uninteresting, needlessly overwritten stories that are not memorable in the slightest. A shame because ‘The Repairer of Reputations' is a borderline masterpiece, and the other stories surrounding the Yellow King are also enrapturing.

Really enjoyed the “King in Yellow” stories. I thought these were extremely imaginative and full of suspense but I found some of the other stories disappointing.

too many stories unrelated to the yellow mythos, and are in fact just slice of life, towards the end. Without them I'd give it a 4. I'm not sure why these wee all compiled together.

A good horror book that gives an interesting picture of what people in the 1890s thought the 1920s would be like. I found it particularly interesting that they still foretold a war with Germany! It was also interesting to see “undesirable” laws keeping certain groups out of the United States. Keep in mind this was before the Holocaust cast such laws in a very dark light.

Regarding the stories themselves, it's interesting to see that written horror hasn't changed that much in over 100 years. It still much more covers the foreboding associated with the unknown, and not understanding death. The world Chambers writes in is still recognizable as mostly modern. Science has changed so much, but it's interesting to see the way Chambers treats science and it's potential misuse, as well as how he treats the Middle Ages. The Franco-Prussian War is relatively little known in the US today, so getting a fairly contemporary account is interesting. I'm not sure I like the end having love stories tacked on, or that they were interesting, but I guess that's how they wrote back then. Overall, an excellent book for those looking for some older horror, especially those wanting to see where HP Lovecraft got some of his inspiration.

It was better than expected, very detailed and well written. A few stories were shorter than others but it did remain interesting.

Was only interested in the stories invloving the king in yellow, the rest of them were not related at all

A collection of late Victorian period strange stories. On the surface these are rather tame by today's standards. A modern reader will have read many better read and more original seeming stories.

However, The lead story which in turn is a collection of related short stories hints that there is a greater ‘world' in which the stories live. It suggests that this world is controlled by supernatural powers and access is via a mysterious book called ‘The King in Yellow'.

It is easy to see how some might think that this story was the inspiration behind Lovecraft and a host of subsequent ‘weird fiction' and horror writers. I don't know if this is true or not, but it is believable.

Should you read this story? If you like Victorian Ghost Stories or ‘Weird Fiction', sure. If you hoping this is something of the calibre of a Lovecraft story, then no. That all said, it's a quick read so dive in if it piques your interest.

I'm off to find some yellow paper to wrap some of my books in.

It's a bit uneven... it starts as quite OK horror and ends as quite OK James Joyce.

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers is a collection of loosely connected short stories. Some tales seem connected by a shared cosmic horror mythos of The King in Yellow, and others were simply romantic stories with little if any connection to the former. I read this book because two stories in it were selected by the HOWL Society book club as a reading to accompany our book of the week, The Final Reconciliation by Todd Keisling, which is a contemporary expansion on Chamber's King in Yellow mythos. I enjoyed those cosmic horror stories, and was reminded of Lovecraft as mystery, madness, menace, and the supernatural seemed to weave together throughout The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask, In The Court of the Dragon, and The Yellow Sign. I also enjoyed The Demoislle D'ys which had dark fairy tale vibes and reminded me a bit of Angela Carter. The remaining stories did not interest me as much. Even the stories I liked seemed to lack a certain something to completely gel. Perhaps, like Lovecraft, I felt there was too much non-supernatural content, building up to a climax with too few answers. I would give the stories I liked 4/5 and the stories I didn't care for as much 2/5. Overall I rate this collection ⭐️⭐️⭐️

So I've jumped on the bandwagon for this 19th century collection of short stories along with the hordes of other True Detective fans. Passing references to dim Carcosa and the Yellow King had me eager to dissect the text for clues to decipher this Lovecraftian police procedural. The finale came halfway through reading the book and suddenly it felt like all of us “had been studying for a test that never came.” The book isn't relevant to the show.

So we're left with the text. And while I liked the idea of the several of the short stories making reference to a dangerous play “The King in Yellow” which has the power to drive the reader into madness upon reading the second act, it wasn't enough. Each story felt disjointed in the telling. Many slowly built a sense of dread only to have it finish abruptly with some throwaway line. It's Horatio Caine reading Lovecraft.

Many wonderful story elements which stick with and linger in your mind. I think there's a bit of tendency to only read the first set of stories and skip the back half of the book, since they don't directly relate to the titular fiction. But they weave thematic threads and vague connections which work very well together.

Really enjoyed the supernatural stories, but wasn't so sold on the others

A collection of short stories all surrounding about a play named, ‘The King In Yellow'. All who see this play or read the screenplay have strange things happen to them. The longest, and arguably best story in the collection, is called ‘The Repairer of Reputations', though all the other stories were also very good. For fans of cosmic horror/weird fiction.