Jack Torrance sees his stint as winter caretaker of a Colorado hotel as a way back from failure, his wife sees it as a chance to preserve their family, and their five-year-old son... more
The Shining - Stephen King
Ghostly bursts of plaster dust. A low, rhythmic sound in the background: Red rum-RED ... more
RUM-red rum-RED RUM. A sense of something evil swirling inward on itself, like a whirlpool of black ectoplasmic energy. The experience of being inside the actual consc...
as in this harrowing masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick is it fear of murder by someone who should love and protect you - a member of your own family? From a script he co-adapted from the Stephen King novel Kubrick melds vivid performances menacing settings dreamlike tracking shots and shock after shock into a milestone of the macabre. In a signature role Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance who's come to the elegant isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker with his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd). Torrance has never been there before - or has he? The answer lies in a ghostly time warp of madness and murder.
Stephen King's The Shining
Jack Torrance (Steven Weber) and his family (Rebecca De Mornay and Courtland Mead) move ... more
into the sprawling, vacant Overlook Hotel to get away from it all. Away from the alcoholism that derails Jack's writing career. Away from the violent outbursts that mar Jack's past. But Jack's young son Danny knows better. He possesses a psychic gift called the shining - a gift the hotel's vile spirits desperately want.In the hands of Stephen King the dead Overlook comes horrifyingly alive. Phantoms lurk, the message redrum appears with scary frequency and even garden topiary lurches into macabre existence in this atmospheric shocker scripted by King from his own novel and directed by ace King screen adaptor Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers, The Stand)
television, that bears very little resemblance to the 1980 Stanley Kubrick version. Which is not surprising since Kubrick practically threw out most of King's novel and presented his own version of the story. Here King redresses the balance in a mini-series that follows his original almost to the letter, and manages to be effectively creepy despite the budget and censorship limitations of the TV format.Stephen Weber takes over the role of Jack Torrance, the caretaker who slowly descends into madness in the haunted Overlook Hotel. His performance is as far from Jack Nicholson as you could get, with his insanity building slowly and menacingly rather than being virtually mad from the get-go. Rebecca de Mornay is superb as Wendy Torrance, struggling to hold her fragile family together amid the spooky goings on. Young Courtlan Mead plays Danny, whose unique gifts give the story its title, as one of those infuriating TV brats who overacts left right and centre. Fortunately, there are enough creepy moments and a fair few frights to hold the whole thing together: the woman in the bathtub scene being a stand out shocker. Sure, there is nothing quite like Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" moment, but this is the story King wanted to tell and it still shines brighter than most of the other recent screen adaptations of his work.On the DVD:Stephen King's The Shiningis a nicely packaged set, with the film spread over two discs complete with a commentary featuring Stephen King himself, instantly making this set a must-have for his fans. There are also several deleted scenes which add some interest to parts of the movie. The transfer is good, considering its TV origins, and the crisp sound captures every spooky moment on this well-thought-out and presented set. --Jonathan Weir
A review by darkangelwing on The Shining - Stephen King March 8th, 2007
Author's product rating:
Would you read it again?
Maybe
Story
Outstanding
Characters
Outstanding
Readability
Excellent
How does it compare to other works by the same author?
Very good
Advantages:
Stephen King's claim to fame ; Superb atmosphere ; Sublime plot ; A vivid imagination that stretches all supernatural boundaries ; Probably responsible for some of the best horror films of the 70's and 80's
Disadvantages:
Some unessesary background in the first half ; Kubrik mucked up the story too much ; Could have been much more
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Being thoroughly refreshed and cheerful following my Misery conquest, an adrenaline rush urged me to stick my nose into yet another King classic, The Shining. Of course, generally when you've seen a certain Jack Nicholson film more times than you care to remember, you start to wonder, why bother? But then you hear how Stanley Kubrick practically threw Stephen King's novel into the fire after a quick skim read and went about making his own super version, makes you pretty inclined to read the novel that made King the bestseller he is today. Initially I was apprehensive about starting the book as I'd heard some negativity surrounding the content of the first few hundred pages. I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. For a 500 page novel I shot through it in less than a week and enjoyed it immensely, even more so than Misery, King would later revisit The Shining's Colorado location ten years later to write Misery.
The first passage of text which I reached when starting The Shining, was a personal introduction by Stephen King, which I assume is only included in the new published edition pictured above. King's lengthy introduction, spanning the first few pages seemed quite self indulgent, although he explains how he hadn't planned on a supernatural thriller, he was planning a domestic father and son relationship type novel. 'In every writer's career, usually early in it - there comes a 'crossroads novel', where the writer is presented with a choice: either doing what you have done before or reach a little higher'. The result is The Shining, Stephen King's 'crossroads novel'.
Whilst Stephen King was still writing novels for cash fixes rather than for worldwide recognition, Carrie and Salem's Lot his first two novels were sublime and set the wheels in motion for, what is regarded as, the novel that defines King. The introduction suggests that King is playing down his two early masterpieces to build up his most well known piece of literature. The Shining is the novel where King transferred from being a fairly poor part-time writer trying to support his family on the income of what he writes, to where he reached perfection in supernatural/horror literature. The Shining brought King eternal immunity and set him up for life.
The most obvious comparison to The Shining is Shirley Jackson's supernatural novel: The haunting of Hill House and its subsequent film, The Haunting. If you have ventured into reading King's earlier novels: Carrie and Salem's Lot you will notice that certain elements from both novels have been added to The Shining. The supernatural powers Danny has are comparable to those that Carrie has. The Overlook Hotel is also comparable to The Marsten House in Salem's Lot. Whilst most 'Haunted House' type films and stories have been chiseled into our imaginations as a bleak isolated castle or some foggy moorland stately home such as Wuthering Heights or the film, The Others. Stephen King's vision of The Overlook haunted house locale was a hotel, which I found absolutely fascinating. Its one of the primary topics about the book and subsequent films which makes The Shining the hauntingly atmospheric thriller that it is. The opening passages in the novel where King is describing the hotel and its features are instantaneously gripping.
The plot is centered around the Torrance's, a family struggling to earn enough money to survive and with a recovering alcoholic father, Jack Torrance. Jack who is temporarily unemployed and desperate for work is recommended a job by a friend to work as Caretaker over the winter months at the Isolated Overlook Hotel. While Jack's rage is uncontrollable when linked with alcohol, previous outbursts on Danny in the past has Jack and his wife Wendy's marriage hanging by a thread. The transition of Jack into a maniacal lunatic is far more subtle and progressive than the film. Jack becomes increasingly obsessed with his job and when certain unforeseen forces try to deter and wreck his work and interfere with his love for Dannie he becomes highly exasperated. As the novel develops Jack becomes increasingly unaware that he's drifting away from his family due to his obsession with The Overlook Hotel and its rather colorful history and unable to control his body with his mind.
The novel itself is littered with flashbacks which may deter loyal fans from getting the most out of the 'horror' aspect of the novel, these flashbacks do very little to project the characters of Jack, Wendy and Danny. But generally the novel has no real disadvantages and is pretty hard not to enjoy although the curse of the popular Stanley Kubrick film plays with the readers imagination in places, making it hard not to have an unexpected vision of Jack Nicholson brandishing an axe. If you've seen the film before reading the book it may be an idea to watch the later tv series adaptation which is truest to King's version. I saw parts of this while I read the novel and then saw the second half after I'd read the novel.
There are many differences between Kubrik's version and the novel. The deteriation of Jack is far more gradual, rather than Jack Torrance being crazy before he set foot in the hotel's lobby like Nicholson. He is also much closer to Danny than the film indicates, making his demise more tragic. There is much more of a haunting atmosphere in the book with certain spooky sounds the family hear at night such as the elevator clicking on and of course the infamous 217 scenes are described in terrific detail by King. Notably in comparison to Misery later on is the scrapbook. Which was the highlight of reading Misery where Paul Sheldon comes across all these newspaper articles from Annie's colorful past. This was used to an enormous atmospheric effect in The Shining where Jack Torrance finds a rather 'conveniently' placed scrapbook amongst the rubbish in the basement. With newspaper articles describing certain horrific events especially the clever twist with the Mafia/Vegas connection that King added makes this a real gem to read early on in the book.
The Shining is amongst my favorite King books it is such an atmospheric novel it reminds me of certain creepy Edgar Allen Poe stories and of course is comparable to Robert Wise's film 'The Haunting'. The Overlook hotel reminds me of a castle youth hostel I stayed at in Loch Lomond, Scotland with the coats of arms on the walls and the exciting atmosphere about it, has really inspired me to write a horror novel such as The Shining. You'd do well to think of a grand stately home or castle you've visited when picturing The Overlook because a personal experience would project the atmosphere and 'horror' of the book much further.
Although their are far cheaper editions available second hand on both Amazon and eBay, if you want a book that doesn't damage easily or mark at the spine I would suggest buying the edition pictured above. The book's spine is quite sturdy and once finished the book looks as good as new which is quite satisfying. The edition I read was a total of 497 pages in length which is pretty readable considering the slightly smaller text than most King books have. The Shining's structure is divided into parts and well structured chapters every ten pages or so, which makes the book very readable. To conclude, if you're a horror film fan and a King fan you won't have much trouble enjoying The Shining. However the book will appeal to anyone interested or curious in the supernatural. You'll never look at a grand hotel in the same way again.
Advantages: Strong characters, good setting Disadvantages: A great deal of dull dialogue in the beginning
The Shining is certainly among the most famous works of horror fiction in the 20th century. Written in 1977 when King was still a comparitively inexperienced writer (this was his third book, after Carrie and 'Salem's Lot), The Shining was propelled to fame three years after its original release when the Stanley Kubrick-directed film-adaptation arrived. There is no doubting the popularity of the film, but what about the book?
For thoughs who have ... ...a job as Caretaker for the Overlook hotel during the winter months when it will be closed and most likely snowed off. He gets the job and so travels there with wife Wendy and son Danny. The term 'shining' comes from what Dick Hallorann, the hotels chef, describes he sees in Danny. Shining is the ability to, in some cases, read peoples thoughts, but more defined is the sense of danger and hostility. When things start to go badly wrong in the hotel, ...
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Advantages: Detail, excellent background to events, genuinely scary Disadvantages: Some people may not like the emphasis on the supernatural
...picked up my copy of The Shining and began reading it. I've only recently started reading horror/Stephen King, so this is all unfamiliar territory to me - my previous experience of horror writing has been several Point Horror books about ten years ago and a few short stories. I thought that having seen the film a couple of times, I wouldn't come across anything too unexpected: I was wrong. So what had I expected? Put simply, I expected the film just ... ...goodness!
The major difference is that the book actually concentrates on The Shining (psychic ability) rather than just trying to be frightening. It also offers a lot more in the way of background story, which makes it even more frightening. Jack Torrance is a mostly-unsuccessful writer whose sole achievement is having a story published in Esquire. He is forced to leave his teaching job after beating up a student and his friend, Al Shockley, finds ...
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Advantages: Chilling- suspense gradually builds up to utter horror- perfect! Disadvantages: A few long 'factual' sections which get slightly boring. Film fans beware- this is different to what you've seen!
The first time I really tried to get into Stephen King was watching the film ‘The Shining’- loving the suspense and horror of it I eventually bought the novel to see how it compared... PLOT:
One bit of advice, it is far more detailed compared to the film. Ok, so this is pretty normal in terms of novel to film adaptations (i.e. not including certain events), but the film’s plot is edited so severely in places it even incorporates ... ...however- the plot. Jack Torrance is a writer who becomes a caretaker during the winter months at the isolated and infamous Overlook Hotel with his wife Wendy and five year old son Danny. Here they need to spend a few months keeping up maintenance on the place, whilst trying not to get affected by the fact that they will be the only ones there during that period of time, with little or no outside contact at all. Sound foreboding? That it is...The ...
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Advantages: Truly horror without need of blood Disadvantages: Not for weak hearts :)
...is offered a job as the caretaker of a huge ancient hotel where he has to stay during the winter season. Once there and isolated from the rest of the world, a series of strange events only seen and felt by young Danny start to happen in the hotel, and Jack seems to get posessed by a malignant force living in the building.
Just a brief review of a work of art which deserves one of highest positions in King´s ratings. I remember reading this novel ... ...that same night looking at the main door´s eyehole and imagining someone would be snooping on me from the outside.. someone or something that once could have been alive but that now was just a hideous being trying to reach me. That's the kind of reaction that this book has in any reader, regardless of age or literary taste: it turns him/her into a child again and brings back all that fears that seemed forgotten.
"The Shining" is basically the story ...
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Advantages: Great suspense, action, horror, thriller story Disadvantages: not for the faint hearted.
...As I had seen the film (Jack Nicholson version) before reading the book for the first time, I was doubtful if I would enjoy it as much as I loved the film. If possible I love the book more, as it seemed more personal when reading and of course there is a lot more in the book than the film, some bits are even completely different, but this isn't my opinion on the book v.'s the film so I will stop comparing them now (apart from saying the book is way ... ...to know a bit about the main characters,
Jack Torrance - Alcoholic, sacked from his job as a teacher, even though he has given up alcohol, it is never far away from his mind and he had done some questionable things in the past. Wants to start a fresh life by finishing his play that he has been planning for ages.
Wendy Torrance - Loving wife, although when her husband was at worse drinking phase wanted a divorce, but has given him another chance. ...
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...This debut novel from Christopher Ransom sounded promising, with claims that it was the scariest novel since StephenKing's The Shining. Alas, it is not...by a long shot...
It's not that I thought The Birthing House was bad...it's just, not very good. I think my main problem was that it seems almost juvenile in places. There seems to be just a few too many unnecessary and overly descriptive sex scenes for example. It seems to me, at times in the book, that this came from the mind a hormone driven 16 year old boy.
The book focuses on the character of Conrad Harrison, a thirty something from LA who's been trying and failing to write scripts. Conrad suddenly comes into money when he is given compensation for his estranged father's death on a construction site, and with this money, he decides on whim to purchase an old house in Wisconsin...
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Advantages: Strong characters, great narrative, scary. Disadvantages: None.
...There are only a handful of books that have truly terrified me; The Shining by StephenKing, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker and Renegades by Shaun Hutson. Now I can add another title to this list: Velocity by Dean Koontz.
Billy Wiles is a barman in the Napa Valley. He lives a quiet, reclusive life; as he has ever since his girlfriend fell into a coma. One night after work, he finds a note on his windshield. Billy is given two choices: do nothing and a young schoolteacher will be killed, contact the police and instead an elderly charity worker will be murdered. Either way someone dies, and it's up to Billy to choose who.
The bodies begin to mount up as Billy receives more notes. The deadlines in which he has to decide become tighter; the choice of victim more personal. But Billy's no stranger to murder; he has secrets from his...
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Advantages: Great storeyline Disadvantages: Not executed as well as it could have been
...In the last few months I've gotten in to Bob Dylan, bought The Pearl by Brian Eno, read my way through the Hitchiker trilogy, not to mention experiencing what us mere mortals call 1984 by George Orwell. In retrospect it was a bad time to come back to The Dead Zone.
When I read it two years ago it was thrilling and well crafted, and while it's still a great book, this time it just seemed a bit too Bestsellerish.
There's a fantastic storey to be told, but sometimes it seems a bit corny. The dialogue is too often melodramatic, and ends up sounding like something from Sunset Beach.
Perhaps what I wanted was the StephenKing who wrote The Shining. The StephenKing who created something so wonderfully impossible that I just had to believe it. The StephenKing who wrote something that you had to make an effort to read, not something...
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Jack Torrance sees his stint as winter caretaker of a Colorado hotel as a way back from failure, his wife sees it as a chance to preserve their family, and their five-year-old son sees the evil waiting just for them.
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