15 Greatest Stephen King Short Stories Of All Time
8. 1922
1922 is unquestionably one of Stephen King's harshest and most hopeless visions. A novella appearing as the opener for his masterful and underrated collection Full Dark, No Stars, 1922 brings together the author's grasp of character with his unrivalled knack for creating grisly and violent imagery.
Written as a letter penned by protagonist Wilfred James, a farmer who murdered his wife and buried her in his farm's old well when she threatened to sell their land, the tale acts as James' confession - not just of his wife's murder, but of the guilt he feels over what happened to his son following the act, and how he is positive his wife is haunting him.
It's one of King's most skin crawling works, full of vivid images of death and decay and infested with rats that threaten to destroy James and his life. And, like all great King tales, it ends with a brilliant twist that fully sums up and perfectly concludes the haunting story that precedes it.