 First edition cover | |
| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Horror/Fantasy |
| Publisher | Viking |
Publication date | June 1995 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 420 |
| ISBN | 978-0-670-85869-9 |
Rose Madder is a Horror/Fantasy novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1995. It deals with the effects of domestic violence (which King had touched upon before in the novels It, Insomnia, Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, and many others) and, unusually for a King novel, relies for its fantastic element on Greek mythology. In his memoir, On Writing, King states that Rose Madder and Insomnia are "stiff, trying-too-hard novels."
Plot[]
In 1985, Rose Daniels' husband, Norman, beats her while she is four months pregnant, causing her to miscarry. Rose considers leaving Norman but dismisses the idea: Norman is a policeman, and is excellent at finding people. Norman also has a violent temper and was recently accused of assaulting a black woman named Wendy Yarrow. The subsequent lawsuit and Internal Affairs investigation has made him even more volatile.
Nine years later, when Rose is making the bed, she sees a drop of blood on the sheet that dripped from her nose the night before; Norman had punched her in the face for spilling iced tea on him. Rose realizes that she has passively suffered through Norman's abuse for 14 years and that if she continues to put up with it, he will eventually kill her. Rose departs on a bus with their bank card. Once Norman realizes that Rose is gone, he resolves to hunt her down and kill her.
Rose arrives in a Midwestern city, disoriented and afraid. She uses her maiden name Rosie McClendon because she no longer wants to be associated with Norman. At the bus station, she meets a man named Peter Slowik, who guides her to a women's shelter called Daughters and Sisters. There, she quickly makes several friends and, with the help of shelter director Anna Stevenson, gets an apartment and a job as a hotel housekeeper.
Rose tries to pawn her engagement ring, only to learn that it is cubic zirconia. She seees a painting of a woman in a rose madder gown and immediately falls in love with it. She trades her ring for the painting, which has no signature. Bill Steiner, the owner of the pawnshop, asks her for a date. Rose falls in love with him, but she is afraid to begin a new relationship.
Rose discovers that the painting seems to change from time to time. Eventually she is able to travel through it. On the other side, she encounters a woman called Dorcas, who resembles Wendy Yarrow. She also sees the woman in the rose-madder gown, whom she calls "Rose Madder" because of her gown and her evident madness. Rose Madder asks Rose to rescue her baby from an underground labyrinth inhabited by a blind, one-eyed bull called Erinyes who orients by his sense of smell.
Dorcas leads Rose to the edge of the temple grounds. Dorcas cannot enter the labyrinth, as she is afflicted by the same mysterious illness as her mistress, and Erinyes would be able to smell her. Before Rose parts from Dorcas, she is made to strip naked and rip her nightgown into several strips. One is soaked in Dorcas' blood and tied around a rock. Rose enters the temple, where she manages to save the child, escape Erinyes, and return the baby girl to Rose Madder, who promises to repay her. Rose returns to her world and puts the strange incident at the back of her mind.
Norman arrives in the town where Rose now lives. He attacks some of Rose's friends from Daughters and Sisters, and then goes to Rose's apartment. Norman kills the policemen assigned to protect Rose, then poses as one of them in the patrol car, and is able to see Rose and Bill returning from the police station. He attacks them, almost strangling Bill to death, but Rose is able to fight him off because she believes she is wearing the golden arm circlet Rose Madder had given her. After injuring Norman, Rose carries Bill to the apartment, where she sees the circlet on her table and realizes she has been fighting Norman alone the whole time. She tricks Norman into following her into the painting, then leads him to Rose Madder, who kills him. Rose returns to her world with instructions from Rose Madder to "remember the tree". She eventually marries Bill and has a daughter, but finds that the violent rages that characterized both Norman and Rose Madder have begun to spring up within her. She remembers that Rose Madder allowed her to take some seeds home with her, which she plants along with Norman's police ring in a secret grove by her favorite lake. The seed grows into a beautiful but deadly tree. She revisits that tree periodically as it grows, and is able to release her rage and go on with her life.
Reception[]
The novel is one of the least well-received of King's novels by fans.[1]
Adaptations[]
A film adaptation of Rose Madder was in development in 2011, but the project fell apart.[2][3]
There was an audiobook made narrated by Blair Brown and Stephen King himself.
Connections to other King works[]
- The character of Cynthia Smith appeared in Desperation
- In the prologue, Rose is reading Misery's Journey, an entry in the fictional series of books written by the main character in King's novel, Misery.
References[]
| Stephen King | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main | Bibliography • Short fiction • Unpublished and uncollected • Awards and nominations | |
| Novels | Stand-alone | Carrie (1974) • 'Salem's Lot (1975) • The Shining (1977) • The Stand (1978) • The Dead Zone (1979) • Firestarter (1980) • Cujo (1981) • Christine (1983) • Pet Sematary (1983) • Cycle of the Werewolf (1983) • The Talisman (1984) • It (1986) • The Eyes of the Dragon (1987) • Misery (1987) • The Tommyknockers (1987) • The Dark Half (1989) • Needful Things (1991) • Gerald's Game (1992) • Dolores Claiborne (1992) • Insomnia (1994) • Rose Madder (1995) • The Green Mile (1996) • Desperation (1996) • Bag of Bones (1998) • The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) • The Plant (2000; unfinished) • Dreamcatcher (2001) • Black House (2001) • From a Buick 8 (2002) • The Colorado Kid (2005) • Cell (2006) • Lisey's Story (2006) • Duma Key (2008) • Under the Dome (2009) • 11/22/63 (2011) • Joyland (2013) • Doctor Sleep (2013) • Mr. Mercedes (2014) • Revival (2014) • Finders Keepers (2015) • End of Watch (2016) • Gwendy's Button Box (2017) • Sleeping Beauties (2017) • The Outsider (2018) • Elevation (2018) • The Institute (2019) |
| The Dark Tower series | The Gunslinger (1982) • The Drawing of the Three (1987) • The Waste Lands (1991) • Wizard and Glass (1997) • Wolves of the Calla (2003) • Song of Susannah (2004) • The Dark Tower (2004) • The Wind Through the Keyhole (2012) | |
| Richard Bachman novels | Rage (1977) • The Long Walk (1979) • Roadwork (1981) • The Running Man (1982) • Thinner (1984) • The Bachman Books (1985) • The Regulators (1996) • Blaze (2007) | |
| Short fiction collections | Night Shift (1978) • Different Seasons (1982) • Skeleton Crew (1985) • Four Past Midnight (1990) • Nightmares & Dreamscapes (1993) • Hearts in Atlantis (1999) • Everything's Eventual (2002) • Just After Sunset (2008) • Full Dark, No Stars (2010) • The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015) | |
| Non-fiction | Danse Macabre (1981) • Nightmares in the Sky (1988) • On Writing (2000) • Secret Windows (2000) • Faithful (2004) • "Guns" (2013) | |
| Screenplays | Creepshow (1982) • Cat's Eye (1985) • Silver Bullet (1985) • Maximum Overdrive (1986; also director) • Pet Sematary (1989) • Sleepwalkers (1992) • A Good Marriage (2014) • Cell (2016) | |
| Teleplays | "Sorry, Right Number" (1987) • Golden Years (1991) • The Stand (1994) • The Shining (1997) • "Chinga" (1998) • Storm of the Century (1999) • Rose Red (2002) • Kingdom Hospital (2004) • Desperation (2006) • "Heads Will Roll" (2014) • Lisey's Story (TBA) | |
| Comics | Heroes for Hope (1985) • American Vampire (2010) | |
| Musical collaborations | Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997) • Black Ribbons (2010) • Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (2012) | |
| Anthologies edited | The Best American Short Stories 2007 (2007) • Six Scary Stories (2016) • Flight or Fright (2018) | |
| Worlds and concepts | Dollar Baby • Fictional books • Fictional locations in Maine (Castle Rock • Derry • Jerusalem's Lot) • Multiverse (All-World) | |
| Family | Tabitha King (wife) • Joe Hill (son) • Owen King (son) | |
| Related articles | List of adaptations • Bibliography of works on Stephen King • Rock Bottom Remainders • Philtrum Press • Six Stories • Stephen King Goes to the Movies • Charlie the Choo-Choo • Hearts in Suspension | |