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Cujo
First edition cover
Author	Stephen King
Cover artist	Ben Dover
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1981
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	320 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-451-16135-1
Preceded by	Firestarter
Followed by	Christine

Cujo is a horror novel by Stephen King, published by Viking in 1981. The book tells the story of the middle-class Trenton family and rural Camber clan in Castle Rock, Maine. Mundane marital and financial difficulties plague disgraced advertising man Vic Trenton and his adulterous wife Donna. Their domestic problems are dwarfed by mortal danger when Donna and her four-year-old son Tad are terrorized by a rabid St. Bernard named Cujo. The novel was adapted into a 1983 film of the same name. Image File history File linksMetadata Cujo. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... “Horror story” redirects here. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Viking Press was founded on March 1, 1925, in New York City, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN redirects here. ... FireStarter (Japanese ファイスタ Fai Suta) is the second episode of the anime FLCL. Spoiler warning: Summary The Episode starts out with Mamimi playing some handheld videogame about burning stuff to please a dark god Cantide. ... This article is about the novel by Stephen King. ... For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography, and as such serves as the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. ... For other uses, see Rabies (disambiguation). ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: St. ...

The book is a semi-sequel to King's earlier work The Dead Zone. "Cujo" makes several specific references to the events and characters of "The Dead Zone," even so much as to lead the audience to believe that Frank Dodd (committed suicide in The Dead Zone) is possessing Cujo. King made later reference to the dog in his 1983 novel Pet Sematary, in which a character briefly alludes to "a big old St. Bernard (that) went rabid downstate a couple of years ago and killed four people", a clear allusion to the events of Cujo. Similar references appear in King's later novel Needful Things, as well as his novella The Body, from Different Seasons. The Dead Zone is a novel by Stephen King published in 1979. ... This article is about Stephen Kings horror novel. ... Needful Things is a horror novel by Stephen King and published in 1991. ... The Body is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in the 1982 collection Different Seasons. ... Different Seasons (1982) is a novella collection by Stephen King containing the following stories: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (subtitled: Hope Springs Eternal) Apt Pupil (subtitled: Summer of Corruption) The Body (subtitled: Fall From Innocence) The Breathing Method (subtitled: A Winters Tale) Three movies, The Shawshank Redemption (based on...

The name for the dog originated with King's research for a novel regarding the Symbionese Liberation Army and the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. One of the members of the S.L.A., and Hearst's lover during her ordeal, was Willie Wolfe who took the name Cujo as his nom de guerre^{[1] [2]}. This research also led King to write The Stand. Due to the popularity of King's novel and the subsequent film adaptation, the name of "Cujo" has since entered the realm of popular culture as a generic term or sarcastic insult in reference to a psychotic, violent, or imbalanced dog. It also is the nickname given to National Hockey League goalie Curtis Joseph, whose customized goalie masks feature drawings of ravenous dogs. The Stand is a post-apocalyptic Horror/Science Fiction novel by Stephen King originally published in 1978. ... The Symbionese Liberation Army (S.L.A.) was an American self-styled urban guerilla warfare group that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army. ... Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954), now known as Patricia Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress and occasional actress. ... William Willie Wolfe was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a guerrilla group operating in the United States in the early 1970s. ... A pseudonym or allonym is a name (sometimes legally adopted, sometimes purely fictitious) used by an individual as an alternative to their birth name. ... The Stand is a post-apocalyptic Horror/Science Fiction novel by Stephen King originally published in 1978. ... Popular culture (or pop culture) is the widespread cultural elements in any given society that are perpetuated through that societys vernacular language or lingua franca. ... NHL redirects here. ... Curtis Shayne Joseph (born April 29, 1967 in Keswick, Ontario, Canada), is a Canadian ice hockey goaltender who currently plays for the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL. // Playing career Joseph is nicknamed Cujo and has played wearing the number 31 for the St. ...

In his semi-biographical book On Writing, King said he wrote the book during the peak of a period of drug and alcohol abuse. He wrote that he remembered very little of writing Cujo as a result, one of his great regrets. On Writing. ...

Plot summary

The story is set almost entirely in the fictitious town of Castle Rock, Maine. The action centers on Cujo, a St. Bernard that belongs to Joe Camber and his family.

The omniscient narrator second recaps the story of Frank Dodd, the Castle Rock deputy sheriff whose murder spree was the central episode in the first half of The Dead Zone. There are some hints in the story that Cujo might be possessed by Dodd and that Dodd is haunting the Trenton house. Except for these vague hints, there are no supernatural elements in the book. While chasing a rabbit in the fields around the Cambers' house, Cujo is bitten by a bat infected with rabies. As Cujo begins to succumb to the disease, Joe's wife and son, Charity and Brett, leave on a trip to visit Charity's sister in Connecticut. Soon afterwards, Cujo attacks and kills the Cambers' neighbor, Gary Pervier, a WWII hero who has become a misanthropic alcoholic. Joe goes to the Pervier home to check on Gary, only to find him dead. Before Joe is able to summon help, Cujo kills him as well. The Trentons -- Vic, Donna, and four-year-old Tad are having problems of their own. Vic has discovered that his wife has been cheating on him with an itinerant furniture restorer and poet. In the midst of this household tension, Vic's fledgling advertising agency is failing, and he is forced to leave on a business trip to Boston and New York. Donna, home alone with Tad, takes their failing Ford Pinto to the Cambers' for repairs. However, the car breaks down when they reach the farm. With no one at the Camber home except for Cujo, a three day struggle begins to outlast the dog in a siege of the stalled car. Hunger, thirst, and fantasies of escape methods conspire to tease Donna and Tad during the hottest summer in Castle Rock history. During one escape attempt Donna is bitten in the stomach and leg. The Castle Rock sheriff, George Bannerman, arrives fortuitously but is immediately killed by the dog before calling for help. Vic, worried that his wife has not answered the phone at home, returns to Castle Rock and, having learned that Bannerman isn't responding to the radio, heads out to the Cambers' residence. Tad dies of heat stroke after being trapped for so long inside the boiling car, but soon after this, Donna escapes from the car and kills Cujo with a baseball bat. The Trentons are able to move on after Tad dies but not without great difficulty. In literature, an omniscient narrator is a narrator who appears to know everything about the story being told, including what all the characters are thinking. ... Look up Sheriff in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Dead Zone is a novel by Stephen King published in 1979. ... For other uses, see Supernatural (disambiguation). ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Misanthropy is a general dislike of the human race. ... King Alcohol and his Prime Minister circa 1820 Alcoholism is the consumption of or preoccupation with alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the alcoholics normal personal, family, social, or work life. ... The Ford Pinto was a subcompact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company for the North American market, first introduced on September 11, 1970, and built through the 1980 model year. ... A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition, often accompanied by an assault. ... Hyperthermia is an acute condition resulting from excessive exposure to heat, it is also known as heat stroke or sunstroke. ... Four historically significant baseball bats showcased in the National Baseball Hall of Fames traveling exhibit Baseball As America. ...

Notes

Further Reading

• Stephen King.com: Cujo