61 pages • 2 hours read
Robert W. ChambersThe King in Yellow
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1895A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Stories 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Story 9 Summary: “The Street of Our Lady of the Fields”
This story opens with an epigraph from an unidentified source, which translated from the French, states: “And every day after the sadness | We count as happy days” (125). Following this epigraph, the story begins with the protagonist Hastings, recently arrived in Paris from America to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and looking for a place to live. Reverend Byram, an old family friend, helps him search for apartments in the respectable parts of the city. They agree on a place on the Street of Our Lady of the Fields, situated in between the bourgeois area of the Montparnasse Quarter and the bohemian area of the Latin Quarter.
After settling in, Hastings wanders to the Luxembourg Gardens where he meets Clifford, a neighbor and art student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Clifford introduces Hastings to a beautiful young woman named Valentine. Valentine and Clifford have a cryptic conversation, which seems to imply that Clifford flirts with Valentine while also seeing another woman named Cecile. Valentine does not approve of this. Hastings mistakes Valentine for another art student when she speaks of several of the Beaux Arts instructors. She says she is not a student, but declines to explain who or what she is.
Over time, Hastings sees more of Valentine. Hastings, innocent, idealistic, and sheltered from his life in Connecticut, treats Valentine with respect, which she finds surprising and refreshing. Meanwhile, the other students at the Beaux Arts are shocked by Hastings' innocence and obliviousness. The implication is that Valentine is well-known for her liaisons with men and may be a sex worker, and they want to tell Hastings. Clifford, like Valentine, likes Hastings’ idealism and forbids the others to tell him anything, saying that “this rustic Hastings has no more idea that Valentine is—is—in fact is Valentine, than he has that he himself is a beautiful example of moral decency in a Quarter where morals are as rare as elephants” (141).
In a meeting at a restaurant, Valentine tells Clifford to stop seeking her out, that she likes him but knows his reputation, and that he should be kinder to Cecile. She also begs him not to tell Hastings the truth about her. She knows he will learn it eventually but wants to wait as long as possible.
A month passes. One evening, Hastings finds Clifford drunk on the street and takes him home. Hastings is appalled by this behavior. That morning, he goes to the gardens where Valentine soon arrives to see him. Though Hastings has previously been content to sit with her in the garden, he now asks her to spend the whole day with him. Valentine reluctantly agrees, “only for this once” (156).
They have lunch together, and then on a whim catch a train where they have a compartment to themselves. Valentine opens the window and leans out of it, crying out “faster! Faster!” in her excitement. Worried, Hastings grabs her about the waist. When she looks troubled, he kisses her. She cries and tells him she is not worthy of him, explaining her past, and saying she loves him. She tells him that he could kill her with an unkind word. But Hastings insists they will be happy “in so bright a world” (158). Hastings’ last line is to ask God to forgive him, with the narration declaring that the Lady of the Fields forgave them both. It is unclear what, exactly, they are forgiven for.
Story 10 Summary: “Rue Barrée”
“Rue Barrée” opens with two epigraphs. The first one is, once again, from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. It states:
For let Philosopher and Doctor preach
Of what they will and what they will not,—each
Is but one link in an eternal chain
That none can slip nor break nor over-reach (159).
The second reads, in part:
crimson nor yellow roses nor
the savour of the mounting sea
are worth the perfume I adore
that clings to thee (159).
This comes from the poem “Eros Dante” by Theodore Wratislaw. This epigraph embodies the central character of this story, Selby, who is a new student at the Beaux Arts. Selby arrives brand new to Paris, with papers of introduction. He meets Clifford, who takes him under his wing. The other art students quickly learn that Selby is an art prodigy, as well as being polite and shy, and they treat him like a child.
Selby becomes enamored of a pretty girl he sees standing on the street. The other art students, including Clifford and Elliott, explain that this woman is a mystery to them all. They do not know her name, and therefore call her “Rue Barrée,” a reference to a sign on the street where she lives. They explain that many men bow to her and flirt with her, but never make any progress. She barely smiles, let alone offers her name or gives them her attention. They believe she works as a pianist, based on the music books she carries, but that is all they know about her.
Selby sees Rue Barrée at a flower cart. She lingers over some roses but cannot afford them and walks away. On impulse, Selby buys the roses to have them sent to her. Then, in a fit of romantic excitement, he buys more flowers. He ends up with so many that they fill his entire apartment, including his bed and chairs and the floor. Clifford comes to visit him and is shocked by all the flowers. He and the other men tease Selby about it. Selby insists he just likes them, but Clifford suspects that Selby has also set his sights on Rue Barrée.
Clifford tells Elliott that he is in love with Rue Barrée, even though he has already once tried to catch her attention and failed. Elliott is used to such pronouncements though and tells him that it is just like every other time he has chased after some girl: “each and every one of those named have separately and in turn torn your heart with anguish” (170). But Clifford insists this is different, and he would even marry her. To prove his point, Clifford approaches Rue Barrée, effusive in his praise and love, and asks her to marry him. Rue Barrée graciously declines, by which Clifford is already beginning to regret his rash action and is relieved.
Days later, Selby, Clifford, and Elliott, and the rest all go out partying and drinking. Selby, drunk, wanders away. On a reckless impulse, he finds his way to the street where Rue Barrée lives and climbs the wall to her window. He breaks into her room, scaring her. As she stares at him, trembling and silent, he sees his reflection in a mirror and begins to sober up. Suddenly, he realizes the shame and danger of what he has done and knows that “it was over, for the voice within had spoken” (178). The girl plucks a rose from the rose bush and gives it to him, as if in silent farewell, and he leaves, embarrassed.
Stories 9-10 Analysis
As with the previous two, these last two stories are set in the Latin Quarter and feature artists as the central characters. They each open with an epigraph that may hint at the content, atmosphere, or themes of the story that follows. The epigraph for “The Street of Our Lady of the Fields,” comes from an unidentified source, the quote saying that a time or experience of sadness makes any following moments of happiness seem even better or brighter by comparison hints at happy endings and the possibility of redemption. The epigraph therefore shades the ending’s meaning when Hastings and Valentine are riding the train and Hastings insists: “we shall be very happy in so bright a world” (158). Valentine responds: “Is this the world? Then I have never known it” (158), implying that her life before has been so difficult or sad that a version of the world this happy and bright is entirely unrecognizable to her. Though the ending leaves the fate of these two characters ambiguous, there is some hope that they will have happiness together. The last line, “Perhaps it was our gentle Lady of the Fields who forgave them both” (158), may indicate this—forgiveness leading to happiness. However, it is unclear what precisely they are being forgiven for. Possibly, Valentine is forgiven for the dark past which is alluded to in the story.
The last story, “Rue Barrée,” opens with two different epigraphs. The first is from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as translated by Edward FitzGerald. This quotation is about the limits that wise men (philosophers and doctors) know better than to cross—that chain of restraint or common sense “that none can slip nor break nor over-reach” (159). This may imply, by omission, the kinds of people who are not bound by this kind of restraint, such as lovers who are made reckless by desire, or perhaps young, artistic students living in foreign countries. Both Selby and Clifford are examples of this in “Rue Barrée.” The second epigraph, from the poem “Eros Dante” by Theodore Wratislaw references sensual images such as roses and perfume and ends with the speaker being inflamed by desire. This prefigures the flowers that appear throughout the story and also Selby’s reckless action at the end.
Both stories embody the themes of Decadence and Moral Decay, and The Recklessness of Desire. The decadence and moral decay is implicit in the setting: the Latin Quarter which was infamous in the late 19th century for students and their wild bohemian lifestyles. Reverend Byram when helping Hastings find a place to live laments the immorality of the Latin Quarter. Likewise, Clifford claims that morals are as rare in the Latin Quarter as elephants, and excludes only Hastings from this declaration. Clifford himself is just as corrupted as everyone else who lives there, including Valentine. Indeed, Clifford’s womanizing and drinking and wandering the streets at all hours of the night, are all indications of the general decadence and decay of the neighborhood.
Similarly, in “Rue Barrée,” the decadence and immorality of the Latin Quarter corrupts even Selby, who is shy and nervous in the beginning. By the end of the story, having been influenced by the behavior of those around him, Selby gets drunk and breaks into the home of the woman he is obsessed with. This also highlights the third major theme, the ways in which desire makes men reckless and foolish. Both Selby and Clifford embody this theme. Selby is the main culprit when he breaks into Rue Barrée’s room, resorting to criminal and shameful behavior and terrifying the young woman in the process. Though Selby offers her no violence, the implication of his intent is obvious. Clifford is also reckless, although to a lesser extent, when he impulsively proposes marriage to Rue Barrée, and then immediately regrets the action. It is pure luck that she refuses his proposal, thus saving him from his own foolishness. These two final stories can be seen as a pair, with very similar settings and themes. They follow the parallel characters of Clifford and Selby, as they navigate the temptations of the bohemian lifestyle and test their moral boundaries.
