The King in Yellow - Influences

Influences

Chambers borrowed the names Carcosa, Hali, and Hastur from Ambrose Bierce: specifically, his short stories "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and "Haïta the Shepherd". There is no strong indication that Chambers was influenced beyond liking the names. For example, Hastur is a god of shepherds in "Haïta the Shepherd", but is implicitly a location in "The Repairer of Reputations", listed alongside the Hyades and Aldebaran.

Possible influences may include Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death". Its synopsis is similar to Chambers's imaginary play: a masquerade is held by decadent members of the aristocracy. They isolate themselves from the outside world where the Red Death, a plague, reigns supreme. At the end of the masquerade, a stranger appears, wearing a bloodied shroud and a mask figuring a Red Death victim. When the shocked dancers try to unmask him, they find nothing but an empty shroud and a Mask; then they die from the plague, one by one. In both stories, colors have an ominous importance and the strangers are both portents of death and destruction.

Other texts, especially from the symbolist writers, may have influenced Chambers as well: "Le Roi au masque d'or" ("The king in the gold mask"), a short story written by Marcel Schwob—a French novelist and a friend of Oscar Wilde—was published in 1893 while Chambers was still studying in Paris. In this story, a king rules a city where all inhabitants are masked. One day, a strange blind beggar comes into his palace. After meeting with the beggar, the king, believing he's afflicted by leprosy, feels compelled to remove his mask; he then tears his own eyes out and leaves his city. A beggar now, the former king heads toward the faraway "city of the wretched" but dies before the end of his journey.

It is also possible that the play Salomé by Oscar Wilde, published in 1893, was another symbolist source of inspiration for The King in Yellow. Like The King in Yellow, Salomé was originally written in French before being translated; it was then banned in Britain because of its scandalous reputation. Wilde's play in one act involves a queen, a princess, a king, and an ominous prophet clad in camel's hair dress, Iokanaan, whose appearance may bring untold and terrible events. The ominous language used, the drama, and the feeling of unease and expectation evokes Chambers's play; on page one of Salomé, the moon is described as a "little princess who wears a yellow veil"; on pages three and nine, the young Syrian says, "How pale the princess is! Never have I seen her so pale." On page 16, the young Syrian is named by Salome: his name is Narraboth and he beseeches Salome to avoid looking at Iokanaan and, finally, commits suicide. Marcel Schwob corrected the original French version of Salomé on behalf of Oscar Wilde.

Brian Stableford pointed out that the story "The Demoiselle d'Ys" was influenced by the stories of Théophile Gautier, such as "Arria Marcella" (1852); both Gautier and Chambers' stories feature a love affair enabled by a supernatural time slip.