Misery

Cover of 1987 first edition
Author	Stephen King,
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror novel
Publisher	Viking Press
Released	1987
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (first edition, hardback)

For other uses, see Misery (disambiguation).

Misery is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1987. Image File history File links Stephen_King_Misery_cover. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. ... Viking Press was founded on March 1, 1925, in New York City, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... Paperback may refer to a kind of book binding by which papers are simply folded without cloth or leather and bound - usually with glue rather than stitches or staples - into a thick paper cover; or to a book with this type of binding. ... Misery may refer to: Misery, a novel by Stephen King, written in 1987 and turned into a film in 1990 Misery, a commune of the Somme département, in France Misery, a crust band from Minneapolis, Minnesota Misery, a clothing label from Auckland, New Zealand Misery, a song by Green... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Plot summary

Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of romance novels featuring the Victorian-era heroine Misery Chastain. Since 1974, he has finished the first drafts of all his books in the Silver Creek Lodge in Colorado. He is determined to finish his new novel, ‘Fast Cars’. After he has completed his manuscript, he has an impulse (fueled by three bottles of champagne) to drive to L.A. rather than back to his home in New York. In his inebriated state he is unaware that the Western Slope of Colorado is going to be hit with one of the biggest snowstorms of the year in a few hours. Determined to drive through this, he loses control of his car, and drives off the road, tumbling down the steep hill and falling unconscious. Paul Sheldon hard at work Paul Sheldon is a fictional character in the book Misery written by Stephen King. ... A romance novel is a novel from the genre currently known as romance. ... Victorian can refer to: people from or attributes of places called Victoria (disambiguation page), including Victoria, Australia, people who lived during the British Victorian era of the 19th century, and aspects of the Victorian era, for example: Victorian architecture Victorian fashion Victorian morality Victorian literature This is a disambiguation page... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... The Western Slope of Colorado refers the region of the US state of Colorado west of the Rocky Mountains. ...

Luckily for Paul Sheldon, Annie Wilkes, his "number one fan" was following him. Unluckily, although he doesn't learn it right away, she is a dangerous lunatic. After extricating Paul from the wreck, Annie takes him not to a hospital, but to her home, putting him in a spare bedroom. As Paul regains consciousness, he lies there completely helpless, being unable to move anything from his waist down. Having been a registered nurse for almost twenty years, Annie knows how to take care of his injuries. She feeds and bathes him and splints his broken legs, giving him Novril (a fictitious narcotic painkiller invented by King specifically for the story) for his pain. Paul comes to like Annie, even letting her read his new manuscript. Annie doesn't like it, but Paul's optimistic, believing once the roads are cleared Annie will take him to a hospital and life will continue normally. Annie Wilkes is the antagonist of the 1987 novel Misery, by Stephen King. ...

It's around this time that Misery's Child, the latest and final book starring Misery Chastain, hits the shelves. Completely unaware that this is the last book, Annie, whose life revolves around the books, buys the copy she has reserved. Upon reading the book, and learning of her beloved Misery's death, she goes into a rage. She tells Paul that she hasn't spoken to anyone about him. Paul, an only child of deceased parents and two-time divorcé, realizes that it may be a long time before he is missed.

As Paul begins to regain strength in his legs, he is forced to use a wheelchair. He wants to leave, but Annie holds him prisoner, forces him to burn his new manuscript, and demands that he write a new book, which will bring Misery back to life. As he tries to write the book - an early attempt at retconning is roundly rejected by Annie - Paul has little else to do, locked alone in his room. One afternoon, when Annie's away, Paul formulates a plan to escape. Although the plan is unsuccessful, he finally gets out of his room, and secures some needed pain medication which she had been intentionally withholding from him. A few days later, he sneaks out of his room to tour the house again. This time, he finds Annie’s scrapbook, containing newspaper clippings from her entire life. The ones that shock him the most, however, are from her time as a nurse. Initially, she worked in medical wards across the Midwest, and intentionally caused (or hastened) the deaths of elderly patients. In Colorado, however, Annie worked in the neonatal department, and while there she was charged with several infant deaths. She was put on trial, but acquitted, and gave up nursing for good. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with List of retcons. ...

Paul overlooked some of the signs of his unauthorized trips, and Annie soon found out he had left his room. The following morning she confronts Paul, intent not on killing him, as that would like "junking a Mercedes because of a broken spring," but rather on "hobbling" him, by cutting his foot off with an axe, then cauterizing the wound with a blowtorch. Paul has come to hate and fear Annie, but realizes he is dependent on her because, in his weakened state, he cannot care for himself (and in addition is throroughly addicted to the painkillers she supplies). He goes on with his writing, even though another spat with Annie results in her impromptu amputation of his left thumb. Mercedes may refer to: Things Mercedes-Benz, a German brand of automobiles and trucks Mercedes-Benz (song), by Janis Joplin Mercedes (calculator), an early 20th-century computing device Mercedes College, South Australia Places Mercedes, Buenos Aires, Argentina Mercedes, Paraná, Brazil Mercedes, Camarines Norte, Philippines Mercedes, Eastern Samar, Philippines Mercedes, Texas...

In early May, a police officer comes to Annie’s house with a picture of Paul. Annie meets the officer in the yard and professes ignorance, but Paul shouts to the officer out the window of his bedroom. The surprised officer doesn't notice Annie sneaking up behind her - the worse for him. After disposing of the body in a most gruesome manner - involving a riding lawn mower - she comes to Paul with the officer's pistol and two bullets in it. She wants to be with him forever. Paul quickly explains that he is almost done with the book, however, and Annie buys it.

As Paul finishes the last chapter he comes up with a plan. He asks Annie for a cigarette and a match to light it with, to celebrate the completion of the manuscript. When Annie steps out of his room briefly, Paul prepares the final stages of his plan, and when she returns tells her that Misery's Return is the best thing he's ever written - but that Annie will never get to read it. He then drops the lit match onto the pile of pages which he has doused with a squirreled away bottle of lighter fluid. Stunned, Annie runs to the pile and tries to put it out. Paul flings his typewriter at her and it takes her in the back. Although this does not kill her, it gives Paul the upperhand and after a very long struggle he believes he has managed to overpower her. He crawls to the bathroom, knowing that Annie has to be dead but still not believing it, and loads himself with Novril as he waits. Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Five, were long time standards of government agencies, newsrooms, and sales offices. ...

When more police arrive, looking for their missing colleague, they find Paul alive in the house, but there is no sign of Annie. They would later find Annie's body in the barn, with one hand wrapped around the handle of a chainsaw. The cause of death was in fact a fractured skull sustained when she tripped over the typewriter and banged her head on the mantel. Paul finds this ironic. Also, the reader learns, Paul did not burn his book at all. The pile of papers consisted of notes and discarded pages - the top piece of paper on the pile showed the book's title in order to fool Annie into thinking Paul was burning the actual manuscript.

Returning home to New York, Paul is fitted with a prosthetic foot and submits Misery's Return to his publisher, who tells him that it is certain to become his best-selling book ever. However, the ordeal is far from over for Paul: he suffers nightmares about Annie as well as symptoms of withdrawal from the Novril. He also drinks too much, has writer's block and cannot bring himself to get back to work. However, one day, he gets an idea and begins to type...

Major themes

Unlike much of Stephen King's work, Misery does not deal with demons, ghosts or supernatural powers, but rather with the darkness inherent in the human mind. The story revolves around only two characters and the closed environment of Annie's house. A manufactured image of a ghostly woman ascending a staircase A ghost is an alleged non-corporeal manifestation of a dead person (or, sometimes, an animal or a vehicle). ... Look up Supernatural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• William Goldman adapted the novel into the screenplay for a 1990 American film of the same name, directed by Rob Reiner. James Caan and Kathy Bates star as Paul and Annie, respectively. Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances Sternhagen are the only major supporting actors. The film was a critical and commercial success, making $61,276,872 (USA) domestically on a $20,000,000 budget. Kathy Bates won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

William Goldman (born August 12, 1931) is an American novelist, playwright and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Robert Rob Reiner (born March 6, 1947 in The Bronx, New York) is an American actor, director, producer, writer and anti-tobacco activist. ... James Langston Edmund Caan[citation needed] (born March 26, 1940 in The Bronx, New York) is an Academy Award, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated American film, stage and television actor. ... Kathy Bates (right) with Frances Conroy in Six Feet Under. ... Lauren Bacall (born September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress and a former model. ... Richard Farnsworth Richard Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 – October 6, 2000) was an American actor. ... Born January 13, 1930, and raised in Washington, D.C., Frances Sternhagen taught acting, singing and dancing to school children before first performing herself with the Arena Stage Group. ... The Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ...

Trivia

• Misery is one of many King novels set in Colorado.

• The book contains an inside reference to an earlier King novel, The Shining naming 'The Overlook Hotel' in which the book is set. Annie explains to Paul that she met an artist named Andrew Pomeroy, who was sent by a magazine to sketch the ruins of the hotel (the Overlook blew up at the conclusion of The Shining). They became lovers, but Annie considered his drawings "terrible" and, believing he cheated her, killed him shortly thereafter.

• In the book, Annie chops one of Paul's feet off from the ankle. In the movie, she hobbles him by smashing both of his ankles with a sledgehammer.

• King has stated that he intended for Misery to be the next Richard Bachman novel, following Thinner.

• Some paperback versions of the book have a "mock" cover inside the front cover. It is done in the style of a typical romance novel book cover, portraying a man and a woman in a romantic pose. It bears the title "Misery's Return" (the title of the book Paul is forced to write). The man is easily recognizable as Stephen King.
  

• In On Writing, King stated that he realized that the situation of the novel was a metaphor for the drug addiction he was suffering from at the time.

• Also in On Writing, King tells that his first work on the novel was done at a hotel in Great Britain, at a desk once used by Charles Dickens. It was only after he finished his writing session that he was told that Dickens had also reportedly died while working at that desk.

• Annie Wilkes was voted the 17th greatest villain of all-time by the American Film Institute in their special feature AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, and Bravo! named the film the 12th scariest of all time.

• The book tied with the Robert R. McCammon novel Swan Song for the first Bram Stoker Award for best novel.

• Stephen King has stated that he wrote most of the book by hand.

• The Misery Chastain novels are mentioned in Rose Madder, another novel by King.

Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... The Shining (1977) is a horror novel by American author Stephen King. ... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... Look up Sketch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... // Richard Bachman Richard Bachmans author photo. ... Thinner is a 1984 novel by Stephen King about an obese lawyer who experiences a dramatic and ultimately dangerous weight loss as a result of a Gypsys curse. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (420x640, 136 KB)[edit] Summary http://horrorking. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (420x640, 136 KB)[edit] Summary http://horrorking. ... On Writing. ... Drug addiction, or dependency is the compulsive use of drugs, to the point where the user has no effective choice but to continue use. ... On Writing. ... Dickens redirects here. ... The American Film Institute (AFI) is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. ... AFIs 100 Years. ... Bravo! is a Canadian cable specialty television channel owned by CHUM Limited and was launched on January 1, 1995. ... Robert R. McCammon is an American novelist. ... The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for superior achievement in horror writing. ... Rose Madder is a 1995 novel by Stephen King. ...

Movie

Annie Wilkes, portrayed by Kathy Bates.

The movie was made in 1990. Image File history File links Misery-annie. ... Kathy Bates (right) with Frances Conroy in Six Feet Under. ...

When Paul Sheldon is injured in a car accident, he is taken in by Annie Wilkes. His legs are injured and he cannot walk. At first, Annie, who says she is a nurse, seems to have Paul's best interests in mind. She brings him painkillers, feeds him, and rants on and on about how she is 'his number one fan'. But it soon becomes clear that Annie is mentally ill. After getting Paul's permission to read his current, unpublished (and non-Misery) manuscript, she fails to appreciate the quality of the writing, as she prefers the mass-market pulp of the Misery series. Paul Sheldon hard at work Paul Sheldon is a fictional character in the book Misery written by Stephen King. ... Annie Wilkes is the antagonist of the 1987 novel Misery, by Stephen King. ...

During this time, the latest Misery book comes out (Misery's Child), and Annie eagerly dives in, not knowing that this book (and the entire series) will end with Misery's death. After screaming at Paul, she brings him his unpublished manuscript, and a box of matches. She forces him to burn his book.

The next day, she brings him a typewriter and typing paper, and tells him he must fix the book and bring Misery back. He sees a pin on the floor and tells Annie he can't type on this paper because it smears. She angrily goes back to town to get him new paper. He gets the pin, and uses it to pick the lock on the door. However, this doesn't help, since it seems hopeless to get out. So he begins working on the book.

Paul Sheldon, portrayed by James Caan.

Later on, he escapes his room and explores the house at which he finds a scrapbook that has incriminating evidence that Annie was a convicted serial killer. He goes back to his room, only to wake up in the night, just in time for Annie to inject him with a liquid that knocks him out. When he wakes up next, she has tied him to the bed, and informs him that she knows he has been out of his room. She then proceeds to break his feet so he can't escape again. (In the book, his foot is cut off.) Meanwhile, while many people have assumed that Paul is dead, a local law enforcement officer, thinks that he is still alive, and through various clues, tracks down Annie. Annie sees him coming and knocks out Paul, dragging him to a room. After searching for a bit, the officer finds him, only to be shot by Annie a few seconds later. Image File history File links Paulsheldon. ... James Langston Edmund Caan[citation needed] (born March 26, 1940 in The Bronx, New York) is an Academy Award, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated American film, stage and television actor. ...

Annie then tells Paul that she loves him and that they must die together. Paul sees some lighter fluid on the floor next to him, and gets Annie to agree to let him finish the book first. She goes to get his wheelchair, and Paul stuffs the bottle of fluid down his pants. After he finishes his book, he gets Annie to bring him a cigarette, a match, a glass, and a bottle of champagne. He then tells her she needs to get two glasses. While she is gone, Paul pours fluid all over the manuscript and lights the match. When Annie comes back, he lights the book on fire, sending Annie over the edge. After a bloody fight, Paul manages to kill Annie. 18 months later, Paul has been found, and his new book is popular (Paul burned a stack of empty papers instead of the real manuscript). Paul admits that he sometimes still sees Annie. The movie ends with a waitress telling Paul that she is "his number one fan".

Kathy Bates was acclaimed for her acting as Annie. She even won an Academy Award for her performance in the Best Actress category. Many criminal profilers have praised King for his realistic portrayal of Wilkes. They mention that many female serial killers often hide their true nature behind a facade of tenderness and warmth as Annie does. Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ...

Editions

• ISBN 0-606-03859-0 (prebound, 1987)
• ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (cloth text, 1987)
• ISBN 0-451-16952-2 (mass market paperback, 1988)
• ISBN 84-01-49997-6 (hardcover, 1992)
• ISBN 0-573-01850-2 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0-7432-3359-X (mass market paperback, 2002)
• ISBN 0-7862-5020-8 (laminated, 2003)

A Prebound book is a book that was previously bound and has been rebound with a library quality hardcover binding. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Categories: Stub | Books ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

External links

• Misery at the Internet Movie Database
• American Film Institute

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, video games and production crew personnel. ...