Essay by Ted Gioia
Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) wrote at least 87 books, but only one is still
read today. The King in Yellow is a strange and marvelous collection of short
stories, first published in 1895, but still capable of stirring up readers in the
21st century. In 2014, sales spiked again when The King in Yellow was touted
as the “one literary reference you must know” to understand the award-
winning TV show True Detective. But
producer and script writer Nic Pizzolatto
came to Robert W. Chambers late in the
game. This pioneer of genre fiction had
already inspired H.P. Lovecraft, Raymond
Chandler, Robert Heinlein, Stephen King,
Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, and
many other authors, not to mention
video game developers, rock bands,
filmmakers and other creative spirits.
But what a strange, indefinable book it is.
The King in Yellow is typically classified
as a collection of weird tales, but that
captures only a small part of this work,
which starts out with a science fiction
story and ends up with Chambers' attempts
at romantic comedy. Clearly the volume
stakes out the author’s claims as a genre
writer, but the reader is left to puzzle over
which genre. The horror stories, for which
Chambers is best known nowadays, all
appear in the first half of the book, and the
second half is so radically different that one might be excused for wondering
whether a different writer had taken charge of it.
Fans delighted by these weird tales have sought for others in Chambers’ later
publications. But they have little to enjoy in these other works. More than 90%
of his output focused on stories outside the horror genre. His greatest
successes during his lifetime came with flamboyant romance tales, such as The
Fighting Chance (1906) and The Younger Set (1907), both bestsellers in their
day, and probably considered very dicey by the standards of their time. Books
such as these helped Chambers live in the grand style. He resided in a
mansion in upstate New York, where he collected Asian art and devoted his
idle hours to hunting and fishing.
Readers of The King in Yellow get a taste of this side of Chambers in the last
two stories, the novellas "The Street of Our Lady of the Fields" and "Rue
Barrée." Here we find stylishly-written forerunners to the genre romances of
our own day. Charming but sentimental men fall head over heals in love with
young ladies from lower social strata. Chambers hints at scandalous and
sensual activities, but always stops short at describing anything that might
upset a censor or legal authority. These stories are written with grace and
occasionally suggest that this author might have been capable of a masterpiece
of social realism. His eye for detail is acute, and his characters know how to
take charge of a scene. But Chambers makes clear his low ambitions at the
conclusion of each of these romances, when he reaches for the most
sentimental and obvious way of resolving his tales.
But no one reads Robert W. Chambers for his
romance stories nowadays. If you abandon The
King in Yellow after page 100, you will have
acquainted yourself with the main works that
inspired Lovecraft and later purveyors of weird
tales. The first five stories in the collection are
exceptional, and if Chambers had devoted more
energy to works of this sort, he might rank today
among the masters of non-realist fiction. Instead
he is mostly remembered as a footnote in the history
of the horror tale, a figure who influenced other,
greater talents.
I would call your attention to the opening story in this volume. "The Repairer
of Reputations" ranks among the finest nineteenth century works of genre
fiction, and I place much of my faith in this author's potential greatness on the
evidence of this one magnificent story. The tale is ostensibly a science fiction
story, and seems to anticipate the advent of World War I. But Chambers is
bursting with ideas and every page threatens to go off in a new, unexpected
direction. Elements of other genres start appearing, and threaten to take over
the story. Perhaps this is a crime story, or a horror story, or a romance, or a war
story.
The constant shifts in subject and bizarre juxtapositions even allow us to praise
"The Repairer of Reputations" as a forerunner of 20th century absurdist and
postmodern literature. Parts of this crazy work remind me of Borges, Calvino
and Nabokov, and at times I wondered whether Chambers wasn't aiming to
parody genre literature in this tale. But I eventually concluded that he was
dead serious, and no deconstruction is intended. Yet how many 19th century
stories of this sort incorporate an unreliable narrator and so many other
elements that we associate with fiction of a century later?
We even find a forerunner here of the "deadly entertainment" that looms large
in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. And though I can comprehend why this
concept—in essence, the notion of a piece of consumer entertainment that
destroys the minds of its audience—appealed to a visionary author who wanted
to critique pop culture at the close of the 20th century, I am both befuddled
and intrigued by a writer in the Victorian era who came up with the identical
idea. In the case of Chambers, the fatal diversion is a dramatic work called "The
King in Yellow," which destroys the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to
make its acquaintance.
Here too we find hints of the homemade mythology that stands out in
Chambers’ oeuvre. This is perhaps the most influential aspect of his work, and
set the stage of the Cthulhu Mythos of Lovecraft’s stories, and the many other
alternative universes of later fantasy and science fiction. The reader hears
breathless rumors about mythical places (some borrowed from the writings of
Ambrose Bierce) such as Carcosa, Hastur, Yhtill, and Aldebaran. Chambers
only hints, in the most oblique manner, at what these names represent, but
they contribute to the dark and ominous tone that pervades his weird tales.
This aspect of Chambers’ work obviously
fascinated Nic Pizzolatto, who suggest in
the following dialogue from True Detective,
that modern-day crimes might have a
connection to these mythic signifiers:
"He said that there's this place down south
where all these rich men go to, uh, devil
worship. He said that, uh, they—they
sacrifice kids and whatnot. Women and
children all got—all got murdered there
and, um, something about someplace
called Carcosa and the Yellow King."
Chambers includes sly references to Carcosa
and "a “King in Yellow" in some of the later
stories, but by then he had either lost interest
in the concept, or (perhaps more likely) lacked
the ambition to build his private mythology into
something grander. Indeed, the modest goals
of this author are his chief weakness. I can't
help agreeing with the verdict issued on Chambers by Lovecraft, who stated
that this predecessor was "equipped with the right brains and education but
wholly out of the habit of using them." In a similar vein, Chambers’
contemporary Frederic Taber Cooper offered the following equivocal praise:
"So much of Mr Chambers' work exasperates, because we feel that he might so
easily have made it better."
The remaining stories in The King in Yellow
are less iconoclastic than "The Repairer of
Reputations," but four of them are outstanding
works and deserve the attention of anyone interested
in the history of the horror tale. "The Mask" draws
on a favorite subject of this author, the romantic
exploits of artists in Paris, but here a sculptor invents
a new technique for turning living creatures into
vividly realistic statues. If Lovecraft had been an
American ex-pat living in France, he might have written
a story of this sort. Two subsequent tales, "In the
Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign" draw on
a familiar trope of horror fiction: the protagonist is
haunted by a frightening individual in the neighborhood.
In the former instance, the villain is a malevolent church organist and, in the
latter, a creepy church watchman. The plots here are fairly predictable, but
the writing is strong and the mood intense. "The Demoiselle of Y's" is a more
peculiar story, combining gothic horror, romance and time travel in a striking
manner. It reminds us of Chamber’s skill at mixing a range of genre styles,
and leads me to speculate that the core of his greatest successes lay in his
knack for combining the distinctive ingredients of each in surprising new
hybrids.
But at this stage of The King in Yellow, not quite the midway point of the
volume, Chambers loses steam. He inserts a few pages of eccentric prose
poems that seem to suggest that this book may turn into something avant-
garde and otherworldly. But then our author fills the rest of his collection with
romance stories about Parisians, polished in their own way, but an unwelcome
intrusion into a book that warrants consideration as a masterpiece of strange
fiction.
So I carp and complain. But don’t let my laments dissuade you from reading
this book—or at least reading the first half of it. The best parts of The King in
Yellow are masterful. Under slightly different circumstances, Chambers might
have been the great horror author during that long 70-year interlude between
the death of Poe and the rise of Lovecraft. Alas, he wasn't. Instead, we must
assign that honor elsewhere, probably to Bierce or Machen. So if I chastise
Robert W. Chambers, it is merely because he got so caught up in developing his
talent that he neglected his genius.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to
Listen to Jazz from Basic Books.
Publication Date: April 25, 2016
Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) wrote at least 87 books, but only one is still
read today. The King in Yellow is a strange and marvelous collection of short
stories, first published in 1895, but still capable of stirring up readers in the
21st century. In 2014, sales spiked again when The King in Yellow was touted
as the “one literary reference you must know” to understand the award-
winning TV show True Detective. But
producer and script writer Nic Pizzolatto
came to Robert W. Chambers late in the
game. This pioneer of genre fiction had
already inspired H.P. Lovecraft, Raymond
Chandler, Robert Heinlein, Stephen King,
Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, and
many other authors, not to mention
video game developers, rock bands,
filmmakers and other creative spirits.
But what a strange, indefinable book it is.
The King in Yellow is typically classified
as a collection of weird tales, but that
captures only a small part of this work,
which starts out with a science fiction
story and ends up with Chambers' attempts
at romantic comedy. Clearly the volume
stakes out the author’s claims as a genre
writer, but the reader is left to puzzle over
which genre. The horror stories, for which
Chambers is best known nowadays, all
appear in the first half of the book, and the
second half is so radically different that one might be excused for wondering
whether a different writer had taken charge of it.
Fans delighted by these weird tales have sought for others in Chambers’ later
publications. But they have little to enjoy in these other works. More than 90%
of his output focused on stories outside the horror genre. His greatest
successes during his lifetime came with flamboyant romance tales, such as The
Fighting Chance (1906) and The Younger Set (1907), both bestsellers in their
day, and probably considered very dicey by the standards of their time. Books
such as these helped Chambers live in the grand style. He resided in a
mansion in upstate New York, where he collected Asian art and devoted his
idle hours to hunting and fishing.
Readers of The King in Yellow get a taste of this side of Chambers in the last
two stories, the novellas "The Street of Our Lady of the Fields" and "Rue
Barrée." Here we find stylishly-written forerunners to the genre romances of
our own day. Charming but sentimental men fall head over heals in love with
young ladies from lower social strata. Chambers hints at scandalous and
sensual activities, but always stops short at describing anything that might
upset a censor or legal authority. These stories are written with grace and
occasionally suggest that this author might have been capable of a masterpiece
of social realism. His eye for detail is acute, and his characters know how to
take charge of a scene. But Chambers makes clear his low ambitions at the
conclusion of each of these romances, when he reaches for the most
sentimental and obvious way of resolving his tales.
But no one reads Robert W. Chambers for his
romance stories nowadays. If you abandon The
King in Yellow after page 100, you will have
acquainted yourself with the main works that
inspired Lovecraft and later purveyors of weird
tales. The first five stories in the collection are
exceptional, and if Chambers had devoted more
energy to works of this sort, he might rank today
among the masters of non-realist fiction. Instead
he is mostly remembered as a footnote in the history
of the horror tale, a figure who influenced other,
greater talents.
I would call your attention to the opening story in this volume. "The Repairer
of Reputations" ranks among the finest nineteenth century works of genre
fiction, and I place much of my faith in this author's potential greatness on the
evidence of this one magnificent story. The tale is ostensibly a science fiction
story, and seems to anticipate the advent of World War I. But Chambers is
bursting with ideas and every page threatens to go off in a new, unexpected
direction. Elements of other genres start appearing, and threaten to take over
the story. Perhaps this is a crime story, or a horror story, or a romance, or a war
story.
The constant shifts in subject and bizarre juxtapositions even allow us to praise
"The Repairer of Reputations" as a forerunner of 20th century absurdist and
postmodern literature. Parts of this crazy work remind me of Borges, Calvino
and Nabokov, and at times I wondered whether Chambers wasn't aiming to
parody genre literature in this tale. But I eventually concluded that he was
dead serious, and no deconstruction is intended. Yet how many 19th century
stories of this sort incorporate an unreliable narrator and so many other
elements that we associate with fiction of a century later?
We even find a forerunner here of the "deadly entertainment" that looms large
in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. And though I can comprehend why this
concept—in essence, the notion of a piece of consumer entertainment that
destroys the minds of its audience—appealed to a visionary author who wanted
to critique pop culture at the close of the 20th century, I am both befuddled
and intrigued by a writer in the Victorian era who came up with the identical
idea. In the case of Chambers, the fatal diversion is a dramatic work called "The
King in Yellow," which destroys the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to
make its acquaintance.
Here too we find hints of the homemade mythology that stands out in
Chambers’ oeuvre. This is perhaps the most influential aspect of his work, and
set the stage of the Cthulhu Mythos of Lovecraft’s stories, and the many other
alternative universes of later fantasy and science fiction. The reader hears
breathless rumors about mythical places (some borrowed from the writings of
Ambrose Bierce) such as Carcosa, Hastur, Yhtill, and Aldebaran. Chambers
only hints, in the most oblique manner, at what these names represent, but
they contribute to the dark and ominous tone that pervades his weird tales.
This aspect of Chambers’ work obviously
fascinated Nic Pizzolatto, who suggest in
the following dialogue from True Detective,
that modern-day crimes might have a
connection to these mythic signifiers:
"He said that there's this place down south
where all these rich men go to, uh, devil
worship. He said that, uh, they—they
sacrifice kids and whatnot. Women and
children all got—all got murdered there
and, um, something about someplace
called Carcosa and the Yellow King."
Chambers includes sly references to Carcosa
and "a “King in Yellow" in some of the later
stories, but by then he had either lost interest
in the concept, or (perhaps more likely) lacked
the ambition to build his private mythology into
something grander. Indeed, the modest goals
of this author are his chief weakness. I can't
help agreeing with the verdict issued on Chambers by Lovecraft, who stated
that this predecessor was "equipped with the right brains and education but
wholly out of the habit of using them." In a similar vein, Chambers’
contemporary Frederic Taber Cooper offered the following equivocal praise:
"So much of Mr Chambers' work exasperates, because we feel that he might so
easily have made it better."
The remaining stories in The King in Yellow
are less iconoclastic than "The Repairer of
Reputations," but four of them are outstanding
works and deserve the attention of anyone interested
in the history of the horror tale. "The Mask" draws
on a favorite subject of this author, the romantic
exploits of artists in Paris, but here a sculptor invents
a new technique for turning living creatures into
vividly realistic statues. If Lovecraft had been an
American ex-pat living in France, he might have written
a story of this sort. Two subsequent tales, "In the
Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign" draw on
a familiar trope of horror fiction: the protagonist is
haunted by a frightening individual in the neighborhood.
In the former instance, the villain is a malevolent church organist and, in the
latter, a creepy church watchman. The plots here are fairly predictable, but
the writing is strong and the mood intense. "The Demoiselle of Y's" is a more
peculiar story, combining gothic horror, romance and time travel in a striking
manner. It reminds us of Chamber’s skill at mixing a range of genre styles,
and leads me to speculate that the core of his greatest successes lay in his
knack for combining the distinctive ingredients of each in surprising new
hybrids.
But at this stage of The King in Yellow, not quite the midway point of the
volume, Chambers loses steam. He inserts a few pages of eccentric prose
poems that seem to suggest that this book may turn into something avant-
garde and otherworldly. But then our author fills the rest of his collection with
romance stories about Parisians, polished in their own way, but an unwelcome
intrusion into a book that warrants consideration as a masterpiece of strange
fiction.
So I carp and complain. But don’t let my laments dissuade you from reading
this book—or at least reading the first half of it. The best parts of The King in
Yellow are masterful. Under slightly different circumstances, Chambers might
have been the great horror author during that long 70-year interlude between
the death of Poe and the rise of Lovecraft. Alas, he wasn't. Instead, we must
assign that honor elsewhere, probably to Bierce or Machen. So if I chastise
Robert W. Chambers, it is merely because he got so caught up in developing his
talent that he neglected his genius.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His latest book is How to
Listen to Jazz from Basic Books.
Publication Date: April 25, 2016
This is my year of horrible reading.
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
My Year of Horrible Reading
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 11:
Ghost Stories of Henry James
By Henry James
Week 12:
Interview with the Vampire
By Anne Rice
Week 13:
American Psycho
By Bret Easton Ellis
Week 14:
Last Stories and Other Stories
By William T. Vollmann
Week 15:
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
By M.R. James
Week 16:
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
Week 17:
The King in Yellow
By Robert W. Chambers
| To purchase, click on image |
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
The Author of 'The King in Yellow'
Could Have Been the King of Horror
Robert W. Chambers Left Behind 87 Books, but is
Remembered for Just One, Very Strange Volume
Could Have Been the King of Horror
Robert W. Chambers Left Behind 87 Books, but is
Remembered for Just One, Very Strange Volume
| To purchase, click on image |
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
Parts of this crazy
work remind me of
Borges, Calvino and
Nabokov, and at
times I wondered
whether Chambers
wasn't aiming to
parody genre literature...
work remind me of
Borges, Calvino and
Nabokov, and at
times I wondered
whether Chambers
wasn't aiming to
parody genre literature...
Under slightly different
circumstances, Chambers
might have been the great
horror author during that
long 70-year interlude
between the death of Poe
and the rise of Lovecraft.
Alas, he wasn't....
circumstances, Chambers
might have been the great
horror author during that
long 70-year interlude
between the death of Poe
and the rise of Lovecraft.
Alas, he wasn't....