... This is not the case with The Dark Half. I have always enjoyed the humour put forward as King's 'relationship' with Bachman (yes, I have a weird sense of humour) and I really enjoyed the analysis side of this book of the two parts of a personality that makes up a successful horror writer. ... Read review
In 1985, 39-year-old Stephen King announced in public that his pseudonymous alter ego, ... more
Richard Bachman, was dead. (Never mind that he revived him years later to write The Regulators.) At the beginning of The Dark Half, 39-year-old writer Thad Beaumon...
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In 1985, 39-year-old Stephen King announced in public that his pseudonymous alter ego, ... more
Richard Bachman, was dead. (Never mind that he revived him years later to write The Regulators.) At the beginning of The Dark Half, 39-year-old writer Thad Beaumon...
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: Check Site.
In 1985, 39-year-old Stephen King announced in public that his pseudonymous alter ego, ... more
Richard Bachman, was dead. (Never mind that he revived him years later to write The Regulators.) At the beginning of The Dark Half, 39-year-old writer Thad Beaumon...
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: Check Site.
In 1985, 39-year-old Stephen King announced in public that his pseudonymous alter ego, ... more
Richard Bachman, was dead. (Never mind that he revived him years later to writeThe Regulators.) At the beginning ofThe Dark Half, 39-year-old writer Thad Beaumont ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Masters of horror Stephen King and George A. Romero have created a gripping creepy ... more
frightening film that thrills shocks and works us over! Featuring an intelligent screenplay and first-rate cast including Oscar winner Timothy Hutton The Dark Half will keep you captivated to the chilling end. Horror writer Thad Beaumont (Hutton) hopes to distance himself from his murder novels and from George Stark the pseudonym he has used to author them. To achieve this he cooks up a murder of his own: a publicity stunt that should lay Stark to rest forever. But when the people around him are found gruesomely slain - and his own fingerprints dot the crime scenes - Beaumont is dumbfounded until he learns that Stark has taken on a life of his own and begun a gruesome quest for vengeance...
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In 1985, 39-year-old Stephen King announced in public that his pseudonymous alter ego, ... more
Richard Bachman, was dead. (Never mind that he revived him years later to write The Regulators.) At the beginning of The Dark Half, 39-year-old writer Thad Beaumont announces in public that his own pseudonym, George Stark, is dead. Now, King didn't want to jettison the Bachman novel, titled Machine Dreams, that was he working on. So he incorporated it in The Dark Half as the crime oeuvre of George Stark, whose recurring hero/alter ego is an evil character named Alexis Machine. Thad Beaumont's pseudonym is not so docile as Stephen King's, though, and George Stark bursts forth into reality. At that point, two stories kick into gear: a mystery-detective story about the crime spree of George Stark (or is it Alexis Machine?) and a horror story about Beaumont's struggle to catch up with his doppelganger and kill him dead. This is not the first time that Stephen King has written a dark allegory about the fiction writer's situation. As the New York Times writes, Misery (1987) is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his audience, which holds him prisoner and dictates what he writes, on pain of death. The Dark Half is a parable in chiller form of the popular writer's relation to his creative genius, the vampire within him, the part of him that only awakes to raise Cain when he writes, the fratricidal twin who occupies "the womblike dungeon" of his imagination." --Fiona Webster
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Misery:A heart-stopping psychologist thriller, this Academy Award-winning film is one of ... more
the best horror movies ever Adapted from a Stephen King novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (All The Presidents Men) and directed by Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men), this chiller starring Kathy Bates (Titanic) and James Caan (The Godfather) is a Hitchcockian kind of cat-and-mouse game played between two cunning minds... one as sharp as a tack and the other as blunt as a sledgehammer. Novelist Paul Sheldon (Canne) doesn't remember the blinding blizzard that sent his car spinning off the road. Nor does he remember being nursed back from unconsciousness. All he remembers is waking up in the home of Annie Wilkes (Bates)... a maniacal fan who is bent on keeping her favourite writer as her personal prisoner... for the rest of his 'coc-a-doodie' life!The Dark Half:Horror writer Thad Beaumont hopes to distance himself from his murder novels and from George Stark, the pseudonymous name he has used to author them. To achieve this, he cooks up a murder of his own: a publicity stunt that should lay Stark to rest forever. But when the people around him are found gruesomely slain - and his own fingerprints dot the crime scenes - Beaumont is dumbfounded until he learns that Stark has taken on a life of his own...and begun a gruesome quest for vengeance.Carrie:From the best seller novel by Stephen King comes Director Brian De Palma's terrifyingly lyrical thriller that catches the mind, shakes it and refuses to let it go! At the centre of the terror is Carrie (Spacek), a tortured high school misfit with no confidence, no friends...and no idea about the extent of her 'secret powers' of telekinesis. But with her psychotic mother and sadistic classmates finally go too far, the once-shy teen becomes an unrestrained, vengeance-seeking powerhouse who, with the help of her 'special gift', causes all hell to break loose in a framed cinematic frenzy of blood, fire and brimstone that will take you to the very depths of horror - and beyond!
Advantages: A shorter book than some others, so quick to finish Disadvantages: Occasionally you need to really stretch belief
...written well. This is not the case with The Dark Half. I have always enjoyed the humour put forward as King's 'relationship' with Bachman (yes, I have a weird sense of humour) and I really enjoyed the analysis side of this book of the two parts of a personality that makes up a successful horror writer. As a writer myself, I know the oddness of balancing a productive 'normal' life with the cruelty and weirdness you bring to your writing.
The ... ...absorbed into his body in the womb). The brother wants credit for the writer's success, angry at being 'killed off' in the latest book. Parallels with Misery exist, but are not big enough to detract from this book in its own right.
The bringing to life of the monster within type of theme is handled beautifully, and I feel King created a really good read with more than his usual panache.
... more
I admit up front I am a Stephen King fan. However, I have had my disappointments and will be honest when something isn't written well. This is not the case with The Dark Half. I have always enjoyed the humour put forward as King's 'relationship' with Bachman (yes, I have a weird sense of humour) and I really enjoyed the analysis side of this book of the two parts of a personality that makes up a successful horror writer. As a writer myself, I know the oddness of balancing a productive 'normal' life with the cruelty and weirdness you bring to your writing. The story describes a successful author, who has to battle with his alter ego (actually his twin brother who was absorbed into his body in the womb). The brother wants credit for the writer's success, angry at being 'killed off' in the latest book. Parallels with Misery exist, but are not big enough to detract from this book in its own right. The bringing to life of the monster within type of theme is handled beautifully, and I feel King created a really good read with more than his usual panache.
...is a considerable comeback from the mechanical silliness of his previous one, ''The Tommyknockers,'' which was possibly his worst. One key to what makes ''The Dark Half'' work is that it combines what was successful in two of King's earlier books the threat that the dead world posed to the living in ''Pet Sematary,'' along with the problems of being a successful writer that were so bloodily exploited in ''Misery.'' This mix may sound grotesquely ... ...Faustus meeting the fat lady with the hatchet. And, in fact, "The Dark Half" does have its problems getting out of the ground, so to speak. We learn first that Thaddeus Beaumont got good news and bad news when he was an 11-year-old. He discovered his talent as a writer. But he also started having violent headaches Thaddeus Beaumont is the writer in question. This culminates in a convulsion. Surgery reveals
something startling - first an eye, then ...
Mohammed 20.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Dark Half - Stephen King
Advantages: Great concept for a story. Disadvantages: Has a tendancy to sometimes over do the descriptive bits and waffle.
...this one!
I loved it, the whole idea that there could be something sinster and macabre lurking behind a medical condition had me really spooked for a while. I was thinking..'what if?', whilst reading..ewwwwww...a chilling thought!
I really like the way you almost get to know his characters intimately too, listening to their thoughts, almost like you aretaken for a while into someone elses head.
So, after reading this book, I hope that I never ...
mystedai 06.10.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Dark Half - Stephen King
Advantages: One of King's best book. Disadvantages: None really.. it can be quite gruesome I guess!
...King fan, but will be the first to admit that some of his books havent quite lived up to usually very high standard. Over the last few years, I have abstained from reading any of his work, as in and out of uni and post grad things was unable to really commit to a book like this, but have recently got back into it - and this is the best I have read for a very long time. This is typical King. I read this book in a matter of days - not because its a ... ...- then something happens in the book and you HAVE to know what happens next.) I read quite a few of his books recently (Everythings eventual, dark tower, four past midnight, Hearts in atlantis) and this is definitely the strongest of that batch. Its an excellent book - and it has the archetypal King realism in the content which can sometimes actually horrify you. The first chapter had me reading with my hand over my head as if that would protect ...
rhys_morgan1 31.08.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Dark Half - Stephen King
Advantages: Really an interesting book Disadvantages: Really fearfull
...love, but they also are the messengers who lead men in the world of the dead. George Stark: year of birth 1973, year of death 1988, epitaph 'Not a Very Nice Guy'. It seemed only a joke or a stupid idea for a bit of advertising, that of 'bury' George Stark in the cemetary of the country, with a gravestone, to publish a beautiful service on People, one of those services that readers like a lot and that, more than this, should attracts a lot of other ... ...wife Liz in front of the photographer of People, close to the graveyard, with a spade in a hand and a half-witted smile on his face. No! Goods knows why, but it seemed no more so a great idea..., on the contrary: it seemed quite a little gloomy idea and this, my dear friends, let me tell it to you!, this indeed is a great stupideness! Why should a cardboard gravestone be gloomy, when it just covers only the shadow of the memory of a fantastic character, ...
shaoli2 09.11.2003 (10.11.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Dark Half - Stephen King
Product Information for "The Dark Half - Stephen King" »
Product details
Type
Fiction
Genre
Horror
Title
The Dark Half
Author
Stephen King
ISBN
034095261X; 045052468X; 0451171810; 0670778095
Manufacturer's product description
Thad Beaumont is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has developed a lucrative thriller-writing alter ego named George Stark. When he stops being fun Beaumont wants to kill him. But George Stark does not want to die.
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