Richard Bachman - Stephen King: best books

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Richard Bachman - this name often misleads horror fans who are not familiar with the biography of Stephen King. But what unites these two writers? We will talk about this and much more in this article.

Who is Richard Bachmann?

In the late 70s of the XX century, books by a certain Richard Bachman began to be published. According to the official biography of this character, he was ill with "cancer" and died after the publication of the first books. However, his works continued to be published by his widow, Claudia Innes Bachmann.

In fact, Richard Bachman is the pseudonym of the famous horror master Stephen King. There are two reasons why the writer decided to use a different name. According to the first version, King decided to check whether his books could gain popularity and success a second time, and whether his fame was just an accident. The second version is much more prosaic - in those years the author was allowed to publish only one novel a year, while the pseudonym allowed it to be published twice.

Exposure

Despite the fact that Stephen King was actively engaged in the creation and maintenance of the illusory existence of Richard Bachmann, his cunning was exposed. This was done by a bookstore worker. Steve Brown Store. He was a great admirer of Brahman, but one day he suspected something was wrong. Then Brown went to the Library of Congress, where he found a book in which King is listed as a co-author of Bachman. The book detective sent a copy of the found document to King, accompanying it with a letter. After some time, King himself called Brown and offered to take a revealing interview with him. The resulting article was published in The Washington Post.

Best Books

However, Stephen King, whose books are hugely popular with horror fans and translated into many languages, is most famous under his real name. And now we will present the best of his works, according to critics and readers. These will be the very books that made their writer famous and became cult. Moreover, despite the fact that these works were written in the last century, they are in great demand today.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

So, the baton called "King's best books" begins with the story "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". Many people know this work as "The Shawshank Redemption", although only the film adaptation of the story was called that.

The book was written in the genre of psychological realism and was first published in 1982. Such a genre is completely unusual for King, nevertheless, the book is recognized as the best work of the writer. In 1994, the story was filmed, and in 2009 it began to be staged on theater stages.

The piece tells the story of a former vice presidentAndy Dufresne, who is accused of killing his wife and her lover. Despite the fact that the hero turns out to be innocent, he is tried and sent to prison, where violence and corruption reign.

Green Mile

If we are going to list the best books of King, then we can not do without mentioning this work. The novel The Green Mile was written in 1996, and in 1999, the book was made into a film of the same name, which received numerous awards and nominations.

The story begins with the reader being introduced to Paul Edgecomb, a former prison warden who at the beginning of the novel is in the Georgia Pines Nursing Home. Here the hero tells one of the local inhabitants a story that happened to him back in 1932. At that time, Paul was a senior warden in the prison block "E", where those sentenced to death by electric chair were kept. It was also the duty of the hero to carry out the sentence. About those strange events that happened next, and tells the novel.

Misery

Stephen King, whose books we are reviewing, is the author of another excellent novel published in 1987. Misery was written in the psychological thriller genre, one of King's favorite genres. For this work, the writer was awarded the Bram Stoker Prize and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. The title of the work is translated as "Suffering". The novel was also filmed in 1990. Critics note that the author perfectly managed to describe the relationship of a celebrity withhis fans.

The plot was based on the story of the relationship between two main characters: the famous writer Paul Sheldon and his fan Annie Wilks, who suffers from mental disabilities. The plot of the story takes place at the moment when Paul gets into a car accident. Annie, a former nurse, takes the insensitive writer into her home and begins his treatment. However, the hero soon realizes that he turned out to be a prisoner who is forced to fulfill any whims of his jailer.

Best books published under a pseudonym

Now let's talk about those works that were published under the name of Richard Bachman. The books of this writer, as noted above, were no less popular than those published under the name of King himself. Not to mention the fact that the very manner of creation and the choice of topics did not differ dramatically from those that the author chose to write under his real name. Nevertheless, we highlight the works written by Richard Bachmann.

Running Man

Richard Bachman wrote this novel in 1982. The idea for the plot of the work was borrowed from Robert Sheckley's story "Risk Prize".

The novel takes the reader into the future, where America is in a state of severe social inequality and degradation. Here, even the money differs by "old and new bucks." The main entertainment of the inhabitants of this new America is television games, which are constantly broadcast on free channels. The main participants in these entertainments are the inhabitants of the slums. Andone of these poor people turns out to be the main character of the novel, Ben Richards. He needs money to treat his little daughter. To do this, he decides to take part in the most popular TV show - "Running Man". To get the super prize and stay alive, Richards will have to hide from assassins for a month.

Road Works

1981 novel also published under the name Richard Bachman.

The main character is Barton J. Dawes, who lives in a small American town. He feels himself gradually go crazy when the freeway construction begins in the city. First they demolish the laundry where he worked. But Dawes does not want to look for a new place for the institution, as he is sure that it will be destroyed. Then his wife leaves him because he does not want to buy a new house, and the old one will soon be demolished due to the construction of the same ill-fated freeway. All these days, the hero drives along the highway, thereby expressing a protest, and even somehow sets fire to the builders' equipment. Gradually, his hatred grows, and nothing can reconcile him with life.

Slimming

This artwork was published in 1984 by Stephen King. A novel written in the genre of mysticism. It was after the release of this book that the media began to discuss how similar the novels of Bachman and King were in style, and then Stephen Brown revealed the secret of this similarity. After it became known that the novel "Slimming" was written by King, sales of the book increased several times.

The plot of the book begins withthat Billy Halleck, a successful lawyer, accidentally hits a gypsy woman who is crossing the road. The woman dies instantly. Thanks to connections, Billy manages to avoid legal investigation and punishment. But the father of the deceased is not ready to forgive Billy for the death of his daughter, so he casts a spell on the culprit of the tragedy, which gradually takes away his weight. King was obese at the time of writing the book, and the idea for the plot of the novel came to his mind after another visit to the doctor.

Rage

The horrors of Stephen King, as time has shown, can have a very unexpected effect on people. So it happened with this novel, published in 1977. A few weeks after the start of sales, the book "Rage" was withdrawn from store shelves. This was due to the fact that many teenagers began to take weapons to school with them. And one boy who took his classmates hostage had this particular King novel with him. Later, in the 80-90s, terrorist attacks were repeated, which caused the book to be withdrawn from sale again.

From the above, it is easy to guess the plot of the book. One day, Charlie Decker, an ordinary American schoolboy, brought a revolver to the classroom and took his classmates hostage, killing two teachers before that. During the time the kids were captured, they discussed teenage issues and even took Charlie's side in the situation.

The Long Walk

The horrors of Stephen King, under whatever pseudonym they were published, are primarily based on psychologism. The 1966 novel, which tells the story of Maine R. Garrity, was no exception. The hero goes on a walk organized by an American channel. Here he has to find new friends and lose them, to understand a lot, but to rethink even more. Nevertheless, for Maine, this campaign will end in madness.

King Movies

As can be seen from all of the above, King is one of the most filmed writers of the 20th century. Most of the films followed the original book plot exactly, such as The Green Mile, Slimming, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, and many others. But there are a number of paintings that can be called films based on the works of King. This, for example, "Running Man" in 1987, where the main role was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many critics call it not so much an adaptation of King's book as a remake of the painting "The Price of Risk" by Yves Boisset based on the work of R. Sheckley.

Nevertheless, films based on King have always enjoyed no less fame than the writer's books themselves. This is mainly due to the fact that the author has always managed to create a plot that would be attractive in any form, whether it be a novel or a film.