{"product_id":"the-king-in-yellow-deluxe-edition-isbn-9781782273769","title":"The King in Yellow, Deluxe Edition","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime is a flat circle\u003c\/i\u003e in this beautiful gift edition of the cult classic work of weird fiction and supernatural horror that inspired H.P. Lovecraft and HBO’s \u003ci\u003eTrue Detective\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003ci\u003e…For we do not know what beasts the night dreams when its hours grow too long for even God to be awake.\u003c\/i\u003e\" – Attributed to Hildred Castaigne, narrator of “The Repairer of Reputations.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The weird tales in this slim volume are all linked by a play, the second act of which reveals truths so terrible and beautiful that it drives all who read it to despair: \u003ci\u003eThe King in Yellow.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eI cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men’s thoughts lengthen in the afternoon . . . I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth–a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e These four macabre, uncanny, and unsettling stories are some of the most thrilling ever written in the field of weird fiction, exploring themes of the supernatural, spirituality, and the potentially corrosive influence of belief in the afterlife. Since their first publication in 1895, they have become a cult classic, influencing everyone from the renowned master of cosmic horror, H.P Lovecraft, to the creators of HBO’s \u003ci\u003eTrue Detective\u003c\/i\u003e.The Repairer of Reputations\u003cbr\u003e The Mask\u003cbr\u003e In the Court of the Dragon\u003cbr\u003e The Yellow Sign\"Altogether one of the greatest weird tales ever written.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—H.P. Lovecraft\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A beautiful gift edition of this cult classic of supernatural fiction. . . These four macabre, uncanny and unsettling stories are some of the most thrilling ever written in the field of weird fiction. . . \u003ci\u003eThe King in Yellow \u003c\/i\u003eis a \"must-read\" for connoisseurs of the genre, highly recommended.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Midwest Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Lovecraft fans and connoisseurs of the weird will enjoy discovering this pioneering author.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBooklist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A fantastic classic horror novel... written by a master hand.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eLooking Glass Reads\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"One of the most important works of American supernatural fiction\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—E.F. Bleiler, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Guide to Supernatural Fiction \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eRobert W. Chambers (1865-1933) was an American author and artist. He was a prolific writer and enjoyed great success during his lifetime, with an output comprising works of romance, adventure and science fiction, as well as some books for children. However, it is principally for his weird and supernatural stories, and in particular this collection, which is regarded as one of the most important works of American supernatural fiction, that he is remembered today.THE REPAIRER OF\u003cbr\u003e REPUTATIONS\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e“Ne raillons pas les fous; leur folie dure\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eplus longtemps que la nôtre… Voilà\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003etoute la différence.”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e I\u003cbr\u003e Toward the end of the year 1920 the Government of\u003cbr\u003e the United States had practically completed the programme,\u003cbr\u003e adopted during the last months of\u003cbr\u003e President Winthrop’s administration. The country\u003cbr\u003e was apparently tranquil. Everybody knows how the\u003cbr\u003e Tariff and Labor questions were settled. The war\u003cbr\u003e with Germany, incident on that country’s seizure of\u003cbr\u003e the Samoan Islands, had left no visible scars upon\u003cbr\u003e the republic, and the temporary occupation of\u003cbr\u003e Norfolk by the invading army had been forgotten in\u003cbr\u003e the joy over repeated naval victories, and the subsequent\u003cbr\u003e ridiculous plight of General Von Gartenlaube’s\u003cbr\u003e forces in the State of New Jersey. The Cuban and\u003cbr\u003e Hawaiian investments had paid one hundred per\u003cbr\u003e cent and the territory of Samoa was well worth its\u003cbr\u003e cost as a coaling station. The country was in a superb\u003cbr\u003e state of defence. Every coast city had been well\u003cbr\u003esupplied with land fortifications; the army under the\u003cbr\u003e parental eye of the General Staff, organized according\u003cbr\u003e to the Prussian system, had been increased to\u003cbr\u003e 300,000 men, with a territorial reserve of a million;\u003cbr\u003e and six magnificent squadrons of cruisers and\u003cbr\u003e battle- ships patrolled the six stations of the navigable\u003cbr\u003e seas, leaving a steam reserve amply fitted to\u003cbr\u003e control home waters. The gentlemen from the West\u003cbr\u003e had at last been constrained to acknowledge that a\u003cbr\u003e college for the training of diplomats was as necessary\u003cbr\u003e as law schools are for the training of barristers;\u003cbr\u003e consequently we were no longer represented abroad\u003cbr\u003e by incompetent patriots. The nation was prosperous;\u003cbr\u003e Chicago, for a moment paralyzed after a second\u003cbr\u003e great fire, had risen from its ruins, white and imperial,\u003cbr\u003e and more beautiful than the white city which\u003cbr\u003e had been built for its plaything in 1893. Everywhere\u003cbr\u003e good architecture was replacing bad, and even in\u003cbr\u003e New York, a sudden craving for decency had swept\u003cbr\u003e away a great portion of the existing horrors. Streets\u003cbr\u003e had been widened, properly paved and lighted, trees\u003cbr\u003e had been planted, squares laid out, elevated structures\u003cbr\u003e demolished and underground roads built to\u003cbr\u003e replace them. The new government buildings and\u003cbr\u003e barracks were fine bits of architecture, and the long\u003cbr\u003esystem of stone quays which completely surrounded\u003cbr\u003e the island had been turned into parks which proved\u003cbr\u003e a god- send to the population. The subsidizing of the\u003cbr\u003e state theatre and state opera brought its own\u003cbr\u003e reward. The United States National Academy of\u003cbr\u003e Design was much like European institutions of the\u003cbr\u003e same kind. Nobody envied the Secretary of Fine\u003cbr\u003e Arts, either his cabinet position or his portfolio. The\u003cbr\u003e Secretary of Forestry and Game Preservation had a\u003cbr\u003e much easier time, thanks to the new system of\u003cbr\u003e National Mounted Police. We had profited well by\u003cbr\u003e the latest treaties with France and England; the\u003cbr\u003e exclusion of foreign- born Jews as a measure of selfpreservation,\u003cbr\u003e the settlement of the new independent\u003cbr\u003e negro state of Suanee, the checking of immigration,\u003cbr\u003e the new laws concerning naturalization, and the\u003cbr\u003e gradual centralization of power in the executive all\u003cbr\u003e contributed to national calm and prosperity. When\u003cbr\u003e the Government solved the Indian problem and\u003cbr\u003e squadrons of Indian cavalry scouts in native costume\u003cbr\u003e were substituted for the pitiable organizations\u003cbr\u003e tacked on to the tail of skeletonized regiments by a\u003cbr\u003e former Secretary of War, the nation drew a long sigh\u003cbr\u003e of relief. When, after the colossal Congress of\u003cbr\u003e Religions, bigotry and intolerance were laid in their\u003cbr\u003egraves and kindness and charity began to draw\u003cbr\u003e warring sects together, many thought the millennium\u003cbr\u003e had arrived, at least in the new world which\u003cbr\u003e after all is a world by itself.\u003cbr\u003e But self- preservation is the first law, and the\u003cbr\u003e United States had to look on in helpless sorrow as\u003cbr\u003e Germany, Italy, Spain, and Belgium writhed in the\u003cbr\u003e throes of Anarchy, while Russia, watching from the\u003cbr\u003e Caucasus, stooped and bound them one by one.\u003cbr\u003e In the city of New York the summer of 1899 was\u003cbr\u003e signalized by the dismantling of the Elevated\u003cbr\u003e Railroads. The summer of 1900 will live in the memories\u003cbr\u003e of New York people for many a cycle; the Dodge\u003cbr\u003e Statue was removed in that year. In the following\u003cbr\u003e winter began that agitation for the repeal of the\u003cbr\u003e laws prohibiting suicide which bore its final fruit in\u003cbr\u003e the month of April, 1920, when the first Government\u003cbr\u003e Lethal Chamber was opened on Washington Square.\u003cbr\u003e I had walked down that day from Dr. Archer’s\u003cbr\u003e house on Madison Avenue, where I had been as a\u003cbr\u003e mere formality. Ever since that fall from my horse,\u003cbr\u003e four years before, I had been troubled at times with\u003cbr\u003e pains in the back of my head and neck, but now for\u003cbr\u003e months they had been absent, and the doctor sent\u003cbr\u003e me away that day saying there was nothing more\u003cbr\u003eto be cured in me. It was hardly worth his fee to be\u003cbr\u003e told that; I knew it myself. Still I did not grudge him\u003cbr\u003e the money. What I minded was the mistake which\u003cbr\u003e he made at first. When they picked me up from the\u003cbr\u003e pavement where I lay unconscious, and somebody\u003cbr\u003e had mercifully sent a bullet through my horse’s\u003cbr\u003e head, I was carried to Dr. Archer, and he, pronouncing\u003cbr\u003e my brain affected, placed me in his private\u003cbr\u003e asylum where I was obliged to endure treatment for\u003cbr\u003e insanity. At last he decided that I was well, and I,\u003cbr\u003e knowing that my mind had always been as sound as\u003cbr\u003e his, if not sounder, “paid my tuition” as he jokingly\u003cbr\u003e called it, and left. I told him, smiling, that I would\u003cbr\u003e get even with him for his mistake, and he laughed\u003cbr\u003e heartily, and asked me to call once in a while. I did\u003cbr\u003e so, hoping for a chance to even up accounts, but he\u003cbr\u003e gave me none, and I told him I would wait.\u003cbr\u003e The fall from my horse had fortunately left no\u003cbr\u003e evil results; on the contrary, it had changed my\u003cbr\u003e whole character for the better. From a lazy young\u003cbr\u003e man about town, I had become active, energetic,\u003cbr\u003e temperate, and above all—oh, above all else—ambitious.\u003cbr\u003e There was only one thing which troubled me,\u003cbr\u003e I laughed at my own uneasiness, and yet it troubled\u003cbr\u003e me.\u003cbr\u003eDuring my convalescence I had bought and read\u003cbr\u003e for the first time, \u003ci\u003eThe King in Yellow\u003c\/i\u003e. I remember after\u003cbr\u003e finishing the first act that it occurred to me that I\u003cbr\u003e had better stop. I started up and flung the book into\u003cbr\u003e the fireplace; the volume struck the barred grate and\u003cbr\u003e fell open on the hearth in the firelight. If I had not\u003cbr\u003e caught a glimpse of the opening words in the second\u003cbr\u003e act I should never have finished it, but as I stooped to\u003cbr\u003e pick it up, my eyes became riveted to the open page,\u003cbr\u003e and with a cry of terror, or perhaps it was of joy so\u003cbr\u003e poignant that I suffered in every nerve, I snatched\u003cbr\u003e the thing out of the coals and crept shaking to my\u003cbr\u003e bedroom, where I read it and reread it, and wept and\u003cbr\u003e laughed and trembled with a horror which at times\u003cbr\u003e assails me yet. This is the thing that troubles me, for\u003cbr\u003e I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in\u003cbr\u003e the heavens; where the shadows of men’s thoughts\u003cbr\u003e lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink\u003cbr\u003e into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever\u003cbr\u003e the memory of the Pallid Mask. I pray God will curse\u003cbr\u003e the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with\u003cbr\u003e this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its\u003cbr\u003e simplicity, irresistible in its truth—a world which\u003cbr\u003e now trembles before the King in Yellow. When the\u003cbr\u003e French Government seized the translated copies\u003cbr\u003ewhich had just arrived in Paris, London, of course,\u003cbr\u003e became eager to read it. It is well known how the\u003cbr\u003e book spread like an infectious disease, from city to\u003cbr\u003e city, from continent to continent, barred out here,\u003cbr\u003e confiscated there, denounced by Press and pulpit,\u003cbr\u003e censured even by the most advanced of literary\u003cbr\u003e anarchists. No definite principles had been violated\u003cbr\u003e in those wicked pages, no doctrine promulgated, no\u003cbr\u003e convictions outraged. It could not be judged by any\u003cbr\u003e known standard, yet, although it was acknowledged\u003cbr\u003e that the supreme note of art had been struck in \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eKing in Yellow\u003c\/i\u003e, all felt that human nature could not\u003cbr\u003e bear the strain, nor thrive on words in which the\u003cbr\u003e essence of purest poison lurked. The very banality\u003cbr\u003e and innocence of the first act only allowed the blow\u003cbr\u003e to fall afterward with more awful effect.\u003cbr\u003e It was, I remember, the 13th day of April, 1920,\u003cbr\u003e that the first Government Lethal Chamber was\u003cbr\u003e established on the south side of Washington Square,\u003cbr\u003e between Wooster Street and South Fifth Avenue. The\u003cbr\u003e block which had formerly consisted of a lot of shabby\u003cbr\u003e old buildings, used as cafés and restaurants for\u003cbr\u003e foreigners, had been acquired by the Government\u003cbr\u003e in the winter of 1898. The French and Italian cafés\u003cbr\u003e and restaurants were torn down; the whole block\u003cbr\u003ewas enclosed by a gilded iron railing, and converted\u003cbr\u003e into a lovely garden with lawns, flowers and\u003cbr\u003e fountains. In the centre of the garden stood a small,\u003cbr\u003e white building, severely classical in architecture,\u003cbr\u003e and surrounded by thickets of flowers. Six Ionic\u003cbr\u003e columns supported the roof, and the single door was\u003cbr\u003e of bronze. A splendid marble group of the “Fates”\u003cbr\u003e stood before the door, the work of a young American\u003cbr\u003e sculptor, Boris Yvain, who had died in Paris when\u003cbr\u003e only twenty- three years old.\u003cbr\u003e The inauguration ceremonies were in progress as\u003cbr\u003e I crossed University Place and entered the square.\u003cbr\u003e I threaded my way through the silent throng of\u003cbr\u003e spectators, but was stopped at Fourth Street by a\u003cbr\u003e cordon of police. A regiment of United States lancers\u003cbr\u003e were drawn up in a hollow square round the Lethal\u003cbr\u003e Chamber. On a raised tribune facing Washington\u003cbr\u003e Park stood the Governor of New York, and behind him\u003cbr\u003e were grouped the Mayor of New York and Brooklyn,\u003cbr\u003e the Inspector- General of Police, the Commandant\u003cbr\u003e of the state troops, Colonel Livingston, military\u003cbr\u003e aid to the President of the United States, General\u003cbr\u003e Blount, commanding at Governor’s Island, Major-\u003cbr\u003e General Hamilton, commanding the garrison of\u003cbr\u003e New York and Brooklyn, Admiral Buffby of the fleet\u003cbr\u003ein the North River, Surgeon- General Lanceford, the\u003cbr\u003e staff of the National Free Hospital, Senators Wyse\u003cbr\u003e and Franklin of New York, and the Commissioner\u003cbr\u003e of Public Works. The tribune was surrounded by a\u003cbr\u003e squadron of hussars of the National Guard.\u003cbr\u003e The Governor was finishing his reply to the short\u003cbr\u003e speech of the Surgeon- General. I heard him say:\u003cbr\u003e “The laws prohibiting suicide and providing punishment\u003cbr\u003e for any attempt at self- destruction have been\u003cbr\u003e repealed. The Government has seen fit to acknowledge\u003cbr\u003e the right of man to end an existence which may\u003cbr\u003e have become intolerable to him, through physical\u003cbr\u003e suffering or mental despair. It is believed that the\u003cbr\u003e community will be benefited by the removal of such\u003cbr\u003e people from their midst. Since the passage of this\u003cbr\u003e law, the number of suicides in the United States has\u003cbr\u003e not increased. Now the Government has determined\u003cbr\u003e to establish a Lethal Chamber in every city, town and\u003cbr\u003e village in the country, it remains to be seen whether\u003cbr\u003e or not that class of human creatures from whose\u003cbr\u003e desponding ranks new victims of self- destruction\u003cbr\u003e fall daily will accept the relief thus provided.” He\u003cbr\u003e paused, and turned to the white Lethal Chamber.\u003cbr\u003e The silence in the street was absolute. “There a\u003cbr\u003e painless death awaits him who can no longer bear\u003cbr\u003ethe sorrows of this life. If death is welcome let him\u003cbr\u003e seek it there.” Then quickly turning to the military\u003cbr\u003e aid of the President’s household, he said, “I declare\u003cbr\u003e the Lethal Chamber open,” and again facing the\u003cbr\u003e vast crowd he cried in a clear voice: “Citizens of New\u003cbr\u003e York and of the United States of America, through\u003cbr\u003e me the Government declares the Lethal Chamber\u003cbr\u003e to be open.”\u003cbr\u003e The solemn hush was broken by a sharp cry\u003cbr\u003e of command, the squadron of hussars filed after\u003cbr\u003e the Governor’s carriage, the lancers wheeled and\u003cbr\u003e formed along Fifth Avenue to wait for the commandant\u003cbr\u003e of the garrison, and the mounted police\u003cbr\u003e followed them. I left the crowd to gape and stare\u003cbr\u003e at the white marble Death Chamber, and, crossing\u003cbr\u003e South Fifth Avenue, walked along the western side of\u003cbr\u003e that thoroughfare to Bleecker Street. Then I turned\u003cbr\u003e to the right and stopped before a dingy shop which\u003cbr\u003e bore the sign:\u003cbr\u003e HAWBERK, ARMORER.","brand":"Pushkin Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304667893989,"sku":"NP9781782273769","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781782273769.jpg?v=1767740052","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-king-in-yellow-deluxe-edition-isbn-9781782273769","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}