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Misery

by Stephen King

Misery Cover

ISBN13: 9780451169525
ISBN10: 0451169522
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Paul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest 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 his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

Review:

"Terrifying...In addition to being able to scare the reader breathless, King says a tremendous amount about writing itself. We delight in his virtuosity." Washington Post

Review:

"King's best...genuinely scary." USA Today

Review:

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

Synopsis:

A writer is held hostage by his number-one fan in the novel that "demandÝs¨ that we take King seriously as a writer with a deeply felt understanding of human psychology" ("Publishers Weekly"). His deeply felt understanding of what terrifies us doesn't hurt either.

Synopsis:

After an automobile accident, novelist Paul Sheldon meets his biggest fan. Annie Wilkes is his nurse-and captor. Now, she wants Paul to write his greatest work-just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an ax. And if they don't work, she can get really nasty...

Synopsis:

Can a best-selling author escape from a psychotic nurse who wants him to respect her favorite literary character?
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About the Author

Stephen King, the world's bestselling novelist, was educated at the University of Maine at Orono. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, and their children in Bangor, Maine.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Linda Shelnutt, April 21, 2006 (view all comments by Linda Shelnutt)
Case Study In Soul Stench: Annie-ax, Evil Samaritan

Throughout this book I drug my feet (oh so thankful they were both still hanging on my ankles), cringing, in what was to me the ultimate in horror, not only in the physical entrapment of being incapacitated, in horrendous pain, and at the mercy of the most insidious psychopath who could implement any type of torture she could conjure, any time of day or night as her victim, the reader as author, lies helpless in her guest bed.

The gradual but relentlessly growing awareness that Annie Wilkes was not a caring, sane woman, that she was a very very Evil Samaritan, that she was indeed psychologically challenged to the bottom of her putrid soul ... the gradation of that insidiously seeping, flickering awareness of Annie Wilkes's twisted ebony heart was true horror. I don't recall ever reading the development of psychosis in a character being accomplished so clearly, so chillingly realistically.

This may be King's most symbolic, significant novel.

Throughout the book I wondered, is this what it would feel like to be a famous author, a creative soul trapped by the tastes of fans? One of the worst spiritual imprisonments would be to become known, loved, and sought after for a certain quality in a product, then be held hostage to that quality, to be compelled to continue to recreate, regurgitate that quality forever and forever with no hope for an amen, with no hope to ever take a tangent or get a new lease on writing.

"I'm your Number One Fan." Each time Annie Wilkes said this, my hair would have stood on end if it weren't so thin, limp, and lacking, if I hadn't already pulled it all out in the first couple chapters of the book.

If anyone understands the very essence of misery, it's Stephen King. If anyone can impart the ultimate in that feeling in a novel, it's King. Man, oh man, he did it. Her put misery on the bookshelves for keeps.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780451169525
Author:
King, Stephen
Publisher:
Signet
Location:
New York
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Horror
Subject:
Horror fiction
Subject:
Horror stories
Subject:
Horror tales
Subject:
Novelists, American
Subject:
Juvenile
Subject:
Horror - General
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Fans (persons)
Copyright:
1987
Edition Description:
B-Mass Market
Series Volume:
no. 1
Publication Date:
June 1988
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
352
Dimensions:
6.90x4.19x.98 in. .37 lbs.
Age Level:
from 18
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Related Aisles

Misery Used Mass Market
0 stars - 0 reviews
$2.50 In Stock
Product details 352 pages Signet Book - English 9780451169525 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Terrifying...In addition to being able to scare the reader breathless, King says a tremendous amount about writing itself. We delight in his virtuosity."
"Review" by , "King's best...genuinely scary."
"Review" by , "Classic King...full of twists and turns and mounting suspense."
"Synopsis" by , A writer is held hostage by his number-one fan in the novel that "demandÝs¨ that we take King seriously as a writer with a deeply felt understanding of human psychology" ("Publishers Weekly"). His deeply felt understanding of what terrifies us doesn't hurt either.
"Synopsis" by ,
After an automobile accident, novelist Paul Sheldon meets his biggest fan. Annie Wilkes is his nurse-and captor. Now, she wants Paul to write his greatest work-just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an ax. And if they don't work, she can get really nasty...
"Synopsis" by , Can a best-selling author escape from a psychotic nurse who wants him to respect her favorite literary character?
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