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The Stand
by Stephen King
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Doubleday (1978-10-03)
ISBN: 0385121687
EAN: 9780385121682
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Hardcover: 823 pages
Edition: 1st
Release Date: 1978-10-03
SKU: 42261
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: RED LEATHERETTE HARDBACK BOOK! THE UNABRIDGED EDITION, DOUBLEDAY, 1978, BOMC. RED HARDCOVER WITH GILT LETTERING AND PAGES ARE IN FINE CONDITION, LOOKS NEW. ON DUST JACKET AS ISSUED. RAPID SHIPPING W/FREE TRACKING, GREAT PACKAGING. Air Mail. PK,
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.
And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand, the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than 150,000 words had been cut from the original manuscript.
Now Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand : The Complete And Uncut Edition includes more than five hundred pages of material previously deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation. It gives us new characters and endows familiar ones with new depths. It has a new beginning and a new ending. What emerges is a gripping work with the scope and moral comlexity of a true epic.
For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are reading The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.
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Amazon.com Review
In 1978, science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a scathing review of The Stand in which he exhorted his readers to grab strangers in bookstores and beg them not to buy it. The Stand is like that. You either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it. Stephen King's most popular book, according to polls of his fans, is an end-of-the-world scenario: a rapidly mutating flu virus is accidentally released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out 99 and 44/100 percent of the world's population, thus setting the stage for an apocalyptic confrontation between Good and Evil. "I love to burn things up," King says. "It's the werewolf in me, I guess.... The Stand was particularly fulfilling, because there I got a chance to scrub the whole human race, and man, it was fun! ... Much of the compulsive, driven feeling I had while I worked on The Stand came from the vicarious thrill of imagining an entire entrenched social order destroyed in one stroke." There is much to admire in The Stand: the vivid thumbnail sketches with which King populates a whole landscape with dozens of believable characters; the deep sense of nostalgia for things left behind; the way it subverts our sense of reality by showing us a world we find familiar, then flipping it over to reveal the darkness underneath. Anyone who wants to know, or claims to know, the heart of the American experience needs to read this book. --Fiona Webster
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Customer Reviews
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An incredible read
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-01-08
Could not put it down once I picked it up. This story had me from the very beginning, and kept me with its incredible tale. I loved the struggle between good vs. evil, and the fight for post apocolypic earth.
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Dont Buy Used
Rating  (1)
Date: 2009-01-07
The title says it all. The product i recieved looked nothing like the pictures i was shown, and smelled like an attic. The pages of the book were torn, worn, and yellow. The description ofthe book said it was like new, perfect condition. Except it was not like new, it was like it was used for a game of catch right before being stored for 30-40 years in a rotting carboard box. Dont bu used from this site.
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Still the diamond in the King's crown
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-12-27
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I will start by saying that I read the edited version of this book many years ago--probably not too long before the uncut version appeared. I was mesmerized and, for me, took Mr. King from mainstream pop author to cult literary artiste. I have thought of rereading the author's chef d'oeuvre over the last couple of years and finally picked up the unedited version right after the Thanksgiving holidays.
Some broad strokes: I remember hanging on every word in the original published version and do not recall feeling there was one too many of them. The uncut edition, for me, had some "filler". Now whether this is because I'm almost twenty years older or due to Mr. K's "natural wordiness" I cannot say. What I knew to do this time, having read the edited version before, was speed read through some of the character's backgrounds (that I occasionally found to be a little excessive). That being said, the book's main plot, which culminates in a showdown between good and evil, is to be savored and relished.
I should also mention my tendency to have a love/hate relationship with the author--as can be seen in my reviews. With a couple of exceptions, his works rarely strike a middle chord with me. I've always felt that some of his "stuff" borders on genius and some of it borders on tripe. However, even with the "tripe" there is virtually always a nugget of gold to be mined. This may be one of the reasons Mr. King appeals to such a wide and diverse audience. There are always those occasional nuggets in those novels some may consider his lesser works which, to others, define the same as their "bread and butter".
Going back to the book at hand, it was cool revisiting some of the winners and losers whose immune systems allowed them to escape most people's fate--death. I'd forgotten how much I liked and disliked some. Tom Cullen, "laws yes", continues to be a delight--as do Nick, Glen, and Stu. I'd forgotten how self centered Franny and Larry come across. And those that I loved to hate included Trash and Lloyd. On the other hand, pure evil was demonstrated by Harold, Nadine, and Flagg himself.
The uncut version is of epic proportion. Is it worth the time investment? Yes. However, I feel that I got just as much out of the original edited version and, by recollection, it moved quite a bit faster. Again, this is Mr. King at his best--so you can't go wrong.
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King's Epic...can also be used as booster for small children...
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-11-24
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
No wonder there's a saying..."as scarce as clean paper in Stephen King's house." I know it's daunting, but worth every word. This timeless plot of good vs. evil rides again gallantly as King puts the characters through their paces. I read the edited version and then the uncut...well worth the extra pounds. (I tease) Again a King classic and, in my humble opinion, a classic on it's own merit.
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Stephen King's Greatest Novel
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-11-15
Dear God this is the perfect apocalyptic novel ever! There is everything in this book really: antichrist, disease, violence, and Stephen King takes the time to give background to all of the characters in this novel! Yeah it was long. It took me five months to finish it, but it is worth the time!
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