Robert W. Chambers

Robert William Chambers (1865-1933) nació en Brooklyn en una familia de terratenientes de origen escocés. Estudió en el New York Art Student’s League y en 1886 se trasladó a París, donde convivió con

UN CLASSIC DE LA LITERATURA FANTASTICA, QUE ARRIBA FINS AVUI Tenia _El Rei de Groc_ als peus, obert a la segona part. Vaig mirar la Tessie i vaig adonar-me que era massa tard. Havia llegit El Rei de Groc. La vaig agafar de la ma i la vaig conduir fins a l'estudi. Semblava estordida, i quan li vaig dir que es tombes al sofa va obeir-me sense dir res. Aquest es un dels efectes que produeix la lectura d'un llibre maleit, al voltant del qual giren les histories de Robert W. Chambers, que tambe porten per titol _El Rei de Groc_, el llibre dins del llibre. Chambers, la baula que connecta Poe amb Lovecraft, va esdevenir instantaniament un autor de culte per als seguidors de la literatura fantastica i ha inspirat amb els seus contes dominats pel mal, l'horror i l'element sobrenatural tots els escriptors posteriors, des del mateix Lovecraft (que va inspirar-s'hi per crear els mites de Cthulhu) fins a Raymond Chandler, Stephen King o, mes recentment, Nic Pizzolato i la meravellosa True Detective. Inclou el conte L'habitant de Carcosa, d'Ambrose Bierce, que comparteix ambient.

With an Introduction by David Stuart Davies. 'I read it and reread it, and wept and laughed and trembled with horror which at all times assails me yet'. With its strange, imaginative blend of horror, science fiction, romance and lyrical prose, Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow is a classic masterpiece of weird fiction. This series of vaguely connected stories is linked by the presence of a monstrous and suppressed book which brings fright, madness and spectral tragedy to all those who read it. An air of futility and doom pervade these pages like a sweet insidious poison. Dare you read it? This collection has been called the most important book in American supernatural fiction between Poe and the moderns. H. P. Lovecraft, creator of the famed Cthulu mythos, whose own fiction was greatly influenced by this book stated that The King in Yellow 'achieves notable heights of cosmic fear'.

A treasured source for Lovecraft, Howard, and others, this collection endures as a work of remarkable power. Includes all the stories from "The King in Yellow -- ""Yellow Sign," "Repairer of Reputations," "Demoiselle d''Ys," and others -- plus stories from other sources, including three early sci-fi fantasies from "In Search of the Unknown," 12 total.

For fans of HBOs True Detective,here is the complete, original text of The King in Yellow, a collection of ten Victorian-era short stories that includes some of the most important and defining works in the genre of weird fiction.Along the shore the cloud waves break,The twin suns sink behind the lake,The shadows lengthenIn CarcosaWith these opening lines, Robert W. Chambers introduces readers to The King in Yellow,a fictional play referred to but never fully seen in four of the stories included here: The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask, In the Court of the Dragon, and The Yellow Sign.Set in the dark and sinister world of Carcosa, the play drives all who encounter it to madness and despair, though we, as readers, only glimpse its unspeakable horrors.This seminal collection of short stories has captured the imaginations of generations of readers, including H. P. Lovecraft, who used The King in Yellow as inspiration for the Necronomicon, the fiction-within-a-fiction at the heart of his own genre-defining Cthulu Mythos. More than a century later, The King in Yellow continues to wield remarkable influence in popular culture, and has experienced a resurgence in popularity as a key literary reference in HBOs hit dramatic series True Detective.

It being rent day, and Saturday, the staff of the "Irish Legation," with the exception of Westguard, began to migrate uptown for the monthly conference, returning one by one from that mysterious financial jungle popularly known as "Downtown." As for Westguard, he had been in his apartment all day as usual. He worked where he resided.A little before five oclock John Desmond Lacy, Jr., came in, went directly to his rooms on the top floor, fished out a check-book, and tried to persuade himself that he had a pleasing balance at the banknot because he was likely to have any balance either there or in his youthful brain, but because he had to have one somewhere. God being good to the Irish he found he had not overdrawn his account.

Illustrator: Edmund Frederick

Illus.: A. B. Wenzell

Illustrator: W. D. Stevens

Illustrator: Charles Dana Gibson