Intruiging first half but it becomes unspeakably dull in the back half. https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2019/01/horror-and-decadence-review-of-king-i... Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading, H. P. Lovecrafts Bibliothek des Schreckens, Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural - Wordsworth, Delphi Complete Weird Tales of Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow / The Mystery of Choice, The Repairer of Reputations [short story], The Street of the Four Winds [short story]. The diary of the first murder victim is examined in episode two and quotes whole chunks of The King in Yellow. Lovecraft, it is only mentioned in one of his stories, "The Whisperer in Darkness." Copyright LibraryThing and/or members of LibraryThing, authors, publishers, libraries, cover designers, Amazon, Bol, Bruna, etc. But it is True Detective which has ignited the most fresh interest in Chambers' book. It is frankly, just plain “weird”. Lovecraft. Born in Brooklyn in 1865, Chambers wrote widely, his oeuvre encompassing romantic fiction and adventure novels. Here's Why, Beirut Explosion: WSJ Reporter Relives the Moment in His Shattered Home, WSJ Opinion: Biden to Trump: ‘Will You Shut Up, Man?’, What States Trump and Biden Need to Get Elected, News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. The fifth story seems perfect for a Twilight Zone episode. Yesterday on Amazon, “The King in Yellow,” … The stories are well written and have internal consistency. The hit HBO crime drama is tantalising fans with references to Robert W Chambers' 1895 short story collection, an early classic of the weird fiction genre. It is set in a then-future America of 1920, thriving after a (prescient) war with Germany. Well, Matthew McConaughey doesn't hurt. This future features government-approved lethal chambers for those who want to end it all. As well as being the title of Chambers' book, The King in Yellow is also the name of a fictional play which is referred to throughout the 10 short stories that make up the volume. But it is The King in Yellow for which he is remembered, and which places him alongside the likes of Ambrose Bierce and HP Lovecraft in the "weird fiction" pantheon. The narrator, Castaigne, reads the text of The King in Yellow and falls in with a man named Wilde, who takes fees from the desperate to "repair their reputations". MTV plaintively wails: "Who the hell is the Yellow King?" The show's writer, novelist Nic Pizzolatto, has sewn steady references to "The King in Yellow," a collection of short stories by Robert Chambers, into the show's early episodes. How it fits into the overarching story is already the subject of much internet debate. If I had not caught a glimpse of the opening words in the second act I should never have finished it, but as I stooped to pick it up, my eyes became riveted to the open page, and with a cry of terror, or perhaps it was of joy so poignant that I suffered in every nerve, I snatched the thing out of the coals and crept shaking to my bedroom, where I read it and reread it, and wept and laughed and trembled with a horror which at times assails me yet.". Chambers has a nice narrator's voice, but he is so busy explaining everything around the main characters that the scary stuff that happens sort of evaporates in the waterfall of words that he uses. Fictional work created by Robert W. Chambers set in the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. Quite how The King in Yellow relates to the ritual murder of Dora Lange in True Detectives remains to be seen – though one would guess that The Yellow King referred to in the series is the perpetrator of the murders. Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Chambers also used Bierce's supernatural entities Hali and Hastur, which later found their way into Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories.