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Description edit see section history

Terrible events occur at an isolated hotel in the off season, when a small boy with psychic powers struggles to hold his own against the forces of evil that are driving his father insane.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Daniel Anthony Torrance: Danny is the young son of Jack and Wendy. He has strange supernatural powers that let him see things he doesn't understand. He absolutely loves his father and is strongly devoted to him.
  • John Daniel Torrance: John Daniel "Jack" Torrance is a recovering alcoholic who lost his teaching job due to beating a student for slashing his car's tires. Jack has a certain arrogance and stubbornness about him, he does not like being under authority and often compromises himself or his job by retaliating to it. He takes his family to the hotel, but is driven by the hotel and its spirits to drink. Jack goes mad and attempts to kill Wendy, Danny and Dick Hallorann with a roque mallet. At the end of the novel, Jack's love for his son allows him to redeem himself, and his body is incinerated in the Overlook Hotel's explosion.
  • Wendy Torrance: Wendy is Jack's wife and Danny's mother. She is a strong woman who sticks up for herself and is very protective of her son. She stayed by Jack through rough years, and though he has gotten better, she still worries about both him and her son who can see strange things.
  • Dick Hallorann: Dick is the chef of the Overlook. He also has the shining, but not nearly as strongly as Danny has it. He tries to warn Danny about the dangers of the hotel and is genuinely worried about him. He is a geniunely good guy and means the best for all. He is also in It by Stephen King
  • Horace Derwent: Horace "Harry" Derwent was a self-made millionaire and former owner of the Overlook Hotel. He is responsible for much of the Overlook's notorious history. Derwent purchased the Overlook sometime in the early 1940s and invested over one million dollars into its renovation before the grand opening on August 29, 1945, which Derwent celebrated by hosting a lavish masked ball. He appears to Jack in the Colorado Lounge as one of the apparitions at the ball. However, unlike Lloyd the bartender, and Grady the caretaker, Derwent does not actually interact with Jack.
  • Mr. Stuart Ullman: The current manager of The Overlook hotel, he loves his job with all his heart, and would do anything in the interest of The Overlook. After giving a not-so-warm welcome to Jack, the new maintenance man, he heads off to his other hotel in Florida, where he spends the off season, hoping that he's leaving his pride and joy in good hands, but not altogether sure. Mr. Ullman is very professional, but easily provoked into anger when things don't go quite how he planned them.
  • Tony: Tony is Danny's "imaginary friend" who tells him the future.
  • George Hatfield: George Hatfield was one of Jack's students when he used to teach. He had decided to be a lawyer, like his father, so he joined Jack's debate team. Although popular and a well-rounded student, his only problem, which had never surfaced before, was that he stuttered, no matter how much he denied it. During one debate, he suspected Jack of cutting his time short. Angry, he slashed Jack's tires, and, in his rage, Jack beat him, nearly killing him. This memory haunted Jack for the rest of his life.
  • Robert Townley Watson: Watson is the maintenance man that stays at The Overlook hotel during the season. He teaches Jack how to keep the boiler up and running, and warns him to check multiple times every day, or it will blow. Watson loves to complain, and makes himself out to be less than intelligent, swearing frequently, but he probably knows more about the history of the hotel than almost anyone. He is one of the last people to leave at the end of the season, leaving Jack in charge.
  • Bill Edmonds: Dr. Edmonds is a local doctor who cares for Danny during his residence at the Overlook hotel.
  • Delbert Grady: Grady was the previous caretaker of The Overlook hotel. He is best known for the fact that he went insane during the long hours enclosed in the confines of the hotel. He murdered his two daughters and his wife with an ax before taking his own life. Later, he appears to Jack in the form of a ghost at the party. He convinces him that he can rank highly with "the manager" if he "punished" his son and wife, meaning that he should kill Danny and Wendy. Also, he frees Jack from the pantry when Danny and Wendy lock him inside for his own safety and theirs.
  • Roger Macassi: A past guest of the Overlook
  • Arthur Longley Shockley: Al Shockley is a good friend of Jack's, and the one who gets him his job at The Overlook.
  • Mr. Stenger: He taught Math at the same school that Jack taught English. Their sons went to the same nursery school. He had a nervous breakdown.
  • Mrs. Brant: A woman checking out of the Overlook Hotel giving the clerk a hard time about her credit card.
  • Gary Benson: A character in Jack's play he was writing. He was a student and hero.
  • Brett: Jack's brother who joined the Army. He was killed in Dong Ho province in 1965.
  • Vittorio Gienelli: He was a mobster called, "Vito the Chopper".
  • Frank Masterton: Florida friend of Mr. Hollorann
  • Scotty Aaronson: Friend of Danny, from Maine
  • Charles Grondin: He was a member The California Investors who bought the Overlook Hotel in 1952.
  • Tom Staunton: He was the tenant above Jack's family who abused his girlfriend whenever he could.
  • Mciver: A lawyer who wrote Dick's Will while he was at his Florida home for the winter season.
  • Howard Cottrell: Snow Plow driver
  • Lloyd: Lloyd is the imaginary bartender at the counter who Jack begins to see as he slowly loses his sanity. He imagines that Lloyd is a good listener, who makes good drinks and loves to please his customers.
  • Mike: Jack's brother.
  • Benjamin Moorer: Add a description of this character.
  • Peter Zeiss
  • Becky
  • Samuel Johnson
  • Doc Torrance
  • Warren G. Harding
  • Prashkin
  • Delores Vickery: A maid at the Overlook hotel
  • Mr. Queems
  • Momma
  • Albert Shockley: Alcoholic buddy of male lead, Jack Torrance. Also teacher at Stovington school. Enables job at Outlook Hotel for Jack.
  • Sylvia Hunter Derwent
  • Denker
  • Lyons
  • Sister Beatrice
  • Little Margery Morris
  • Mr. Watson
  • Scott
  • Paul DeLong
  • Winnifred Torrence: Mother to Danny "Doc," wife to Jack, and lead female in story.
  • Robin Stenger
  • Monkey DeLong
  • Phyllis Sandler
  • Mr. Crommert
  • Harry Derwent
  • Sally
  • Strauss
  • Mark Anthony Torrance
  • Lou
  • Nixon
  • Aileen
  • Josh Brannigar
  • Dad
  • Carlton Vecker
  • Larry Durkin
  • Mrs. Massey
  • Bluebeard
  • Mr. Hall
  • Dick Hallorann
  • Carl
Show all 66 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Any big hotels have got scandals,' he said. 'Just like every big hotel has got a ghost. Why? Hell, people come and go.”
  • “A stupid man is more prone to cabin fever just as he's more prone to shoot someone over a card game or commit a spur-of-the-moment robbery. He gets bored. When the snow comes and there's nothing to do but watch TV or play solitaire and cheat when he can't get all the aces out. Nothing to do but bitch at his wife and nag at the kids and drink.”
  • “Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters.”
  • “"During our first winter I hired a family instead of a single man. There was tragedy. A horrible tragedy."”
  • “He murdered his little girls with a hatchet, his wife with a shotgun, and himself the same way"”
  • “Let's end with a very easy one: "REDRUM".”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Inside its shell the three of them went about their early evening routine, like microbes trapped in the intestine of a monster.
    Highlighted by 37 Kindle customers
  • “—kill him. You have to kill him, Jacky, and her, too. Because a real artist must suffer. Because each man kills the thing he loves. Because they’ll always be conspiring against you, trying to hold you back and drag you down.
    Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers
  • (This inhuman place makes human monsters. This inhuman place)
    Highlighted by 32 Kindle customers
  • In extreme cases it can result in hallucinations and violence—murder has been done over such minor things as a burned meal or an argument about whose turn it is to do the dishes.”
    Highlighted by 30 Kindle customers
  • He wasn’t sure it was good for either his wife or his son or himself. Maybe that was why he had called Ullman. To be fired while there was still time.
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • “All right, George. If that’s how you want it, just come here and take your medicine.”
    Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers
  • (The arguments against insanity fall through with a soft shurring sound / layer on layer . . .)
    Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers
  • And suddenly he found that he didn’t like the Overlook so well anymore, as if it wasn’t wasps that had stung his son, wasps that had miraculously lived through the bug bomb assault, but the hotel itself.
    Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers
  • It was ten o’clock. Their quarters were filled with counterfeit sleep.
    Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers
  • (The Red Death held sway over all!) He frowned. What left field had that come out of? That was Poe, the Great American Hack.
    Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers
Show all 16 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Show all 17 settings

First Sentence edit see section history

Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.

Table of Contents edit see section history

I. Part One: Prefatory Matters

1. Job Interview
2 .Boulder
3. Watson
4. Shadowland
5. Phonebooth
6. Night Thoughts
7. In Another Bedroom

II. Part Two: Closing Day

8. A View of the Overlook
9. Checking It Out
10. Hallorann
11. The Shining
12. The Grand Tour
13. The Front Porch

III. Part Three: The Wasps' Nest

14. Up On the Roof
15. Down in the Front Yard
16. Danny
17. The Doctor's Office
18. The Scrapbook
19. Outside 217
20. Talking to Mr. Ullman
21. Night Thoughts
22. In the Truck
23. In the Playground.
24. Snow
25. Inside 217

IV. Part Four: Snowbound

26. Dreamland
27. Catatonic
28. "It was Her!"
29. Kitchen Talk
30. 217 Revisited
31. The Verdict
32. The Bedroom
33. The Snowmobile
34. The Hedges
35. The Lobby
36. The Elevator
37. The Ballroom

V. Part Five: Matters of Life and Death

38. Florida
39. On the Stairs
40. In the Basement
41. Daylight
42. Mid-Air
43. Drinks on the House
44. Conversations at the Party
45. Stapleton Airport, Denver
46. Wendy
47. Danny
48. Jack
49. Hallorann, Going up the Country
50. REDRUM
51. Hallorann Arrives
52. Wendy and Jack
53. Hallorann Laid Low
54. Tony
55. That Which was Forgotten
56. The Explosion
57. Exit
58. Epilogue/ Summer

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 165 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 312 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 77 of 199 in Newman and Jones 200 Best Horror Novels. (community list)
This book is in Ghosts. (community list)
This is book 169 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This book is in 100 Fantabulous Book Challenge. (community list)
This is book 173 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 7 of 99 in NPR's Top 100 Killer Thriller. (community list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 172 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in Filmed By Stanley Kubrick. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Stephen King (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. Betty Ramos de Albuquerque (Translator)
  2. Harro Christensen (Translator) - (German)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: United States
Publication Date: January, 1977
ISBN: 0743424425
Page Count: 679

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PZ4.K5227 Sh PS3561.I483
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Has some violence and descriptions of said violence, as well as some language.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Stand
  • APPARITIONS
  • Beneath The Surface
  • Midnight in New England: Strange and Mysterious Tales
  • The Shadow House
  • Queen of Blood
  • The Ghost of Colby Drive

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Haunting of Hill House
  • THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL MAUPASSANT SHORT STORIES
  • The Masque of The Red Death
  • The Fall of the House of Usher

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Lunar Park

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