One of America's most popular novelists, Stephen King has begun to receive serious attention from scholars and literary critics. The Dark Descent assembles fifteen illuminating original essays that consider King from a variety of intellectual orientations, addressing the major novels and central themes that represent King's contributions to American letters and elevating King scholarship to a new level of critical discourse. King's body of horror literature is seen as arising from mainstream literary traditions and reflecting the tensions which shape contemporary American life. This volume places firmly King firmly within the canon of American fiction.