1992 novel by Stephen King
Dolores Claiborne () is a 1992 psychological thriller novel by Stephen King. The novel is narrated by the title character. Atypically for a King novel, it has no chapters, double-spacing between paragraphs, or other section breaks; thus, the text is a single continuous narrative, which reads like the transcription of a spoken monologue. It was the best-selling novel of 1992 in the United States.[1] The story introduced the fictional community of Little Tall Island, which Stephen King later used as the setting for the original TV mini-series Storm of the Century.
The novel was highly successful in 1992 and received overall positive reviews. It led to a successful 1995 movie adaptation starring Kathy Bates that Time named among the top 10 greatest Stephen King film adaptations in 2013.[2] A two-act opera adaptation premiered in San Francisco in 2013. In 2017, the New York City Opera performed the world premiere of a new chamber version of the opera at the 59E59 Theater, directed by Michael Capasso.[3] In 2019, it was produced by the Boston University Opera Institute.[4][5]
Plot summary
Dolores Claiborne, an opinionated 65-year-old widow living on the tiny Maine community of Little Tall Island, is suspected of murdering her wealthy, elderly employer, Vera Donovan. The novel is presented as a transcript of her statement, told to the local constable and a stenographer. Dolores wants to make clear to the police that she did not kill Vera, whom she has looked after for years, but does confess to orchestrating the death of her husband, Joe St. George, almost thirty years before. Dolores's confession develops into the story of her life, her troubled marriage, and her relationship with her employer.
Dolores first describes her relationship with Vera, which began when she and her millionaire husband purchased a summer home on Little Tall Island in 1949 and hired Dolores as a maid. Able to cope with Vera's brutally exacting standards, Dolores rises from maid to housekeeper at the Donovan home. After Vera's husband dies in a car crash in 1960, she spends increasing time at her island house, eventually moving there permanently. Vera suffers a series of strokes in the 1980s, whereupon Dolores becomes the woman's live-in caretaker and reluctant companion. As the wealthy woman slips into dementia, Dolores comforts her from terrifying hallucinations of a force she calls "the dust bunnies." When Vera is lucid, Dolores combats a series of mind games and power plays.
Dolores further reveals that when she began working at the Donovan house, her marriage to Joe was already in distress due to his alcoholism, temper, and domestic violence. Their children, Selena, Joe Jr. and Pete, are unaware of the abuse. The marriage problems escalate one night in 1960 when Joe viciously hits Dolores in the back with a piece of stove wood over a perceived slight. In retaliation, Dolores smashes a ceramic cream pot over his head and threatens him with a hatchet, swearing she will kill him if he ever strikes her again. This confrontation is witnessed by Selena. Joe stops beating Dolores, but Selena does not realize Dolores was abused and acted in self-defense, and Joe uses the hatchet incident to gain sympathy from her. A rift grows between mother and daughter.
In 1962, Dolores notices Selena has become increasingly withdrawn, frightened, unsociable and neglectful of her appearance. After speculating she has met a boy or become involved in drugs, Dolores finally confronts her daughter as they return home on the island ferry. She explains the truth of the hatchet incident and Selena reluctantly admits that Joe molested her. Overwhelmed, Selena nearly jumps off the side of the ferry, but Dolores stops her and vows to protect her. That night, she considers murdering Joe, describing the urge to kill him as the opening of an "inside eye." Instead, she confronts him, promising to have him arrested if he ever touches Selena again.
Dolores resolves to protect her children by leaving Joe. When she attempts to withdraw her children's savings accounts to fund their escape, she discovers Joe has stolen everything. In despair, she breaks down crying at work, confiding in Vera. An unusually sympathetic Vera reveals she has had some sort of experience with Dolores's "inside eye", and casually remarks that men like Joe often die in accidents, leaving their wives everything. As she departs, she implies she arranged the car crash that killed her own husband and advises Dolores that "sometimes, an accident can be an unhappy woman's best friend."
Dolores begins plotting Joe's death, but she does not find an opportunity to execute her plan until the following summer. Vera becomes obsessed with a total solar eclipse that will be visible from the island, insisting the event will convince her estranged children to visit her. She plans a massive viewing party on the island ferry. Knowing the island will be mostly empty at that time, Dolores ensures Selena is sent to camp, and Joe Jr. and Pete are sent on to visit family on the mainland. Dolores marks the location of a dried-up well in a patch of brambles on the edge of their property. When it becomes clear her children will not be joining her for the eclipse, Vera becomes despondent and lashes out at her hired help, calming only after Dolores confronts her over the unjust firing of one of the maids.
On the day of the eclipse, Dolores buys Joe a bottle of scotch and makes him a sandwich, lowering his guard, and they share their first moment of physical affection in many years. As the eclipse begins, Dolores has a vision of a young girl in the path of the eclipse who is being sexually abused by her father at that same moment. Reminded of what she has set out to do, she deliberately enrages Joe by claiming she has recovered the money he had stolen, provoking him into attacking her. She flees into the brambles, leading Joe to the well and tricking him into stepping on the rotted boards that cover it. The planks break and Joe falls into the well, severely injured.
Joe calls out for help for some time before eventually losing consciousness. Dolores returns to the house and falls asleep. She has a nightmare, then checks the well. She arrives to discover Joe has regained consciousness and has nearly managed to climb out. He grabs at Dolores and attempts to pull her in with him. She hits him in the face with a rock, and he falls back into the well, dead.
Dolores reports Joe missing, and his body is found after several days of searching. His death is ruled an accident despite the suspicions of the local coroner. Dolores is free of Joe, but her actions damage her relationship with Selena, who also suspects her mother, and rumors begin to circulate that she has gotten away with murder.
The narration finally comes to the circumstances of Vera's death, an incident which has led Dolores to tell her story. She confesses that Vera, in one of her hallucinations, managed to exit her wheelchair and fled in terror from "the dust bunnies", falling down a flight of stairs. As she falls, Dolores has a terrifying vision of Joe's ghost, covered in dust. Somehow alive and lucid despite her injuries, Vera begs Dolores to help end her suffering. Dolores fetches a rolling pin, but Vera dies before she can use it. The incriminating scene is discovered by the local mailman, who suspects Dolores of killing the old woman and forces her to call the police.
That night, Dolores is harassed by members of the community who believe she has already escaped punishment for murder in the past. The next day, she receives a phone call from Vera's lawyer, who informs a shocked Dolores that she has inherited Vera's entire fortune—nearly $30 million. Dolores initially refuses the money in favor of Vera's estranged children, but then learns they were killed in a car crash in 1961, and Vera had spent the last thirty years of her life only pretending they were still alive. Knowing the inheritance will be seen as a motive and worsen the case against her, Dolores convinces herself the only way to clear her name is to confess everything. Feeling at peace with herself at long last, she ends her statement.
Several newspaper articles provide an epilogue to the story, revealing Dolores was cleared of any blame in Vera's death and anonymously donated Vera's fortune to the New England Home for Little Wanderers. The final article implies Dolores and Selena have reconciled and that Selena will be coming home for the first time in twenty years.
