Stephen King's Contemporary Classics: Reflections on the Modern Master of Horror

(Hardback)

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Many readers know Stephen King for his early works of horror, from his fiction debut Carrie to his blockbuster novels The Shining, The Stand, and Misery, among others. While he continues to be a best-selling author, Kings more recent fiction has not received the kind of critical attention that his books from the 1970s and 1980s enjoyed. Recent novels like Duma Key and 1/22/63 have been marginalized and, arguably, cast aside as anomalies within the authors extensive canon. In Stephen Kings Contemporary Classics: Reflections on the Modern Master of Horror, Philip L. Simpson and Patrick McAleer present a collection of essays that analyze, assess, and critique Kings post-1995 compositions. Purposefully side-stepping studies of earlier work, these essays are arranged into three main parts: the first section examines five King novels published between 2009 and 2013, offering genuinely fresh scholarship on King; the second part looks at the development of Kings distinct brand of horror; the third section departs from probing the content of Kings writing and instead focuses on Kings process. By concentrating on Kings most recent writings, this collection offers provocative insights into the authors work, featuring essays on Dr. Sleep, Duma Key, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Joyland, Under the Dome, and others. As such, Stephen Kings Contemporary Classics will appeal to general fans of the authors work as well as scholars of Stephen King and modern literature.

Reviews

Rowman & Littlefield has . . . released an extraordinary hardcover tome that delves deeply into several of Kings lesser known works particularly from 2009 2013. Its calleddeep breathStephen Kings Contemporary Classics: Reflections on the Modern Master of Horror. It is a collection of essays written by various authors and examines books such as Dr. Sleep, Duma Key, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Joyland, Under the Dome and others. The essays are scholarly and thought provoking. Each author takes on the project with a great deal of passion which comes through in their writing. . . .The book will surely be of interest to fans of King, especially hardcore fans. . . . [It] will interest people who like to tear a story apart and see how and why it works. . . .If you must own all things King then you must add this hardcover book to your collection. I dare say even Mr. King will be astonished when he sees how his stories have been inspected, dissected and examined. Who knows, he may even learn a bit about himself and what must be going on inside his mind! All kidding aside this is an insightful set of essays to read and discuss with your fellow King fans. Stephen Kings Contemporary Classics will get you thinking. * Scared Stiff Reviews *

Author Bio

Philip L. Simpson serves as the provost of the Titusville campus of Eastern Florida State College. He is the author of Psycho Paths: Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film and Fiction (2000) and Making Murder: The Fiction of Thomas Harris (2010). Patrick McAleer teaches English at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota and is cochair of the Stephen King Area of the Popular Culture Associations annual national conference. He is the author of Inside the Dark Tower Series (2009) and The Writing Family of Stephen King (2011).