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Revision 48 by AgentSapphire June 10, 2021
Revision 65 by OpenLibraryTagsBot September 1, 2026
covers
first_publish_date October 1, 1991
cover_edition /books/OL7573241M
description
0 With a demonic blend of malice and affection, Stephen King says goodbye to the town he put on the map -- Castle Rock, Maine . . . where Polly Chalmers runs You Sew and Sew and Sheriff Alan Pangborn is in charge of keeping the peace. It's a small town, and Stephen King fans might think they know its secrets pretty well; they've been here before. 0 Needful Things is a 1991 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It is the first novel King wrote after his rehabilitation from drug and alcohol addiction. It was made into a film of the same name in 1993 which was directed by Fraser C. Heston. The story focuses on a shop that sells collectibles and antiques, managed by Leland Gaunt, a new arrival to the town of Castle Rock, Maine, the setting of many King stories. Gaunt often asks customers to perform a prank or mysterious deed in exchange for the item they are drawn to. As time goes by, the many deeds and pranks lead to increasing aggression among the townspeople, as well as chaos and death. A protagonist of the book is Alan Pangborn, previously seen in Stephen King's novel [The Dark Half](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL81620W).
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2 Leland Gaunt is a stranger -- and he calls his shop Needful Things. Eleven-year-old Brain Rusk is his first customer, and Brian finds just what he wants most in all the world; a '56 Sandy Koufax baseball card. By the end of the week, Mr. Gaunt's business is fairly booming, and why not? At Needful Things, there's something for everyone.
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4 And, of course, there is always a price. For Leland Gaunt, the pleasure of doing business lies chiefly in seeing how much people will pay for their most secret dreams and desires. And as Leland Gaunt always points out, at Needful Things, the prices are high indeed. Does that stop people from buying? Has it ever?
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6 For Alan and Polly, this one week in autumn will be an awful test -- a test of will, desire, and pain. Above all, it will be a test of their ability to grasp the true nature of their enemy. They may have a chance . . . But maybe not, because, as Mr. Gaunt knows, almost everything is for sale: love, hope, even the human soul.
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8 With the potent storytelling authority that millions of readers have come to prize, Stephen King delivers an Out Town with a vengeance, an inimitable farewell to a place his fiction has often and long called home.
9 ([source][1])
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12  [1]: https://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/needful_things_flap.html
subjects
0 suspense 0 suspense
... ...
14 Castle Rock (Maine : Imaginary place) 14 Castle Rock (Maine : Imaginary place)
15 New York Times reviewed
16 Castle rock (me. : imaginary place), fiction
17 Fiction, horror
18 Gaunt, leland (fictitious character), fiction
19 Consumers
20 FICTION / Horror
21 FICTION / Small Town & Rural
22 FICTION / Thrillers / Supernatural
23 Maine, fiction
24 Gift shops -- Maine -- Fiction
25 Practical jokes -- Maine -- Fiction
26 Harassment -- Maine -- Fiction
27 Violence -- Maine -- Fiction
28 Police -- Maine -- Fiction
29 Boutiques de cadeaux -- Maine -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
30 Violence -- Maine -- Romans, nouvelles, etc
31 Gift shops
32 Harassment
33 Police
34 Practical jokes
35 Violence
36 Maine
37 Chang pian xiao shuo
authors
0 /authors/OL2162284A - history /authors/OL2162284A 0 Stephen King - history /authors/OL19981A
first_sentence
0 In a small town, the opening of a new store is big news.
genres
0 /tags/OL180T
1 /tags/OL171T
links
0 StephenKing.com - Needful Things https://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/needful_things.html 0 StephenKing.com - Needful Things https://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/needful_things.html
1 Needful Things - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needful_Things 1 Needful Things - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needful_Things
2 Rereading Stephen King, chapter 29: Needful Things https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/17/rereading-stephen-king-needful-things 2 Rereading Stephen King, chapter 29: Needful Things https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/17/rereading-stephen-king-needful-things
3 The Great Stephen King Reread: Needful Things https://www.tor.com/2013/10/30/the-great-stephen-king-reread-needful-things/ 3 The Great Stephen King Reread: Needful Things https://www.tor.com/2013/10/30/the-great-stephen-king-reread-needful-things/
4 Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story (publishersweekly.com) https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-670-83953-7 4 Needful Things: The Last Castle Rock Story (publishersweekly.com) https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-670-83953-7
5 New York Times review http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/20/books/l-defending-stephen-king-075091.html
subject_times
0 xian dai
subject_places
0 Maine 0 Maine
1 Castle Rock 1 Castle Rock
2 You Sew and Sew 2 You Sew and Sew
3 mei guo