Actors - Misery

	Actors - Misery

Misery is a novel by Stephen King, published in 1987.

The story begins with Paul Sheldon slowly waking out of a coma. Gradually, his memory returns to him: he is a wildly popular romance novelist of the Misery series of novels (the main character of which is named Misery Chastain) who has crashed his car in a winter storm outside of Silver Creek in Grand County, Colorado, and has been badly injured. His rescuer, Annie Wilkes, is a former registered nurse and has taken him to her secluded country home to personally care for him.

As luck would have it, Annie is Paul's "number one fan" and eagerly awaited all his publications. As time passes, however, Paul realizes that there is a flip side to this coin: Annie is mentally ill, she has not told anyone where he is, and she has a violent past that includes a successful career as a serial killer.

Annie begins to physically and psychologically abuse Paul when she finishes reading his latest published work, in which the heroine Misery dies. Annie later forces him to burn an unpublished manuscript of his new novel, "Fast Cars" he was carrying at the time of his accident, disgusted at its radical departure from the Misery series. Eventually, Annie forces Paul to write a new Misery novel "just for her" and bring the character back from the dead. Paul works on the book as Annie's violent mood swings and her psychosis deepen. Her insanity escalates as Paul tries to escape; she eventually chops off one of Paul's feet, one of his thumbs, and murders a police officer investigating his disappearance. As the authorities begin to close in on Annie, Paul's plight--both in his writing and his attempt to save his life--becomes more desperate.

Facts about the book

Misery does not deal with supernatural demons or ghosts, but with the darkness inherent in the human mind. The story revolves around only two characters and the closed environment of Annie's house.

Misery is one of many King novels set in Colorado.

The book contains an inside reference to an earlier King novel, The Shining naming 'The Overlook Hotel' in which the book is set.

In the book, Annie chops one of Paul's feet off from the ankle. In the movie, she breaks the ankle with a hammer.

King has stated that he intended for Misery to be the next Richard Bachman novel, following Thinner.

Some paperback versions of the book have a "mock" cover inside the front cover. It is done in the style of a typical romance novel book cover, portraying a man and a woman in a romantic pose. It bears the title "Misery's Return" (the title of the book Paul is forced to write). The man is easily recognizable as Stephen King.

In On Writing, King stated that he realized that the situation of the novel was a metaphor for the drug addiction he was suffering from at the time.

William Goldman adopted 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.

Annie Wilkes was voted the 17th greatest villain of all-time by the American Film Institute in their special feature AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
, and Bravo! named the film the 12th scariest of all time.

The book tied with the Robert R. McCammon novel Swan Song for the first Bram Stoker Award for best novel.

Movie

The movie was made in 1990.

When Paul Sheldon is injured in a car accident, he is taken in by Annie Wilkes. His legs are injured and he cannot walk. At first, Annie, who says she's a nurse, seems to have Paul's best interests in mind. She brings him painkillers, feeds him, and rants on and on about how she is 'his number one fan'. but it soon becomes clear that Annie is mentally ill. After getting Paul's permission to read the last book in the 'Misery' series, which has not yet been published, she finds out that the series ends with Misery's death. After screaming at Paul, she brings him his manuscript, and a box of matches. She forces him to burn his book. The next day, she brings him a typewriter and typing paper, and tells him he must fix the book and bring Misery back. He sees a pin on the floor and tells Annie he can't type on this paper because it smears. She angrily goes back to town to get him new paper. He gets the pin, and uses it to pick the lock on the door. However, this doesn't help, since it seems hopeless to get out. So he begins working on the book.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Misery ]

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