The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers is a collection of short stories loosely connected by their shared references to a fictional play of the same name. The play in question is notable by its ability to drive the sane mad, and is quoted by Chambers only in the briefest passages.

The book is cited by some as an influence on H.P. Lovecraft, who created his own fictional texts like the Necronomicon, although it is now believed that Lovecraft didn't actually read Chambers until 1927.

The stories themselves are macabre in tone, and the central characters are, more often than not, decadents and artists, and Paris is the most common setting.