Audiobook · read by volunteers
King in Yellow (part 2)
Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933)
Read by Maria Celano, Betsie Bush, Sandra in Wales, United Kingdom · 8 chapters · 3 h 48
About the book
Paris in the later decades of the nineteenth century is the true setting of these tales, and the city is seen through the eyes of young people who have come to study art, to dream, and to fall in love. This second part of The King in Yellow leaves behind the eerie reputation of the collection's opening pages. What remains is something warmer and more human: stories of the Latin Quarter, of cramped studios and cheerful friendships, of romances that begin by chance in a narrow street and refuse to be forgotten. Chambers draws on his own years as an art student, and it shows in every sketch of café, garret and studio. Eight chapters, read by a small group of volunteers, carry you through three different tales. Expect charm, gentle humour and a certain nostalgia for a Paris that no longer exists, told with the eye of a painter who knew exactly where the light fell.
Introduction
Robert W. Chambers was born in 1865 and died in 1933. He trained as an artist, spending the late 1880s and early 1890s in Paris, and on his return to America he became a popular author of romantic novels. Today, however, his name is chiefly linked to one book, The King in Yellow, published in 1895, a collection of short stories that has long carried the reputation of being strange, unsettling and otherworldly.
That reputation belongs mostly to the first half of the volume. The stories gathered in this second part are of another kind altogether. They are essentially straightforward love stories, and they are coloured throughout by the author's own life as a young artist in France. The titles say a good deal about the setting: The Street of the First Shell, The Street of Our Lady of the Fields, and Rue Barrée. Each takes its name from a street of the city, and each is peopled by painters, students and sculptors living on little money and a great deal of hope.
The recording runs to about three hours and forty minutes, divided into eight chapters, with the longer stories split into several parts. It was made by volunteers of the LibriVox project, who share the reading between them, so the voice changes from one tale to the next.
Why listen now? Partly because these stories show a side of Chambers that readers of his weird fiction rarely meet. And partly because they offer a vivid, affectionate portrait of bohemian Paris, written by someone who had lived it. They make a pleasant companion for a long walk or a quiet evening.
Public domain
Robert W. Chambers died in 1933: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text