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praedatrix's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
reynaskywalker's review against another edition
4.0
the nature of books of short stories means i waffle between three & five stars, so i compromise. some of these slay (literal). some of these slay (figurative). and some of these. are there
shmark's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
old_odd_biscuit's review against another edition
3.0
The first 4 stories are excellent examples of subtle/weird horror, with some impressive ideas that seem surprisingly modern. A cursed book that drives you insane if you read it, ties them together, and was clearly the inspiration for H. P. Lovecraft's Necronomicon.
Two of the stories are set in an imagined 1920s, making them early examples of science fiction. The government department of suicide in The Repairer of Reputations anticipates current news of the Sarco assisted suicide pod, although Futurama predicted it more recently in 1999.
The Demoiselle D'Ys is a great time slip story, and The Street of the Four Winds a lovely cat-lover tale with a macabre end.
The rest of the collection have no supernatural element, and are instead a separate cycle of stories about Paris and recurring characters living in the Latin Quarter.
The Street of the First Shell is a war story set in the 1870 Seige of Paris, apparently featuring characters from the author's novel published the year before. There is a wonderful atmosphere and description but on first reading I felt annoyed by how inconsequential it felt.
Also worth highlighting is the final story, Rue Baree, which is a straight romance story and is sensitively written.
As a collection, The King in Yellow suffers from being so sharply divided between two genres, horror and historical romance. I came to it for the horror stories so the rest felt like a meal I didn't order. I might better appreciate them on a second read in a more receptive frame of mind.
But I must say that while parts were not gripping, it was never uninteresting. The details of ordinary life and the experiences of love are well written. Overall, this is a remarkably modern-feeling work for having been written in 1895. My old belief that all Victorian writing was as ornate as Conan Doyle has been dispelled by my recent exploration of works like this.
Two of the stories are set in an imagined 1920s, making them early examples of science fiction. The government department of suicide in The Repairer of Reputations anticipates current news of the Sarco assisted suicide pod, although Futurama predicted it more recently in 1999.
The Demoiselle D'Ys is a great time slip story, and The Street of the Four Winds a lovely cat-lover tale with a macabre end.
The rest of the collection have no supernatural element, and are instead a separate cycle of stories about Paris and recurring characters living in the Latin Quarter.
The Street of the First Shell is a war story set in the 1870 Seige of Paris, apparently featuring characters from the author's novel published the year before. There is a wonderful atmosphere and description but on first reading I felt annoyed by how inconsequential it felt.
Also worth highlighting is the final story, Rue Baree, which is a straight romance story and is sensitively written.
As a collection, The King in Yellow suffers from being so sharply divided between two genres, horror and historical romance. I came to it for the horror stories so the rest felt like a meal I didn't order. I might better appreciate them on a second read in a more receptive frame of mind.
But I must say that while parts were not gripping, it was never uninteresting. The details of ordinary life and the experiences of love are well written. Overall, this is a remarkably modern-feeling work for having been written in 1895. My old belief that all Victorian writing was as ornate as Conan Doyle has been dispelled by my recent exploration of works like this.
keaganbailey's review against another edition
2.0
Whoever put this collection together really put sawdust in with the oats. The collection is named after the first 4 stories and the other 6 romances have nothing to do with the horror stories before them, they're also much weaker stories.
The romances quickly turn into half-french slogs and I could see the longest story, The Street of Our Lady of the Fields, being nearly incomprehensible if you don't understand at least a little French and/or some art terminology.
All of the stories have the same issue of the reader needing to reorient themselves every 15-30 pages with dry settings and okay-enough characters. The endings are nearly all VERY good but you find yourself not being able to invest yourself in the characters since you know there's only the setup and ending. There's no meat to the stories.
2 stars for the lack of theme and the wild amount of French, but I would probably rate 4 stars if it was just the first 4-5 stories in this collection.
The romances quickly turn into half-french slogs and I could see the longest story, The Street of Our Lady of the Fields, being nearly incomprehensible if you don't understand at least a little French and/or some art terminology.
All of the stories have the same issue of the reader needing to reorient themselves every 15-30 pages with dry settings and okay-enough characters. The endings are nearly all VERY good but you find yourself not being able to invest yourself in the characters since you know there's only the setup and ending. There's no meat to the stories.
2 stars for the lack of theme and the wild amount of French, but I would probably rate 4 stars if it was just the first 4-5 stories in this collection.
slettlune's review against another edition
4.0
Chambers uses a remarkably modern language for his time, and is occasionally as cleverly witty as, say, Pratchett, but it was the pre-Lovecraftian mad horror that drew me to this book. All the short stories involding the king in yellow are wonderfully creepy and curious -- but I was somwhat disappointed the recurring motifs of madness and the titular play are all done with after the four first stories, then it's a series of love stories from there on out. They're good love stories (this is where his dry wit shines) and I adore the bohemian settings he uses for them, but they feel dissonant to the horror stories that preceded them. Had this collection been published today I'm pretty sure any editor would at least have reshuffled the order of stories so the change didn't feel so abrupt.
aramintapdf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
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? It's complicated
3.5
the premise is fascinating and the first handful of stories were great but the longer ones lost me.