Castle Rock (Stephen King)

Castle Rock (Stephen King)

Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. Built similarly to the fictional Maine towns of Jerusalem's Lot (featured in the novel 'Salem's Lot) and Derry (featured in the novels It, Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, and 11/22/63), Castle Rock is a typical small New England town with many dark secrets.

Castle Rock first appeared in the novel The Dead Zone, and has been used in several other King works since (see list below). King originally intended to stop using Castle Rock as the setting of his works after the novel Needful Things, although this was followed by an epilogue in the short story "It Grows on You". Castle Rock was later mentioned in works such as Riding the Bullet and as part of the setting for Bag of Bones.

Famous quotes containing the words castle and/or rock:

“If, in looking at the lives of princes, courtiers, men of rank and fashion, we must perforce depict them as idle, profligate, and criminal, we must make allowances for the rich men’s failings, and recollect that we, too, were very likely indolent and voluptuous, had we no motive for work, a mortal’s natural taste for pleasure, and the daily temptation of a large income. What could a great peer, with a great castle and park, and a great fortune, do but be splendid and idle?”
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)

“Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)