The King in the Tree: Three Novellas is a collection of short fiction by Steven Millhauser published in 2003 by Alfred A. Knopf.Ingersoll, 2014 p. 141: Selected Bibliography
Novellas Novellas originally published in periodicals are indicated.Millhauser, 2003: See opposite dedication page for periodical publications "Revenge" (Harper's Magazine, July 2001) "An Adventure of Don Juan" "The King in the Tree"
Reception
Kirkus Reviews: "Some of the best writing of Millhauser's increasingly brilliant career appears in this collection of three imaginative and unusual novellas."
Los Angeles Times reviewer John Turrentine writes:
Theme Biographer Earl G. Ingersoll reports that "reviewers generally agree the three novellas were dark renditions of love relations."Ingersoll, 2014 p. 106 and p. 8: The collection "brings together three narratives of betrayal in love and the eternal triangle."
New York Times reviewer Laura Miller writes: "Romantic triangles, illicit love and jealousy—an affliction that arises out of the imagination, after all—are recurring elements in these three novellas."Miller, 2003:Ingersoll, 2014 p. 113: "The three tales share concerns with love between women and men in triangular constructions."
Literary critic Jim Shepard at Bomb : "The King in the Tree's three novellas opens up the intensities of obsessive love and anguished betrayal with both minute precision and startling élan."
Turrentine adds: "Infidelity is the glue binding these three novellas."
Ingersoll adds: "The dark melodrama of the first novella and the somber comedy of the second give way to the tragedy of the third."Ingersoll, 2014 p. 113
Footnotes
Sources Ingersoll, Earl G. 2014. Understanding Steven Millhauser. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC. Miller, Laura. 2003. "Theme Parks of the Mind." New York Times, March 9, 2003.https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/books/theme-parks-of-the-mind.html Accessed 15 May 2025 Shepard, Jim. 2003. Interview: Steven Millhauser. Bomb, April 1, 2003. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2003/04/01/steven-millhauser/ Accessed 15 May 2025. Turrentine, Jeff. 2003. "Phantoms of infidelity" Los Angeles Times, March 16, 2003.https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-mar-16-bk-turrentine16-story.html Accessed 15 May 2025 Millhauser, Steven. 2003. The King in the Tree: Three Novellas. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.