Something wonderful.
Something terrifying.
Back in 1895, a man by the name of Robert W. Chambers wrote and published The King In Yellow*. This was a series of short stories and prose poetry with a rather morbid bent to it. This book inspired H.P. Lovecraft, who incorporated the title character into his Mythos, and I think it was August Derleth who connected The King In Yellow as an avatar of the Great Old One Hastur.
The first four stories center around a play written in the fictional future of the 1920s and those who had the misfortune of reading it, as the play seems to drive the reader insane, or direly unfortunate.
As a recent initiate into the writings of Lovecraft, I was determined to seek out a copy of Chambers' work if I had enough money to spare.
According to the relevant entry for The King In Yellow at wikipedia.org, the copyrights on this work (as well as the work that inspired it, a short story entitled, An Inhabitant of Carcosa, written in 1891 by Ambrose G. Bierce) have expired. Subsequently, I now have both of these works in .pdf format on my hard drive.
I have read An Inhabitant of Carcosa and enjoyed it, and I am currently working through The King In Yellow.
Oh yes, I am quite happy.
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* The primary antagonist of the play portrayed in this book likely inspired the name of a south-east Asian butterfly, Regipapilio hastur.
