The King in Yellow (part 1)
Robert W. Chambers
Read by Peter Yearsley
Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) studied art in Paris in the late 80's and early 90's, where his work was displayed at the Salon. However, shortly after returning to America, he decided to spend his time in writing. He became popular as the writer of a number of romantic novels, but is now best known as the author of "The King In Yellow". This is a collection of the first half of this work of short stories which have an eerie, other-worldly feel to it; but the stories in the second half are essentially love stories, strongly coloured by the author's life as an artist in France.
Only the first half of the collection of stories is presented here: the earlier stories are all coloured by the background presence of a play, "The King In Yellow" itself, which corrupts those who read it, and opens them to horrible experiences and to visions of a ghastly other world, lit by dark stars and distorted skies. This half of the collection is completed by a few very short pieces and two rather strange and beautiful stories of love and time, loneliness and death. (summary by Peter Yearsley) (4 hr 38 min)
Chapters
| The Repairer of Reputations - Part One | 24:59 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Repairer of Reputations - Part Two | 29:32 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Repairer of Reputations - Part Three | 34:29 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Mask | 48:54 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Court Of The Dragon | 24:24 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Yellow Sign | 49:01 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Demoiselle D'YS | 39:49 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Prophet's Paradise | 9:08 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
| The Street of the Four Winds | 17:49 | Read by Peter Yearsley |
Reviews
Timeless
M.R. Wallace
It's odd in this day and age, almost 120 years after it was published, that this is the work Robert W. Chambers is best known for. In his own time, he mostly wrote romances, something plainly evident in the latter stories here. But, thanks to the praise of H.P. Lovecraft--and in turn by August Derleth's preservation of HPL's work--this book has outlived all of Chambers' others. As weird fiction goes, The King in Yellow is delightful. Never explaining the worlds of the stories too much, they are leant an ethereal and dreamlike quality. Each story has its strengths, but the standouts to me are The Repairer of Reputations--where a man in 1920s New York prepares himself to claim his birthright (no spoilers)--and The Mask, which centers around a sculptor who has discovered an alchemical formula that can turn living flesh into marble. It's odd, but the ending is beautiful. Lastly, The Demoiselle D'Ys is just about as romantic and tragic as the stories get. Well worth a listen.
Creepy Good Fun.
avid_adlib
I had heard of this book and sought it out on Librevox. I was delighted to find it read by none other than Peter Yearsley, one of my favorite readers, whose vocal talents are once again perfectly suited to the material.
En kung klädd i gult, är kult.
LunAlpha
Strindberg, Plato, Herodes eller Machiavelli, I denna boken får du lite av allt klassisk kultur har att erbjuda men mer än något är den ett testamente till Jean Jack Rousseau. Detta är en kraftigt romantisk " bibel" av skräcknoveller som alla är bundna i varandra på ett eller annat sätt. Ta ett Platoniskt perspektiv i en värld fylld med Rousseau romantiker med en släng av Sartre och den bokstavliga bibeln (dock utan att insistera på sig själv) och du kan börja att föreställa dig vilket universum du besökrr i detta fenomenala verk som inspirerat en hel del kontemporär kultur och står tidlös, lika läskig nu som då och existentiella frågor ingen gett svar på sedan boken skrevs har getts, så man kan utgå från att denna boken kommer överleva ett bra tag till. Läs!
A few good stories. A great Narrator!
CO_Illustrator79
Stories were interesting. More gothic than horrific but that’s not a bad thing. The narrator was fantastic and truly made what might have been dull reads rather exciting stories over all. My favorite was probably The Yellow Sign but a very close second has to be Restorer of Reputations. It’s a testament to his influence that these stories feel modern and recent. That’s probably because so many writers ate from these two tales alone! Overall a good read.
Captivating short stories
Nathan Explosion
The short stories were very interesting, I wish they were a bit longer though, maybe explored some ideas further, which only goes to show how much the author caught my interest. The reader does an excellent job, and I will definitely keep an eye out for this particular reader in the future.
Very good reading of a minor classic
Rare Clones
This literary curiosity resides somewhere between the Decadent movement of the late nineteenth century and the pulp fiction of the early twentieth. The subtle reading by Peter Yearsley is very effective, particularly of the stories "The Demoiselle D'Ys" and the lovely "The Street of the Four Winds."
Eerie and fantastically read
John Mullins
Rarely has the lure and peril of esoteric knowledge provided such a gentle, creeping horror. This is actually my preferred book to fall asleep to. thank you for your hard work!!
Restarts
A LibriVox Listener
Love the app, except it frequently restarts my chapter or short story from the beginning instead of where I left off, as Netflix or Hulu do. Love the free aspect too....