The Complete Stephen King Universe

by Stanley Wiater

  “The Ten O’Clock People”

  A group of smokers are inexplicably able to see a horrible race of aliens who, planning to take over the world, have infiltrated positions of power all over the globe. This one reads as homage to classic science fiction shows like The Invaders (1967–1968), or paranoia movies like John Carpenter’s They Live (1988); it can also be seen as a dry run for concepts King later used in Insomnia (1994). An ex-smoker himself, King in late 1999 would release an audio-only book entitled Blood and Smoke, containing three tales in which smokers or smoking was a central element to the plot.

  “THE TEN O’CLOCK PEOPLE”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  BRANDON PEARSON: Walking to his ten o’clock cigarette break, bank employee Brandon is stunned to see a hideous “bat creature” dressed in an expensive suit walking toward him. He almost screams, but is pulled away by an associate, an African-American man named Duke Rhinemann, before he can attract attention to himself. Duke explains to Brandon why he can see the usually masked aliens (something to do with his many attempts to quit smoking), and the bat people’s motivations (like most aliens, they naturally want to take over the world). Brandon becomes involved in the antibat resistance movement, spending the rest of his days combating the monstrous creatures.

  DUKE RHINEMANN: An African-American who works in Computer Services, he is the first to realize that Brandon Pearson also has the ability to see the otherwise invisible alien bat-creatures. He introduces Brandon to other smokers who are combating the aliens, convincing him to join their cause to save the human race.

  “Crouch End”

  This contemporary “Cthulhu Mythos” story was inspired by events when King and his wife, Tabitha, became lost in London while on their way to visit their new friend, author Peter Straub, in 1977. Straub, of course, would later collaborate with King on the epic novels The Talisman (1984) and Black House (2001). “Crouch End” originally appeared in the 1980 anthology edited by Ramsey Campbell, New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, a collection of original stories inspired by the writings of horror legend H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937).

  Like the unfortunate couples in “The Rainy Season” and “You Know They’ve Got a Hell of a Band,” Doris and Lonnie Freeman are American tourists who are destined to take a side trip straight into hell after getting lost searching for a friend’s home. That side trip leads them into London’s creepy Crouch End, where loathsome Lovecraftian demons—like the Goat with a Thousand Young—lie in wait for fresh victims.

  “The House on Maple Street”

  This story once again demonstrates author Ray Bradbury’s profound influence on Stephen King, from the last name and age of its heroes to the subject matter of the tale itself. It appears for the first time in the collection, and King states in his Notes that it was actually inspired by an illustration from Chris Van Allsburg’s wonderfully strange 1984 picture book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

  The Bradbury children discover that their residence hides the contours of a spaceship, a craft that is counting down to takeoff. Able to pinpoint the launch, they lure their evil stepfather into the house just as it lifts off into space.

  Tabitha King PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN

  “Umney’s Last Case”

  First appearing in print in Nightmares & Dreamscapes, “Umney’s Last Case” was also later reissued as a Penguin Single, an elite group of paperback specials published by Penguin Books in 1995 to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. A Raymond Chandler/Ross McDonald pastiche, “Umney” is yet another of King’s journeys into the mind of a writer, this time exploring the relationship between an author and a character he has created. In his Notes, King states that this tale is a personal favorite in the book.

  “UMNEY’S LAST CASE”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  CLYDE UMNEY: In 1938, private investigator Clyde Umney is faced with a serious dilemma—in the course of a single day, his entire world comes crashing down around him. His problems, he learns, are caused by a visitor to his office named Samuel D. Landry. Landry not only looks like an older version of himself, but claims to have created Umney and the entire world he inhabits in a series of gritty, violent novels such as Scarlet Town—which was first published in 1977! Landry informs Umney that he has grown tired of his unsatisfying and complicated life in the 1990s, and wants to change realities with him. Before Umney can stop him, Landry accomplishes the deed, trapping Umney in the real world of today. The hard-boiled detective does his best to cope, even teaching himself to be a writer, living for the day when he can turn then the tables on Landry.

  SAMUEL D. LANDRY: A successful writer of crime and private eye novels, Landry finds the fictional world he has created of Los Angeles in the Great Depression more vibrant and real to him than the world he is inhabiting in 1994. He possesses a futuristic device that permits him to switch realities with one of his favorite characters, a hard-boiled shamus named Clyde Umney. In spite of Umney’s stunned disbelief that the author has created his entire world, Landry is still able to usurp his place back in the more exciting past of the 1930s. Here Landry can make all his childhood dreams of being a private eye literally come true.

  “The Beggar and the Diamond”

  Included almost as an afterthought, this is King’s retelling of a Hindu parable told to him by a man named Surrendra Patel (King later dedicated From a Buick 8 to Mr. Patel and his wife, Geeta); King westernizes the tale by substituting God and his angel Uriel for Lord Shiva and his wife, Parvati.

  Ramu begins to curse his lot in life after he trips over something in the road. (Ironically, it is a massive diamond that God has sent down at the insistence of the angel Uriel to provide Ramu with enough money to live out the rest of his days in comfort.) Ramu’s anger quickly dissipates; counting his blessings, he picks himself up and walks away, most likely to find the sturdy stick God has left in his path, a gift that will prove far more useful to him than any diamond.

  49

  ROSE MADDER

  (1995)

  In retrospect, it seems as if Stephen King had been building toward Rose Madder his whole career. The theme of spousal/child abuse, touched on in early novels like ’Salem’s Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), and Cujo (1981), emerged more prominently in It (1986). The notion of men as the enemy became more explicit in Gerald’s Game (1992); the insensitive Gerald Burlingame was only the first in a depressingly long line of abusive males King would introduce to readers over the course of his next four novels.

  In Gerald’s Game, readers watched in disgust as Jessie Burlingame was sexually molested by her father; in Dolores Claiborne, they saw another child abuser, the loathsome Joe St. George, hit his wife with a piece of firewood. King also pursued this track in Insomnia (1994), when the increasingly erratic Ed Deepneau beat his wife, Helen, putting an end to their marriage.

  To date, however, Rose Madder stands as King’s most unflinching look at abuse. It is the account of Rose Daniels and her monstrous husband, Norman. He is King’s scariest psychopath since Greg Stillson of The Dead Zone (1979). Norman is not satisfied with merely hitting his wife, or degrading her verbally. No, Norman takes abuse to a new level, burning Rose and sodomizing her with foreign objects. He’s also what psychologists call a “biter,” and Rose bears the scars of his strange pathology.

  The brutal realities of Rose Madder are balanced by a fantasy element, a subplot involving a world accessed through an otherwise unremarkable portrait Rose discovers in a pawnshop. This world seems to be the same one inhabited by Roland, the Gunslinger. An inhabitant of this world, alternately known as Wendy Yarrow and Dorcas, tells Rosie Daniels: “I’ve seen wars … heads by the hundreds poked onto poles along the streets of the City of Lud. I’ve seen wise leaders assassinated and fools put in their places …”

  Dorcas speaks of Lud, a city that has been shown in King’s Dark Tower saga, and the reference to the assassination of wise leaders and fools being put in their places could be a veiled reference to events in The Eyes of the Dragon (1987). Both Wendy and Rose Madder al
so mention “ka,” a concept familiar to readers of The Dark Tower saga.

  More so than in other works, King spends time in Rose Madder referencing classic works of fantasy and mythology. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland adventure Through the Looking-Glass (1872) is mentioned as Rosie enters the world of the painting. In naming the bull in the temple Erinyes, the author evokes Greek mythology. In having Rosie pass through a maze in the temple, he recalls the legend of the minotaur.

  ROSE MADDER: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  ROSE DANIELS: Rose leads a miserable existence with her savagely abusive husband, Norman. Subsequent to one particular beating, a distraught Rose miscarries the baby she’s come to think of as “Caroline.” Rose remains with her police detective husband for nine more years, and the constant beatings take a physical and mental toll. One day, as she is making her bed, a single drop of blood falls from her nose, landing on a pillow. Seeing the blood triggers an uncharacteristic response in the usually docile Rose. Acting almost on instinct, she drops everything and flees the home that had been her prison for nearly fourteen years.

  Rose decides she will not go by the name Rose Daniels any longer, and reinvents herself as Rosie McClendon, the hopeful young woman she was before she met Norman.

  The newly minted Rosie travels to Liberty City, a town some 800 miles west, and ends up at Daughters and Sisters, a private shelter for battered women. There she meets Anna Stevenson, the shelter’s strong-willed founder, who finds Rosie an apartment and a position as a maid at a local hotel.

  Needing cash, Rosie visits Liberty City Loan and Pawn, offering her wedding ring for sale. The owner, Bill Steiner, informs her that the stone is only zirconium, not a diamond as Norman had led her to believe. Rosie is shaken, but not surprised—it is just one more slap in the face from the deceitful Norman.

  Entering that store changes her life. The pawnbroker, Bill Steiner, falls in love with Rosie. Overhearing her voice, Robbie Lefferts, a producer of recorded books who is in the shop at the time, becomes convinced she would be perfect as a reader, and later offers her a job. Finally, while browsing through the store, Rose comes across an oil painting in a wooden frame, a portrait of a blonde woman in a rose madder toga standing on a hill, her back to the viewer, facing the ruins of what appear to be a Greek temple. Written on the back of the painting are the words “Rose Madder.”

  Titillated by the connection to her own given name, Rose is seized by a desire to own the artwork. Even though she recognizes that it isn’t very good, the image portrayed on the canvas speaks to her on an almost primal level. Bartering her ring, Rosie acquires the painting and leaves.

  Rosie hangs the painting on a wall in her apartment, where it blends in as if it belongs there. Rosie starts hearing things that are alien to her urban environment, such as the sounds of crickets chirping, or wind blowing through grass. At times, the vista in the painting seems to expand. Sometimes, Rosie believes items are actually moving within that vista. The painting comes to exert an influence on her daily life—Rosie dyes her hair blonde and has it done in the style of the woman in the portrait.

  One evening, Rosie awakens to find the painting covering the entire wall. Strangely unafraid, she enters the world of the painting, and encounters a woman she recognizes as Wendy Yarrow, another (fatal) victim of her husband’s rage. Wendy serves as Rosie’s guide, introducing her to the woman in the toga, whose name is Rose Madder. Rose is an imperfect double of Rosie; her skin is mottled, her voice harsh, her state of mind near madness.

  At her request, Rosie retrieves Rose’s baby from a temple guarded by the blind bull Erinyes. When Rosie returns with the infant, Wendy tells her about the importance of forgetting the past, of getting on with her life. After expressing her disdain for men, Rose promises Rosie she will repay the act of kindness. Rosie returns to the real world with three seeds from the tree of forgetfulness and Rose’s golden armlet as keepsakes.

  Rose’s promise to repay becomes important to Rosie when Norman, a gifted tracker with almost telepathic abilities, reenters Rosie’s world with a trail of corpses in his wake. Finding her apartment, Norman follows her into Rose Madder’s world. Mistaking Rose for his wife, Norman attacks her and is killed. Rosie returns to the real world and marries Bill Steiner. Soon thereafter, she bears a child whom she names Pamela Gertrude, after her friends Pam Haverford and Gert Kinshaw.

  Rosie, Bill, and Pamela Gertrude Steiner are alive and well, presumably still living in Liberty City.

  ROSE MADDER: Rosie’s mad doppelganger, Rose inhabits the world of the painting from the pawnshop. Although Rose’s features are the same as Rosie’s, she is radically different; in fact, she can be viewed as the embodiment of all the rage Rosie suppresses. This fury has driven her mad, and has even disfigured her. As recompense for the favor Rosie does for her, Rose draws Norman into the world of the painting, confronts him, and eventually kills him.

  After killing Norman, Rose leaves her station in front of Erinyes’ temple, presumably to travel in the world of the portrait. Rose is accompanied in her travels by her infant daughter and Dorcas. Their present whereabouts are unknown.

  NORMAN DANIELS: When she was fifteen, Rose McClendon met Norman Daniels at a varsity basketball game. Norman wooed, won, and finally wed young Rosie, marrying her after her graduation, then proceeded to make her life a living hell. Over the course of their fourteen-year union, the police detective beat Rosie regularly. In 1985, he beat her so severely that she miscarried. Norman’s temper is always quick to flare—besides beating his wife, he also brutalizes suspects. In fact, in 1985 Norman and his partner accidentally beat an innocent young black woman named Wendy Yarrow to death.

  After Rose leaves him, Norman becomes even more volatile, killing a hooker who resembles her. He then embarks on a murderous rampage in search of his spouse. Utilizing his uncanny ability to get into the minds of those he is tracking (he calls it “trolling”), Norman traces Rose to Liberty City, where his murder spree continues, extending to many of Rose’s friends and protectors.

  Norman comes into possession of a Ferdinand the bull mask (no doubt a likeness of the character in the children’s book The Story of Ferdinand, created by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson), which he impulsively steals. The mask begins to talk to Norman in the voice of his deceased, abusive father. Perhaps reflecting a latent telepathic ability of Norman’s, the mask provides information about Rosie, eventually leading him to her apartment. There, after donning the mask, Norman follows Rosie into the painting, where he in effect becomes the embodiment of Erinyes, the bull god of the temple. Still wearing the mask that has somehow grafted itself to his face, Norman meets his fate at the hands of the vengeful Rose Madder.

  ERINYES: In Greek mythology, the Erinyes, or Furies, punished sinners. Known as “those who walk in darkness,” they had snakes for hair and wept tears of blood. Erinyes comes from the Greek word meaning “hunting down” or “persecuting.” Thus it is fitting that a skilled tracker like Norman, whose only real emotion seems to be anger, becomes Erinyes in the world of the painting.

  In the world of the painting, Erinyes is the one-eyed, blind bull inhabiting the temple therein. Rosie braves that temple and its dangers to save Rose Madder’s child. Just as Rosie and Rose are linked, so are Erinyes and Norman. They connect when Norman finds the Ferdinand the bull mask in the real world. The mask guides Norman to Rosie’s apartment, where Norman follows Rosie into the art piece. There he dons the mask and in effect becomes Erinyes.

  WENDY YARROW: A young woman who falls victim to Norman’s anger in the real world, Wendy is seemingly reincarnated in the world of the painting as Dorcas (sometimes translated as “Tabitha”), Rose’s companion. Dorcas acts as Rosie’s mentor in the strange world of the artwork, telling her what she must do there, giving her the tools and the information she needs to survive. She later lectures Rosie on the importance of forgetting the past. At present, she is wandering the world of the painting with Rose Madder.

  BILL ST
EINER: The owner of Liberty City Pawn and Loan, he meets Rosie when she comes in to pawn her wedding ring. It falls to Bill to tell her that the diamond in the ring is not real, and thus only worth a small amount. Smitten with Rosie, Bill asks her out, becoming the first man Rosie has ever had a romantic relationship with besides Norman. Norman’s polar opposite, Bill helps Rosie in her transformation from submissive victim to confident adult. After Norman’s death, Bill and Rosie marry and have a child, Pamela Gertrude.

  DAUGHTERS AND SISTERS: A shelter for battered women, Daughters and Sisters becomes Rosie’s home for a short time following her escape from Norman.

  ANNA STEVENSON: The formidable administrator of Daughters and Sisters, Anna reminds Rosie of Beatrice Arthur, the acerbic actress who played Maude on the sitcom of the same name. Anna takes Rosie under her wing, enabling her to start a new life under the name of Rosie McClendon. Anna is later slaughtered by the rampaging Norman.

  ROBBIE LEFFERTS: A producer of books on audiotape, Robbie hires Rosie to read hard-boiled mysteries penned by women writing under male pseudonyms. The first book Rosie narrates is The Manta Ray, written by Christina Bell under the name of Richard Racine. Robbie is lucky in that he never meets Norman Daniels. He presumably still makes his home in Liberty City.