Misery (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Stephen King
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Plot: Suspense
- Time of Work: The mid-1980’s
- Setting: Colorado and New York City
- Principal Characters: Paul Sheldon, Annie Wilkes
- Genres: Long fiction, Suspense
- Subjects: Gender roles, Writing, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Cruelty
- Locales: New York, NY, Colorado
The Novel
Misery tells the suspenseful and often gruesome story of novelist Paul Sheldon, held captive by a psychotic fan. It also offers insight into the public role of a writer and the experience of writing itself.
Misery establishes characters and conflict immediately, opening with Annie Wilkes’s artificial respiration to revive injured author Paul Sheldon. Within five very brief chapters, readers learn that Sheldon has crashed his car in a snowstorm; that Wilkes, a fan of Sheldon’s popular romance novels starring Misery Chastain, has rescued him;...
[The entire page is 2247 words long]

