Misery (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses of the term, see Misery (disambiguation).
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.

Contents

[edit] 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 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 Colorado 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 Colorado, 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.

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.

In early May, a Colorado 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.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

  • Inspired by the assassination of John Lennon by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman, for whom Lennon had met and signed an autograph 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.

[edit] Editions

[edit] External links