In the Quarter was first published in 1894 and the text is in the public domain. It is no longer under copyright protection and thus can be freely printed here.  This is the first novel by the author of The King in Yellow, and features many characters from the later book. It is a tale of doomed love set in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

Rupert Hughes in his forward to the 1938 edition of The King in Yellow wrote that In The Quarter "is a study of the Bohemian life in Paris that Chambers knew so well; for his first ambition was to be a painter."  Born in Brooklyn, he made his preliminary studies at the Art students' League. A classmate of his was the famous master of pen and ink, Charles Dana Gibson. Hughes states that Chambers told him once that, as young students, he and Gibson went together to the office of Life to submit their first drawings. The editor accepted the picture by Chambers and rejected Gibson's. Gibson remained in New York and became immensely successful in the field in which he received his first rebuff.

Chambers went to France, studied at the Julien Academy for seven years. After three he had his first painting accepted by the Paris Salon, but he finally decided to chuck his brushes overboard and become an author.

For a period, his interest turned to early American history, and historical fiction.  He then turned to the chronicling of the contemporary rich and the gaudier people of New York society.

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