The Dark Half
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| The Dark Half | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror novel |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Publication date | November 1, 1989 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 448 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-670-82982-X |
| Preceded by | The Tommyknockers |
| Followed by | Needful Things |
The Dark Half is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1989. Publishers Weekly listed The Dark Half as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1993.
Stephen King wrote several books under a pseudonym, Richard Bachman, during the seventies and eighties. Most of the Bachman novels were darker and more cynical in nature, featuring a far more psychological sense of horror than visceral. When King was discovered to be Bachman, he wrote The Dark Half in response to his outing.
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[edit] Plot summary
Thad Beaumont is an author and recovering alcoholic who lives in the tiny Maine town of Ludlow (the setting of Pet Sematary and about an hour away from the fictional town of Castle Rock, often used in King's novels). His own books are not very successful, but under the pen name George Stark, Thad writes gritty crime novels about a violent killer named Alexis Machine, which are very popular and successful. When it's learned that Thad Beaumont, who writes cerebral literary fiction, is really Stark, he and his wife Elizabeth decide to stage a daylight funeral for the fictional Stark. His epitaph at the local cemetery says it all: NOT A VERY NICE GUY.
However, that is not the end of Stark and over the weeks to come he resurrects himself from his mock-grave and kills, gruesomely, everyone he perceives responsible for his "death". Thad, meanwhile, is plagued by surreal nightmares, and is soon visited by Sheriff Alan Pangborn (a main character in the novel Needful Things), asking questions Thad can't, or doesn't want to, answer. Thad's finger and voice prints are identical to Stark's, and Stark has left plenty of evidence at the scenes of his crimes.
Thad experiences blackouts and comes to discover that he and Stark share a mental bond. He begins to find notes from Stark written in his own handwriting. The notes tell Thad what activity Stark has been engaging in. Observing his son and daughter, Thad notes that twins share a unique bond. They can feel each other's pain and at times appear to read the other's mind. Using this as a keystone to his own situation, he begins to discover the even deeper meaning behind himself and Stark.
Pangborn eventually learns that Thad had a twin. The unborn brother was absorbed into Thad in utero and later removed from his skull when the author was a child. He had suffered from severe headaches and it was originally thought to be a tumor causing them. This leads to questions about the true nature of Stark, whether he's a malevolent spirit or Thad manifesting a multiple personality. Thad eventually vanquishes Stark, but the book ends on an unhappy note with Thad's wife having serious doubts about the future of their relationship: Thad not only created Stark (if unintentionally), but a part of him liked Stark and his bloody-minded, psychotic outlook on life.
[edit] Post-Dark Half
Sheriff Alan Pangborn goes on to appear two times more in the Castle Rock series. It is revealed that ever after the events of The Dark Half, he is plagued by nightmares, and the memory of Thad Beaumont, whom we're told of his wife and son's subsequent death and his own depression in Needful Things. It is revealed in Bag of Bones that Thad committed suicide. This ties up the novel's ambiguous ending regarding Thad's relationship to Liz.
Stark is also mentioned in the "Notes" section of King's collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes under the story "The Fifth Quarter". It states only "Bachman again. Or maybe George Stark."
[edit] Film, TV and theatrical adaptations
The novel was adapted into a film, The Dark Half by George A. Romero in 1990, and was released in 1993. It was filmed in part at Washington and Jefferson College and other locations in southwestern Pennsylvania. It starred Timothy Hutton as Thad/Stark, Michael Rooker as Alan Pangborn, and featured Julie Harris as an eccentric colleague of Thad's who provides some vital information about the supernatural. The film is often praised by King's fans.[citation needed]
[edit] Computer game
The computer game The Dark Half, based on the novel, was designed by Symtus and published by Capstone in 1992.
