At night
Nachts is a book by the American writer Stephen King, published in 1991 by Heyne Verlag and titled with the German adverb “ nachts ” . It contains the two novels The Library Policeman and Time Lapse (The Sun Dog) .
The English original Four Past Midnight was published in 1990 by Viking-Verlag in New York and also contains Langoliers and The Secret Window . The two missing novels were published on the German book market under the title " Langoliers ".
action
The library cop
Insurance clerk Sam Peebles has not entered a public library since college . Then ask him to do a friend a favor and give a speech at the Rotary club. Sam gives in reluctantly and sits down that evening and writes the speech. The next morning he presented the speech to Naomi Higgins, who often types up letters for him and with whom he had met several times a few years ago. She reads the speech carefully, but tells him that she thinks the speech is a bit "dry" and recommends that he polish up his speech with the help of a few books in the public library. She gives him some book names to take with him. Sam first hesitates to enter the library, then he does. The library seems deserted to him, so he strolls through the rooms. In the children's library he saw some posters that were cruel for him, including that of the "library policeman". Suddenly the librarian Mrs. Lortz stands behind him to help him, but Sam thinks she has an eerie charisma. He borrows the books Best Loved Poems of the American People and Speaker's Companion , which he has to bring back within a week, otherwise Mrs. Lortz would have to rush the library policeman on him. Sam delivers the speech with great success and completely forgets the two books. But Ardelia Lortz does not forget her. She speaks to him on the answering machine a few times. So also on April 7th, one day after the books should have been brought back. But she gives him a respite until next Monday. But Sam can no longer find the books. He goes in search of "Dirty Dave", who collects the old newspapers every week and brings them to the recycling plant.
Sam goes to the library to tell Ardelia Lortz what happened to the books. But the children who work as temporary workers in the library don't know anything about an Ardelia Lortz. The library also looks completely different now, much friendlier and the gloomy posters in the children's library have also disappeared.
Naomi and everyone else Sam asks about Ardelia Lortz are angry and dismissive of Sam.
Then on Monday morning the library policeman suddenly appears in front of him, telling him that he must find the books by midnight, otherwise he will come back and punish Sam.
Sam tries to find out something about Ardelia Lortz and meets Naomi during his search. He tells her everything and the two of them go to see Dirty Dave. He's finally telling what he knows. It appeared in his life a few years ago. They had a relationship and she worked in the library. But she had a cruel secret. She always put the children into a kind of trance when she read to them and "sucked out" their fear. Ardelia Lortz was an ugly monster in the form of a pretty woman. She slowly transformed. In order to complete her transformation, three children were to die in the end. All of this was to be done with the help of Dave, who turned things around at the last second and thwarted their plans.
So now she was back and they had to fight them all. But for that to happen, Sam has to find out who his library cop is.
He and Naomi go on a trip to Cedar Rapids to get the two books.
On the way home, Sam dreams of his library policeman. It is a boy who checked him in front of the library, told him he was a library policeman and then "punished" him in the form of rape.
Now the fight against Ardelia Lortz and the library policeman can begin. The fight takes place in the library.
Dave dies, but Naomi and Sam survive. Dave tells the two of them that Ardelia will wait. But at this point neither of them know what that means.
At Dave's memorial service, Sam finally knows what that meant. Ardelia punishes Naomi by attaching a tiny piece of herself to Naomi's neck. But Sam frees Naomi from the tiny something.
Time Lapse (The Sun Dog)
Young Kevin gets an instant camera for his birthday. Kevin felt like he never had anything to himself. When he takes his first photo, he notices something eerie:
Instead of reproducing the desired subject, the photo shows a large, bloodthirsty dog.
Kevin shoots more photos, but with each new picture the dog comes closer and closer, as if he wanted to jump out of the picture to grab Kevin.
Interesting facts / links
- The original edition Four Past Midnight , which is not available in Germany, received the Bram Stoker Award in 1990 in the “Best Collection” category.
- The novella Zeitraffer belongs to the Castle Rock cycle and forms a connection between the novels Stark - The Dark Half and In einer kleine Stadt . You learn of the death of Alan Pangborn's family and meet for the first time some characters who will play a role in In a Small Town .
- The main characters from The Library Policeman return in In a Small Town ; it is learned that Leland Gaunt is opening his new store where Sam Peebles used to be.
- King mentions himself in The Library Cop when a woman firmly declares that she never intends to read his novel.
Literature and web links
- Stephen King, Nachts, Heyne, ISBN 3-453-09220-1 .
- Detailed table of contents in KingWiki :
