Originally published in 1982 in Different Seasons by Viking.

A 25th anniversary history and celebration of The Shawshank Redemption, one of the most cherished American films of the late twentieth century and one of the finest movies made from a Stephen King story. The movie not only boasts a great story, it has a great backstory, starting with the dollar deal that eventually led King and co-stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman to put their trust in a largely untested director making his first feature film. Although the film received mostly positive reviews on its release in September 1994, the box office was disappointing and it failed to win many awards. But as Andy tells Red in the film, “no good thing ever dies.” The movie found new life, reaching an ever-growing audience on cable and home video (through word of mouth, it became one of the top-rented movies of 1995). Each year, The Shawshank Redemption rises in polls asking film fans to name their favorite movies. It has become nothing less than this generation’s The Grapes of Wrath, an inspiring story about keeping hope alive in bleak times and under the most horrendous conditions.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s beloved novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award–nominee The Shawshank Redemption—about an unjustly imprisoned convict who seeks a strangely satisfying revenge, is now available for the first time as a standalone book. A mesmerizing tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is one of Stephen King’s most beloved and iconic stories, and it helped make Castle Rock a place readers would return to over and over again. Suspenseful, mysterious, and heart-wrenching, this iconic King novella, populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, is about a fiercely compelling convict named Andy Dufresne who is seeking his ultimate revenge. Originally published in 1982 in the collection Different Seasons (alongside “The Body,” “Apt Pupil,” and “The Breathing Method”), it was made into the film The Shawshank Redemption in 1994. Starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, this modern classic was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and is among the most beloved films of all time.

Includes the stories “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine A “hypnotic” (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters. This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption. Next is “Apt Pupil,” the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town. In “The Body,” four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me. Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in “The Breathing Method.” “The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,” hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.

This book features an in-depth analysis of the world’s most popular movie, The Shawshank Redemption, delving into issues such as: the significance of race in the film, its cinematic debt to earlier genres, the gothic influences at work in the movie, and the representation of Andy’s poster art as cross-gendered signifiers. In addition to exploring the film and novella from which it was adapted, this book also traces the history of the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, which served as the film’s central location, and its relationship to the movie’s fictional Shawshank Prison. The last chapter examines why this film has remained both a popular and critical success, inspiring diverse fan bases on the Internet and the evolution of the Shawshank Trail, fourteen of the film’s actual site locations that have become a major tourist attraction in central Ohio.

How did a low-key prison movie which was considered a box-office flop on its original release become one of the most popular movies of all time? Mark Kermode traces the history of this unexpected audience favourite from the pages of Stephen King's novella 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption', through the icy corridors of Ohio's Mansfield Reformatory (whose imposing gothic architecture dominates the film), to the television and video screens on which 'The Shawshank Redemption' became a phenomenon. This study traces the history of 'The Shawshank Redemption' and draws on interviews with writer/director Frank Darabont and leading players Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. The book also explores the near-religious fervour that the film inspires in a huge number of devoted fans.

The Complete Concordance is an entertaining and incredibly useful guide to Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series by Robin Furth and features a foreword by Stephen King himself. The Dark Tower series is the backbone of Stephen King's legendary career. Eight books and more than three thousand pages make up this bestselling fantasy epic. The Complete Concordance covers books I-VII and The Wind Through the Keyhole and is the definitive encyclopedic reference book that provides readers with everything they need to navigate their way through the series. With hundreds of characters, Mid-World geography, High Speech lexicon, and extensive cross-references, this comprehensive handbook is essential for any Dark Tower fan. Includes: -A Foreword from Stephen King -Characters and Genealogies -Magical Objects and Forces -Mid-World and Our World Places -Portals and Magical Places -Mid-, End-, and Our World Maps -Timeline for the Dark Tower Series -Mid-World Dialects -Mid-World Rhymes, Songs, and Prayers -Political and Cultural References -References to Stephen King’s Own Work

The Films of Stephen King is the first collection of essays assembled on the cinematic adaptations of Stephen King. The individual chapters, written by cinema, television, and cultural studies scholars, examine the most important films from the King canon, from Carrie to The Shining to The Shawshank Redemption.

During the last few decades, most cultural critics have come to agree that the division between "high" and "low" art is an artificial one, that Beethoven's Ninth and "Blue Suede Shoes" are equally valuable as cultural texts. In Who Needs Classical Music?, Julian Johnson challenges these assumptions about the relativism of cultural judgements. The author maintains that music is more than just "a matter of taste": while some music provides entertainment, or serves as background noise, other music claims to function as art. This book considers the value of classical music in contemporary society, arguing that it remains distinctive because it works in quite different ways to most of the other music that surrounds us. This intellectually sophisticated yet accessible book offers a new and balanced defense of the specific values of classical music in contemporary culture. Who Needs Classical Music? will stimulate readers to reflect on their own investment (or lack of it) in music and art of all kinds.

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