Summary
The King in Yellow is a haunting and surreal collection of short stories, loosely connected by a fictional forbidden play—also titled The King in Yellow—that drives its readers into madness.
The book is divided into two halves:
The First Four Stories ("The Repairer of Reputations," "The Mask," "In the Court of the Dragon," and "The Yellow Sign") contain elements of cosmic horror, psychological decay, and speculative science fiction, and are unified by the influence of the mysterious play.
The Later Stories shift in tone to more traditional romantic tales set in Paris, with only subtle or indirect references to the madness of the early chapters.