History Literature / TheKingInYellow

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''"Ne raillons pas les fous; leur folie dure plus longtemps que la nôtre.... Voila toute la différence."'' [[note]]Do not mock the insane; their madness lasts longer than ours… that is the only difference.[[/note]]
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CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.\\

The King in Yellow, Act I, Scene 2.\\
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''"Oh, thou who burn'st in heart for those who burn\\

Why, who art thou to teach and He to learn?"''\\
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''"Let the red dawn surmise\\

And all is through."''\\
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Suis descendu on ouiz\\

"The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."''\\
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''"If but the Vine and Love Abjuring Band\\

Were empty as the hollow of one's hand."''\\
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''"Ferme tes yeux à demi,\\

Le ciel qui parle au coeur d'existence future!"''\\
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''"Be of Good Cheer, the Sullen Month will die,\\

With age and Fast, is fainting from the sky."''\\
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''"Et tout les jours passés dans la tristesse\\
Nous sont comptés comme des jours heureux!"''\\
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''"For let Philosopher and Doctor preach\\

And my desire."''\\
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* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: The apparent role of Constance to Hawberk the Armorer.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: If you assume that [[UnreliableNarrator narrator]]'s description of the world is accurate, it is an arguable example of this trope, depending on the politics espoused by the actual author and the reader's interpretation. The narrator waxes lyrical about how glorious and {{Utopia}}n America has become in the year 1920. But all the while he describes an America that is gradually becoming more xenophobic, more militaristic, more [[TheEmpire imperial]], less democratic, and more given to sweeping its problems under the rug. Everything is orderly, pretty, and colorful, but very dark currents are moving beneath the surface. (Notably, enough people seem to be dissatisfied with their lives that the government is subsidizing assisted suicide!)\ DysfunctionJunction: Save for Louis and Constance, everyone in the cast is at least a little crazy.
* [[OnlySaneMan]]: Two characters, Louis Castaigne and Constance, seem to be wholly normal and free of the sinister power of [[ArtifactOfDoom ''The King In Yellow'']].

* CrapsaccharineWorld: If you assume that [[UnreliableNarrator narrator]]'s description of the world is accurate, it is an arguable example of this trope, depending on the politics espoused by the actual author and the reader's interpretation. The narrator waxes lyrical about how glorious and {{Utopia}}n America has become in the year 1920. But all the while he describes an America that is gradually becoming more xenophobic, more militaristic, more [[TheEmpire imperial]], less democratic, and more given to sweeping its problems under the rug. Everything is orderly, pretty, and colorful, but very dark currents are moving beneath the surface. (Notably, enough people seem to be dissatisfied with their lives that the government is subsidizing assisted suicide!)

* VillainProtagonist: Hildred Castaigne is, essentially, a mad wannabe supervillain, whose EvilPlan is to spark a Second American Civil War which will end with him as Emperor of the United States -- his ultimate goal being to RuleTheWorld as a minion of [[BiggerBad The King In Yellow]]. In-story he kills at least one man, drives another to suicide, and tries to kill two other people, before the police capture him.

Creator/HPLovecraft cited this book as an influence, and it's the direct[[note]]Chambers himself got it from a short story by Creator/AmbroseBierce, "Haïta the Shepherd", in which it's just a shepherd's god[[/note]] source of Hastur's name. According to Lovecraft's friend and fellow writer Creator/AugustDerleth, the actual performance of ''The King in Yellow'' is a summoning ritual for an EldritchAbomination.

* TimeTravel: [[spoiler:At the end, the narrator find that the castle he had stayed in was a ruin and the girl has been dead for five hundred years.]]

You might be looking for the Creator/RaymondChandler short story of the same name (in which the lead refers to ''this'' book).

[[folder:The Repairer of Reputations]]
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* CrapsaccharineWorld: Arguable example, depending on the politics espoused by the actual author and the reader's interpretation. In "The Repairer of Reputations," the narrator waxes lyrical about how glorious and {{Utopia}}n America has become in the year 1920. But all the while he describes an America that is gradually becoming more xenophobic, more militaristic, more [[TheEmpire imperial]], less democratic, and more given to sweeping its problems under the rug. Everything is orderly, pretty, and colorful, but very dark currents are moving beneath the surface. (Notably, enough people seem to be dissatisfied with their lives that the government is subsidizing assisted suicide!)

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STRANGER: I wear no mask.\\

* RealitySubtext: It's probably no coincidence that this book was written and published during the time the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decadent_movement decadent movement]] was active. Robert W Chambers is even considered a decadent writer.

Several authors have crafted facsimiles of the "real" text of Chambers' fictional play, including playwright Thom Ryng's 1999 version, which premiered at the Capitol Theater in Olympia WA and has seen two printings from Armitage press. A particularly notable version was written by James Blish for the story "More Light".

In 1999, playwright Thom Ryng wrote a production-length facsimile of the "real" ''Theatre/TheKingInYellow'' based on Chambers' short stories.

Suis descendu on puiz\\

* EldritchLocation: The lost city of Carcosa, located somewhere in the Hyades, "where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali..."

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Although [[spoiler:the evil cat is killed]], animal lovers will be pleased to note that [[spoiler:the bunny and the goldfish in "The Mask" are restored to life and the fish are immediately re-homed]].

* EvilAbusesAnimals: The Repairer has a cat he constantly taunts and mistreats to laugh at when it lashes out at him violently.
* MercyKill: "Government Lethal Chambers" are introduced so that any citizen who desires it can end their lives.

** [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation It may have just realized]] [[EvilDetectingDog its owner was a psychopath.]]

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: The Yellow King may personify decadence itself. That's what the colour yellow means (see the yellow book in ThePictureOfDorianGray).

* TimeTravel: [[spoiler:"The Demoiselle d'Ys"]]