Misery

SUMMARY: In Misery (1987), as in The Shining (1977), 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'' bestselling 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 "It's love at first sight for high school student Arnie Cunningham when he and his best friend Dennis Guilder spot the dilapidated 1958 red-and-white Plymouth Fury for sale--dubbed "Christine" by its original cantankerous owner--rusting away on a front lawn of their suburban Pennsylvania neighborhood. Dennis knows that Arnie's never had much luck in the popularity department, or really taken an interest in owning a car ... but Christine quickly changes all that. Arnie suddenly has the new-found confidence to stick up for himself, going as far as dating the most beautiful girl at Libertyville High--transfer student Leigh Cabot--even as a mysteriously restored Christine systematically and terrifyingly consumes every aspect of Arnie's life. Dennis and Leigh soon realize that they must uncover the awful truth behind a car with a horrifying and murderous history. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and heaven help anyone who gets in Christine's way."--Page 4 of cover "*It*" is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. "*It*" was his 22nd book and his 17th novel written under his own name. The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "*It*" primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown to attract its preferred prey of young children. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1987, and received nominations for the Locus and World Fantasy Awards that same year. In 2003, "*It*" was listed at number 144 on the BBC's The Big Read poll. ---------- See also: - [IT 1/2][2] - [IT 2/2][3] [1]: https://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/it.html [2]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL14916816W/It_1_2 [3]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL14916818W/It_2_2 Author Ben Mears returns to ‘Salem's Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead. ([source][1]) [1]: https://stephenking.com/library/novel/_salem_s_lot.html ---------- Also contained in: - [Night Shift / Carrie / 'Salem's Lot / Shining](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19558521W/Night_Shift_Carrie_'Salem's_Lot_Shining) - ['Salem's Lot: Illustrated Edition](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19859438W) - [Works (Danse Macabre / Salem's Lot / Shining)](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24233994W) Plagued by vivid nightmares of the summer house he had shared with his late wife, widower Mike Noonan returns to his former Maine getaway, only to find a town in the grip of a ruthless millionaire and tormented by ghostly visits The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years-if it ever did end-began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. Una novela de terror escalofriante del maestro de horror, Stephen King. Un gran bestseller.