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    The Mask: An Excerpt from The King in Yellow: Magical Antiquarian, A Weiser Books Collection
    The Mask: An Excerpt from The King in Yellow: Magical Antiquarian, A Weiser Books Collection
    The Mask: An Excerpt from The King in Yellow: Magical Antiquarian, A Weiser Books Collection
    Ebook33 pages44 minutes

    The Mask: An Excerpt from The King in Yellow: Magical Antiquarian, A Weiser Books Collection

    By Robert W. Chambers and Lon Milo DuQuette

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    About this ebook

    Master of modern occultism, Lon Milo DuQuette, (author of Enochian Vision Magick and The Magick of Aleister Crowley) introduces the newest Weiser Books Collection – The Magical Antiquarian Curiosity Shoppe. Culled from material long unavailable to the general public, DuQuette curates this essential new digital library with the eye of a scholar and the insight of an initiate.

    New York in the future, military dictatorship, institutionalized suicide, and public "Lethal Chambers." The madness continues. Picking up where the first installment left off, and introducing the concept of alchemy, The Mask is a rosy-blushed cameo of nineteenth century science fiction at its most romantic and genteel—a perfect bonbon to savor with your bedtime brandy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateApr 1, 2012
    ISBN9781619400702
    The Mask: An Excerpt from The King in Yellow: Magical Antiquarian, A Weiser Books Collection
    Author

    Robert W. Chambers

    Robert W. Chambers (1865–1933) was an American author and painter best known for his short story collection The King in Yellow (1895). Born in Brooklyn, Chambers studied art in Paris and was a professional illustrator before he turned to writing. In addition to The King in Yellow, his supernatural tales include The Maker of Moons (1896) and The Mystery of Choice (1897). Later in his career, Chambers wrote bestselling romances and historical novels. 

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      Book preview

      The Mask - Robert W. Chambers

      The Mask

      An Excerpt from the King in Yellow

      Robert W. Chambers

      Lon Milo DuQuette

      Magical Antiquarian Curiosity Shoppe

      A Weiser Books Collection

      This ebook edition first published in 2012 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.

      With offices at:

      665 Third Street, Suite 400

      San Francisco, CA 94107

      www.redwheelweiser.com

      Copyright © 2012 by Red Wheel/Weiser LLC. All rights reserved.

      Excerpted from The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers.

      eISBN:978-1-61940-070-2

      Cover design by Jim Warner

      Introduction to the Second Installment

      I thought, too, of the King in Yellow wrapped in the fantastic colours of his tattered mantle, and that bitter cry of Cassilda, Not upon us, oh King, not upon us! Feverishly I struggled to put it from me, but I saw the lake of Hali, thin and blank, without a ripple or wind to stir it, and I saw the towers of Carcosa behind the moon. Aldebaran, the Hyades, Alar, Hastur, glided through the cloud-rifts which fluttered and flapped as they passed like the scolloped tatters of the King in Yellow.

      —THE KING IN YELLOW

      Welcome to part II of The King in Yellow, The Mask. I hope you found part I, The Repairer of Reputations, to your liking; if so, I'm sure you will enjoy the next installment, The Mask.

      In this story Chambers introduces us to the concept of alchemy, at least in-so-much as to tantalize us with the idea of a secret solution that transmutes living things (i.e., flowers, goldfish, rabbits, and perhaps even beautiful young ladies) into solid marble—a sculpture's dream (or nightmare) come true.

      The scene of the story is France in the 1890s. Our characters are the artists and well-dressed denizens of the Belle Époque—that glorious window of European optimism that burned like a Roman candle a few short decades before World War I. Advances in technology, engineering, and medicine offeredalluring visions for a new age free of war and sickness. There were even those among us who dared believe the possibility that even death, that king of terrors, may someday die.

      The Mask is a rosy-blushed cameo of nineteenth-century science fiction at its most romantic and genteel—a

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