Salem's Lot - Softcover

King, Stephen

4.06

455,136 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340951478 ISBN 13: 9780340951477

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 2007

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Upon its initial publication in 1975, 'SALEM'S LOT, with its 'intended echoes of Dracula', was recognized as a landmark work. The novel has sold millions of copies in various editions. Now, with the addition of fifty pages of material deleted from the 1975 manuscript as well as material that has since been modified by King, an introduction by him, and two short stories related to the events of the novel, this edition represents the text as the author envisioned it. It also features lavishly creepy photographs by acclaimed photographer Jerry Uelsmann, printed interior endpapers, and a stunning page design.

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Review:

Stephen King's second book, 'Salem's Lot--about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula--has two elements that he also uses to good effect in later novels: a small American town, usually in Maine, where people are disconnected from each other, quietly nursing their potential for evil; and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil.

Simply taken as a contemporary vampire novel, 'Salem's Lotis great fun to read, and has been very influential in the horror genre. But it's also a sly piece of social commentary. As King said in 1983, "In 'Salem's Lot, the thing that really scared me was not vampires, but the town in the daytime, the town that was empty, knowing that there were things in closets, that there were people tucked under beds, under the concrete pilings of all those trailers. And all the time I was writing that, the Watergate hearings were pouring out of the TV.... Howard Baker kept asking, 'What I want to know is, what did you know and when did you know it?' That line haunts me, it stays in my mind.... During that time I was thinking about secrets, things that have been hidden and were being dragged out into the light." Sounds quite a bit like the idea behind his 1998 novel of a Maine hamlet haunted by unsightly secrets, Bag of Bones. --Fiona Webster

Review:

An incredibly gifted writer (Guardian)

A writer of excellence...King is one of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel (Sunday Times)

Stephen King is one of America's finest writers (Scotsman)

One of the great storytellers of our time (Guardian)

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