The corpse

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Die Leiche (English original title: The Body ) refers to a novella by the American writer Stephen King published in 1982 in the collection of novels Spring, Summer, Autumn and Death . The story was filmed in 1986 by Rob Reiner as Stand By Me . It marks the beginning of the Castle Rock cycle .

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The novel is set in the US state of Maine in 1960. The first-person narrator of the story is the twelve-year-old boy Gordon Lachance (called Gordie by his friends), who founded a gang with his friends Teddy Duchamp, Vern Tessio and Chris Chambers. The four are the permanent members; other boys come and go only sporadically.

One day, Vern overhears his older brother Billy and hears about a corpse - the missing Ray Brower, who is wanted and believed to have been hit by a train. The four of them want to see a dead person for the first time in their lives and go on a search along the railway line. They pretend their parents are camping with Vern.

On the way they have to overcome all sorts of obstacles, such as a railway bridge that a train comes across when crossing it. Gordie and Vern must run for their lives. Soon they decide to set up camp for the night and make a fire to protect themselves from the mosquitoes. That night, Gordie had a nightmare: he suffered from the delusion that Vern and Teddy Chris would drown at the earliest opportunity.

Suddenly one of the four boys wakes up and wakes the others because he thinks he has heard something. When everyone is awake, horrific screams suddenly set in, like those of a woman screaming in fear of death. The next morning everything doesn't seem so bad to them, and when they discover a pond, they rush into it full of joy. They hadn't washed in two days, and that in the hot summer. Gordie remembers his dream, but overcomes himself and takes a bath.

A short time later they realize that they have ended up in a leech nest. They quickly leave the pond and take each other's leeches off. Soon they move on, and after a while they find Ray Brower's body. They marvel at the first corpse of their life and at the same time are disgusted with it, because insects crawl all over it. But all of a sudden a storm approaches, and to top it all off, there is also a gang of adult boys (in English: The Bluffs ), including Verns and Chris' brothers. They claim the corpse for themselves: They want to report the find to the police and thus go down in the village's history.

The situation escalates: Chris pulls out his father's pistol and fires a warning shot. The gang withdraws. Heavy hail disfigured the corpse. The four boys are going home. Later, an anonymous phone call from Ace Merrill, a member of the Bluffs , informed the police. Ace and his gang take revenge by beating Gordon, Chris, Teddy and Vern. Finally, Gordon reports how he and Chris are gradually distancing themselves from Vern and Teddy and how later his three friends are killed in various accidents while he is now a writer.

German-language publications

  • Autumn sonata. The corpse. In: Stephen King: Seasons. Autumn winter. Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1987, ISBN 3-404-13114-2 , pp. 7-224. (First edition of the German licensed edition; Translator: Harro Christensen)
  • Spring, summer, autumn and death. Ullstein, 2006, ISBN 3-548-26328-3 .

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