Chambers , first published by F. Tennyson Neely in The book contains nine short stories and a sequence of poems; while the first stories belong to the genres of supernatural horror and weird fiction , The King in Yellow progressively transitions towards a more light-hearted tone, ending with romantic stories devoid of horror or supernatural elements.
Bleiler , S. Joshi , and T. Klein as a classic in the field of the supernatural. The book is named for the eponymous play within the stories which recurs as a motif through the first four stories, a forbidden play which induces madness in those who read it. 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. 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. The fictional play The King in Yellow has at least two acts and at least three characters: Cassilda, Camilla and "the Stranger", who may or may not be the titular character.
Chambers' story collection excerpts some sections from the play to introduce the book as a whole, or individual stories.
For example, "Cassilda's Song" comes from Act 1, Scene 2 of the play: [ 8 ]. Along the shore the cloud waves break, The twin suns sink behind the lake, The shadows lengthen In Carcosa. Strange is the night where black stars rise, And strange moons circle through the skies, But stranger still is Lost Carcosa.
