Cossiol reviewed El Rey de Amarillo by Robert William Chambers
None
3 stars
Déu els digué: arrancada de cavall i arribada d'ase
Déu els digué: arrancada de cavall i arribada d'ase
eBook
English language
Published 2023 by Arc Dream Publishing.
The King in Yellow - Annotated Edition
The King in Yellow is a book of short stories by the American writer Robert W. Chambers, first published by F. Tennyson Neely in 1895. The book is named after a play with the same title which recurs as a motif through some of the stories. The first half of the book features highly esteemed horror stories, and the book has been described by critics such as E. F. Bleiler, S. T. Joshi and T. E. D. Klein as a classic in the field of the supernatural. There are ten stories, the first four of which ("The Repairer of Reputations", "The Mask", "In the Court of the Dragon", and "The Yellow Sign") mention The King in Yellow, a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it. "The Yellow Sign" inspired a film of the same name released in 2001. The British first edition was published by …
The King in Yellow is a book of short stories by the American writer Robert W. Chambers, first published by F. Tennyson Neely in 1895. The book is named after a play with the same title which recurs as a motif through some of the stories. The first half of the book features highly esteemed horror stories, and the book has been described by critics such as E. F. Bleiler, S. T. Joshi and T. E. D. Klein as a classic in the field of the supernatural. There are ten stories, the first four of which ("The Repairer of Reputations", "The Mask", "In the Court of the Dragon", and "The Yellow Sign") mention The King in Yellow, a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it. "The Yellow Sign" inspired a film of the same name released in 2001. The British first edition was published by Chatto & Windus in 1895 (316 pages).
Einflussreicher Klassiker der Weird Fiction
4 stars
Die ersten paar Geschichten sind bemerkenswert und unter ihnen möchte ich insbesondere „The Repairer of Reputations" hervorheben - spannend erzählt, voller Ideen und in ihrem Spiel mit subjektiven Realitäten ist die Geschichte erstaunlich modern und erstaunlich krass. Der „König in Gelb“ – ein nach der Uraufführung schnell verbotenes Theaterstück, ein seltenes Buch mit dem Skript des Stücks, das Gelbe Zeichen, eine rätselhafte gesichtslose Gestalt in Lumpen oder… - wird vor allem in diesen drei Geschichten erwähnt und steht in irgendeiner Weise mit dem Untergang der unzuverlässigen Erzähler in Zusammenhang. Die letzten vier Geschichten hatte Chambers vorab an anderer Stelle veröffentlicht und stehen nicht direkt in Zusammenhang mit der Thematik.
Kein einfacher Lesestoff, da die Geschichten ihren Reiz auf verschiedenen Ebenen transportieren, die offensichtliche Handlungsebene ist selten die Interessanteste. Es ist leicht vorstellbar, dass beim oberflächlichen lesen vieles verborgen bleibt, daher empfehle ich diese exzellente von Kenneth Hite kommentierte Fassung, …
Die ersten paar Geschichten sind bemerkenswert und unter ihnen möchte ich insbesondere „The Repairer of Reputations" hervorheben - spannend erzählt, voller Ideen und in ihrem Spiel mit subjektiven Realitäten ist die Geschichte erstaunlich modern und erstaunlich krass. Der „König in Gelb“ – ein nach der Uraufführung schnell verbotenes Theaterstück, ein seltenes Buch mit dem Skript des Stücks, das Gelbe Zeichen, eine rätselhafte gesichtslose Gestalt in Lumpen oder… - wird vor allem in diesen drei Geschichten erwähnt und steht in irgendeiner Weise mit dem Untergang der unzuverlässigen Erzähler in Zusammenhang. Die letzten vier Geschichten hatte Chambers vorab an anderer Stelle veröffentlicht und stehen nicht direkt in Zusammenhang mit der Thematik.
Kein einfacher Lesestoff, da die Geschichten ihren Reiz auf verschiedenen Ebenen transportieren, die offensichtliche Handlungsebene ist selten die Interessanteste. Es ist leicht vorstellbar, dass beim oberflächlichen lesen vieles verborgen bleibt, daher empfehle ich diese exzellente von Kenneth Hite kommentierte Fassung, die viele Anspielungen und Deutungen liefert, die ohne tiefe Kenntnisse der damaligen Zeit und ihrer Literatur leicht übersehen würden.
Die Illustrationen von Samuel Araya finde ich ebenfalls sehr gelungen.
Lucius reviewed El Rey de Amarillo by Robert William Chambers
Review of 'The King in Yellow' on 'Storygraph'
Listened to a fantastic audiobook version. Enjoyed the supernatural stories and appreciated the lovelorn shorts.
This book changed my life, possibly not for the better.
In the autumn of 1998, I found myself walking the oak-lined streets of an old city, on a sultry subtropical night. I looked up through the narrow alley between the branches, and saw the rubicund light of Aldebaran gleaming at me. I was at a dead-end in my studies, and knew it, and had no better plans. At the moment the star's light fell on me, I felt a change; my frustration with my life slipped away, replaced by a bittersweet longing for another life I had known only in my dreams. It was soon after that I came into possession of a small press's library-bound edition of The King In Yellow. I had heard it mentioned, of course, in Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature", but in those days, the book was not widely reprinted, nor well-known outside of the small weird fiction community.
Oh, the poisonous beauty …
In the autumn of 1998, I found myself walking the oak-lined streets of an old city, on a sultry subtropical night. I looked up through the narrow alley between the branches, and saw the rubicund light of Aldebaran gleaming at me. I was at a dead-end in my studies, and knew it, and had no better plans. At the moment the star's light fell on me, I felt a change; my frustration with my life slipped away, replaced by a bittersweet longing for another life I had known only in my dreams. It was soon after that I came into possession of a small press's library-bound edition of The King In Yellow. I had heard it mentioned, of course, in Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature", but in those days, the book was not widely reprinted, nor well-known outside of the small weird fiction community.
Oh, the poisonous beauty of it! The hints that lead you on to a precipice over the cloud-waves of Hali, and leave you there, unsatisfied and precarious!
I'll not spoil the experience for you, except to note that the Paris art student stories of the second half of the book, so often thought to be out of place in this collection, actually have subtle ties to the better-known horror stories.
Sergeant Cat reviewed El Rey de Amarillo by Robert William Chambers
A really random collection of stories
3 stars
This is a really random collection of stories. I read this on the Serial Reader app, so I didn't really know much about it when I went into it. As I progressed, I had this idea that it was going to be a collection of stories that in some way all had The King in Yellow in them, but that wasn't the case. The stories also aren't all the same genre.
My two favorite stories out of the bunch are the one about the guy in the church who sees the same guy twice and the story about the guy who gets lost in the moors, Phillip. The final story wasn't too bad either, except it ended without any sort of resolution regarding Hastings. It could have been a good story but it just wasn't finished.
This is a really random collection of stories. I read this on the Serial Reader app, so I didn't really know much about it when I went into it. As I progressed, I had this idea that it was going to be a collection of stories that in some way all had The King in Yellow in them, but that wasn't the case. The stories also aren't all the same genre.
My two favorite stories out of the bunch are the one about the guy in the church who sees the same guy twice and the story about the guy who gets lost in the moors, Phillip. The final story wasn't too bad either, except it ended without any sort of resolution regarding Hastings. It could have been a good story but it just wasn't finished.
Jan Kjellin reviewed The King in Yellow by Robert William Chambers
Review of 'The King in Yellow' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
People descending into madness. The otherworldly King in Yellow. The pallid mask. Carcosa, where the black stars hang in the sky.
Anyone with the slightest interest in Lovecraftian literature will feel at home when reading the first three or so short stories in this book. They do indeed contain that same essence of "cosmic terror" that Lovecraft since refined and perfected - and who knows; maybe the name of R.W. Chambers would be the blackest star shining, had he but decided to continue on that horrfic path towards Carcosa. But history (and probably he himself) chose otherwise.
The majority of stories in this collection are romantic and witty. Had they been movies, they would have bene classified as romantic comedies. Don't get me wrong, though. They are nice reads too. Just not what one expects after having been subjected to the threat that is "The King in Yellow".
Chambers descriptions …
People descending into madness. The otherworldly King in Yellow. The pallid mask. Carcosa, where the black stars hang in the sky.
Anyone with the slightest interest in Lovecraftian literature will feel at home when reading the first three or so short stories in this book. They do indeed contain that same essence of "cosmic terror" that Lovecraft since refined and perfected - and who knows; maybe the name of R.W. Chambers would be the blackest star shining, had he but decided to continue on that horrfic path towards Carcosa. But history (and probably he himself) chose otherwise.
The majority of stories in this collection are romantic and witty. Had they been movies, they would have bene classified as romantic comedies. Don't get me wrong, though. They are nice reads too. Just not what one expects after having been subjected to the threat that is "The King in Yellow".
Chambers descriptions of being a drunken, young, aspiring artist in Paris are wonderful, as are his commentaries on/observations of people's behavior in general. These qualities are better diplayed in the romcoms, so even though they might not be your preferred genre of literature, I still urge anyone picking this book up to read those stories as well.
