The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories (Dover Mystery, Detective, & Other Fiction)

Rating:
Summary: Classic Short Horror Fiction
Review: An excellent collection by a lesser-known writer of short
horror fiction, this volume contains one of my all-time favorite short stories in any genre, "The Harbor-Master."
Buy and read this book!

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Have for Lovecraft fans
Review: HP Lovecraft was heavily inspired by Chambers' wierd tales from _The King in Yellow_. (He stole the name and vague concept of Hastur from it.) The frustrating thing about RW Chambers is that he COULD write very well, but for some reason he usually didn't. At his best he could weave an atmosphere of terrifying hallucinatory brilliance. At his worst he was hokey, sentimental, sappy, and tiresome. Half of his original _The King in Yellow_ consists of dopey romance stories that will infuriate the wierd fiction fan. Not so here. This Dover collection has only the best tales from _The King in Yellow_, as well as a number of other chilling morsels picked from Chambers' large body of later (mostly forgettable) work.
You should get hold of this collection just for "The Repairer of Reputations," which ranks as a superior masterpiece of surreal paranoid delirium. It's one of the top 5 wierd stories of all time, and actually BETTER than anything by Lovecraft.