The original manuscript of the cult novel featured an introduction, centering on another female guest at the sinister Overlook Hotel. Never published in France, this prologue is partially unveiled.
The weekly The 1 of booksellers publishes this Thursday a prologue rarely published in English, unpublished in French, to the novel by Stephen King Shining. This chapter was left out of the book when it was published in 1977.
Shining, the child of lightthird book by the prolific American novelist, tells the madness that seizes Jack Torrance, a failed writer who takes a job as a caretaker in a huge hotel lost in the mountains of Colorado, the Overlook, closed in winter.
In this five-scene prologue, instead of beginning with the story of Jack, his wife Wendy and their son Danny, King recounts earlier events at this same hotel. The 1 of booksellers publishes one of these scenes, which takes place in August 1929, A room in the morning.
Another vacationer
We meet Lottie Kilgallon Pillsbury, a young New York bride who insisted on spending her honeymoon in the Rockies rather than in Italy. His stay at the Overlook, like at Jack Torrance, did not work out for him. In English, this prologue was published in 1982 in a specialized magazine, then in 2017 in a luxury reissue of the novel, which is now out of print.
The Shining, masterpiece of the horror novel, is one of Stephen King’s greatest hits, selling millions of copies worldwide. Its adaptation on the big screen by Stanley Kubrick, with Jack Nicholson in the main role, established itself as soon as it was released in 1980 as a classic of horror cinema. A sequel titled Doctor Sleepwhich stars Ewan McGregor as grown-up Danny, was released in 2019.
Aborted film project
The prologue in five “scenes” is titled in English Before the play (“Before the play”). King indeed conceived his book as a tragedy with unity of time, place and action. The publisher, Doubleday, however, felt that the story, already long with its 450 pages, could do without these chapters, as well as an epilogue entitled After the play (“After the play”).
In 2013, press information had mentioned the project of an adaptation of this prologue to the cinema. Stephen King was hostile to it, he who never liked the Shining de Stanley Kubrick.