The King in Yellow

A cursed book, which unleashes madness in those who read it and spreads like a pestilence, despite attempts at censorship. The protagonist is the King in Yellow, dressed in rags, who reigns over the dark city of Carcosa, over which twin suns shine. This fictional theatrical work is the leitmotif of the first four stories that make up the "real" book, "Il Re Giallo" by Robert W. Chambers, an author who has renewed the Gothic genre and laid the foundations for twentieth-century horror literature, starting with Howard Phillips Lovecraft who recognises his influence in particular for the invention of the "Necronomicon". In more recent times, the book has also been the source of inspiration for the first season of the famous TV series "True detective", written by Nic Pizzolatto, whose success led to the printing of new editions of the collection, forgotten for many years. The work is a collection of ten stories set between America and Paris in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (a futuristic twentieth century since the work was published in 1895), dreamlike and macabre stories that speak of homicidal impulses, mysterious prophecies, disturbing dreams, love affairs and wars. Cosmic horrors and existential fears, capable of making even the contemporary reader shudder, more than a hundred years later.   Il Re Giallo (The King in Yellow) Robert W. Chambers Vallardi, 2014