The Repairer of Reputations

"The Repairer of Reputations" is a short story published by Robert W. Chambers in the collection «The King in Yellow» in 1895. The story is set in New York City in the year 1920, 25 years after the story's publication. It is told from the view of Hildred Castaigne, a young man whose personality changes drastically following a head injury sustained by falling from his horse. He is subsequently committed to an asylum for treatment of insanity by Dr. Archer. While still recovering from his accident, Hildred obtains and reads 'The King in Yellow', a false document within the story which is represented as a universally censored play which deeply disturbs him. Once a wealthy dilettante and affable man-about-town, after his accident Hildred becomes an eccentric recluse who spends his days poring over old books and maps and associating with a more eccentric character, Mr. Wilde, the «Repairer of Reputations» of the story's title.