criticalfiction.net

‘ Is the door like the threshold ? Is the grate like the fire ? Is the mask like the face ? ’

Today, « criticalfiction.net » is pleased to publish an original work of critical fiction :

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Follow the link to read the story, The Man in the Yellow Mask by Lucien Verval (pdf with illustrations : 1.7 Mb) ; « criticalfiction.net » extends its thanks to the author.

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Understand that none of the following is required to appreciate the story ; these notes are offered by the editor under the headings of Technique & Allusion.

The following citation gives some factual insight into the career of Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933). In the ANB entry on Chambers, Richard Bleiler writes : “The King in Yellow [1895] is one of the most significant volumes of supernatural fiction in American literature, integral in the transition between the standard Victorian fantasy and the more modern concentration on the nightmare. It has been read by virtually every American writer of supernatural fiction . . . His numerous romance novels featuring New York socialities were devoured by the shopgirl market but were less popular with critics, who attacked them for their vulgarization of marriage, divorce, alcoholism, and the morality of posing nude for artists. Calculatedly trivial though these works may be, they nonetheless provide insight into the attitudes of pre-Titanic America. . . . In comparison with The King in Yellow, the rest of his works are pallid, insipid, and unmemorable.”