{"id":6100,"date":"2026-01-04T12:53:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/the-shining-king-stephen\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:53:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:53:52","slug":"the-shining-king-stephen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/the-shining-king-stephen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shining – King, Stephen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Book Preview<\/h3>\n
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1 – Job Interview<\/h2>\n

Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman stood five-five, and when he moved, it was with the prissy speed that seems to be the exclusive domain of all small plump men. The part in his hair was exact, and his dark suit was sober but comforting. I am a man you can bring your problems to, that suit said to the paying customer. To the hired help it spoke more curtly: This had better be good, you. There was a red carnation in the lapel, perhaps so that no one on the street would mistake Stuart Ullman for the local undertaker.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he listened to Ullman speak, Jack admitted to himself that he probably could not have liked any man on that side of the desk-under the circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman had asked a question he hadn\u2019t caught. That was bad; Ullman was the type of man who would file such lapses away in a mental Rolodex for later consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI asked if your wife fully understood what you would be taking on here. And there\u2019s your son, of course.\u201d He glanced down at the application in front of him. \u201cDaniel. Your wife isn\u2019t a bit intimidated by the idea?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWendy is an extraordinary woman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd your son is also extraordinary?\u201d Jack smiled, a big wide PR smile. \u201cWe like to think so, I suppose. He\u2019s quite self-reliant for a five-year-old.\u201d No returning smile from Ullman. He slipped Jack\u2019s application back into the file. The file went into a drawer. The desk top was now completely bare except for a blotter, a telephone, a Tensor lamp, and an in\/out basket. Both sides of the in\/out were empty, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman stood up and went to the file cabinet in the corner. \u201cStep around the desk, if you will, Mr. Torrance. We\u2019ll look at the floor plans.\u201d He brought back five large sheets and set them down on the glossy walnut plain of the desk. Jack stood by his shoulder, very much aware of the scent of Ullman\u2019s cologne. All my men wear English Leather or they wear nothing at all came into his mind for no reason at all, and he had to clamp his tongue between his teeth to keep in a bray of laughter. Beyond the wall, faintly, came the sounds of the Overlook Hotel\u2019s kitchen, gearing down from lunch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTop floor,\u201d Ullman said briskly. \u201cThe attic. Absolutely nothing up there now but bric-a-brac. The Overlook has changed hands several times since World War II and it seems that each successive manager has put everything they don\u2019t want up in the attic. I want rattraps and poison bait sowed around in it. Some of the third-floor chambermaids say they have heard rustling noises. I don\u2019t believe it, not for a moment, but there mustn\u2019t even be that one-in-a-hundred chance that a single rat inhabits the Overlook Hotel.\u201d Jack, who suspected that every hotel in the world had a rat or two, held his tongue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course you wouldn\u2019t allow your son up in the attic under any circumstances.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Jack said, and flashed the big PR smile again. Humiliating situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did this officious little prick actually think he would allow his son to goof around in a rattrap attic full of junk furniture and God knew what else?<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman whisked away the attic floor plan and put it on the bottom of the pile.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Overlook has one hundred and ten guest quarters,\u201d he said in a scholarly voice. \u201cThirty of them, all suites, are here on the third floor. Ten in the west wing (including the Presidential Suite), ten in the center, ten more in the east wing. All of them command magnificent views.\u201d Could you at least spare the salestalk?<\/span><\/p>\n

But he kept quiet. He needed the job.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman put the third floor on the bottom of the pile and they studied the second floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cForty rooms,\u201d Ullman said, \u201cthirty doubles and ten singles. And on the first floor, twenty of each. Plus three linen closets on each floor, and a storeroom which is at the extreme east end of the hotel on the second floor and the extreme west end on the first. Questions?\u201d Jack shook his head. Ullman whisked the second and first floors away.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow. Lobby level: Here in the center is the registration desk. Behind it are the offices. The lobby runs for eighty feet in either direction from the desk. Over here in the west wing is the Overlook Dining Room and the Colorado Lounge. The banquet and ballroom facility is in the east wing. Questions?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly about the basement,\u201d Jack said. \u201cFor the winter caretaker, that\u2019s the most important level of all. Where the action is, so to speak.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWatson will show you all that. The basement floor plan is on the boiler room wall.\u201d He frowned impressively, perhaps to show that as manager, he did not concern himself with such mundane aspects of the Overlook\u2019s operation as the boiler and the plumbing. \u201cMight not be a bad idea to put some traps down there too. Just a minute\u2026\u201d He scrawled a note on a pad he took from his inner coat pocket (each sheet bore the legend From the Desk of Stuart Ullman in bold black script), tore it off, and dropped it into the out basket. It sat there looking lonesome. The pad disappeared back into Ullman\u2019s jacket pocket like the conclusion of a magician\u2019s trick. Now you see it, Jacky-boy, now you don\u2019t. This guy is a real heavyweight.<\/span><\/p>\n

They had resumed their original positions, Ullman behind the desk and Jack in front of it, interviewer and interviewee, supplicant and reluctant patron.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman folded his neat little hands on the desk blotter and looked directly at Jack, a small, balding man in a banker\u2019s suit and a quiet gray tie. The flower in his lapel was balanced off by a small lapel pin on the other side. It read simply STAFF in small gold letters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Torrance. Albert Shockley is a powerful man with a large interest in the Overlook, which showed a profit this season for the first time in its history. Mr. Shockley also sits on the Board of Directors, but he is not a hotel man and he would be the first to admit this. But he has made his wishes in this caretaking matter quite obvious. He wants you hired. I will do so. But if I had been given a free hand in this matter, I would not have taken you on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jack\u2019s hands were clenched tightly in his lap, working against each other, sweating. Officious little prick, officious little prick, officious-<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe you care much for me, Mr. Torrance. I don\u2019t care. Certainly your feelings toward me play no part in my own belief that you are not right for the job. During the season that runs from May fifteenth to September thirtieth, the Overlook employs one hundred and ten people full-time; one for every room in the hotel, you might say. I don\u2019t think many of them like me and I suspect that some of them think I\u2019m a bit of a bastard. They would be correct in their judgment of my character. I have to be a bit of a bastard to run this hotel in the manner it deserves.\u201d He looked at Jack for comment, and Jack flashed the PR smile again, large and insultingly toothy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman said: \u201cThe Overlook was built in the years 1907 to 1909. The closest town is Sidewinder, forty miles east of here over roads that are closed from sometime in late October or November until sometime in April. A man named Robert Townley Watson built it, the grandfather of our present maintenance man. Vanderbilts have stayed here, and Rockefellers, and Astors, and Du Pouts. Four Presidents have stayed in the Presidential Suite. Wilson, Harding, Roosevelt, and Nixon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be too proud of Harding and Nixon,\u201d Jack murmured.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ullman frowned but went on regardless. \u201cIt proved too much for Mr. Watson, and he sold the hotel in 1915. It was sold again in 1922, in 1929, in 1936. It stood vacant until the end of World War II, when it was purchased and completely renovated by Horace Derwent, millionaire inventor, pilot, film producer, and entrepreneur.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know the name,\u201d Jack said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes. Everything he touched seemed to turn to gold\u2026 except the Overlook.<\/span><\/p>\n

He funneled over a million dollars into it before the first postwar guest ever stepped through its doors, turning a decrepit relic into a showplace. It was Derwent who added the roque court I saw you admiring when you arrived.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRoque?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA British forebear of our croquet, Mr. Torrance. Croquet is bastardized roque. According to legend, Derwent learned the game from his social secretary and fell completely in love with it. Ours may be the finest roque court in America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t doubt it,\u201d Jack said gravely. A roque court, a topiary full of hedge animals out front, what next? A life-sized Uncle Wiggly game behind the equipment shed? He was getting very tired of Mr. Stuart Ullman, but he could see that Ullman wasn\u2019t done. Ullman was going to have his say, every last word of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he had lost three million, Derwent sold it to a group of California investors. Their experience with the Overlook was equally bad. Just not hotel people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1970, Mr. Shockley and a group of his associates bought the hotel and turned its management over to me. We have also run in the red for several years, but I\u2019m happy to say that the trust of the present owners in me has never wavered. Last year we broke even. And this year the Overlook\u2019s accounts were written in black ink for the first time in almost seven decades.\u201d Jack supposed that this fussy little man\u2019s pride was justified, and then his original dislike washed over him again in a wave.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI see no connection between the Overlook\u2019s admittedly colorful history and your feeling that I\u2019m wrong for the post, Mr. Ullman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason that the Overlook has lost so much money lies in the depreciation that occurs each winter. It shortens the profit margin a great deal more than you might believe, Mr. Torrance. The winters are fantastically cruel. In order to cope with the problem, I\u2019ve installed a full-time winter caretaker to run the boiler and to heat different parts of the hotel on a daily rotating basis. To repair breakage as it occurs and to do repairs, so the elements can\u2019t get a foothold. To be constantly alert to any and every contingency. During our first winter I hired a family instead of a single man. There was a tragedy. A horrible tragedy.\u201d Ullman looked at Jack coolly and appraisingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI made a mistake. I admit it freely. The man was a drunk.\u201d Jack felt a slow, hot grin-the total antithesis of the toothy PR grin- stretch across his mouth. \u201cIs that it? I\u2019m surprised Al didn\u2019t tell you. I\u2019ve retired.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Mr. Shockley told me you no longer drink. He also told me about your last job\u2026 your last position of trust, shall we say? You were teaching English in a Vermont prep school. You lost your temper, I don\u2019t believe I need to be any more specific than that. But I do happen to believe that Grady\u2019s case has a bearing, and that is why I have brought the matter of your\u2026 uh, previous history into the conversation. During the winter of 1970-71, after we had refurbished the Overlook but before our first season, I hired this\u2026 this unfortunate named Delbert Grady. He moved into the quarters you and your wife and son will be sharing. He had a wife and two daughters. I had reservations, the main ones being the harshness of the winter season and the fact that the Gradys would be cut off from the outside world for five to six months.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s not really true, is it? There are telephones here, and probably a citizen\u2019s band radio as well. And the Rocky Mountain National Park is within helicopter range and surely a piece of ground that big must have a chopper or two.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t know about that,\u201d Ullman said. \u201cThe hotel does have a two-way radio that Mr. Watson will show you, along with a list of the correct frequencies to broadcast on if you need help. The telephone lines between here and Sidewinder are still aboveground, and they go down almost every winter at some point or other and are apt to stay down for three weeks to a month and a half. There is a snowmobile in the equipment shed also.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen the place really isn\u2019t cut off.\u201d Mr. Ullman looked pained. \u201cSuppose your son or your wife tripped on the stairs and fractured his or her skull, Mr. Torrance. Would you think the place was cut off then?\u201d Jack saw the point. A snowmobile running at top speed could get you down to Sidewinder in an hour and a half\u2026 maybe. A helicopter from the Parks Rescue Service could get up here in three hours\u2026 under optimum conditions. In a blizzard it would never even be able to lift off and you couldn\u2019t hope to run a snowmobile at top speed, even if you dared take a seriously injured person out into temperatures that might be twenty-five below-or forty-five below, if you added in the wind chill factor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of Grady,\u201d Ullman said, \u201cI reasoned much as Mr. Shockley seems to have done in your case. Solitude can be damaging in itself. Better for the man to have his family with him. If there was trouble, I thought, the odds were very high that it would be something less urgent than a fractured skull or an accident with one of the power tools or some sort of convulsion. A serious case of the flu, pneumonia, a broken arm, even appendicitis. Any of those things would have left enough time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect that what happened came as a result of too much cheap whiskey, of which Grady had laid in a generous supply, unbeknownst to me, and a curious condition which the old-timers call cabin fever. Do you know the term?\u201d Ullman offered a patronizing little smile, ready to explain as soon as Jack admitted his ignorance, and Jack was happy to respond quickly and crisply.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a slang term for the claustrophobic reaction that can occur when people are shut in together over long periods of time. The feeling of claustrophobia is externalized as dislike for the people you happen to be shut in with. In extreme cases it can result in hallucinations and violence-murder has been done over such minor things as a burned meal or an argument about whose turn it is to do the dishes.\u201d Ullman looked rather nonplussed, which did Jack a world of good. He decided to press a little further, but silently promised Wendy he would stay cool.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect you did make a mistake at that. Did he hurt them?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe killed them, Mr. Torrance, and then committed suicide. He murdered the little girls with a hatchet, his wife with a shotgun, and himself the same way.<\/span><\/p>\n

His leg was broken. Undoubtedly so drunk he fell downstairs.\u201d Ullman spread his hands and looked at Jack self-righteously.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWas he a high school graduate?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a matter of fact, he wasn\u2019t,\u201d Ullman said a little stiffly. \u201cI thought a, shall we say, less imaginative individual would be less susceptible to the rigors, the loneliness-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was your mistake,\u201d Jack said. \u201cA stupid man is more prone to cabin fever just as he\u2019s more prone to shoot someone over a card game or commit a spur-of- the-moment robbery. He gets bored. When the snow comes, there\u2019s nothing to do but watch TV or play solitaire and cheat when he can\u2019t get all the aces out. Nothing to do but bitch at his wife and nag at the kids and drink. It gets hard to sleep because there\u2019s nothing to hear. So he drinks himself to sleep and wakes up with a hangover. He gets edgy. And maybe the telephone goes out and the TV aerial blows down and there\u2019s nothing to do but think and cheat at solitaire and get edgier and edgier. Finally\u2026 boom, boom, boom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas a more educated man, such as yourself?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I both like to read. I have a play to work on, as Al Shockley probably told you. Danny has his puzzles, his coloring books, and his crystal radio. I plan to teach him to read, and I also want to teach him to snowshoe. Wendy would like to learn how, too. Oh yes, I think we can keep busy and out of each other\u2019s hair if the TV goes on the fritz.\u201d He paused. \u201cAnd Al was telling the truth when he told you I no longer drink. I did once, and it got to be serious. But I haven\u2019t had so much as a glass of beer in the last fourteen months. I don\u2019t intend to bring any alcohol up here, and I don\u2019t think there will be an opportunity to get arty after the snow flies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn that you would be quite correct,\u201d Ullman said. \u201cBut as long as the three of you are up here, the potential for problems is multiplied. I have told Mr. Shockley this, and he told me he would take the responsibility. Now I\u2019ve told you, and apparently you are also willing to take the responsibility-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll right. I\u2019ll accept that, since I have little choice. But I would still rather have an unattached college boy taking a year off. Well, perhaps you\u2019ll do. Now I\u2019ll turn you over to Mr. Watson, who will take you through the basement and around the grounds. Unless you have further questions?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo. None at all.\u201d Ullman stood. \u201cI hope there are no hard feelings, Mr. Torrance. There is nothing personal in the things I have said to you. I only want what\u2019s best for the Overlook. It is a great hotel. I want it to stay that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo. No hard feelings.\u201d Jack flashed the PR grin again, but he was glad Ullman didn\u2019t offer to shake hands. There were hard feelings. All kinds of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Book Preview 1 – Job Interview Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick. Ullman stood five-five, and when he moved, it was with the prissy speed that seems to be the exclusive domain of all small plump men. The part in his hair was exact, and his dark suit was sober but comforting. I am a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[413],"class_list":["post-6100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-stephen-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}