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The Green Mile : The Complete Serial Novel | 
| Author: Stephen King
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy Used: $7.94
You Save: $18.06 (69%)
Rating:  699 reviews
Sales Rank: 25571
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st Scribner Ed
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0743210891
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743210898
ASIN: 0743210891
Publication Date: October 3, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: (Airport Place Books does not ship on Saturdays and Sundays. We are unable to ship to "The Republic of Korea".)
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
This novel taps into what Stephen King does best: character-driven storytelling. The setting is the small "death house" of a Southern prison in 1932. The charming narrator is an old man looking back on the events, decades later. Maybe it's a little too cute, maybe the pathos is laid on a little thick, but it's hard to resist the colorful personalities and simple wonders of this supernatural tale. As Time magazine put it, "Like the best popular art, The Green Mile has the courage of its cornier convictions ... the palpable sense of King's sheer, unwavering belief in his tale is what makes the novel work as well as it finally does." And it's not a bad choice for giving to someone who doesn't understand the appeal of Stephen King, because the one scene that is out-and-out gruesome can be easily skipped by the squeamish. The Green Mile was nominated for a 1997 Bram Stoker Award.
Product Description
Set in the 1930s at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary's death-row facility, The Green Mile is the riveting and tragic story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin nine-year-old girls. It is a story narrated years later by Paul Edgecomb, the ward superintendent compelled to help every prisoner spend his last days peacefully and every man walk the green mile to execution with his humanity intact. Edgecomb has sent seventy-eight inmates to their date with "old sparky," but he's never encountered one like Coffey -- a man who wants to die, yet has the power to heal. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecomb discovers the terrible truth about Coffey's gift, a truth that challenges his most cherished beliefs -- and ours. Originally published in 1996 in six self-contained monthly installments, The Green Mile is an astonishingly rich and complex novel that delivers over and over again. Each individual volume became a huge success when first published, and all six were on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously. Three years later, when Frank Darabont made The Green Mile into an award-winning movie starring Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, the book returned to the bestseller list -- and stayed there for months. And now -- with a new introduction by King's foreign agent Ralph Vicinanza, as well as the author's own foreword -- we have the first hardcover edition of this magnificent novel in which "King surpasses our expectations, leaves us spellbound and hungry for the next twist of plot" (The Boston Globe). With illustrations and a new frontispiece for this edition by Mark Geyer.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 694 more reviews...
 Not Your Typical Stephen King Read...But Much More Human December 9, 2008
Zachary Koenig (Fergus Falls, MN)
When I think of a Stephen King book, I think of crazy tales involving little bald doctors, insane clowns, or evil spirits coming up from the ground. The Green Mile is almost a complete departure from that style of writing...and still manages to hit the bulls-eye!
Instead of trying to weave reality into a fantastic tale, The Green Mile is firmly grounded in reality with only one paranormal element. For a short synopsis, the novel revolves around a prisoner on death row, John Coffey, who seems to have a very remarkable ability in lieu of the events that landed him in the slammer. This ability is shown to head guard Paul Edgecombe, who struggles the entire book with the notion of whether or not Coffey should be put to death and what (if anything) to do about it.
Besides those two main characters, many other interesting people help drive the story forward, including Edgecombe's loyal group of guard friends, a hard-line guard who gets his kicks terrifying the already doomed inmates, a genuinely crazy prisoner, and a funny little man who just happens to befriend a mouse. By the end of the novel, you will be rooting for the good cause and ruing the negative...the essence of conflict!
So, just because The Green Mile is a bit different from King's other works doesn't mean that it suffers in any way. The story is compelling, the characters fascinating, and the fast-paced ending will leave you turning pages deep into the night. Plus, the VERY ending of the novel is one of the best that King has ever written. While I have often criticized King for his strange, open endings, The Green Mile manages to end on a very decisive, emotional note.
I highly recommend this book to any Stephen King fan (obviously!), or even to anyone just looking for a touching emotional tale that examines the notion of what it means to be condemned to die.
King's Best Work November 28, 2008
Carla Denard (AZ)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Stephen King has produced many books that I really enjoy, and I am partial to his shorter stories/less "scary" type works - such as Stand By Me (The Body), Apt Pupil, Shawkshank Redemption and the Green Mile (though it does have some elements that are not quite reality.)
I read the series when it was first released and it was alot of fun waiting to have the next installment come out. Unfortunately my set is no longer complete and I wanted to read this again.
And like the first time I read this, it still was great. Paul Edgecomb was a cell block guard who is living in a prison of his own in his later years. And he recounts an amazing story about a convicted murderer, John Coffey, a giant of a man in more ways than one.
The ancillary characters are also well thought out and written, including a special mouse. With flashbacks and looking forward (current time) King juxtaposes time frames to keep the book even more engrossing and it is has enough twists, turns and suprises to keep you guessing.
Just a wonderful work of writing.
One of the best books I've read November 18, 2008
Liron Anavy (Yokneam, Israel)
In 3 words: Go buy it!
This book is one of King's best novels, I don't want to spoil it so I'll just say read it (and ignore the movie...)
 My second walk down the Mile(4.5 stars) November 17, 2008
Brian J. Oneill
I read 'The Green Mile' in serial form a few years ago, borrowing the entire collection from the library at once. I felt at the time that it was, if not King's best, at least very close to it. A few years later, after finding this one-volume edition, I gave the story another try.
I found I had largely forgotten much of the incidental details in the first third of the book(outside of Paul Edgecombe's illness), and felt that the story didn't really take off until the most important inmates-John, Del and 'Billy the Kid' Wharton-were introduced. The supporting cast at the prison, especially Percy, all had their moments, but Paul, John, Del, and that little mouse, carry the story.
Those who complain of King 'copping out' are missing the point that the action takes place in an era when there was less incentive to challenge authority, particularly from within. The moral conflict that Paul Edgecombe felt('doing the right thing' vs. 'doing his job'), and that he'd been carrying with him for all those years, was the basis of the story.
I felt the framing sequence didn't have quite the impact of the flashbacks to the main action. Although Paul and Elaine make a good team (not so much a 'couple', under the circumstances), I didn't feel that Brad Dolan added too much to the story, beyond the obvious similarity to a former colleague. I think the movie version did a better job of streamlining the framing sequence.
Another nitpick with the one-volume format was that the framing sequences were left unchanged from their original format, which repeated/recapped the action.
While this falls just short of 'The Stand' on the list of King's best books, the emotional impact of the last sections of the story ensure a very high ranking, and the movie, which improves on the original as no other SK film adaptation ever could, makes this perhaps King's best story in either medium.
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