Misery
First edition cover
Author	Stephen King,
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror novel
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1987
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	The Eyes of the Dragon
Followed by	The Tommyknockers

Misery is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1987. 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... 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. ... 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. ... The Eyes of the Dragon is a book by Stephen King published in 1987. ... The Novel The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... See also: 1986 in literature, other events of 1987, 1988 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

Plot summary

Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of Victorian-era romance novels surrounding the heroine character Misery Chastain. Since 1974, he has finished the first drafts of every one of his books in the same room at the Boulderado Hotel in Maine. 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 Maine Western Slope 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, drives off the road, and tumbles down the steep hill, falling unconscious.

Paul is rescued from the car wreck by a woman named Annie Wilkes, an experienced nurse who lives nearby. As Paul waves in and out of consciousness, he hears a voice (Annie's) telling him that she's his number one fan. 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 codeine-based painkiller invented by King specifically for the story) for his pain. Annie reads his new manuscript and doesn't like it, believing that there is too much use of profanity. When Paul tries to reason with her that "everybody talks like that", she goes into a fit. Paul begins to grow concerned over Annie's mental state, but he remains optimistic, believing once the roads are cleared Annie will take him to a hospital and life will continue normally.

It's around this time that Misery's Child, the latest and intended final book starring Misery Chastain, hits the shelves. Completely unaware that this is the last book, Annie, whose life revolves around the character, 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 manuscript for Fast Cars, and demands that he write a new book, which will bring Misery back to life. As he tries to come up with a credible plot premise -- 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 weeks 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. Paul is disturbed to note that Annie has saved news accounts of the untimely deaths of her childhood next-door neighbors and college roommate. 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 Maine, however, after a brief marriage, Annie worked in the neonatal department, and while there she was charged with several infant deaths. She was tried but acquitted, and thereafter gave up nursing for good. The last entry in the scrapbook is a squib article from Newsweek indicating that Paul's literary agent has not heard from him for some time and has become concerned, although not overly so. Retroactive continuity – commonly contracted to the portmanteau word retcon – refers to the act of changing previously established details of a fictional setting, often without providing an explanation for the changes within the context of that setting. ...

Paul overlooked some of the signs of his unauthorized trips, and Annie soon found out he had left his room -- and hidden a butcher knife underneath his mattress. Eventually she confronts Paul, intent not on killing him, as that would be like "junking an expensive car 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 thoroughly 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. Cauterization is a medical term describing the burning of the body to remove or close a part of it. ...

In early May, a Maine State Police officer comes to Annie’s house with a picture of Paul. Paul throws an ashtray out the window and shouts. The surprised officer doesn't notice Annie sneaking up behind him. She hits the officer several times with a Wooden cross she had used for the burial of one of her cows, then runs over him with a riding lawnmower. She then backs over him to make sure he was dead—blood and gore flies all over the place. After disposing of the officer's body and his cruiser at her unspecified "Laughing Place," 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 believes him.

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, he 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 into a trash can nearby, which he has doused with a squirreled-away bottle of lighter fluid. Stunned, Annie runs to the pile and tries to put it out. She sticks her head in the flames, and emerges with all the flesh on her face burnt off. Paul flings his typewriter at her head, but misses, hitting her in the back and causing her to fall, momentarily stunning her. When she gets up , she lunges at him but trips over the typewriter and falls, hitting her head on the mantel. Although this does not kill her, it gives Paul the upper hand and after breaking a glass bottle and shoving the jagged stump into Annie's neck he believes he has managed to overpower her. Paul takes several handfuls of burning pages and shoves them down her throat, one by one, until she lies still, seemingly dead. 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. Due to the overdose, he falls unconsious.

When more police arrive, looking for their missing colleague, they find Paul awake 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 hit 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. He learns that his foot had been infected with gangrene, and that Annie's amputation of the foot actually saved his life. He 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 a story based on his experiences from a new view.

The Shining reference

During the story, Annie asks Paul if he thinks she is crazy. He replies by saying, "Oh yeah, you're crazy." Annie then says: "There was a man, few years ago, was supposed to be a hotel caretaker. He tried to kill his wife and kid. Then he blew the place to smithereens. He was crazy." She was speaking about Jack Torrance and the events of The Shining, another novel by Stephen King. The Shining may mean: The Shining (novel), by Stephen King The Shining (film), Stanley Kubricks adaptation of the novel The Shining (mini-series), the ABC mini-series scripted by Stephen King The Shining (band), an English music group named after Kings novel This is a disambiguation page: a...

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• Inspired by the assassination of John Lennon by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman^{[citation needed]}, whom Lennon had met and signed an autograph for shortly before the incident.
• 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.
• An episode of the animated TV series The Critic enitled Miserable was a parody of the movie, going so far as to having a female antagonist who bears a strong resemblance (both physically and mentally) to Annie.
• The novel was also adapted into a moderately successful Off-Broadway play. The play was recently revived to critical acclaim at London's Kings Head Theatre in 2005 starring Michael Praed and Susan Penhaligon.
• In a special Christmas episode of Robot Chicken, the characters from Peanuts enacted the film, with Linus van Pelt, in the role of Paul Sheldon, held captive by a lovestruck Sally Brown.
• In an upcoming Family Guy episode, Three Kings (which will retell three Stephen King novels), Misery will be retold with two of the show's main characters, Brian and Stewie Griffin, as the lead characters.
• In an episode of the British sketch comedy show French and Saunders a parody of the film version of Misery is performed.
• In the third episode of the first season of Dexter (TV series), Popping Cherry, Dexter Morgan is shown killing a nurse who murders her patients, then records it in a scrap book, just like Annie Wilkes.
• In an episode of sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, a parody of Misery was made. Dana Carvey, famous for his portrayal of The Church Lady was going to drop the character and was taking a vacation in the mountains with his friend Jon Lovitz, when he has a car crash where Lovitz is killed. Dana however, is rescued by his crazed, number 1 fan (portrayed by Rosie O'Donnel) and she takes him to her house and forces him to act as the Church Lady for her. Eventually Carvey tries to escape, but his fan foils his plan, when the fan is preparing to kill Carvey and then commit suicide, Jon Lovitz returned, since he pretended to be dead, then he shoots both the fan and Carvey dead, so he can claim the Church Lady character for himself.

John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), (born John Winston Lennon, known as John Ono Lennon) was an iconic English 20th century rock and roll songwriter and singer, best known as the founding member of The Beatles. ... Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas) is the man who murdered British musician and activist John Lennon on December 8, 1980 in New York City. ... William Goldman (born August 12, 1931) is an American novelist, playwright and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. ... US mass market DVD cover Misery is a 1990 United States horror/thriller film from Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. ... US mass market DVD cover Misery is a 1990 United States horror/thriller film from Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. ... Robert Rob Reiner (born March 6, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, writer, childrens advocate and political activist. ... James Langston Edmund Caan (born March 26, 1940) is an American Academy Award, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated American film, stage and television actor. ... Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an Academy Award-winning American theatrical, film, and television actress, and a stage and television director. ... Bacall redirects here. ... Richard Farnsworth Richard Farnsworth (September 1, 1920 – October 6, 2000) was an American actor. ... Frances Sternhagen (born January 13, 1930) is an American actress. ... Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. ... For the play by Sheridan, see The Critic (play). ... Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City in smaller theatres than Broadway, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway, productions. ... Michael Praed (pronounced , prayd)[1] (né Michael David Prince, born April 1, 1960 in Berkeley, Gloucestershire), a British actor, is probably best known for his role as Robin of Loxley (Robin Hood) in the British television series Robin of Sherwood, which attained cult status worldwide in the 1980s. ... Susan Penhaligon in Doctor Who Susan Penhaligon was one of the most notable British television actresses of the 1970s, and continues to make stage and screen appearances today. ... Robot Chicken is an Emmy award-winning American stop motion animated comedy television series created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, who are the executive producers. ... For other uses, see Peanut (disambiguation). ... Linus van Pelt is one of the characters in Charles M. Schulzs comic strip Peanuts. ... Sally Brown is the younger sister of Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. ... Family Guy is an Emmy Award-winning American animated television series about a dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. ... “Three Kings” is a season six episode of the FOX animated television series Family Guy. ... Brian Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy, and is voiced by show creator, Seth MacFarlane. ... Stewie redirects here. ... French & Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show starring and written by comedy team Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and is also the name by which they are known on the rare occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. ... For the Hanna-Barbera animated series, see Dexters Laboratory. ... Dexter Morgan is a fictional character in a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay, including Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004), Dearly Devoted Dexter (2005), and Dexter in the Dark (2007). ... SNL redirects here. ... Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an American Emmy-award winning actor and comedian known for his work on Saturday Night Live and the spin-off movie Waynes World. ... Dana Carvey as The Church Lady The Church Lady was a recurring character in a series of sketches on the American television show Saturday Night Live, circa 1986-1992. ... Jonathan Lovitz (born July 21, 1957 in Tarzana, California) is an American actor and comedian perhaps best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live and for his show The Critic. ... Rosie ODonnell (on right) and life-partner Kelli Carpenter-ODonnell speaking after their legal union on February 26, 2004 in San Francisco. ...

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. ... This article is about the year 1987. ... Categories: Stub | Books ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... 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). ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ...

External links

• Misery at the Internet Movie Database
• American Film Institute
• Official Website for the play