Misery (SIGNED Plus SIGNED MOVIE TIE-INS)

King, Stephen

ISBN 10: 0670813648 / ISBN 13: 9780670813643

Published by Viking Press, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1987

About this Item

1st Edition/1st Printing. SIGNED by Stephen King on a cut-signature from another book attached to title page (signature only). $18.95 price present on DJ flap; mylar protected. From the 1990 film version of the move: Attached to front end page is a card SIGNED by JAMES CAAN (played 'Paul Sheldon'); a second card SIGNED by KATHY BATES (played 'Anie Wilkes'); and another card SIGNED by RICHARD FARNSWORTH (played 'Buster'). Attached to half-title page is a card SIGNED by LAUREN BACALL (played 'Marcia Sindell'); and a card SIGNED by ROB REINER (the film's Director). Laid-in is a B&W photo SIGNED by GRAHAM JARVIS (played 'Libby'); and a small B&W photo SIGNED by FRANCES STERNHAGEN (played 'Virginia'). (Bonus: Comes with a unsigned 1st Printing hardcover copyof King's novel "Four Past Midnight"). Unique item for the King--Misery fan or collector. NOTE:NO international orders for this item. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Seller Inventory # 042480

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Misery (SIGNED Plus SIGNED MOVIE TIE-INS)
• Publisher: Viking Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670813648
• ISBN 13: 9780670813643
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine +
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • Books To Film Specials

About this title

Synopsis

Paul Sheldon, author of a series of historical romances, wakes up in a secluded farmhouse in Colorado with broken legs and Annie Wilkes, a disappointed fan, hovering over him with drugs, ax, and blowtorch and demanding he bring his heroine back to life

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