The Shining (novel)

Did You Know?

• The novel originally included a prologue titled 'Before the Play' and an epilogue titled 'After the Play', neither of which appeared in the published book.
• The prologue was published in Whispers magazine in August 1982, and an abridged version appeared in TV Guide in 1997.
• The epilogue was rediscovered in 2016 as part of an early manuscript and published in a Deluxe Special Edition in 2017.

Plot

Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic with a history of anger issues, takes a job as winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. He hopes the isolation will help him reconnect with his wife Wendy and young son Danny, and finish his manuscript. Danny possesses psychic abilities called the shining, which include reading minds and clairvoyance. On closing day, the family meets chef Dick Hallorann, who shares Danny's gift and forms a bond with him.

As the Torrances settle in, Danny begins seeing ghosts and frightening visions. He keeps these from his parents, sensing the job is important to his father. Danny soon realizes his presence amplifies the hotel's supernatural activity, causing apparitions to solidify and topiary animals to come to life. A winter storm cuts the family off from the outside world.

Unable to possess Danny, the hotel turns its attention to Jack, frustrating his work and luring him with a scrapbook of the hotel's dark history. Jack grows unstable, destroys the two-way radio, and sabotages a snowmobile. After a fight with Wendy, he finds the bar fully stocked and joins a ghostly party. The hotel uses the ghost of former caretaker Delbert Grady, who murdered his family, to urge Jack to do the same. Jack initially resists but ultimately succumbs.

Background

After setting Carrie and 'Salem's Lot in small Maine towns, King wanted a different backdrop for his next novel. He opened an atlas of the United States and randomly pointed to a location, which turned out to be Boulder, Colorado. On October 30, 1974, King and his wife Tabitha checked into The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. They were the only two guests that night, as the hotel was closing for the season.

Ten years earlier, King had read Ray Bradbury's 1950 short story 'The Veldt' and was inspired to write about a person whose dreams become real. In 1972, he began a novel called Darkshine about a psychic boy in a psychic amusement park, but abandoned it. That idea returned to him during his night at the Stanley. At dinner, King and his wife were alone in the grand dining room, with only one meal option and taped orchestral music echoing through the hall.

After dinner, King walked the empty hotel and ended up in the bar, where a bartender named Grady served him drinks. That night, King dreamed of his three-year-old son running through corridors, being chased by a fire-hose. He woke up sweating and, after a cigarette, had the bones of the book firmly in mind. The novel was also heavily influenced by Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Edgar Allan Poe's stories 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and 'The Masque of the Red Death', and Robert Marasco's Burnt Offerings. It has often been compared to Guy de Maupassant's 'The Inn'.

Sequel

In November 2009, King described an idea for a sequel prompted by people asking what happened to Danny. The story would follow Danny Torrance in his 40s, living in New Hampshire and working as an orderly at a hospice, using his powers to support dying patients. King posted a poll on his website asking visitors to choose between Doctor Sleep and the next Dark Tower novel. Doctor Sleep received 5,861 votes, while The Wind Through the Keyhole received 5,812. Published in September 2013, Doctor Sleep includes a group of psychic vampires called the True Knot.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted into a 1980 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with Diane Johnson. King wrote a screenplay faithful to the novel, but Kubrick rejected it. King has remained disappointed with the adaptation, criticizing its handling of the book's themes and Wendy's character, and even included a jab about the film in his 2018 novel The Outsider. Despite this, the film is regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made.

The 2019 film adaptation of Doctor Sleep, written and directed by Mike Flanagan, served as a direct sequel to Kubrick's film but also incorporated elements of the novel, earning King's approval. A television miniseries premiered in 1997 on ABC, written and closely monitored by King to follow the novel's narrative. It received popular and critical acclaim, though it has been less favorably received in recent years compared to Kubrick's film. The novel was adapted into an opera in 2016 and is being adapted into a stage play directed by Ivo van Hove and written by Simon Stephens.