The Shining (novel)
Encyclopedia : T : TH : THE : The Shining (novel)
The Shining (1977) is a horror novel by American author Stephen King. King's third published novel, the success of the book firmly established King as a pre-eminent author in the genre. A film based upon the book, The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick, was released in 1980. The book was later adapted into a television mini-series.
Plot summary
Jack Torrance is a temperamental writer who is trying to rebuild his and his family's life after his alcoholism and volatile temper cause him to lose his teaching position at a small preparatory school. Having given up alcohol, he accepts a job as a winter caretaker at a large, isolated hotel in Colorado, hoping that this will reestablish him as a responsible person, enable him to finish a promising play, and resume his career. He moves into the Overlook Hotel with his wife, Wendy, and young son, Danny, who is telepathic (the "shining" of the title) and sensitive to supernatural forces. The hotel is possessed by a life force or is itself sentient and especially uses people with psychic powers. Danny, who has had premonitions of the hotel's danger to his family, begins seeing ghosts and frightening visions from the hotel's past, but tolerates them in the hope that they are not dangerous in the present. He doesn't tell his parents because he senses how important the job of caretaker is to his father's and his family's future. Having difficulty possessing Danny, the hotel begins to possess Jack, frustrating his need and desire to work as he becomes increasingly unstable, and gradually turns him to its purposes.
Critical examination
The story is an entry in the gothic horror genre that effectively uses the concept of a building having a conscious will (or a soul, as it were), an idea explored also by Edgar Allan Poe in The Fall of the House of Usher.King has said that The Shining includes an exploration of alcohol dependence and relationships with parents and children in one's life.
Trivia
- The story was originally going to be set in an amusement park. But while on vacation, King and his wife Tabitha were staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado while the staff was preparing for the winter off. The Stanley Hotel was used in the ABC mini-series. King has also said that he based Jack Torrance on himself. (see Stephen King's inspiration).
- The title came from the John Lennon song "Instant Karma!". In the song is the line "We all shine on..." King wanted to call the book "The Shine" but changed it when he realized that "shine" was derogatory slang for black people.
- The novel is featured in an episode of the TV show Friends (The One Where Monica And Richard Are Friends). Two of the main characters, Joey and Rachel, agree to read each other's favorite book. Rachel gives Joey a copy of Little Women, and Joey gives her The Shining in return. Whenever Joey becomes scared while reading the book, he places it in the freezer until he has calmed down.
- King's third published book, but his first hardback bestseller.
- Prior to writing The Shining King had written Road Work and "The Body" which were both published later.
- The first draft took less than four months to complete. "Stephen King: America's Best Loved Boogeyman" Beahm, George Andrews McMeel Press 1998
- Ironically, Bill Thompson, King's editor at Doubleday, tried to talk King out of The Shine as he felt after Carrie and 'Salem's Lot, King would get 'typed' as a horror writer. King considered that a compliment.
- Stanley Kubrick, who directed the movie version of the story, used the Timberline Lodge in Mount Hood, Oregon as a stand-in for the Overlook Hotel, but Mick Garris, who directed the television mini-series, used the actual Stanley Hotel as the Overlook.
References
External links
- [The Shining] publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.