The King in the Golden Mask

The 21 stories in this collection are primarily dark, grim tales, with mostly unpleasant endings. They range from slight fantasy, to grim modern, to slightly sci-fi.The stories are a cruel, almost sadistic, telling of characters trapped in an unforgiving world. The narration is cold, matter-of-fact, or lusty in thick details (as we see above). What will happen to his characters is up in the air, with a fifty-fifty shot that the protagonists will survive. Each paragraph is charged with poetic energy, placing him on par with Ambrose Bierce or H. P. Lovecraft. I consider it almost a crime, he hasn’t been translated into English before.The style of the stories are a little odd. Most of the material in it build-up to an event which then happens quickly, leading to a hasty end. Let’s say for a ten page story, eight is mostly exposition. In fact, several of them almost seem to be completely background material for a larger story, which the author never wrote, or should have written. Still, it is so beautifully composed that I don’t care that much and simply enjoy the ride.

It's probable that these tales have lost their savor due to modern horror films and contemporary writings that summon up convincing fear-inspiring horror. Moreover, most of them come to no climax or resolution worthy of the reader's effort. In their time they may have captured imaginations; today they seem trite and predictable.

Weird, strange reveries and tales that showcase a unique talent and forerunner of many strands of odd lit today.

What an odd and delightful book. Totally worth checking out for fans of the King in Yellow canon.

"The King in the Golden Mask" by Marcel Schwob is a collection of short stories by this author. His writing style is eloquent and beautifully descriptive, and the plots tend to be historic, with odd twists and new ways of looking at the people and cultures of that time and place. Hopefully, more of the author's writings will be translated into English.

Thanks to several excellent English translations the writings of French author Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) are deservedly reaching a wider audience. The King in the Golden Mask is a collection of short stories first published in 1892. And what an eclectic bunch they are! Schwob inventively weaves a number of literary styles. Some stories here read like historical documents, loosely based on actual events. Seafaring stories, war stories, folk tales, cautionary tales and supernatural Symbolist dreaminess are imbued with the dark sense of foreboding typical of the Decadent writers of the French fin-de-siècle. Human failings are explored with tangy relish. Schwob's prose is packed with vivid descriptive detail: of topographical features, of military uniforms, of exotic rituals, of macabre tortures. Fortunately, the stories are mostly half a dozen pages in length, so all this dense detail adds up to a fascinating rather than a fatiguing read. Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson are obvious antecedents, while Jorge Luis Borges claimed to have been influenced by Marcel Schwob. Fans of Decadent literature, Gothic horror and weird fiction should find something here to satisfy their cravings.

beautiful, love Schwob.