Story summary
Краткое содержание: The King in Yellow
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 10 parts
- Аудио скоро
A banned play drives its readers mad, and a pale organist in black follows a frightened churchgoer through Paris.
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The King in Yellow — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 4 h 50 min3 h 50 min fast, 5 h 45 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 68 90010 chapters
- Страницы
- Страниц: 200301 in large print
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
- Первая публикация
- 1895by Robert W. Chambers
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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The King in Yellow in short
The King in Yellow adds up to a book of masks. Four tales circle a play that wrecks the minds of its readers. After them come a moorland romance set out of time, a handful of prose poems, and Latin Quarter tales set in a siege, a boardinghouse and a student studio.
What The King in Yellow is about
A man sits in a Paris church while an organ snarls above him, and a pale stranger in black turns to stare at him with deadly hatred. Elsewhere, a young man in New York hurls a book into the fire, then snatches it from the coals. What is in that book, and why does it ruin nearly everyone who reads it?
The King in Yellow is a story collection by Robert W. Chambers, published in 1895. Its first four tales share a forbidden play whose second act drives readers mad. The play never appears in full. Only its shadow does, in names such as Carcosa, Hastur and the Yellow Sign. The rest of the book moves through the Paris of art students, with studios, gardens and cafés that feel lived in.
Для кого. Readers who love ghost stories and weird tales, enjoy dreamlike mood, and like to wander Paris with art students. A good pick for fans of cosmic horror and of romantic Bohemian fiction alike.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A Reader of the Play Plans to Seize a Crown
The Repairer of Reputations is set in a New York of 1920 that Chambers imagines as calm, rich and proud of itself. The narrator, Hildred Castaigne, once fell from his horse and was sent to a private asylum. He calls that a mistake and insists his mind is as sound as anyone's.
Hildred has read The King in Yellow. One glimpse of the second act sent him shaking to his room, where he read it again and again. Now he keeps a diadem of gold and diamonds in a steel safe with a time lock. His guide is Mr. Wilde, a tiny man with mangled ears who runs a trade he calls repairing reputations. Wilde has prepared a manuscript that links Hildred's family to Carcosa and the line of Hastur. Hildred believes a crown is his by right, and his cousin Louis stands in the way.
The tale works because Hildred sounds so orderly. Small things leak out, such as his hatred of the words lunatic and crazy. An orderly voice can hide a mind that has already slipped.
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A Sculptor's Liquid Turns Flowers to Marble
The Mask begins in a Paris studio, where a young painter named Alec watches his friend Boris Yvain, a sculptor, show off a discovery.
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An Organist Hunts One Listener Through Paris
The Court of the Dragon is one short, tight scene of fear.
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A Painter Notices a Soft, Pale Watchman
The Yellow Sign opens in a painter's studio above Washington Square.
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A Lost Hunter Finds a Falcon Maiden
The Demoiselle d'Ys is a love story set out of time.
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Tiny Poems and a Cat Lead Inward
After the horror tales, the book changes pace with The Prophets' Paradise, a set of eight very short prose poems.
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Friends Share Their Last Food During a Siege
The Street of the First Shell is set in the siege of Paris, in a freezing December when German guns shell the city.
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Young Men Fall in Love in the Latin Quarter
The Street of Our Lady of the Fields follows Hastings, a gentle young man from Connecticut, who comes to Paris to study art.
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Masks and Madness Run Through Every Tale
Masks run through the whole book.
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A Play Never Shown Haunts the Whole Book
The first four tales share one object, a play called The King in Yellow, and Chambers never quotes it at length.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Hildred Castaigne A proud young New Yorker who has read the forbidden play and believes a golden crown is his by right.
- Mr. Wilde A tiny schemer with mangled ears who repairs reputations for pay and guides Hildred toward his plan.
- Alec A young Paris painter who hides his love for Geneviève behind a mask of cheerful friendship.
- Boris Yvain A gifted sculptor who has found a liquid that turns living things into marble and wants to keep it secret.
- Tessie Reardon A warm, devout artist's model who cares for the painter Scott and fears a pale man in the churchyard.
- Jeanne d'Ys A falconer of the Breton moors who speaks the old French of the Middle Ages and welcomes a lost stranger.
- Hastings A kind, innocent young American in Paris who studies art and believes the best of everyone he meets.
- Valentine Tissot A quick-witted Parisian girl who asks Hastings to keep her a mystery, and who fears losing his good opinion.
How it ends (spoiler)
The tales end in different ways. Hildred is bound by police beside the dead Wilde, raving about his crown. The Mask closes with Geneviève waking from marble. The church narrator falls, then hears the King whisper. In The Yellow Sign the painter and Tessie both die. Jeanne proves to be a ghost of 1573. Severn finds Sylvia dead. In the siege tale Trent comes home to Sylvia and a child. Hastings and Valentine ride toward love, while Rue Barrée sends a drunken Selby away unharmed.
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Вопросы о книге The King in Yellow
What is The King in Yellow about?
It is a collection of stories by Robert W. Chambers. The first four center on a forbidden play that drives readers mad. The others follow art students, lovers and friends in Paris, with a ghostly moorland romance and a few prose poems.
What is the Yellow Sign in The King in Yellow?
The Yellow Sign is a strange symbol linked to the play and its King. In The Repairer of Reputations it is sent to followers. In The Yellow Sign it appears on a black onyx clasp that belongs to no human script.
Where are Carcosa and Hastur from?
They belong to the play inside the stories. Carcosa is a dim city with black stars, twin suns and the lake of Hali. Hastur is a name tied to its royal line. Chambers only hints at them, so they stay mysterious.
Is The King in Yellow a real play?
No. The play is invented by Chambers, and he gives only glimpses of it in epigraphs and in what his characters say. The book was first published in 1895, and the play's few quoted lines are part of its fiction.
Do I have to read The King in Yellow stories in order?
No. Each tale stands alone, and the short pieces are quick to follow by ear. The first four share the play, while the Paris tales share a circle of friends, so reading in order adds small pleasures of recognition.
Как сослаться на это издание
Chambers, Robert W. The King in Yellow. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-king-in-yellow.
Chambers, R. W. (2026). The King in Yellow. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-king-in-yellow (Original work published 1895)
Chambers, Robert W. The King in Yellow. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-king-in-yellow.
@book{chambers2026king,
author = {Chambers, Robert W.},
title = {The King in Yellow},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-king-in-yellow},
note = {First published 1895}
}
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