From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses of the term, see Misery (disambiguation).

Misery

Cover of 1987 first edition
Author	Stephen King,
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror novel
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1987
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (first edition, hardback)

Misery is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1987. It was originally intended for Misery to be the next Richard Bachman (a King pseudonym) novel, following Thinner.^{[citation needed]}

Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of romance novels featuring the Victorian-era heroine Misery Chastain. He is rescued from a car wreck by a woman named Annie Wilkes, an experienced nurse who tells him that she is his number one fan. Shortly after regaining consciousness, Paul discovers that Annie has told no one that he is in her house, that she has been giving him a codiene-based pain killer (called Novril) to which he has become addicted, and that Annie is dangerously unstable.

Annie uses Paul's dependence on her (and his addiction to the pain medication) to coerce him into letting her read the unpublished manuscript of his new novel, Fast Cars. When the book's foul language and contemporary setting upset her peculiar puritanical nature, she forces him to choose between drinking filthy rinse-water from a floor bucket or going without his pain medication.

Around this time, Misery's Child, the final book starring Misery Chastain, hits the shelves. Annie, who is obsessed with the character, reads the book and learns of her beloved Misery's death. In a fit of rage, Annie leaves Paul stranded in bed while she leaves the house for several days, telling him that she might do "something unwise" if she stays around him. During her multiple-day absence, Paul must suffer extreme hunger and thirst as well as the pain from his shattered legs.

Upon her return, Annie forces Paul to burn the only existing copy of Fast Cars and to begin writing a new novel, Misery's Return. Since Paul hated Misery and was convinced that Fast Cars was award-worthy, her demands reinforce his helplessness and serve to deepen his murderous hatred of her.

While Paul works on Misery's Return, he is surprised to find that writing it is not nearly as distasteful as he had feared, and in fact acts as a form of escape. In the meantime, Annie's mental state worsens as she enters the "low cycle" of her manic-depressivelike psychosis.

During this period, Annie again leaves Paul alone in the house. He is now mobile, thanks to a wheelchair, and takes advantage of her absence to break out of his locked room to attempt an escape. His escape plans are deterred by the strong Kreig locks on all the doors and the foul weather outside. Instead, he tours the house and finds Annie’s scrapbook. He learns that she worked in medical wards across the Midwest, where she intentionally caused the deaths of elderly and terminally-ill patients. She escaped detection by moving frequently and focusing on patients who were already close to death, until she took a position as head maternity nurse at a Colorado hospital. After numerous infants died in her care, she was tried and acquitted on infantcide charges. According to the scrapbook, the media had closely covered the trial, dubbing her the "Dragon Lady" and stongly implying (rightly, as it turns out) that she was guilty of the charges.

Annie soon finds out Paul had left his room and "hobbles" him by cutting his foot off with an axe, then cauterizing the wound with a blowtorch. Another spat with Annie results in her impromptu amputation of his left thumb.

Several months after Paul has entered Annie's captivity, police discover his wreaked car and send a young deputy to investigate homes in the area. When the deputy arrives at Annie's, Paul throws an ashtray out the window and shouts for help. The surprised deputy doesn't notice Annie sneaking up behind him, and she stabs him in the back with a sharpened cross (formerly used to mark the grave of her cow). Annie then finishes him off with a lawn mower, chopping him into pieces.

Annie is forced to leave the house overnight to cover up her crime (she plans to dump the cruiser at her secret camp high in the mountains) and forces Paul to wait in the rat-infested cellar while she is away. While he is in the cellar, Paul finds a bottle of lighter fluid, and forms a plan to repay his "hostess".

Soon after, Paul finishes the last chapter of Misery's Return and asks Annie for a cigarette to celebrate the completion of the manuscript. When she returns, he tells her that Misery's Return is the best thing he's ever written -- but that Annie will never get to read it. He then sets the manuscript on fire using the lighter fluid he had previously stolen and the single match she provided with the cigarette (which had only been a ruse to get the match in the first place). Annie runs to the pile and tries to put it out. Paul flings his typewriter and hits her in the back. She falls, cracking her head on the mantelpiece. This gives Paul the upper hand and he takes several handfuls of burning pages and shoves them down her throat, one by one, until she lies still. Paul then manages to lock her into the bedroom, as she herself used to do to him. More police arrive looking for their missing colleague, and they find Paul awake in the house. By now, Paul is hysterical, warning the officers that Annie is crazy and that she is the one who cut off his foot. The police enter the bedroom, and tell Paul, to his horror, that Annie is not in there, causing him to black out. Paul later learns that Annie had jumped out of the bedroom window, and had crawled to her barn, where the police officers found her, dead from her head wound from the mantelpiece.

Returning home, Paul is fitted with a prosthetic foot and submits Misery's Return (which he only pretended to burn) to his publisher, who tells him that it is certain to become his best-selling book ever, due to the amazing circumstances under which it was written. However, Paul suffers nightmares about Annie, drowning his memories in alcohol abuse. He is also now suffering from writer's block. After a particularly frightening dream involving Annie in his New York apartment, Paul begins to type a new novel, finally overcoming his writer's block.

• William Goldman adapted 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.
• The novel was also adapted into a moderately successful Off-Broadway play.The play was recently revived to critical acclaim at London's Kings Head Theatre in 2005 starring Michael Praed and Susan Penhaligon.

• ISBN 0-606-03859-0 (prebound, 1987)
• ISBN 0-670-81364-8 (cloth text, 1987)
• ISBN 0-451-16952-2 (mass market paperback, 1988)
• ISBN 84-01-49997-6 (hardcover, 1992)
• ISBN 0-573-01850-2 (hardcover, 1999)
• ISBN 0-7432-3359-X (mass market paperback, 2002)
• ISBN 0-7862-5020-8 (laminated, 2003)

• Misery at the Internet Movie Database
• American Film Institute
• Official Website for the play