Review of “The Yellow Sign” by Robert W. Chambers: Halloween Countdown

Plot:

The painter, Mr. Scott, writes that he first sees the watchman go into a church on Washington Square and thinks nothing of it. The next time he sees him, he glances from his window and sees his face. It reminds him of a “coffin-worm” or “grave-worm” (a maggot).

He turns back to his easel but finds something has spoiled his painting. Tessie, his model, examines the work and wonders if something is wrong with the paint or the canvas. Mr. Scott scrapes the paint off and applies turpentine, but nothing seems to work.

Tessie gets dressed and tells him about a dream she’s had several times. In her dream, she wakes to stand by the window. Outside, a “black-plumed” horse pulls a hearse. Inside the hearse, lying in a glass-covered coffin, is Mr. Scott. She wakes then to find herself standing by the window, cold.

Mr. Scott later tells her that he had the same dream, only from his point of view. He woke to find himself confined in a tight box with a glass top. He knew he was moving and heard the horse’s hooves against the pavement.

Hearing this distresses Tessie. Mr. Scott kisses her, something he promised himself he would not do.

Sometime later, coming home from a dinner and a show with another woman, he sees the watchman in the square outside the church.

“Have you found the Yellow Sign?” the watchman asks.

Mr. Scott doesn’t answer but storms off as if offended.

Thoughts:

There is a dreaminess to the story as well as a feeling of inescapable fate, as if the former could soften the latter.

This story is one in a series of interrelated tales in the collection titled The King in Yellow. The title refers to a (fictitious) play that is said to drive its readers mad. The broader narrative of the book moves back and forth in time.

While there is no direct mention of sexual contact between Mr. Scott and Tessie, Mr. Scott is attached to her. He will not marry her, for he believes himself unsuited to marriage. He likes the company of women. There are several mentions of a (deceased?) lover named Sylvia. It seems he likes keeping his options open.

But he’d also like to keep his model.

“I said that I was no good,” he tells the reader. “That is true, but still I was not exactly a comic opera villain.”

However, there is one complication. Now that she’s in love with him, Tessie is reluctant to continue to pose in the nude.

Mr. Scott reflects on this: “Alas! Alas! We had eaten of the tree of knowledge, and Eden and native innocence were dreams of the past.”

Ideas of lost innocence infuse the narrative, though this is relative. Neither of the main characters is exactly an innocent, yet they are still susceptible to the corruption (so to speak) of the maggot/watchman. The watchman is not Satan tempting them astray with promises of wealth and pleasure. He offers only malice, corruption, and evil.

This tale is creepy and sad, designed for the “decadent” set of the late nineteenth century. I enjoyed the creepiness of it and watching poor Mr. Scott trying to get his painting mojo back. The ending didn’t quite click for me, though none of it was a surprise.



Bio: Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933) was a playwright, artist, and illustrator who turned to writing supernatural and weird fiction. Of his seventy books, his best-known is The King in Yellow, which was influenced by Ambrose Bierce and, in turn, influenced H. P. Lovecraft. Told in vignettes that jump forward and backward in time, it describes a play that drives its readers mad.


This story can be read here:


This story can be listened to here: (45:47)


Title: “The Yellow Sign”
Author: Robert W. Chambers
First published: The King in Yellow, 1895
Length: novelette