My four-star rating applies strictly to the first five stories in this volume; the remaining stories break the mold set by the first quintet and did pretty much nothing for me.

The first five, though, I enjoyed a lot. The first four stories all are stand-alone tales linked by the device of a fictional play called "The King in a Yellow," a play reputed to drive anyone who reads it quite mad. "The Repairer of Reputations," "The Mask," "On The Court Of The Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign" make up the "King in Yellow" cycle, and can be considered sort of prototypical Cthulhu Mythos material -- and Lovecraft did, indeed, read these stories. The stories offer an oblique glimpse into another, supernatural world, which may exist only in the minds of those who read the book. Good stuff, and of special interest to Lovecraft fans.

The fifth story, "The Demoiselle D'Ys," is simply a ghost story, unconnected with the "King" material -- although it easily could have been worked into that framework.

All in all, a breezy read. Call it Lovecraft, without the stilted prose.