Stephen King is a bestselling novelist who made his name in the horror and fantasy genres. By the early 1990s King’s books had sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, and his name had become synonymous with the genre of horror fiction. His short fiction was collected in such volumes as Night Shift, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Hearts in Atlantis, Just After Sunset, and The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. He also wrote several motion-picture screenplays. In The Dark Half, under his own name, Beaumont, a professor of English at a university in Maine, has written two critically esteemed literary novels, one of which was nominated for the National Book Award. These novels are caviar to the general, however, and when they failed commercially, Beaumont turned to write crime novels, full of graphic violence, featuring a character named Alexis Machine. These books, published under the pen name of George Stark, have been immensely popular, but Beaumont feels uneasy about them and finally comes out of the closet to admit that he is really George Stark. He will write no more Stark novels, he says. At this point, People magazine persuades a reluctant Thad to agree to the staging of a mock funeral for Stark, with the epitaph, “Not a Very Nice Guy.” Shortly thereafter, a neighbour of Beaumont is found murdered, brutally beaten to death with his own artificial arm… You can listen online to free English audiobook “The Dark Half” by Stephen King on our website.
