Misery (novel)

Did You Know?

• Misery won the first Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1987.
• The novel was nominated for the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Background

The novel's title carries a double meaning: it references the fictional heroine of Paul Sheldon's book series and also reflects Stephen King's own mental state while writing. King later recounted in his memoirs that the character Annie Wilkes first appeared to him in a dream. Although the book was originally meant to be published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, his true identity became known before it came out. A key inspiration was the negative reaction to King's 1984 fantasy novel The Eyes of the Dragon, which many fans disliked for lacking the horror that had built his career.

Paul Sheldon's sense of being trapped by his own popular series mirrored King's frustration with being expected to write only horror. King's struggle with drug and alcohol addiction also shaped the story; he described Annie as both his drug problem and his number-one fan. The initial idea came from a dream on a transatlantic flight to London, which he jotted down on an American Airlines cocktail napkin. Staying at Brown's Hotel with his wife Tabitha, King wrote sixteen pages of a steno notebook at a desk that had belonged to Rudyard Kipling, who died of a stroke while using it.

He expected the book to be about 30,000 words, but it grew to 370 pages. Its working title was The Annie Wilkes Edition. King originally planned for Annie to force Paul to write a book that she would then bind in his skin, but he decided against that ending.

Plot

Paul Sheldon, author of the best-selling Misery Chastain romance series, has finished the final installment by killing off the character. While celebrating the completion of his new crime novel Fast Cars, he crashes into a snowbank during a snowstorm in remote Colorado. He awakens to find he has been rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse and avid reader who proclaims herself his number one fan. Annie refuses to take him to the hospital despite his two severely broken legs, nursing him with her stockpiled food and illicit codeine-based painkillers, to which Paul quickly becomes addicted.

Paul assesses that Annie is mentally unstable, prone to catatonic episodes and bouts of unreasonable rage. When Annie learns of Misery's death, she leaves Paul alone for over two days, depriving him of food, water, and painkillers. Upon her return, she forces him to burn the Fast Cars manuscript and presents him with an antique Royal typewriter to write a new Misery novel that brings the character back. Paul begins Misery's Return, and while writing, he escapes his room in a wheelchair, discovering a scrapbook suggesting Annie is a serial killer who has murdered over thirty people.

Annie punishes him for leaving his room by cutting off his foot with an axe and cauterizing the ankle with a blowtorch. Later, she cuts off his thumb with an electric knife.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted into a 1990 film directed by Rob Reiner and written by William Goldman, starring James Caan as Paul Sheldon and Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, with Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances Sternhagen in supporting roles. The film was a critical and commercial success and is ranked as one of the best Stephen King adaptations. Kathy Bates won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, one of the few Oscar wins for a horror performance and the first for any King adaptation.

The American Film Institute ranked Annie Wilkes as the 17th most iconic villain in film history. A version of Annie Wilkes portrayed by Lizzy Caplan is the main character of the second season of Castle Rock. The novel was adapted into a play by Simon Moore, premiering in London at the Criterion Theater in December 1992 starring Sharon Gless and Bill Paterson. A 2014 Dutch adaptation by Florus van Rooijen turned the novel into a 'feel bad' musical.

A different play written by William Goldman and directed by Will Frears opened on Broadway in 2015 for a limited engagement, starring Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf, who was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.