| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Published in | Six Stories, Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales |
| Publication type | Anthology |
| Publisher | Philtrum Press |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Publication date | 1995 |
The Man in the Black Suit is a short story by Stephen King. In 1995, it won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction and the O. Henry Award. In 1997, it was published in King's anthology Six Stories. In 2002, it was published in the collection Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales; in the latter text, King described the piece as an homage to Nathaniel Hawthorne's story 'Young Goodman Brown'. He also states that the story evolved from one his friend told him, in which the friend's grandfather had come face to face with Satan himself in the form of an ordinary man. It was adapted into a short film with the same title in 2004 by Nicholas Mariani.
Plot Summary
The story tells of Gary, a nine year-old boy, whose brother had died not long ago. One day Gary goes out fishing and falls asleep. When he awakens, he discovers an orange-eyed man in a black three-piece suit looming over him. The man--whose body odor smells like burnt match heads-- tells Gary terrible things: that his mother has died while he was away, and that the man intends to eat him. Gary does not believe at first, but soon realizes that this man is actually the devil, and makes his escape by throwing his caught fish at the stranger; he then runs off as the creature stays behind to eat the catch. The things the man said were false, but Gary is still haunted by the incident for the rest of his life. Gary tells the story from his perspective as an old, terrified man. He is haunted by his belief that he only escaped from the devil by either pure luck or his own skill. At the end of the story, he is frightened by the possibility of death. Will he go to God, whom he has prayed to all his life? Or will the man in the Black Suit return to take him away, now that he is too old to run away from him again?
External links
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| "Autopsy Room Four" · "The Man in the Black Suit" · "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" · "The Death of Jack Hamilton" · "In the Deathroom" · "The Little Sisters of Eluria" · "Everything's Eventual" · "L. T.'s Theory of Pets" · "The Road Virus Heads North" · "Lunch at the Gotham Café" · "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" · "1408" · "Riding the Bullet" · "Luckey Quarter" |
