From the introduction: How can you describe that masterful stage play? Its compelling characters, its engrossing setting, and its enigmatic motifs wormed their way into your brain as soon as you read them. You only read an excerpt―little more than a fragmentary passage on decaying parchment―but its effect on you was none the lesser. For weeks afterward, you dreamed of the enigma at the center of the play, the dreaded King in Yellow, and strained your mind to imagine the play's conclusion and the secrets left untold in its earlier acts.