What if you were involved in the theft of one of the legendary jewels of all time – and you didn’t even know it? That’s exactly what happens to the innocent damsel at the center of Robert W. Chambers’ The Dark Star. She prays for a strong, silent savior to extract her from the mess she’s in – but will she recognize and call upon her own wit and spunk before it’s too late?

“The Green Book,” a small, unassuming diary of a young girl; an unheard of book of the Talmud known as the “Tractate Middoth”; “The King in Yellow,” a play that drives people to insanity; two mysterious grey stone plaques from the sands of Chaldea known as the “Tablets of The Gods”; “The Confessions of Constantine,” which drives its readers into a homicidal rage—these accursed books are the subject of this collection of olden tales.

Gender roles in the American Revolutionary War period were not exactly a bastion of progressiveness. However, even during a time when most women were encouraged to shrink from conflict and follow the lead of any man in the vicinity, there were a few iconoclastic females who broke this mold. The defiantly independent heroine at the center of The Hidden Children steadfastly refuses to be held down by social conventions she sees as useless.

A treasured source for Lovecraft, Howard, and others, this collection endures as a work of remarkable power. Includes all the stories from The King in Yellow—“Yellow Sign,” “Repairer of Reputations,” “Demoiselle d’Ys,” and others—plus stories from other sources, including three early sci-fi fantasies from In Search of the Unknown. 10 total.

Editor’s Note:

The Crown Prince is partly right; the majority in the world is against him and what he stands for; but not against Germany and the Germans.