Out of the Dark: Tales of Terror by Robert W. Chambers

Out of the Dark: Tales of Terror by Robert W. Chambers
Robert W. Chambers

Hugh Lamb

For the first time in one volume, the best stories of one of America’s most popular classic authors of the supernatural.Robert William Chambers’ The King in Yellow (1895) has long been recognised as a landmark work in the field of the macabre, and has been described as the most important work of American supernatural fiction between Poe and the moderns. Despite the book’s success, its author was to return only rarely to the genre during the remainder of a writing career which spanned four decades.When Chambers did return to the supernatural, however, he displayed all the imagination and skill which distinguished The King in Yellow. He created the enigmatic and seemingly omniscient Westrel Keen, the ‘Tracer of Lost Persons’, and chronicled the strange adventures of an eminent naturalist who scours the earth for ‘extinct’ animals – and usually finds them. One of his greatest creations, perhaps, was 1920’s The Slayer of Souls, which features a monstrous conspiracy to take over the world: a conspiracy which can only be stopped by supernatural forces.For the first time in a single volume, Hugh Lamb has selected the best of the author’s supernatural tales, together with an introduction which provides further information about the author who was, in his heyday, called ‘the most popular writer in America’.

Copyright (#u6e753e46-ed42-5e10-a23e-48ba926a85f7)

HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Collins Chillers edition published 2018

First published in Canada in two volumes by Ash-Tree Press 1998, 1999

Selection, introduction and notes © Hugh Lamb 2018

Cover design by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008265366

Ebook Edition © October 2018 ISBN: 9780008265373

Version: 2018-09-04

Dedication (#u6e753e46-ed42-5e10-a23e-48ba926a85f7)

This collection of stories by a New York author is dedicated, with great affection, to another writer from that city – my daughter-in-law, Margaret Reyes Dempsey.

Contents

Cover (#u66719167-5630-564d-ae60-a227f6a80040)

Title Page (#u9ac8c185-309c-553b-b7dd-7611e94b50c3)

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

PART ONE: ORIGINS – 1895–1899 (#u8aaf8954-135a-5587-a8e8-fcee6592eb22)

Introduction (#ud484a8c9-687d-5202-95d4-6158ca006691)

The Yellow Sign (#u4c4a3ca9-b50d-5806-afbd-f306b778ce26)

A Pleasant Evening (#ube7387bf-8db7-50f4-910f-13de0c650f8f)

Passeur (#u08c071f7-4f34-5ff6-bae0-37a8964c6566)

In the Court of the Dragon (#u6a941a83-194d-5482-a92d-bca63fadfae5)

The Maker of Moons (#uead35271-eb9b-5cc9-90d7-25e3b90ba0d0)

The Mask (#litres_trial_promo)

The Demoiselle d’Ys (#litres_trial_promo)

The Key to Grief (#litres_trial_promo)

The Messenger (#litres_trial_promo)

PART TWO: DIVERSIONS – 1900–1938 (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#litres_trial_promo)

Out of the Depths (#litres_trial_promo)

Un Peu d’Amour (#litres_trial_promo)

Grey Magic (#litres_trial_promo)

Samaris (#litres_trial_promo)

In Search of the Great Auk (#litres_trial_promo)

The Death of Yarghouz Khan (#litres_trial_promo)

The Sign of Venus (#litres_trial_promo)

The Third Eye (#litres_trial_promo)

The Seal of Solomon (#litres_trial_promo)

The Bridal Pair (#litres_trial_promo)