Nightmares and Dreamscapes [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen King (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 1, 1994

Wonderful...an illusionist extraordinaire, King peoples his fiction with believable characters. (Publishers Weekly)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many people who write about horror literature maintain that mood is its most important element. Stephen King disagrees: "My deeply held conviction is that story must be paramount.... All other considerations are secondary--theme, mood, even characterization and language."

These fine stories, each written in what King calls "a burst of faith, happiness, and optimism," prove his point. The theme, mood, characters, and language vary, but throughout, a sense of story reigns supreme. Nightmares & Dreamscapes contains 20 short tales--including several never before published--plus one teleplay, one poem, and one nonfiction piece about kids and baseball that appeared in the New Yorker. The subjects include vampires, zombies, an evil toy, man-eating frogs, the burial of a Cadillac, a disembodied finger, and a wicked stepfather. The style ranges from King's well-honed horror to a Ray Bradbury-like fantasy voice to an ambitious pastiche of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald. And like a compact disc with a bonus track, the book ends with a charming little tale not listed in the table of contents--a parable called "The Beggar and the Diamond." --Fiona Webster

From Publishers Weekly

King's cornucopia of short tales, each accompanied by an introduction from the author, was a 15-week PW bestseller.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: Signet; First Edition edition (September 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451180232
• ISBN-13: 978-0451180230
• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 1.6 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (129 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #942,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are the Dark Tower novels, Cell, From a Buick 8, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, and Bag of Bones. His acclaimed nonfiction book, On Writing, was also a bestseller. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#19 Overall (See top 100 authors)

#1 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

#5 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction

#9 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#10 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#1 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

#5 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

#6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction

#9 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#10 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Something For Everyone September 28, 2002

By sweetmolly

Format:Mass Market Paperback

At 692 pages, "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" is a doorstopper of a book. I planned to read it a story at a time over a period of weeks, but as usual got hooked on King and read it straight through, right from his usual folksy introduction (each of which I am sure he writes solely for me!) to the charming little moral folktale tacked on at the end. The stories are to say the least, diverse. I would call this collection "King's Scrapbook."

"Dolan's Cadillac" highly regarded by most Amazon reviewers is very hard tech for King. Interestingly, he says in his notes that technical stuff bores him, but it had to be done for this story. I have no more interest than he does in the proper "arc of descent;" I would have been just as mindlessly satisfied if he had shot the Cadillac out of a cannon, so it's not one of my favorites.

"Clattery Teeth" I just know SK had a hoot of a time writing it. He lovingly sets the scene and characters and then puts them at the mercy of a set of not-so-funny joke teeth (that wear spats). It's 80 degrees more grotesque than the "Young Frankenstein," and I felt guilty for laughing.

"The Moving Finger" Mr. Mitla is the perfectly normal man living a perfectly normal life when one morning he goes into his bathroom, and a finger is emerging from his bathroom sink drain and tapping on the porcelain. No one can see this finger except Mr. Mitla, and he slowly goes bonkers and his entire life is in a shambles. Unlike "Clattery Teeth" this one is terrifying. See for yourself.

"My Pretty Pony" though highly acclaimed, didn't much interest me UNTIL I read in Notes that the exquisitely sensitive little boy, Clive Banning, grew up to be a hardened killer in an unpublished Richard Bachman novel. We leave Clive at 7-years old in the Pony story.

"The House on Maple Street" delighted me because children are empowered and the bad guy gets his just desserts in a most explosive fashion. I was all-around satisfied.

"Umley's Last Case" is my favorite. SK takes a spin in Raymond Chandler land. He sets the scene meticulously and the characters are perfect. I was reminded of Nathaniel West's "Day of the Locust." Then things start going askew in a very King-like way. What if the author of P.I. books decided he liked the detective's life better than his own, and decided to swap places? What would happen? Would it be too far out if the detective who has never lived outside a book set in the 1930's had to spend a week toilet training himself? (Characters in hard-boiled novels never have to go to the bathroom.)

There are 20 stories in "Nightmares & Dreamscapes." It is not as brilliantly crafted as "Everything's Eventual" nor is it as well organized as "Skeleton Crew" and "Night Shift." I don't think many readers will like ALL of the stories, but there are such a variety, that most of the readers will like SOME of the stories, and some will like MOST of the stories. Chances are everyone will find one or two that will stay with them forever.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars King's stories provide both chills and grins September 11, 2003

By Beth Cholette #1 HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This collection of stories is typical King--you may not like every single one, but you're sure to find at least one that scares you and one that makes you laugh. My favorite was "Dolan's Cadillac," a chilling tale of painstakingly-plotted revenge. Also intriguing is "The 10 O'Clock People," a must-read for every smoker who has cut back but who just can't seem to quit completely. In "Sorry, Right Number," King tries something new by writing the story in screenplay fashion; the gimmick doesn't necessarily add anything, but the plot itself is engaging nonetheless. On the scary side, l found "Night Flier" to be extremely creepy--the final scene will definitely make you want to sleep with the lights on!--and for a more light-hearted offering, there's "Clattery Teeth." Each story here is likely to have its fans; you'll have to read them all to find your own favorite.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What is Stephen King taking? October 11, 1997

By Jorma Knowles ([e-mail])

Format:Paperback

An elementary school teacher leads her students down the hall and kills them, one by one. A tabloid photographer pursues a vampire with a private pilots license, finding a grisly horror in a small airport and meeting a modern Dracula. A single finger sticks out of a man's bathroom drain while he is watching a quiz show, triggering a life-destroying madness. The dead come alive and walk the shores of Maine, succesfully ending the world and sending isolated islanders into hostile terror. A couple gets lost in a dark end of London and find some very Lovecraftian terror. In Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes, it seems that reality and the macabre come together in what is almost a natural effect, blending horror, fantasy, and even non-fiction (in an essay about baseball called "Head Down") to make what may just be the perfect page entertainment. While some people insist that short stories and novellas are not as enjoyable as full-length novels, I find myself begging to differ. With short stories, you can begin them and sometimes finish them in a few minutes to an hour, engrossing yourself in and enjoying an entire tale in a fraction of the time it takes you to read a novel. They are easy to enjoy without having to allow the time for the reading of an entire book. And, perhaps most importantly, you can be entertained on an equal level with the best novels.
All these things only add to the power of King's collection, his fifth after "Night Shift," "Different Seasons," "Skeleton Crew," and "Four Past Midnight." His imagination, as usual, astounds, and, in many of the stories, scares the reader silly. And, as usual, he somehow still retains some sense of literary quality in the muddled pits of darkness and terror (and, more notably, Things That Go Bump In The Night). There is always something more beyond the night terrors and evil demons and unexplainable phenomena; for example, in a story called "The Moving Finger," King demonstrates his unique talent for showing a characters' descent into madness, something he has also emlployed in "Carrie" and "The Shining." In "The End of the Whole Mess," we see the narrator's thoughts as the world comes to an end and he is the brother of the man who caused it. In "Suffer the Little Children," King skillfully recounts the actions of an elementary school teacher who has always been confined by a belief in tough rules and strict punishments as she comes face to face with the fact that her mind, always centered in hard reality, is coming apart with the realization that her students may be unearthly beings with an evil intent (we never find out if the children are really the beings she thought they were or just the products of her madness).
All of this, and much more, shows us, in the end, that Stephen King is not confined by the constraints of his "brand name" (particularly, a horror novelist) and that he has, and will, write things that break through and go far beyond those constraints. For now, though, we can be content with these, and many more, stories, which are just as valid as any great American novel, and more enjoyable.