Misery - Softcover

King, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501143107 ISBN 13: 9781501143106

Publisher: Scribner Book Company, 2016

Synopsis

The #1 New York Times bestseller about a famous novelist held hostage in a remote location by his "number one fan." One of "Stephen King's best...genuinely scary" (USA TODAY).

Paul Sheldon is a bestselling novelist who has finally met his number one fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes, and she is more than a rabid reader--she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also furious that the author has killed off her favorite character in his latest book. Annie becomes his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

Annie wants Paul to write a book that brings Misery back to life--just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an axe. And if they don't work, she can get really nasty.

"Terrifying" (San Francisco Chronicle), "dazzlingly well-written" (The Indianapolis Star), and "truly gripping" (Publishers Weekly), Misery is "classic Stephen King...full of twists and turns and mounting suspense" (The Boston Globe).

About this title

Review:

In Misery, as in The Shining, a writer is trapped in an evil house during a Colorado winter. Each novel bristles with claustrophobia, stinging insects, and the threat of a lethal explosion. Each is about a writer faced with the dominating monster of his unpredictable muse.

Paul Sheldon, the hero of Misery, sees himself as a caged parrot who must return to Africa in order to be free. Thus, in the novel within a novel, the romance novel that his mad captor-nurse, Annie Wilkes, forces him to write, he goes to Africa--a mysterious continent that evokes for him the frightening, implacable solidity of a woman's (Annie's) body. The manuscript fragments he produces tell of a great Bee Goddess, an African queen reminiscent of H. Rider Haggard's She.

He hates her, he fears her, he wants to kill her; but all the same he needs her power. Annie Wilkes literally breathes life into him.

Misery touches on several large themes: the state of possession by an evil being, the idea that art is an act in which the artist willingly becomes captive, the tortured condition of being a writer, and the fears attendant to becoming a "brand-name" best selling author with legions of zealous fans. And yet it's a tight, highly resonant echo chamber of a book--one of King's shortest, and best novels ever. --Fiona Webster

Review:

"King at his best...a winner."--The New York Times

"Undiluted horror...wonderful...A primal storyteller writing about a primal scream."--Houston Chronicle

"Suspenseful, entertaining, genuinely scary."--USA Today

"Nerve-jangling...razor keen."--Kirkus Reviews

"Solid character delineation and terrifying insight. In addition to being able to scare the reader breathless, King says a tremendous amount about writing itself. We delight in his virtuosity."--The Washington Post

"Dazzlingly well-written."--The Indianapolis Star

"Terrifying...King is a terrific storyteller."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Classic King...full of twists and turns and mounting suspense."--Boston Globe

"Page-turningly effective, stringing out every scene to the screaming point."--Chicago Sun-Times

"Stephen King at his best...frighteningly good."--Philadelphia Inquirer

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1501143107
• ISBN 13: 9781501143106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368