Song of my soul, my voice is dead;// Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed// Shall dry and die in// Lost Carcosa.// With this song, taken from the fictitious drama of "The King in Yellow", the collection of early horror stories by the same title opens. The first four stories are connected by the theme of this fictitious drama which drives those wo read it insane as well as by a mysterious and malevolent supernatural also entity known as "The King in Yellow". The other stories in the book do not follow the macabre theme of the first four, and most are written in the romantic fiction style which characterise Chanbers' later work.