There are a total of four stories that compose The King in Yellow: The Repairer of Reputations, The Mask, In the Court of the Dragon, and The Yellow Sign. The book is a good read, but Chamber’s writing style involves telling you a lot of trivial details in the course of the story that are not interesting and are also unimportant to the plot, or that seem important to the plot, but are ultimately red herrings that have little to do with the body of the story, so that sometimes the plot gets lost in these diversions. The book is notable for being an early example of cosmic horror as well as being one of the first pieces of literature to utilize an “unreliable narrator” where the story is told by someone whose viewpoint cannot be trusted. Chambers typical style of writing, which was extremely romantic, shows in all of the stories, but the stories lean heavily in the direction of Gothic horror. The book is written in a gothic style clearly influenced by Edgar Allen Poe, but with a more cosmic scope similar to what Lovecraft would later popularize. In each story, the narrator reads a forbidden, censored play entitled The King in Yellow, to dramatic and horrific results. They are, however, clearly taking place in the same world, as they are all linked together by one element.
The short stories in King do not share common characters or events. Among the things that this book shaped in Lovecraft’s writing were the Elder Sign, Nyrlathotep, and, most importantly, the Necronomicon. Lovecraft, and he incorporated elements of The King in Yellow into his mythology. In 1895, Edward Chambers published a book of short stories entitled “ The King in Yellow.” The book became a big influence for H.P.
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