The Man in the Black Suit is a short story by the American writer Stephen King , written in 1994 . The Man in the Black Suit was first published in the New Yorker Magazine. In 1995, the story entered the eighth edition of the anthology Years Best Horror Stories . In 1997, the story was published in the author’s collection of Six Stories , which was released in a limited edition, and in 2002, the story was included in the collection “ Everything is Ultimate ”.
| Man in a black suit | |
|---|---|
| The man in the black suit | |
| Genre | story |
| Author | Stephen king |
| Original language | English |
| Date of writing | 1994 |
| Date of first publication | 1994 |
In 1995, “The Man in the Black Suit” won the “ World Fantasy Award ” in the nomination “Best Fantastic Story” and won the O. Henry Prize in the nomination “Best Story of the Year Published in the Magazine”. [one]
In the afterword to the story published in the anthology, “ Everything is Ultimate, ” King says that with his story he salutes Nathaniel Hawthorne and his story, Young Goodman Brown . [2]
The story "A Man in a Black Suit" is written as a diary of an elderly man who tells of his meeting with the devil in 1914 near the town of Castle Rock . [one]
Content
Story
The story begins with the fact that the main character of the work, a ninety-year-old man named Gary, in his diary sets out the reasons why, after eighty years of silence, he decides to tell about the incident that happened to him in 1914 . After that, he begins the story of those events.
On a summer Saturday afternoon in 1914, nine-year-old Gary, after completing household chores, went fishing in Castle Stream, a stream rich in trout . Catching several fish, Gary dozed off, and soon he woke up and saw a tall man with a pale face, dressed in a black three-piece suit. Gary immediately realized that the man was the Devil, he had orange-red eyes and smelled of burning matches. A man in a black suit greeted the boy and went up to him, leaving no traces on the ground. At first, the man began to laugh at the boy, because he urinated on seeing him, and then said that Gary's mother died, like his brother Dan from a bee sting. Despite all the stranger's beliefs, Gary refused to believe it. Suddenly, a man in a black suit said he was hungry and was about to eat a boy. Gary, unexpectedly for himself, handed him the freshly caught fish, which the stranger began to devour eagerly. When this terrible man finished his meal, he burst into tears of bloody tears. Seeing this, Gary jumped to his feet and rushed off.
On the way home, Gary met his father and told him about meeting a stranger and that he had reported the death of Gary's mother. Gary's father assured him that his mother was alive, and he dreamed of a man in a black suit. They returned home together, and Gary saw his mother alive. Gary's father decided to return for the basket and son’s fishing rod left on the riverbank. After some hesitation, Gary went with him, grabbing the family Bible . They found that on the spot where a man in a black suit stood, the grass was scorched and smelt of sulfur from it. Father and son decided not to tell their mother.
At the end of his story, the old man wonders what will happen if the devil appears to him again, and what will happen if the devil is hungry, because he no longer has trout ...
Creation History
Stephen King says that he once heard a story from his friend: it was as if the grandfather of the latter, in his youth, at the very beginning of the twentieth century, met a man with blood-red eyes that smelled of sulfur , and managed to escape from him. This story was the basis of the story "A Man in a Black Suit." According to King, this story was not written too merrily, and he was very skeptical about the final result of his work, however, to his surprise, the story was not only published, but also received several awards, and readers' feedback was positive. [2]
Actors
- Gary is the main character of the story.
- Dan is Gary's older brother, who died in 1913 from anaphylactic shock caused by a bee sting , a few months before the events described in the story.
- Loretta is the wife of Albion and the mother of Gary and Dan.
- Albion is Loretta's husband and father of Gary and Dan.
- A man in a black suit is the devil who has assumed the guise of a man.
- Helen Robichod (Mama Sweet) is the oldest woman from a methodological church charity.
- Candy Bill is a terrier owned by Gary.
Rewards
- World Fantasy Award : 1995
- O. Henry Prize : 1995
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Story on horrorking.com
- ↑ 1 2 Stephen King . “ Everything is Ultimate ” = “Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales”. - Moscow: AST, 2006. - P. 97. - 668 p. - 3500 copies. - ISBN 5-17-018833-1 .
Links
- Story on horrorking.com