Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) studied art in Paris in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Shortly after returning to America, he became popular as the writer of a number of romantic novels; he is now best known as the author of “The King In Yellow”, which is a collection of short stories with the reputation of being eerie and other-worldly. However, the last few stories in the collection, which are presented here, are essentially straightforward love stories, strongly coloured by the author’s life as an artist in France.

By : Robert W. Chambers (1865 - 1933)

01 - The Street of the First Shell - Part 1

02 - The Street of the First Shell - Part 2

03 - The Street of the First Shell - Part 3

04 - The Street of the First Shell - Part 4

05 - The Street of Our Lady of the Fields - Parts 1 and 2

06 - The Street of Our Lady of the Fields - Parts 3 and 4

07 - The Street of Our Lady of the Fields - Parts 5 and 6

08 - Rue Barree

The first four stories are loosely connected by three main devices:

A play in book form entitled The King in Yellow

A mysterious and malevolent supernatural and gothic entity known as the King in Yellow

An eerie symbol called the Yellow Sign

These stories are macabre in tone, centering, in keeping with the other tales, on characters who are often artists or decadents, inhabitants of the demi-monde.

The first and fourth stories, "The Repairer of Reputations" and "The Yellow Sign", are set in an imagined future 1920s America, whereas the second and third stories, "The Mask" and "In the Court of the Dragon", are set in Paris. These stories are haunted by the theme: "Have you found the Yellow Sign?"

The weird and macabre character gradually fades away during the remaining stories, and the last three are written in the romantic fiction style common to Chambers' later work. They are all linked to the preceding stories by their Parisian setting and their artistic protagonists.

The stories in the book are:

"The Repairer of Reputations" – A weird story of egotism and paranoia which carries the imagery of the book's title.

"The Mask" – A dream story of art, love, and uncanny science.

"In the Court of the Dragon" – A man is pursued by a sinister church organist who is after his soul.

"The Yellow Sign" – An artist is troubled by a sinister churchyard watchman who resembles a coffin worm.

"The Demoiselle d'Ys" – A ghost story, the theme of which anticipates H. G. Wells' "The Door in the Wall" (1906).

"The Prophets' Paradise" – A sequence of eerie prose poems that develop the style and theme of a quote from the fictional play The King in Yellow which introduces "The Mask".

"The Street of the Four Winds" – An atmospheric tale of an artist in Paris who is drawn to a neighbor's room by a cat; the story ends with a macabre touch.

"The Street of the First Shell" – A war story set in the Paris Siege of 1870.

"The Street of Our Lady of the Fields" – Romantic American bohemians in Paris.

"Rue Barrée" – Romantic American bohemians in Paris, with a discordant ending that playfully reflects some of the tone of the first story.