Paula Hammond - Features EditorMany of our favourite films start life as books, and this month The Folio Society has announced that they will be adding one of the most terrifying tales of the 20th Century to their catalogue of iconic editions.
Stanley Kubrick may have confirmed his status as the darling of indie cinema with the film, but the original novel of The Shining was a powerful and unnerving masterpiece. Stephen King called it his “crossroads novel”, a work in which the terror lies notonly in the supernatural, but in the psychological. Although the title of this book refers to five-year-old Danny Torrance, a little boy whose ‘shine’ allows him to see events from the past as well as those yet to come, it is his father, Jack, Winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, who is at the centre of this tale.
For many fans, this is a chance to meet the ‘real’ Jack Torrance. Rather than a two-dimensional villain compelled to madness by supernatural forces in the film, Jack emerges as a more complex character, one haunted by childhood memories. We learn of Jack’s complicated relationship with his own father – a violent drunk both loved and hated by his son – and see how it has shaped Jack’s life, the patterns of his youth playing out again and again in the present. The edges of what was and what is become blurred, and so the ghosts that begin to stir in the Overlook stand in for the ghosts of Jack’s own past, revived into startling, brutal life.
The Folio Society specialise in offering beautifully crafted, imaginative editions of the world’s great works of fiction and non-fiction. This new edition will be illustrated by award-winning artist Edward Kinsella and makes a fitting addition to the Folio Society’s collection of great books that were made into great films: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; The Great Gatsby; Breakfast At Tiffany’s; DUNE; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Pride & Prejudice.
For more information visit www.foliosociety.com
