| "The Night of the Tiger" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Horror short story | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction | ||
| Publisher | Spilogale, Inc. | ||
| Media type | |||
| Publication date | 1978 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"The Night of the Tiger" is a short story by Stephen King. Originally written in the 1960s, it was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in February 1978.
The story is narrated by Eddie Johnston of Sauk City, who impulsively joins Farnum & Williams' All-American 3-Ring Circus and Side Show as a roustabout. Johnston enjoys circus life, but fears Mr. Indrasil, the fiery tempered lion tamer, who is rumored to have only nearly killed a roustabout who angered him. Mr. Indrasil in turn fears the circus' tiger, Green Terror, who once attacked him, leaving a scar on the back of his neck.
One night in Steubenville, Mr. Indrasil berates Johnston for not cleaning a cage properly. After Johnston protests, Mr. Indrasil attempts to hit him, but is stopped by a stranger, Mr. Legere. Later, other members of the circus tell Johnston that Mr. Legere has followed the circus from the Midwest to Little Rock nearly every year for the past two decades, and that he shares an unknown past with Mr. Indrasil. Mr Legere attends every performance by the circus, always standing next to Green Terror's cage.
During the following days, the circus experiences a heat wave, heightening tensions. On one night, Johnston witnesses Mr. Indrasil baiting Green Terror by jabbing him with a pike until being frightened away by a mysterious green-eyed shadow.
Events reach a climax in Wildwood Green, Oklahoma. Mr. Indrasil's act goes poorly after Green Terror roars at an inopportune time, resulting in one of the lions attempting to attack Mr. Indrasil. The evening performance is cancelled after the United States Weather Bureau issues a tornado warning. Johnston struggles to put Green Terror in his wagon; after he approaches Mr. Indrasil for help, a drunken and crazed Mr. Indrasil threatens him, saying he has no "juju" or "grisgris" to protect him, then begins rambling about his "nemesis", who he claims turned Green Terror against him and who "always had the power more'n me". After Green Terror begins roaring, Mr. Indrasil approaches the tiger's cage, where he is confronted by Mr. Legere. Mr. Legere releases Green Terror from his cage, and both men seemingly attempt to command the tiger using their willpower. Mr. Legere ultimately prevails; as the tiger advances on Mr. Indrasil, Johnston sees him fold-in on himself. As Johnston watches, he is lifted off his feet by the tornado and knocked unconscious.
When Johnston awakens, he learns that there is no sign of Mr. Indrasil or Mr. Legere, but Green Terror and another unknown tiger have fought one another to death. Johnston is told by a witness to the fight that the second tiger had a long scar on the back of its neck, implying it was a shapeshifted Mr. Indrasil. [1] [2] [3] [4]
King wrote "The Night of the Tiger" in 1963 at the age of 16, being inspired by an episode of The Fugitive . He submitted the story to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and received a handwritten rejection note saying "This is good. Not for us, but good. You have talent. Submit again." In the 1970s, King found "The Night of the Tiger" in a box of manuscripts, rewrote it, and resubmitted it; this time, the story was accepted. [2] [5] "The Night of the Tiger" was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in February 1978. [6] [7] It was reprinted in the anthologies More Tales of Unknown Horror (1979), The Year's Best Horror Stories (1979), The Third Book of Unknown Tales of Horror (1980), Chamber of Horrors (1984), The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1988), Horrorstory, Volume Three (1992), Tails of Wonder and Imagination (2010), and Midnight Under the Big Top (2020). [3] [7]
Tyson Blue described "The Night of the Tiger" as "enjoyable" [8] but noted "the ultimately unsatisfying nature of the story, with its plethora of unresolved loose ends and plot inconsistencies." [3] James Van Hise judged it to be "one of King's lesser stories although it contains some interesting ideas". [9] Michael R. Collings remarked that "the story is too allusive" and that "too much is missing". [3] Rocky Wood described the story as "unsatisfying and inconclusive". [3] Introducing the story in Tails of Wonder and Imagination, Ellen Datlow suggested that the story "has a Ray Bradbury feel to it, but with a harder edge." [10] Revisiting the story, King himself judged it to be "a perfectly respectable tale, albeit one obviously written by a guy who had only begun to learn his chops". [5]
Dan Simmons is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Simmons's genre-intermingling Song of Kali (1985) won the World Fantasy Award. He also writes mysteries and thrillers, some of which feature the continuing character Joe Kurtz.
Horror is a genre of fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten or scare. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which are in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society.
Peter Francis Straub was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award.
"Quitters, Inc." is a short story by Stephen King published as part of his 1978 short story collection Night Shift. Unlike most other stories in this book, "Quitters, Inc." had been previously unpublished until February 1978 under Doubleday Publishing. It was featured in Edward D. Hoch's 1979 ‘Best detective stories of the year’ collection. The plot follows Dick Morrison's discovery of the brutal enforcement methods used by Quitters, Inc., the firm which he enlists to aid him quit smoking. Like much of Stephen King's work, this short story exhibits elements of horror fiction and satire. The tale was adapted in the 1985 American anthology horror film Cat’s Eye.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Ellen Datlow is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award.
"The Reploids" is a science fiction short story by American writer Stephen King. It was first published in the 1988 book Night Visions 5.
Elizabeth Spilman Massie is an American author. She lives outside Waynesboro, Virginia with illustrator Cortney Skinner.
Mythago Wood is a fantasy novel by British writer Robert Holdstock, published in the United Kingdom in 1984. Mythago Wood is set in Herefordshire, England, in and around a stand of ancient woodland, known as Ryhope Wood. The story involves the internally estranged members of the Huxley family, particularly Stephen Huxley, and his experiences with the enigmatic forest and its magical inhabitants. The conception began as a short story written for the 1979 Milford Writer's Workshop; a novella of the same name appeared in the September 1981 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Joseph Hillström King, better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.
Reggie Oliver is an English playwright, biographer and writer of ghost stories.
A masked villain, also seen as masked mystery villain, is a stock character in genre fiction. It was developed and popularized in movie serials, beginning with The Hooded Terror in The House of Hate, (1918) the first fully-costumed mystery villain of the movies, and frequently used in the adventure stories of pulp magazines and sound-era movie serials in the early twentieth century, as well as postmodern horror films where the character "hides in order to claim unsuspecting victims". They can also appear in crime fiction to add to the atmosphere of suspense and suspicion. It is used to engage the readers or viewers by keeping them guessing just as the characters are, and suspension by drawing on the fear of the unknown. The "Mask" need not be literal, referring more to the subterfuge involved.
Kaaron Warren is an Australian author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy short stories and novels.
Gregory Frost is an American author of science fiction and fantasy, and directs a fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. A graduate of the Clarion Workshop, he has been invited back as instructor several times, including the first session following its move to the University of California at San Diego in 2007. He is also active in the Interstitial Arts Foundation.
Angela Slatter is a writer based in Brisbane, Australia. Primarily working in the field of speculative fiction, she has focused on short stories since deciding to pursue writing in 2005, when she undertook a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing. Since then she has written a number of short stories, many of which were included in her two compilations, Sourdough and Other Stories (2010) and The Girl With No Hands and other tales (2010).
Exotic Gothic is an anthology series of original short fiction and novel excerpts in the gothic, horror and fantasy genres. A recipient of the World Fantasy Award and Shirley Jackson Awards, it is conceptualized and edited by Danel Olson, a professor of English at Lone Star College in Texas.
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural is an anthology of horror stories edited by Ellen Datlow. It was published by Tor Books in December 2007. The anthology itself won the 2008 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.
Centipede Press is an American independent book and periodical publisher focusing on horror, weird tales, crime narratives, science fiction, gothic novels, fantasy art, and studies of literature, music and film. Its earliest imprints were Cocytus Press and Millipede Press.
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Five (ISBN 978-1-59780-475-2) is a horror fiction anthology edited by Ellen Datlow that was published in August 2013. It is the fifth volume in The Best Horror of the Year series.
"I Was a Teenage Grave Robber" is a short story by Stephen King. It was first published in the fanzine Comics Review in 1965; a rewritten version was published in 1966 under the title "In a Half-World of Terror". It was King's first independently published story.
