The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow is a collection of ten interconnected stories that explore the despair and madness that characters experience when they come into contact with the forbidden play The King in Yellow. One of the best examples of Victorian-gothic horror it is widely regarded. Robert W. Chambers collection of short stories The King in Yellow was first released by F. Tennyson Neely in 1895. The title of the book is taken from a play of the same name which appears throughout some of the stories as a motif. Three main devices serve as a loose connection between the first four stories: The King in Yellow is a play that was published as a book. The King in Yellow is a supernatural Gothic being that is enigmatic and evil. a sinister icon known as the Yellow Sign These macabre tales have a similar focus on characters who are frequently artists or decadents who live in the demi-monde to the other tales in the collection. Throughout the remaining stories the macabre character gradually disappears and the final three are written in the romantic fiction style that is characteristic of Chambers later work. Due to their Parisian settings and artistic protagonists they are all connected to the stories that came before them.