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The Shining

The Shining

ClassicsFantasy
Pages
607
Published
1977
Language
English

Synopsis

Jack Torrance takes a job as winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel, hoping the solitude will help him finish his writing and hold together a family strained by his history of drinking and a violent temper. He brings his wife Wendy and their five-year-old son Danny, who possesses a psychic gift the hotel's cook calls "the shining" — and who senses, before anyone else, that the Overlook is not empty at all.

Snowed in for the winter with no way out, the family is cut off just as the hotel's malevolent influence begins to close in on Jack, working on his insecurities, his temper, and his thirst for a drink he's tried to give up. As the Overlook's ghosts grow bolder and Jack's grip on himself slips, Danny's shining may be the only thing standing between his family and whatever wants them to stay forever.

Stephen King's breakthrough novel is a claustrophobic haunted-house story that is as much about addiction and the violence passed from father to son as it is about supernatural horror, and it remains one of the most influential haunted-hotel stories ever written.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

DarkTense

Genres

Classics Fantasy Mystery Psychological Horror Thriller Horror Gothic Paranormal Horror Haunted House Literary Fiction Paranormal Plays Suspense

About the author

S
Stephen King

Stephen King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author whose work has defined popular horror fiction for more than half a century. Born in Portland, Maine, he grew up in poverty after his father abandoned the family, and credits his mother's resilience and a voracious reading habit as the foundations of his imagination. He began selling short stories to men's magazines while working as a high school English teacher, and published his first novel, Carrie, in 1974—his wife Tabitha retrieved...

Characters

Jack TorranceProtagonist

A recovering alcoholic writer whose sanity unravels as the Overlook Hotel's malevolent influence takes hold.

Danny TorranceProtagonist

Jack's psychic young son, whose "shining" senses the hotel's supernatural threat.

Wendy TorranceSupporting
Horace DerwentSupporting
Delberg GradySupporting
All characters in The Shining

Frequently asked questions

  • Is there a movie adaptation of The Shining?

    A well-known film adaptation directed by Stanley Kubrick was released in 1980, starring Jack Nicholson. Stephen King himself has publicly expressed his differing views on the film's interpretation compared to his novel.

  • Does The Shining connect to other Stephen King books?

    The story features the character of Danny Torrance, whose psychic abilities, known as 'the shining,' are explored further in a direct sequel novel. This sequel delves into Danny's adult life and the lingering effects of his childhood trauma.

  • What real hotel inspired the Overlook?

    King stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, before writing the novel. He and Tabitha were among the last guests before it closed for winter. During that stay King had a nightmare about his young son being chased through the hotel corridors by a firehose that had come alive—a dream that became the seed of the novel.

  • What inspired Stephen King to write The Shining?

    Stephen King's own experience staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, served as a primary inspiration for the Overlook Hotel and the novel's setting. He and his wife were the only guests during a winter storm, which sparked the idea for the story.

  • How autobiographical is Jack Torrance?

    Very much so. King has acknowledged that Jack Torrance's alcoholism and the rationalizations Jack uses to justify his drinking mirrored his own at the time he wrote the novel. He was deep in his own alcohol and substance abuse and found it uncomfortably easy to write from inside Jack's perspective.

  • Why does King dislike Kubrick's 1980 film?

    King has repeatedly stated that Kubrick fundamentally misunderstood Jack Torrance by casting an actor who reads as menacing from the first frame, removing the tragedy of Jack's fall. King's novel presents a man genuinely trying to recover and be a good father; his deterioration is the horror. King also objected to the treatment of Wendy, who is reduced in the film to a screaming victim.

  • Why was Room 217 changed to Room 237 in the film?

    The Stanley Hotel's management asked Kubrick to change the room number because they were concerned guests would refuse to book Room 217 after seeing the film. Kubrick complied, using 237 instead. King's novel uses 217—the actual room at the Stanley Hotel where King experienced unsettling feelings during his stay.

  • What is 'the shining' and who else has it?

    The shining is the term Dick Hallorann—the Overlook's head cook—gives to the telepathic and psychic ability that he and young Danny Torrance share. It encompasses mind-reading, precognition, and the ability to perceive things not visible to ordinary people. Hallorann can communicate with Danny over vast distances using it.

  • Was The Shining King's first hardback bestseller?

    Yes. Published in 1977, The Shining was King's first novel to become a hardback bestseller. His earlier books had sold well in paperback, but The Shining established him on bestseller lists in hardcover—a commercial step that cemented his reputation as a major author.

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