Misery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Cover of 1987 first edition | |
| Author | Stephen King, |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Released | 1987 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (first edition, hardback) |
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For other uses, see Misery (disambiguation).
Misery is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1987.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of romance novels featuring the Victorian-era heroine Misery Chastain. Since 1974, he has finished the first drafts of all his books in the Silver Creek Lodge in Colorado. He is determined to finish his new novel, ‘Fast Cars’. After he has completed his manuscript, he has an impulse (fueled by three bottles of champagne) to drive to L.A. rather than back to his home in New York. In his inebriated state he is unaware that the Western Slope of Colorado is going to be hit with one of the biggest snowstorms of the year in a few hours. Determined to drive through this, he loses control of his car, and drives off the road, tumbling down the steep hill and falling unconscious.
Paul is rescued from the car wreck by a woman named Annie Wilkes, an experienced nurse who lives nearby. As Paul waves in and out of conciousness, he hears a voice (Annie's) telling him that she's his number one fan. After extricating Paul from the wreck, Annie takes him not to a hospital, but to her home, putting him in a spare bedroom. As Paul regains consciousness, he lies there completely helpless, being unable to move anything from his waist down. Having been a registered nurse for almost twenty years, Annie knows how to take care of his injuries. She feeds and bathes him and splints his broken legs, giving him Novril (a fictitious narcotic painkiller invented by King specifically for the story) for his pain. Paul comes to like Annie, even letting her read his new manuscript. Annie doesn't like it, but Paul is optimistic, believing once the roads are cleared Annie will take him to a hospital and life will continue normally.
It's around this time that Misery's Child, the latest and final book starring Misery Chastain, hits the shelves. Completely unaware that this is the last book, Annie, whose life revolves around the character, buys the copy she has reserved. Upon reading the book, and learning of her beloved Misery's death, she goes into a rage. She tells Paul that she hasn't spoken to anyone about him. Paul, an only child of deceased parents and two-time divorcé, realizes that it may be a long time before he is missed.
As Paul begins to regain strength in his legs, he is forced to use a wheelchair. He wants to leave, but Annie holds him prisoner, forces him to burn his new manuscript, and demands that he write a new book, which will bring Misery back to life. As he tries to write the book - an early attempt at retconning is roundly rejected by Annie - Paul has little else to do, locked alone in his room. One afternoon, when Annie's away, Paul formulates a plan to escape. Although the plan is unsuccessful, he finally gets out of his room, and secures some needed pain medication which she had been intentionally withholding from him. A few days later, he sneaks out of his room to tour the house again. This time, he finds Annie’s scrapbook, containing newspaper clippings from her entire life. Paul is disturbed to note that Annie has saved news accounts of the untimely deaths of her childhood next-door neighbors and college roommate. The ones that shock him the most, however, are from her time as a nurse. Initially, she worked in medical wards across the Midwest, and intentionally caused (or hastened) the deaths of elderly patients. In Colorado, however, after a brief marriage, Annie worked in the neonatal department, and while there she was charged with several infant deaths. She was tried, but acquitted, and then gave up nursing for good. The last entry in the scrapbook is a squib article from a news magazine indicating that Paul's literary agent has not heard from him for some time and has become concerned, although not overly so.
Paul overlooked some of the signs of his unauthorized trips, and Annie soon found out he had left his room. The following morning she confronts Paul, intent not on killing him, as that would be like "junking a Mercedes because of a broken spring," but rather on "hobbling" him, by cutting his foot off with an axe, then cauterizing the wound with a blowtorch. Paul has come to hate and fear Annie, but realizes he is dependent on her because, in his weakened state, he cannot care for himself (and in addition is throroughly addicted to the painkillers she supplies). He goes on with his writing, even though another spat with Annie results in her impromptu amputation of his left thumb.
In early May, a police officer comes to Annie’s house with a picture of Paul. Annie meets the officer in the yard and professes ignorance, but Paul shouts to the officer out the window of his bedroom. The surprised officer doesn't notice Annie sneaking up behind him - the worse for him. After disposing of the body in a most gruesome manner - involving a riding lawn mower - she comes to Paul with the officer's pistol and two bullets in it. She wants to be with him forever. Paul quickly explains that he is almost done with the book, however, and Annie believes him.
As Paul finishes the last chapter he comes up with a plan. He asks Annie for a cigarette and a match to light it with, to celebrate the completion of the manuscript. When Annie steps out of his room briefly, Paul prepares the final stages of his plan, and when she returns tells her that Misery's Return is the best thing he's ever written - but that Annie will never get to read it. He then drops the lit match onto the pile of pages which he has doused with a squirreled away bottle of lighter fluid. Stunned, Annie runs to the pile and tries to put it out. Paul flings his typewriter at her and it takes her in the back. Although this does not kill her, it gives Paul the upperhand and after a very long struggle he believes he has managed to overpower her. He crawls to the bathroom, knowing that Annie has to be dead but still not believing it, and loads himself with Novril as he waits.
When more police arrive, looking for their missing colleague, they find Paul alive in the house, but there is no sign of Annie. They would later find Annie's body in the barn, with one hand wrapped around the handle of a chainsaw. The cause of death was in fact a fractured skull sustained when she tripped over the typewriter and banged her head on the mantel. Paul finds this ironic. Also, the reader learns, Paul did not burn his book at all. The pile of papers consisted of notes and discarded pages - the top piece of paper on the pile showed the book's title in order to fool Annie into thinking Paul was burning the actual manuscript.
Returning home to New York, Paul is fitted with a prosthetic foot and submits Misery's Return to his publisher, who tells him that it is certain to become his best-selling book ever. However, the ordeal is far from over for Paul: he suffers nightmares about Annie as well as symptoms of withdrawal from the Novril. He also drinks too much, has writer's block and cannot bring himself to get back to work. However, one day, he gets an idea and begins to type...
[edit] Major themes
Unlike much of Stephen King's work, Misery does not deal with demons, ghosts or supernatural powers, but rather with the darkness inherent in the human mind. The story revolves around only two characters and the closed environment of Annie's house.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- William Goldman adapted the novel into the screenplay for a 1990 American film of the same name, directed by Rob Reiner. James Caan and Kathy Bates star as Paul and Annie, respectively. Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances Sternhagen are the only major supporting actors. The film was a critical and commercial success, making $61,276,872 (USA) domestically on a $20,000,000 budget. Kathy Bates won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
- Further information: #Movie
- The novel was also adapted into a moderatly successful Off-Broadway play.
[edit] Trivia
- Misery is one of many King novels set in Colorado.
- The book contains an inside reference to an earlier King novel, The Shining naming 'The Overlook Hotel' in which the book is set. Annie explains to Paul that she met an artist named Andrew Pomeroy, who was sent by a magazine to sketch the ruins of the hotel (the Overlook blew up at the conclusion of The Shining). They became lovers, but Annie considered his drawings "terrible" and, believing he cheated her, killed him shortly thereafter.
- In the book, Annie chops one of Paul's feet off from the ankle. In the movie, she hobbles him by smashing both of his ankles with a sledgehammer.
- King has stated that he intended for Misery to be the next Richard Bachman novel, following Thinner.
- Some paperback versions of the book have a "mock" cover inside the front cover. It is done in the style of a typical romance novel book cover, portraying a man and a woman in a romantic pose. It bears the title "Misery's Return" (the title of the book Paul is forced to write). The man is easily recognizable as Stephen King.
- In On Writing, King stated that he realized that the situation of the novel was a metaphor for the drug addiction he was suffering from at the time.
- Also in On Writing, King tells that his first work on the novel was done at a hotel in Great Britain, at a desk once used by Rudyard Kipling. It was only after he finished his writing session that he was told that Kipling had also reportedly died while working at that desk.
- Annie Wilkes was voted the 17th greatest villain of all-time by the American Film Institute in their special feature AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, and Bravo! named the film the 12th scariest of all time.
- The book tied with the Robert R. McCammon novel Swan Song for the first Bram Stoker Award for best novel.
- Stephen King has stated that he wrote most of the book by hand.
- The Misery Chastain novels are mentioned in Rose Madder, another novel by King.
- Misery was parodied in the Good Eats episode "Ill Gotten Grains".
- The story was also parodied in an episode of The Critic.
- In the Drawn Together episode "Unrestrainable Trainable", when Clara is praised for taking care of Wooldoor following an accident, she conspires to keep him in her care, at one point smashing his feet with a sledgehammer just like in the film version.
[edit] Movie
The movie was made in 1990.
When Paul Sheldon is injured in a car accident, he is taken in by Annie Wilkes. His legs are injured and he cannot walk. At first, Annie, who says she is a nurse, seems to have Paul's best interests in mind. She brings him painkillers, feeds him, and rants on and on about how she is 'his number one fan'. But it soon becomes clear that Annie is mentally ill. After getting Paul's permission to read his current, unpublished (and non-Misery) manuscript, she fails to appreciate the quality of the writing, as she prefers the mass-market pulp of the Misery series.
During this time, the latest Misery book comes out (Misery's Child), and Annie eagerly dives in, not knowing that this book (and the entire series) will end with Misery's death. After screaming at Paul, she brings him his unpublished manuscript, and a box of matches. She forces him to burn his book.
The next day, she brings him a typewriter and typing paper, and tells him he must fix the book and bring Misery back. He sees a pin on the floor and tells Annie he can't type on this paper because it smears. She angrily goes back to town to get him new paper. He gets the pin, and uses it to pick the lock on the door. However, this doesn't help, since it seems hopeless to get out. So he begins working on the book.
Later on, he escapes his room and explores the house at which he finds a scrapbook that has incriminating evidence that Annie was a convicted serial killer. He goes back to his room, only to wake up in the night, just in time for Annie to inject him with a liquid that knocks him out. When he wakes up next, she has tied him to the bed, and informs him that she knows he has been out of his room. She then proceeds to break his feet so he can't escape again. (In the book, his foot is cut off.) Meanwhile, while many people have assumed that Paul is dead, a local law enforcement officer, thinks that he is still alive, and through various clues, tracks down Annie. Annie sees him coming and knocks out Paul, dragging him to a room. After searching for a bit, the officer finds him, only to be shot by Annie a few seconds later.
Annie then tells Paul that she loves him and that they must die together. Paul sees some lighter fluid on the floor next to him, and gets Annie to agree to let him finish the book first. She goes to get his wheelchair, and Paul stuffs the bottle of fluid down his pants. After he finishes his book, he gets Annie to bring him a cigarette, a match, a glass, and a bottle of champagne. He then tells her she needs to get two glasses. While she is gone, Paul pours fluid all over the manuscript and lights the match. When Annie comes back, he lights the book on fire, sending Annie over the edge. After a bloody fight, Paul manages to kill Annie. 18 months later, Paul has been found, and his new book is popular (Paul burned a stack of empty papers instead of the real manuscript). Paul admits that he sometimes still sees Annie. The movie ends with a waitress telling Paul that she is "his number one fan".
Kathy Bates was acclaimed for her acting as Annie. She even won an Academy Award for her performance in the Best Actress category. Many criminal profilers have praised King for his realistic portrayal of Wilkes. They mention that many female serial killers often hide their true nature behind a facade of tenderness and warmth as Annie does.
[edit] Editions
- ISBN 0-606-03859-0 (prebound, 1987)
- ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (cloth text, 1987)
- ISBN 0-451-16952-2 (mass market paperback, 1988)
- ISBN 84-01-49997-6 (hardcover, 1992)
- ISBN 0-573-01850-2 (hardcover, 1999)
- ISBN 0-7432-3359-X (mass market paperback, 2002)
- ISBN 0-7862-5020-8 (laminated, 2003)
[edit] External links
| Stephen King |
|---|
| Bibliography |
| Novels: Carrie (1974) • ’Salem's Lot (1975) • Rage (as Richard Bachman) (1977) • The Shining (1977) • Night Shift (stories) (1978) • The Stand (1978) • The Dead Zone (1979) • The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman) (1979) • Firestarter (1980) • Cujo (1981) • Road Work (as Richard Bachman) (1981) • The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (1982) • Different Seasons (novellas) (1982) • The Running Man (as Richard Bachman) (1982) • Christine (1983) • Pet Sematary (1983) • Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) • The Talisman (written with Peter Straub) (1984) • Thinner (as Richard Bachman) (1984) • Skeleton Crew (stories) (1985) • The Bachman Books (novel collection) (1985) • It (1986) • The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) • Misery (1987) • The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987) • The Tommyknockers (1988) • Dark Visions (cowritten with George R. R. Martin and Dan Simmons) (1988) • The Dark Half (1989) • Dolan's Cadillac (1989) • My Pretty Pony (1989) • The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990) • Four Past Midnight (stories) (1990) • Needful Things (1990) • The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991) • Gerald's Game (1992) • Dolores Claiborne (1993) • Nightmares & Dreamscapes (stories) (1993) • Insomnia (1994) • Rose Madder (1995) • Umney's Last Case (1995) • The Green Mile (1996) • Desperation (1996) • The Regulators (as Richard Bachman) (1996) • Six Stories (stories) (1997) • The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997) • Bag of Bones (1998) • The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) • The New Lieutenant's Rap (1999) • Hearts in Atlantis (1999) • Dreamcatcher (2001) • Black House (sequel to The Talisman; written with Peter Straub) (2001) • From a Buick 8 (2002) • Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales (stories) (2002) • The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (revised edition) (2003) • The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003) • The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004) • The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004) • The Colorado Kid (2005) Cell (2006) • Lisey's Story (2006) |
| Non-fiction: • Danse Macabre (1981) • 1988 Nightmares in the Sky (1988) • 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000) • 2005 Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season (cowritten with Stewart O'Nan) (2005) |
| Original ebooks: Riding the Bullet (2000) • The Plant: Book 1-Zenith Rising (2000) |
| Audio Recordings |
| Audiobooks: L.T.'s Theory of Pets • Blood and Smoke (2000) • Stationary Bike (2006) |
