The Body (King novella)

Last updated
The Body
The Body 2009 Edition.JPG
2009 audiobook edition cover
Author Stephen King
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreComing-of-age story
Publisher Viking
Publication date
1982
Media typePrint (Hardcover)

The Body is a novella by American writer Stephen King. The Body was published in King's 1982 collection Different Seasons and later adapted into the 1986 film Stand by Me . [1]

Contents

The story takes place during the summer of 1960 in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. After a boy disappears and is presumed dead, twelve-year-old Gordie LaChance and his three friends set out to find his body along the railway tracks. During the course of their journey, the boys, who all come from abusive or dysfunctional families, come to grips with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that does not seem to offer them much of a future.

Plot summary

Gordon "Gordie" Lachance reminisces about his childhood in Castle Rock, Maine. At that time, Gordie's elder brother Dennis (also known as Denny), whom his parents favored, had recently died, leaving Gordie's parents too depressed to pay much attention to him. In 1960, Gordie and his three friends − Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio − learn that a gang of hooligans led by John "Ace" Merrill have accidentally discovered the dead body of a missing boy named Ray Brower, who was hit by a train. Because the gang found the body while driving a stolen car, they elected not to report the body to the police. The boys get the idea to find the body "officially" so that they may become famous. In preparation for the expedition, Chris steals a gun from his father, and the boys camp out in a nearby field.

Over the course of the narrative, the adult Gordie recalls his first published story, Stud City, about the life of a simple man named Edward "Chico" May whose older brother also died. He has a girlfriend, Jane, who he does not have particularly strong feelings for. Chico knows that his stepmother Virginia slept with his brother before he died, but he hesitates to tell his father about it. One day, Chico has a fight with his father over Virginia and leaves the house.

Along the way, the boys trespass at the town dump and are chased by Chopper, the dump custodian Milo Pressman's dog. Teddy gets into a verbal skirmish with Milo when the latter insults Teddy's father by calling him a "loonie". Gordie and Vern are nearly run over by a train while crossing a trestle. While at a resting point, Gordie tells his friends another story, "The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan", in which the titular Davie "Lard-Ass" Hogan exacts vengeance on the town locals for ridiculing his wide girth by downing a whole bottle of castor oil before engaging in the town's annual pie-eating contest and vomiting on the previous year's champion, which causes a chain reaction that nauseates the entire audience. The next morning, the boys stumble upon a small pond and partake in a swim, but jump out in horror when they find that the pond is teeming with leeches.

After a thunderstorm, the boys finally find the dead body. The body of Ray Brower was discovered to be mangled by the train while attempting to escape the locomotive's path. Ace's gang arrives shortly after. During an argument, Chris pulls the gun on the gang and forces them to leave, but Ace promises reprisals. Tired, depressed and fearing retaliation, the boys decide there is nothing more to be done with the body and return home. Subsequently, one of the gang members reports the body as an anonymous tip, and the gang members severely beat all four boys. The four friends eventually drift apart, but Gordie and Chris remain close. Chris decides to prepare for higher education, and with Gordie's support, they both graduate from the University of Maine. In the present day, Gordie tells how he learned of Chris's death after he was fatally stabbed while trying to stop an argument in a restaurant, about the deaths of Vern and Teddy (in a house fire and car accident respectively), about his successful writing career, and about his recent visit to Castle Rock, where he found that Ace has become an alcoholic and a worker at the towns mill.

Publication

The Body was published in King's 1982 novellas collection Different Seasons . [1] It incorporates two earlier short stories by King: "Stud City" (published in Ubris in 1969) and "The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan" (published in The Maine Review in 1975).

Accusation of plagiarism

In Lisa Rogak's unauthorized biography Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King, a friend of King's, George McLeod, claimed that King had cribbed the idea for The Body from a short story McLeod had been working on, [2] but these claims are disputed by King. McLeod requested a portion of the royalties from The Body and Stand by Me ; King refused. McLeod sued, which ended their friendship. [2] Since then, King has refused his fans' requests to read their manuscripts for advice; King has explained that he is concerned that there may be further accusations of plagiarism. [3]

Adaptations

The Body was adapted into the 1986 film Stand by Me . [1] The screenplay, by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen King</span> American writer (born 1947)

Stephen Edwin King is an American author. Called the "King of Horror", he has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy and mystery. He has also written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections. His debut, Carrie (1974), established him in horror. Different Seasons (1982), a collection of four novellas, was his first major departure from the genre. Among the films adapted from King's fiction are Carrie, Christine, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Stand by Me, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and It. He has published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman and has co-written works with other authors, notably his friend Peter Straub and sons Joe Hill and Owen King. He has also written nonfiction, notably On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

<i>Hearts in Atlantis</i> 1999 short story collection by Stephen King

Hearts in Atlantis (1999) is a collection of two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King, all connected to one another by recurring characters and taking place in roughly chronological order. The stories are loosely autobiographical; in an author's note, King writes that while the places in the book are fictionalized, "Although it is difficult to believe, the sixties are not fictional; they actually happened."

<i>Four Past Midnight</i> Collection of novellas by Stephen King

Four Past Midnight is a collection of novellas written by Stephen King in 1988 and 1989 and published in August 1990. It is his second book of this type, the first one being Different Seasons. The collection won the Bram Stoker Award in 1990 for Best Collection and was nominated for a Locus Award in 1991. In the introduction, King says that, while a collection of four novellas like Different Seasons, this book is more strictly horror with elements of the supernatural.

<i>Stand by Me</i> (film) 1986 American coming-of-age film directed by Rob Reiner

Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on Stephen King's 1982 novella The Body, with the title deriving from the song of the same name by Ben E. King, the film is set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, in 1959, and stars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell, as four boys who go on a hike to find the dead body of a missing boy.

<i>Cujo</i> Novel by Stephen King

Cujo is a 1981 horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a rabid Saint Bernard. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982 and was made into a film in 1983.

<i>It</i> (novel) 1986 novel by Stephen King

It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his 22nd book and the 17th novel written under his own name. The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey. "It" primarily appears in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown to attract its preferred prey of young children.

<i>Pet Sematary</i> 1983 novel by Stephen King

Pet Sematary is a 1983 horror novel by American writer Stephen King. The novel was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984, and adapted into two films: one in 1989 and another in 2019. In November 2013, PS Publishing released Pet Sematary in a limited 30th-anniversary edition.

"Nona" is a short horror story by Stephen King, first published in the 1978 anthology Shadows and later collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Rock (Stephen King)</span> Part of Stephen Kings fictional Maine

Castle Rock is a fictional town appearing in Stephen King's fictional Maine topography, providing the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. Castle Rock first appeared in King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone and has since been referred to or used as the primary setting in many other works by King.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derry (Stephen King)</span> Fictional setting of the "It" universe

Derry is a fictional town in the U.S. state of Maine that has served as the setting for a number of Stephen King's novels, novellas, and short stories, notably It. Derry first appeared in King's 1981 short story "The Bird and the Album" and has reappeared as recently as his 2011 novel 11/22/63.

<i>Needful Things</i> Novel by Stephen King

Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.

<i>Thinner</i> (novel) 1984 novel by Stephen King as Richard Bachman

Thinner is a horror novel by American author Stephen King, published in 1984 by NAL under King's pseudonym Richard Bachman. The story centers on morbidly obese lawyer Billy Halleck, who, driving carelessly, kills an old Romani woman while she is crossing the street. He escapes legal punishment due to his connections, but the woman's 106-year-old father then curses Halleck to physically waste away, and the lawyer must find a way to undo the curse. King, who was overweight at the time of the novel's writing, created the novel’s outline following an annual medical examination.

Chuck Billy (<i>Chuck Billy n Folks</i>) Fictional character

Chuck Billy is the main character from Chuck Billy 'n' Folks, created by Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa. He is the biggest work of Mauricio after Monica and Friends, and he has his own cartoon magazine and even some VHS and DVD movies, following Monica's steps.

"Chattery Teeth" is a short story by American writer Stephen King. It was originally published in Cemetery Dance and was later collected in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

<i>Inferno</i> (1999 film) 1999 American action film

Inferno is a 1999 American action film directed by John G. Avildsen, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Danny Trejo, Pat Morita, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, and David "Shark" Fralick. This was the last film directed by Avildsen before his death in 2017.

<i>The Maine Campus</i>

The Maine Campus is a weekly newspaper produced by the students of the University of Maine in the United States. It covers university and Town of Orono events, and has four sections: News, Opinion, Culture and Sports. It serves the 20,000 students, faculty and staff of the university. Founded in 1875, it is one of the oldest surviving papers in Maine. Only The Bowdoin Orient, founded in 1871, The Bates Student, founded in 1873, and the Sun Journal, founded in 1847, are older.

Three Kings (<i>Family Guy</i>) 15th episode of the 7th season of Family Guy

"Three Kings", alternatively spelled "3 Kings", is the 15th episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on May 10, 2009. The episode is split into three segments, parodying films based on three Stephen King stories: Stand by Me, Misery and The Shawshank Redemption.

According to books by Tyson Blue, Stephen J. Spignesi, and Rocky Wood et al., there are numerous unpublished works by Stephen King that have come to light throughout King's career. These allegedly include novels and short stories, most of which remain unfinished. Most are stored among Stephen King's papers in the special collections of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, some of which are freely accessible to the library's visitors. However, others require King's permission to read. Additionally, there are a number of uncollected short stories, published throughout King's long career in various anthologies and periodicals, that have never been published in a King collection.

Lisa Rogak is an American author, primarily of biographies and other non-fiction books. She is also a freelance magazine writer.

Rockaway is an American 2017 drama directed and written by John J. Budion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Djurdjic, Marko (August 22, 2021). "With Friends Like These: Stand By Me at 35".
  2. 1 2 Hendrix, Grady (January 10, 2013). "The Great Stephen King Reread: Different Seasons". Tor.com . Retrieved August 9, 2021.
  3. Rogak, Lisa (January 5, 2010). Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King (First ed.). St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN   978-0-312-60350-2.