Magistrale, Tony Books

Hollywood's Stephen King

Tony Magistrale

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At first glance I thought this might be tiresome because it is literary/cinema criticism and I was immediately transported back to a college English class. Surprise, I couldn't put it down! Stephen King is a genius. Tony Magistrael has made a career of studying horror with an emphasis on Stephen King's writings and film adaptations of his work. You can't help but appreciate King's craftsmanship and the volume and variety of his work. Magistrael's enthusiasm makes me think reading books I've avoided because I thought they would scare the crap out of me, might really be fun after all. I'm buying Misery today. And then, I'll watch the movie.

Editorial Review:

For the past three decades, Hollywood has faithfully adapted much of Stephen King's fiction into film. Of the many major films that have been made, not one has lost money. Part of this may be explained in terms of King's own popularity in American culture; he has been, after all, a best-selling writer since the late 1970s. But more interesting is what this cinematic fascination reveals about postmodern American culture. In the first overview of Hollywood's major cinematic interpretations of Stephen King, Tony Magistrale examines the various thematic, narrative, and character interconnections that highlight the relationships among his films. Opening with a revealing interview with Stephen King, the book takes us through chapters that explore such popular films as Stand By Me, Misery, The Shining, The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption among others.

The Dark Descent: Essays Defining Stephen King's Horrorscape (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy)

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Editorial Review:

Surely one of America's most popular novelists, Stephen King has only recently begun to receive serious attention from scholars and literary critics. The Dark Descent assembles fifteen illuminating original essays that consider King from a variety of intellectual orientations, addressing the major novels and central thematic concerns that represent King's contributions to American letters and elevating King scholarship to a new level of critical discourse. This volume places King firmly within the canon of contemporary American fiction. The essayists are concerned with explicating the meanings of individual narratives and creating critical contexts for their interpretion. While covering a broad range of his works and using multiple theoretical approaches--including reader-response, mythic, psychoanalytic, and structuralist criticism--to offer insights into King's fiction, most of the essayists reflect on one of two central theses: that King's body of literature may be seen as having been deeply influenced by the mainstream traditions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European fictions, and that the narratives may be read as profound commentary on the major political and social tensions shaping contemporary American life. King's supernatural horrors reflect actual horrors, and his compelling style makes art out of horror fiction. A King chronology, bibliography and an expository introduction flank the analytical essays.

A Dark Night's Dreaming: Contemporary American Horror Fiction (Understanding Contemporary American Literature)

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Editorial Review:

Like a number of other writers, Tony Magistrale and Michael A. Morrison are inclined to use the word gothic more or less interchangeably with horror. In their well-written introduction to this anthology of critical essays they point out differences between the gothic works of the period they're covering (1970 to about 1995) and the 18th-century gothics: the physical trappings of tunnels, staircases, enclosed spaces, if present at all, are only symbols for the psychological environment of people who fear social and/or personal disintegration; the female victim is now often the hero as well, and calls on her own resources to vanquish the monster; and the image of the monster is more human than it used to be, more of a dark reflection of ourselves.

A Dark Night's Dreaming collects eight essays by well-known horror critics such as Douglas E. Winter (author of Stephen King: The Art of Darkness). The first essay is on the nature and archetypes of "horror at the end of the century" (picking up in 1980, where Stephen King's Danse Macabre leaves off). One essay each is devoted to the authors Thomas Harris, Stephen King, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, William Peter Blatty, and Whitley Strieber. The last essay is on the interplay between horror fiction and film. Included is an excellent 13-page bibliography of primary (emphasizing fiction in the years 1988-94) and secondary sources.

Note: the dust jacket features a good color reproduction of William Blake's The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, known to readers of Thomas Harris's Red Dragon as the painting that serial killer Francis Dolarhyde is obsessed with--and which also gives the novel its title. --Fiona Webster

Landscape of Fear: Stephen King's American Gothic

Tony Magistrale

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Editorial Review:

One of the very first books to take Stephen King seriously, Landscape of Fear (originally published in 1988) reveals the source of King's horror in the sociopolitical anxieties of the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era. In this groundbreaking study, Tony Magistrale shows how King's fiction transcends the escapism typical of its genre to tap into our deepest cultural fears: "that the government we have installed through the democratic process is not only corrupt but actively pursuing our destruction, that our technologies have progressed to the point at which the individual has now become expendable, and that our fundamental social institutions-school, marriage, workplace, and the church-have, beneath their veneers of respectability, evolved into perverse manifestations of narcissism, greed, and violence."
Tracing King's moralist vision to the likes of Twain, Hawthorne, and Melville, Landscape of Fear establishes the place of this popular writer within the grand tradition of American literature. Like his literary forbears, King gives us characters that have the capacity to make ethical choices in an imperfect, often evil world. Yet he inscribes that conflict within unmistakably modern settings. From the industrial nightmare of "Graveyard Shift" to the breakdown of the domestic sphere in The Shining, from the techno-horrors of The Stand to the religious fanaticism and adolescent cruelty depicted in Carrie, Magistrale charts the contours of King's fictional landscape in its first decade.

Abject Terrors: Surveying the Modern And Postmodern Horror Film

Tony Magistrale

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Editorial Review:

Abject Terrors is an expansive study of the most significant films from the prolific horror genre—from its origins in the 1920s and 1930s, to its contemporary representations. This survey brings together close analyses of individual motion pictures, demonstrating the interconnections among these filmic texts and their contribution to defining quintessential aspects of the modern and postmodern horror film.

Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: (Student Companions to Classic Writers)

Tony Magistrale

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Editorial Review:

The contributions of Edgar Allan Poe have withstood the test of time; his best poems and fiction are more popular and carry greater significance now than they did during his own era. This highly readable introduction to the life, times, and major works of Poe offers fresh interpretations of timeless masterpieces like "The Raven" and "The Purloined Letter." Carefully considering important thematic elements as well as genre, this book organizes the works of Poe into four significant groupings: the poetry, Vampiric love stories, tales of psychological terror, and the detective stories. Close readings are given for a selection of the most important works that represent Poe's canon of writings, including the chilling "Tell Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat." This introductory study to Edgar Allan Poe begins with a concise biographical chapter that explores Poe's troubled experiences. The Literary Heritage chapter chronicles Poe's influence on other writers, artists, and filmmakers who followed. This work examines the major poems from Poe's canon, with special attention to those works that are most often taught and anthologized. Poe's most famous tales of terror and revenge are juxtaposed because they all revolve around murders and the elements of terror associated with the act of killing. Likewise, his "love stories" are brought together in a chapter that deals with vampirisim and gender. The final chapter, The Origins of the Detective Tale, examines Poe's tales of ratiocination, and traces the evolution of many popular culture super sleuths to Poe's Dupin. A selective bibliography of biographical and critical works on Poe, including contemporary reviews, completes this thorough volume. Students, general readers, and fans of all things Gothic will enjoy the fascinating insights this volume offers.

NECROFILE: THE REVIEW OF HORROR FICTION: ISSUE #3 WINTER 1992

S. T. Joshi and Michael A. Morrison] [Tony Magistrale, Michael A. Morrison, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Douglas E. Winter, Rob Latham, Brian Stableford, Ramsey Campbell, et al] (Necrofile: The Review of Horror Fiction) [edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz

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Poe's Children: Connections between Tales of Terror and Detection

Tony Magistrale, Sidney Poger

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Editorial Review:

This study traces Edgar Allan Poe's contribution to the Gothic tradition and his invention of the detective tale. It explores the connections between these genres in British and American writers influenced by Poe, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Harris, and Stephen King. This book also examines women writers strongly influenced by Poe, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, and Sue Grafton. The last chapter of the volume considers films--in particular, the Roger Corman Poe series, Chinatown, Seven, and Blade Runner--that connect the horror and detective genres.

Poe's Children: Connections between Tales of Terror and Detection

Tony Magistrale, Sidney Poger

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Editorial Review:

This study traces Edgar Allan Poe's contribution to the Gothic tradition and his invention of the detective tale. It explores the connections between these genres in British and American writers influenced by Poe, such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Harris, and Stephen King. This book also examines women writers strongly influenced by Poe, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, and Sue Grafton. The last chapter of the volume considers films--in particular, the Roger Corman Poe series, Chinatown, Seven, and Blade Runner--that connect the horror and detective genres.