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136-599: The novel was inspired by Robert Browning 's poem " Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came " (1855), which King read as a sophomore at the University of Maine . King explains that he "played with the idea of trying a long romantic novel embodying the feel, if not the exact sense, of the Browning poem." King started writing this novel in 1970 on a ream of bright green paper that he found at the library. The five stories that constitute

272-758: A Liberal , supported the emancipation of women, and opposed slavery, expressing sympathy for the North in the American Civil War . Later in life, he even championed animal rights in several poems attacking vivisection. He was also a stalwart opponent of anti-Semitism, leading to speculation that Browning himself was Jewish. In 1877 he wrote a poem explaining "Why I am a Liberal" in which he declared: "Who then dares hold – emancipated thus / His fellow shall continue bound? Not I." Critical attention to Browning's politics has, in general, been sparse. Isobel Armstrong 's writing on dramatic monologues, as well as more recent work on

408-399: A Marine , a Klansman , and a Viet Cong member, and having a hand in the kidnapping of Patty Hearst . In Las Vegas Flagg attracts people drawn to destruction, power and tyranny, using crucifixion , torture and other punishments on those disloyal to him. His followers reorganize society, repairing and restarting services in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. Flagg plans to attack and destroy

544-431: A large stormy planet , a ringed planet , and then to galaxies and beyond, attempting to frighten Roland by showing him how truly insignificant he is. The man in black then asks Roland to renounce his quest. Roland refuses, and the man in black tells him to go west before putting him to sleep. When Roland awakens, ten years have passed, and there is a skeleton next to him that he assumes to be the man in black's. Roland takes

680-481: A tour de force of dramatic poetry. Published in four parts from November 1868 to February 1869, the poem was a success both commercially and critically, and finally brought Browning the renown he had sought for nearly 40 years. The Robert Browning Society was formed in 1881 and his work was recognised as belonging within the British literary canon. In the remaining years of his life Browning travelled extensively. After

816-517: A "collection of masks". Flagg symbolizes "the inexplicable fear of the return of bygone powers—both technological and, as his last name intimates, sociopolitical ". Like other Gothic villains, Flagg's plans seem to fail at every turn as he seems to need to convince others of his importance. Winter asserts that Flagg is a Miltonic superman who receives his strength from a dark, mysterious source. He compares him to J. R. R. Tolkien 's Sauron in The Lord of

952-482: A 1994 television miniseries adaptation of The Stand , by Matthew McConaughey in a 2017 The Dark Tower film adaptation , and by Alexander Skarsgård in a 2020-21 television miniseries adaptation of The Stand . He has additionally appeared in adaptations of The Dark Tower and The Stand by Marvel Comics . King initially cited Donald DeFreeze , primary kidnapper of Patty Hearst , as his inspiration for Flagg. Later, he attributed Flagg to an image of

1088-429: A Christian". Poems such as "Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day" seem to confirm this Christian faith, strengthened by his wife. However, many have dismissed the usefulness of these works at discovering Browning's own religious views due to the consistent use of dramatic monologue which regularly expresses hypothetical views which cannot be ascribed to the author himself. Now, don't, sir! Don't expose me! Just this once! This

1224-485: A Spanish Cloister . Ian Jack , in his introduction to the Oxford University Press edition of Browning's poems 1833–1864, comments that Thomas Hardy , Rudyard Kipling , Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot "all learned from Browning's exploration of the possibilities of dramatic poetry and of colloquial idiom". In Oscar Wilde's dialogue The Critic as Artist , Browning is given a famously ironical assessment: "He

1360-613: A broken nose and greasy hair. He's starting to bald, but he's always got a very white separation in the middle of it. He's just so greasy, he's great to draw. And he still has to be seductive at the same time, so you can't make him repulsive... He's such a great character." Marvel later released a comic book adaptation of The Stand , which began in September 2008 and ran for thirty issues. Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa described Flagg as "The man of nightmares. Or, put another way, our nightmares given human (more or less) form. The dark side of

1496-508: A car while walking to school in Manhattan . Before they leave, Roland and Jake search for food in a cellar and encounter a demon. Roland masters the demon and takes a jawbone from the hole from which it spoke to him. Roland and Jake make their way out of the desert. Roland rescues Jake from an encounter with a succubus and after they've made camp, tells him to hold on to the jawbone as a protective charm. Roland leaves him at camp and couples with

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1632-430: A college restaurant, the one-page poem was published in 1969, but the character never left King's mind. To the author, what made Flagg interesting was "the idea of the villain as somebody who was always on the outside looking in, and hated people who had good fellowship and good conversation and friends". When Stephen King created the character of Flagg, he based him around what he believed evil represented. To King, Flagg

1768-611: A dark cloak, and most of his magic comes from spells, potions, and poisons. He is described as a "sickness" which seems to reappear in Delain when there is something worth destroying. In this novel, Flagg schemes to throw the kingdom of Delain into chaos by poisoning the king and framing Prince Peter, the legitimate heir to the throne, for the crime. Peter's naive, resentful younger brother Thomas becomes king instead; Flagg, whom he sees as his only friend, becomes his royal advisor. Due to his youth and inexperience, Thomas allows Flagg great power and

1904-405: A description of DeFreeze: "Donald DeFreeze is a dark man". He remembered that in photographs of the bank robbery in which Patty Hearst participated that DeFreeze was only partially visible, hidden under a large hat. What he looked like was based on guesses made by people who only saw a portion of him. This inspired King, who then wrote "A dark man with no face". After reading "Once in every generation

2040-518: A final brilliant interval before true death. In dreams—his, at least—the bad guys, the scary guys, never have complex emotions. Stephen King, Wolves of the Calla Flagg's embodiment of evil is not the only characteristic seen by critics. Author Joseph Reino commented that the character's presence in The Stand was "Stephen King's version of a pestilential Big Brother ". Tony Magistrale revisits

2176-580: A flashback in the second installment of the Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three . Roland recalls seeing two men named Thomas and Dennis pursuing a man named Flagg, who was almost certainly a demon. These are implied to be the same characters from The Eyes of the Dragon . This is the first example of the Dark Tower series crossing over with one of King's other novels. Flagg makes his next full appearance in

2312-479: A higher power to which Flagg "must appeal to his abilities" as there is with traditional evil. Flagg is more of a "humanesque evil", which works against him as much as it does for him. His supernatural knowledge is fallible, and the customary black-and-white depiction is replaced with an "acceptance of a shadowy gray area". Stickler says that although Flagg appears "terrifying and supernatural" as depicted by King, there are no absolutes. She concludes that Flagg represents

2448-453: A leader." Beginning in 2007, Marvel Comics released a series of comics which were a prequel to the Dark Tower novels. Randall Flagg, appearing as Marten Broadcloak and Walter o'Dim, plays a significant role in the series. In April 2009, Marvel released a single-issue comic written by Robin Furth and illustrated by Richard Isanove entitled The Dark Tower: Sorcerer , which focused on

2584-587: A liar, and a tempter". To Stringell, Flagg's disappearance at the end of The Stand shows that "evil ultimately leads nowhere". The author calls Flagg a "generic hybrid" of the archetypical "Dark Man and the Trickster". To her, the combination of these two characteristics found in different cultural realms forces people to face their "flawed humanity" with the " amorality " Flagg represents. Jenifer Paquette, author of Respecting The Stand: A Critical Analysis of Stephen King's Apocalyptic Novel , writes that "Flagg's horror

2720-520: A long discussion about Roland's destiny and the Tower which causes him to slip into delirium. He awakens to find a pile of bones in Walter's place. In the original edition, Walter and Marten are separate characters, with Walter dying at the end of the novel. When King published an expanded edition of the novel,and Walter and Marten are portrayed as identical, and Walter fakes his own death. Flagg appears briefly in

2856-537: A man walking the roads in cowboy boots, denim jeans and a jacket, a notion which "came out of nowhere" when he was in college. King first wrote the poem " The Dark Man " in college, about an unnamed man who rides the rails and confesses to murder and rape. The one-page poem was published in Ubris in 1969. According to King, the poem served as the genesis for Flagg. There was a dark hilarity in his face, and perhaps in his heart, too, you would think—and you would be right. It

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2992-575: A more personal style. In 1846, he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861, he had published the collection Men and Women (1855). His Dramatis Personae (1864) and book-length epic poem The Ring and the Book (1868–1869) made him a leading poet. By his death in 1889, he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societies for studying his work survived in Britain and

3128-413: A muck With this old world, for want of strife Sound asleep: contrive, contrive To rouse us, Waring! Who's alive? Our men scarce seem in earnest now: Distinguished names!—but 'tis, somehow, As if they played at being names Still more distinguished, like the games Of children. Bells and Pomegranates No. III: Dramatic Lyrics (1842) In March 1833, " Pauline, a Fragment of a Confession "

3264-673: A musical setting of Prospice in 1894 for baritone and string quartet. Stephen Banfield rates it highly among musical settings of Browning, calling it "one of his few very powerful compositions". It has been recorded by Martin Oxenham and the Bingham String Quartet. In 1914, the American modernist composer Charles Ives created the Robert Browning Overture , a dense and darkly dramatic piece with gloomy overtones reminiscent of

3400-481: A new civilization in the United States after a plague kills most of the population. Flagg is described as a "tall man of no age" in old blue jeans, denim jacket and old cowboy boots. He wears an old Boy Scout knapsack, and his jacket pockets are stuffed with pamphlets from dozens of fringe splinter groups. Flagg's background is vague, even to him; he says that at some point he just "became", although he remembers being

3536-457: A pack of cards, which includes such omens as "the sailor," "the prisoner," "the lady of shadows," "death," and the Tower itself. The man in black states that he is a pawn of Roland's true enemy , who now controls the Dark Tower itself. The man in black also reveals that he was Marten. He then sends Roland a vision of the universe, zooming out past a red planet covered in canals , a ring of rocks ,

3672-469: A plantation in St Kitts and was rumoured in the family to have a mixed-race ancestry including some Jamaican blood, but author Julia Markus suggests she was Kittitian rather than Jamaican. The evidence is inconclusive. Robert's father, a literary collector, had a library of some 6,000 books; many of them were rare so that Robert grew up in a household with significant literary resources. His mother, to whom he

3808-511: A public execution, one of Flagg's most loyal followers, the Trashcan Man, arrives with a nuclear warhead salvaged from a military base. As Trash is dying of radiation poisoning , the ball of fire Flagg had summoned to kill Whitney the cook descends as a supernatural hand, detonating the warhead and annihilating Flagg, his followers, and the prisoners. An expanded edition of The Stand was published in 1990, restoring text that had been cut from

3944-573: A quasi- immortality . After centuries of wreaking havoc, Flagg attracts the attention of the Crimson King, who adopts him as his emissary. In 2012, King published a new story from The Dark Tower entitled The Wind Through the Keyhole . Here Flagg is depicted as the Covenant Man: central villain of the book's story within a story , "The Wind Through the Keyhole", a legend from Mid-World set years before

4080-488: A result of his new contacts he met Macready , who invited him to write a play. Strafford was performed five times. Browning then wrote two other plays, one of which was not performed, while the other failed, Browning having fallen out with Macready. In 1838, he visited Italy looking for background for Sordello , a long poem in heroic couplets, presented as the imaginary biography of the Mantuan bard spoken of by Dante in

4216-585: A rival emerging civilization— Mother Abagail 's Free Zone in Boulder, Colorado —to become the dominant society in the former United States . After two of Flagg's followers fail to kill the leaders of the Free Zone, the Boulder community sends a group of men to Las Vegas to stop him. The three who reach the city are taken prisoner, and Flagg orders one of them executed for his defiance. As the other two are being prepared for

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Misplaced Pages Continue

4352-592: A series of long poems published in the early 1870s, of which Balaustion's Adventure and Red Cotton Night-Cap Country were the best-received, the volume Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper included an attack against Browning's critics, especially Alfred Austin , who was later to become Poet Laureate . According to some reports Browning became romantically involved with Louisa Caroline Stewart-Mackenzie , Lady Ashburton, but he refused her proposal of marriage, and did not remarry. In 1878, he revisited Italy for

4488-604: A sexual relationship with the female personification of Maerlyn's Grapefruit, one of the spheres. This is described as incestuous , since the beings were given life by Maerlyn, Walter's biological father; Marten and the Grapefruit repeatedly call each other as brother and sister. The siblings also refer to the Crimson King as their "cousin", indicating that Maerlyn is related to him. In her afterword, Furth says that although she conceived these ideas, King approved them. According to

4624-453: A spirit face materialized, which Home claimed was Browning's son who had died in infancy: Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be Home's bare foot. To make the deception worse, Browning had never lost a son in infancy. After the séance, Browning wrote an angry letter to The Times , in which he said: "the whole display of hands, spirit utterances etc., was a cheat and imposture." In 1902 Browning's son Pen wrote: "Home

4760-511: A success and brought popular fame to the couple in the United States. The role of Elizabeth became a signature role for the actress Katharine Cornell . It was twice adapted into film. It was also the basis of the stage musical Robert and Elizabeth , with music by Ron Grainer and book and lyrics by Ronald Millar . Browning is an important character in Michael Dibdin 's 1986 novel A rich full death . "God's in his heaven – All's right in

4896-403: A trap for Roland. Roland meets the leader of the local church, who reveals to him that the man in black impregnated her with a demon . She turns the entire town against Roland, who is forced to kill everyone. When he awakens the morning after telling Brown this story, his mule is dead, forcing him to proceed on foot. Roland arrives at an abandoned way station and first encounters Jake Chambers ,

5032-536: A variety of names, usually with the initial letters " R. F. " but with occasional exceptions, such as Walter o'Dim and Marten Broadcloak in The Dark Tower series. Flagg first appeared in King's 1978 novel The Stand as a demonic figure who wreaks havoc after a plague kills most of the world population. He makes his second appearance in the 1984 novel The Eyes of the Dragon as an evil wizard trying to plunge

5168-407: A young boy. Roland collapses from dehydration, and Jake brings him water. Jake remembers neither how long he has been at the way station nor exactly how he got there, and he hid when the man in black passed through. Roland hypnotizes Jake to determine the details of where he came from and discovers he died in a different universe that appears much closer in nature to our own. He was pushed in front of

5304-440: Is "somebody who's very charismatic, laughs a lot, [is] tremendously attractive to men and women both, and [is] somebody who just appeals to the worst in all of us". This idea carries over into The Stand , in which Flagg first appears as the personification of evil opposing Mother Abagail , the personification of good. Character Tom Cullen ascribes to Flagg the ability to kill animals and inflict cancer at will, referring to him as

5440-422: Is a separate person from Walter, who is also not known to be Flagg, but Marten and Walter are retconned into one character in the revised version. When Roland was young, Marten had an affair with Roland's mother, Gabrielle, using the affair to provoke Roland to take the gunslinger test early. He hoped Roland would fail so he would be exiled but Roland passed the test. Eventually, Roland catches Walter; they have

5576-410: Is based on his ability to replace peace with conflict and unity with destruction; although he seeks power, it is merely a resource to achieve a greater level of destruction. Author and journalist Heidi Stringell finds Flagg "an embodiment of pure evil", contending that King sees good and evil as "real forces"; Flagg's embodiment of evil is confirmed by the fact that "he is a killer, a maker of mischief,

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Misplaced Pages Continue

5712-411: Is easily manipulated by the wizard. Flagg becomes the de facto ruler of Delain, plunging the kingdom into a Dark Age. Years later Thomas confronts Flagg about his father's murder, which he witnessed as a child but suppressed the memory out of fear. Thomas shoots Flagg in the eye with an arrow, and Flagg disappears from the kingdom. Peter is given his rightful throne; Thomas and his butler, Dennis, leave

5848-427: Is his involuntary unfolding of one of the largest, most enigmatic, and most multipersoned literary and human selves you can hope to encounter." More recently, critics such as Annmarie Drury, Hédi A. Jaouad, and Joseph Hankinson have shifted to focus on Browning's surprising receptivity to other cultures, languages, and literary traditions. His work has nevertheless had many detractors, and most of his voluminous output

5984-577: Is identified near the novel's end as leader of an activist group when he prevents Carol Gerber from retrieving an unexploded bomb on a college campus. King never identifies Fiegler as Flagg, but Christopher Golden and Hank Wagner suggest in The Complete Stephen King Universe that there is little doubt Fiegler is Flagg. Golden and Wagner cite evidence such as Fiegler's ability to make himself appear "dim", an ability shared by Flagg in Eyes of

6120-452: Is more" ( Andrea Del Sarto ), "It was roses, roses all the way" ( The Patriot ), and "God's in His heaven—All's right with the world!" ( Pippa Passes ). His critical reputation has traditionally rested mainly on his dramatic monologues , in which the words not only convey setting and action but reveal the speaker's character. In a Browning monologue, unlike a soliloquy , the meaning is not what

6256-514: Is not mentioned. Furth wrote in the comic's afterword that the idea of Maerlyn being Walter's father came from King. The comic also reveals that Marten had poisoned Roland's infant brother. Furth introduced the idea that the Bends o' the Rainbow , 13 magic spheres created by Maerlyn in the distant past, are sentient beings able to project personifications which can interact with other characters. Marten has

6392-406: Is not widely read. In a largely hostile essay Anthony Burgess wrote: "We all want to like Browning, but we find it very hard." Gerard Manley Hopkins and George Santayana were also critical. The latter expressed his views in the essay "The Poetry of Barbarism", which attacks Browning and Walt Whitman for what he regarded as their embrace of irrationality. The young Henry Walford Davies made

6528-456: Is quite a demonic figure, and as such he is one of the great anti-heroes of contemporary popular fiction" and that "journeying into Walter's mind is a pretty wild experience and at times a little frightening. You have to travel to very dark places." To find Walter's voice, Furth went to John Milton 's Paradise Lost , William Blake 's Proverbs of Hell , the Biblical Song of Solomon and

6664-464: Is seen cycling through the Dallas throngs just before the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the final episode. In 2019, Finnish actor Jasper Pääkkönen was cast as Marten Broadcloak for the pilot of Amazon Prime Video 's television adaptation of The Dark Tower , but Amazon ultimately decided not to pursue the series. In the same year, Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård was cast as Randall Flagg in

6800-458: Is that he looks like an ordinary man, and his behavior is a mockery of humanity - a terrible insight into the human psyche. King suggests that the thing to fear the most is inside ourselves". Douglas Winter, author of Fear Itself: The Horror Fiction of Stephen King , believes that Flagg epitomizes the Gothic villain—an " atavistic embodiment of evil"—since his appearance is indistinct, malleable and

6936-549: Is that which becomes imbalanced and even prejudiced, the mitigating factor here is that Flagg is not an originator of evil - he is just caught up in its web as another wronged individual seeking justice". McAleer compares Flagg to Satan in Paradise Lost , suggesting that he may be another "fallen angel who has a valid case supporting his devilry". While agreeing that Flagg can be seen "relishing in evil deeds at almost every juncture", he contends that no judgement can be made without

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7072-545: Is the most Shakespearean creature since Shakespeare. If Shakespeare could sing with myriad lips, Browning could stammer through a thousand mouths. [...] Yes, Browning was great. And as what will he be remembered? As a poet? Ah, not as a poet! He will be remembered as a writer of fiction, as the most supreme writer of fiction, it may be, that we have ever had. His sense of dramatic situation was unrivalled, and, if he could not answer his own problems, he could at least put problems forth, and what more should an artist do? Considered from

7208-499: Is the most considerable poet in English since the major Romantics, surpassing his great contemporary rival Tennyson and the principal twentieth-century poets, including even Yeats , Hardy , and Wallace Stevens . But Browning is a very difficult poet, notoriously badly served by criticism , and ill-served also by his own accounts of what he was doing as a poet.... Yet when you read your way into his world, precisely his largest gift to you

7344-439: Is the same: "I know all the things that you want and I can give them to you and all you have to do is give me your soul ". Critics also note Flagg's penchant for evil. Tony Magistrale , author of Stephen King: The Second Decade, Danse Macabre to The Dark Half sees Flagg as a Shakespearean villain, comparing him to Iago , Edmund and Richard III , contending that Flagg is an antihero . Magistrale believes that Flagg's evil

7480-748: Is via a flashback revealing that Flagg bargained with the succubus Mia; this resulted in the birth of Mordred Deschain , son of both Roland and the Crimson King . In The Dark Tower , Flagg indicates that he is not John Farson, but served under him until the latter's downfall. Flagg reveals his plans to climb the Dark Tower, see the room at the top and become the god of all. Flagg believes that he can only achieve this by killing Mordred and taking his birthmark-stained foot. Although he tries to befriend Mordred and pledge allegiance to him, Mordred telepathically senses Flagg's true motives and eats him, forcing him to rip out his eyes and tongue first. The Dark Tower reveals more of Flagg's background, relating that he

7616-608: The American Dream ... King's 'Walkin' Dude' may not be the Devil, himself, as Mother Abagail says, but he comes pretty damn close..." Initially, artist Mike Perkins said he felt "Flagg needed to be designed less as a man—more as a force of nature. His hair will obscure his features, his face will be almost always in heavy shadow. This is the creature lurking under your bed, in your wardrobe, in your nightmares. Slightly familiar but wholly terrifying." Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa later commented on

7752-581: The CBS All Access miniseries adaptation of The Stand . Showrunner Taylor Elmore described Skarsgård's Flagg with "[he] is so beautiful, he is absolutely a lion-like God figure. With perfect hair and... and also, there's a softness to Alex's performance that I think is fascinating. Alex just plays it where you feel not only sympathy for this character, but you hopefully understand why it's so easy for people to gravitate toward him. He's just magnetic, he's just absolutely fascinating to watch. He's galvanizing as

7888-464: The Church of England . He had inherited substantial musical ability through his mother, and composed arrangements of various songs. He refused a formal career and ignored his parents' remonstrations by dedicating himself to poetry. He stayed at home until the age of 34, financially dependent on his family until his marriage. His father sponsored the publication of his son's poems. Some one shall somehow run

8024-585: The Divine Comedy , canto 6 of Purgatory, set against a background of hate and conflict during the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines . This was published in 1840 and met with widespread derision, gaining him the reputation of wanton carelessness and obscurity. Tennyson, jokingly, commented that he only understood the first and last lines. Jane Welsh Carlyle , wife of Thomas Carlyle (a friend of Browning's who deeply influenced Browning's poetry), quipped that she read

8160-465: The Second Viennese School . In 1917, the U.S. composer Margaret Hoberg Turrell composed a song based on Browning's poem "Love: Such a Starved Bank of Moss". In 1920, the U.S. composer Anne Stratton composed one based on Browning's poem "Parting at Morning". In 1930, the story of Browning and his wife was made into the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street , by Rudolph Besier . It was

8296-489: The Victorian poets . He was noted for irony , characterization , dark humour , social commentary , historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax . His early long poems Pauline (1833) and Paracelsus (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem Sordello was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to

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8432-595: The Calla , Flagg makes a brief appearance as Walter o'Dim when Father Callahan arrives in Roland's world. Flagg gives Callahan Black Thirteen , a dangerous crystal ball, hoping it will kill Roland on his way to the tower. In this encounter, Flagg is described with "the face of a human weasel", and "the same welling red circle" on his forehead as the Can-toi . His appearance in Song of Susannah

8568-577: The Dark Tower Series: Art, Evil and Intertextuality in the Stephen King Novels , argues that Flagg's situation is the most sympathetic of all of King's characters, and his evil may be retribution: "[I]n suspending any disbelief in the possibility that reprisal is a reaction to rape, the life of Flagg becomes one that looks to strike a balance for the sexual crime committed against him. And although Flagg's possible search for justice and balance

8704-418: The Dark Tower. In flashbacks, the reader learns that Flagg as Walter o'Dim was an emissary for John Farson , one of those responsible for the destruction of Roland's home Gilead. The "Argument", a summary of the series thus far, beginning Wolves of the Calla —the fifth novel in the series—notes that Flagg is known as Broadcloak, Fannin and John Farson, depending on the world in which he lives. In Wolves of

8840-663: The Dragon , his manipulation of Carol Gerber and her activist friends and Flagg's frequent use of aliases, usually with the initials "R.F." Stephen King's novel Gwendy's Button Box , which he co-wrote with Richard Chizmar , features a mysterious man in black named Richard Farris. Farris gives a young girl, Gwendy Peterson, a "button box" which, depending on the buttons or levers that are used, can dispense magical treats or cause death and destruction. Farris reappeared in Gwendy's Magic Feather (written solely by Chizmar) and Gwendy's Final Task (co-written by both King and Chizmar). Chizmar

8976-573: The Rings : both collapse when directly confronted. Journalist Alissa Stickler describes Flagg as a "contemporary medievalist interpretation on the themes of evil, magic and the (d)evil figure". She likens Flagg to Merlin , whispering in the ear of Arthur . Stickler notes that Flagg is politically powerful in The Stand and The Eyes of the Dragon ; he uses his power differently in each novel, challenging depictions of evil and witchcraft common in medieval times. She explains that there does not appear to be

9112-642: The US into the 20th century. Browning was born in Walworth in the parish of Camberwell , Surrey, which now forms part of the Borough of Southwark in south London. He was baptised on 14 June 1812, at Lock's Fields Independent Chapel, York Street, Walworth, the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning. His father was a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England , earning about £150 per year. Browning's paternal grandfather

9248-447: The already-out-of-print book. This led to another run of ten-thousand copies. In 1988, Plume released it in trade paperback form. In 2003, the novel was reissued in a revised and expanded version with modified language and added and changed scenes intended to resolve inconsistencies with the later books in the series. It is dedicated to Edward L. Ferman , long-time editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction . The book tells

9384-410: The character a "grim intensity". He commented that Sheridan had "leading-man looks" with the hair of a "dissolute heavy metal star", making him "unsettling" even when not wearing makeup that makes him look like a devil . Douglas E. Winter of Fangoria magazine believed that Sheridan might have been a bit young and "zany" for the part, but gave a credible performance; he said that Sheridan attacked

9520-532: The character in a second book, this time comparing him to Norman Mailer . Here, Magistrale states that in The Stand Flagg gives the reader an "illustration of King's jaundiced perspective of modern America" as he presents the consequences of technology—worship and the sacrifice of "moral integrity to the quest for synthetic productivity". Flagg's background as a rape victim and its impact on his character have also been explored. Patrick McAleer, author of Inside

9656-486: The character of Marten Broadcloak-Walter o'Dim. Sorcerer provides an origin for the character that is different from the one King initially wrote, explaining that Walter was the son of the wizard Maerlyn and Selena, Goddess of the Black Moon. Walter was left at the home of a mill owner "to learn the ways of men". At age 13, Walter burns down his adoptive father's mill before running away to find his true father; Walter's rape

9792-544: The comic, Marten's romantic feelings for Roland's mother trigger jealousy in the Grapefruit who influences Roland to unwittingly kill his mother; in Wizard and Glass , the witch known as Rhea of the Cöos orchestrates Roland's matricide as revenge for his killing of her pet snake. Enraged, Marten imprisons his "sister" in the Grapefruit and vows revenge on Roland for his involvement in his beloved's death. Addressing inconsistencies between

9928-460: The demon Legion , while character Glen Bateman refers to him as the Lovecraftian entity Nyarlathotep , among other ancient names. King wanted Flagg to embody a "gigantic evil", although he intended the character to weaken by the end of The Stand . He said, "I think the Devil is probably a pretty funny guy. Flagg is like the archetype of everything that I know about real evil, going back all

10064-447: The desert in search of the man in black, whom he knows as Walter, he encounters a farmer named Brown and his raven, Zoltan. Roland spends the night there and recalls his time spent in Tull, a small town Roland passed through not long before meeting them. The man in black had also stayed in the town; he brought a dead man stricken by addiction to the opiate-like "devil grass" back to life and left

10200-420: The fictional medieval city of Delain into chaos. Flagg is a primary antagonist in King's epic series, The Dark Tower , where he tries to keep protagonist Roland Deschain from reaching the Tower – the linchpin of existence – so he can claim it for himself and become a god. The Dark Tower expanded on Flagg's background and motivation, linking his previous appearances. Flagg was portrayed by Jamey Sheridan in

10336-420: The first book: "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed". In this series, Flagg assumes the guise of several individuals. He first appears as Walter o'Dim, chased across the desert by Roland. In flashbacks Flagg assumes the identity of Marten Broadcloak, a wizard who conspires with the Crimson King to cause the fall of the Dark Tower. In the original edition of the first novel Marten

10472-523: The first time in the seventeen years since Elizabeth's death, and returned there on several further occasions. In 1887, Browning produced the major work of his later years, Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day . It finally presented the poet speaking in his own voice, engaging in a series of dialogues with long-forgotten figures of literary, artistic, and philosophic history. The Victorian public

10608-439: The influence of Coriolanus on Browning's politics, has attempted to situate the poet's political sensibility at the centre of his practice. Browning was raised in an evangelical non-conformist household. However, after his reading of Shelley he is said to have briefly become an atheist. Browning is also said to have made an uncharacteristic admission of faith to Alfred Domett, when he is said to have admired Byron's poetry "as

10744-514: The jawbone from the skeleton before traveling to the shore of the Western Sea. King revised The Gunslinger in 2003. In his introduction to the new edition, King stated that he felt the original version was "dry" and difficult for new readers to access. He also made the storytelling more linear and the book's plot more consistent with the series ending. Other changes were made to resolve continuity errors introduced by later volumes. The added material

10880-408: The kingdom in search of Flagg. The novel states that Thomas and Dennis find Flagg, but the nature of their encounter is never revealed and Flagg survives to engender chaos in later stories. Flagg makes several appearances in King's Dark Tower series (1982-2012), which follows gunslinger Roland Deschain as he travels in search of the Dark Tower. Flagg's presence is felt in the opening sentence of

11016-430: The ladies' hearts go pitty pat, that looked like the type of guy you would see on the cover of one of those sweet, savage love paperback romances". He eventually persuaded Garris to cast a lesser-known actor as Flagg; Garris ultimately chose Jamey Sheridan for the role. Sheridan's performance was generally well received. Entertainment Weekly ' s Ken Tucker wrote that the best acting came from Sheridan, who gave

11152-590: The length and difficulty of his most ambitious poems, particularly Sordello and, to a lesser extent, The Ring and the Book . Nevertheless, they have included such eminent writers as Henry James , Oscar Wilde , George Bernard Shaw , G. K. Chesterton , Ezra Pound , Graham Greene , Evelyn Waugh , Jorge Luis Borges , and Vladimir Nabokov . Among living writers, Stephen King 's The Dark Tower series, A. S. Byatt 's Possession , and Maggie O'Farrell 's The Marriage Portrait refer directly to Browning's work. Today Browning's critically most esteemed poems include

11288-478: The medieval monster both past and future, which challenges and yet supports the literary Middle Ages. Flagg's character has its detractors. In his essay "The Glass-Eyed Dragon", author L. Sprague de Camp criticizes Flagg in Eyes of the Dragon , saying that he is one of the least-believable characters in the book and too evil to be credible. According to de Camp, absolute evil is hard to envision; whereas Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin believed they were improving

11424-489: The monologues Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came , Fra Lippo Lippi , Andrea Del Sarto , and My Last Duchess . His most popular poems include Porphyria's Lover , How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix , the diptych Meeting at Night , the patriotic Home Thoughts from Abroad , and the children's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin . His abortive dinner-party recital of How They Brought The Good News

11560-425: The mountain, traveling on an old railway handcar . They are attacked by subterranean creatures called "Slow Mutants." At the tunnel's exit, they continue on foot. As the track on which they are traveling begins to break, Roland lets Jake fall into an abyss and continues his quest. After sacrificing Jake in the mountain, Roland makes his way down to speak with the man in black. The man in black reads Roland's fate from

11696-559: The novel were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction : It took King twelve-and-a-half years to finish the novel. The finished product was first published by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. as a limited edition in 1982. The following year, because the Pet Sematary cover noted The Gunslinger among King's previous works, many fans called the offices of King, Grant, and Doubleday wanting more information on

11832-463: The novels and the comics, Furth stated that the comics exist on another level of the Tower: "a spinoff world, one which is very similar to, but not exactly the same as the one where [the Dark Tower novels] take place". On the character of Marten, Furth noted that "[he] is one of the scariest characters that Stephen King has ever created. He moves from book to book, bringing chaos and anarchy with him... He

11968-465: The old song " Hey Jude " and the child's rhyme that begins " Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit ", as well as the existence of hamburgers and beer . Vestiges of forgotten or skewed versions of real-world technology also appear, such as a reference to a gas pump that is worshipped as a god named " Amoco " and an abandoned way station with a water pump powered by an "atomic slug." As Roland travels across

12104-460: The original edition. It includes an epilogue in which Flagg appears on a beach and finds a primitive tribe ready to fall under his influence. Flagg later appears in The Eyes of the Dragon , published in 1984 as an evil wizard wreaking havoc in the medieval country of Delain. He is described as a "thin and stern-faced man of about 50 [years of age]", despite being much older. He hides himself under

12240-544: The original idea of hiding Flagg's face: "...the further into the book and the adaptation you go, the less feasible that becomes. Stephen spends so much time describing [Flagg]'s features and smiles, you need to show those things." King initially named Donald DeFreeze , lead kidnapper in the Patty Hearst case, as his inspiration for Randall Flagg. According to King, he remembered the Patty Hearst case when he began to write

12376-406: The part. Director Mick Garris and the studios wanted to give the role to an established star such as Christopher Walken , James Woods , Willem Dafoe or Jeff Goldblum . King himself had suggested Robert Duvall in his introduction to the novel. Miguel Ferrer , who played Flagg's henchman in the film, was interested in playing the villain. King's idea for the role was someone who "would make

12512-402: The plague will fall among them", King began writing The Stand and developing the character of Randall Flagg. In 2004, King said that Flagg had been a presence in his writing since the beginning of his career, with the idea coming to him in college. He first wrote a poem, " The Dark Man ", about a man who rides the rails and confesses to murder and rape ; written on the back of a placemat in

12648-408: The poem is composed of 12 books: essentially 10 lengthy dramatic monologues narrated by various characters in the story, showing their individual perspectives on events, bookended by an introduction and conclusion by Browning himself. Long even by Browning's standards (over twenty-thousand lines), The Ring and the Book was his most ambitious project and is arguably his greatest work; it has been called

12784-472: The poem through and "could not tell whether Sordello was a [sic] 'a book, a city, or a man'". Browning's reputation began to make a partial recovery with the publication, 1841–1846, of Bells and Pomegranates , a series of eight pamphlets, originally intended just to include his plays. Fortunately for Browning's career, his publisher, Moxon, persuaded him to include some "dramatic lyrics", some of which had already appeared in periodicals. In 1845, Browning met

12920-505: The poems that eventually composed his two-volume Men and Women , for which he is now well known, although in 1855, when they were published, they made relatively little impact. In 1861, Elizabeth died in Florence. Among those whom he found consoling in that period was the novelist and poet Isa Blagden , with whom he and his wife had a voluminous correspondence. The following year Browning returned to London, taking Pen with him, who by then

13056-609: The poet Elizabeth Barrett , six years his senior, who lived as a semi-invalid in her father's house in Wimpole Street , London. They began regularly corresponding and gradually a romance developed between them, leading to their marriage and journey to Italy (for Elizabeth's health) on 12 September 1846. The marriage was initially secret because Elizabeth's domineering father disapproved of marriage for any of his children. Mr. Barrett disinherited Elizabeth, as he did each of his children who married: "The Mrs. Browning of popular imagination

13192-416: The point of view of a creator of character he ranks next to him who made Hamlet . Had he been articulate, he might have sat beside him. The only man who can touch the hem of his garment is George Meredith . Meredith is a prose Browning, and so is Browning. He used poetry as a medium for writing in prose." Probably the most adulatory judgment of Browning by a modern critic comes from Harold Bloom : "Browning

13328-445: The recording, which still exists, Browning recites part of How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix (and can be heard apologising when he forgets the words). When the recording was played in 1890 on the anniversary of his death, at a gathering of his admirers, it was said to be the first time anyone's voice "had been heard from beyond the grave." Browning's admirers have tended to temper their praise with reservations about

13464-407: The role "with the swagger of Elvis , the sway of David Koresh and as much craziness as your heart desires (and network TV allows)". In February 2011, Warner Bros. announced plans to produce a new feature film adaptation of The Stand . King commented that he would like to see Dutch actor Rutger Hauer in the role of Flagg, but conceded that he was perhaps too old for the part. In August 2014, it

13600-646: The series' beginning. He is the Barony's "tax collector" from Gilead, attempting to collect taxes from residents of the small town of Tree. The Covenant Man sends the story's protagonist, a young boy named Tim, on a perilous quest through the Endless Forest to save his mother; unbeknownst to Tim, the Covenant Man is supplying him with false prophecies and misinformation as part of a cruel practical joke. However, Tim succeeds in his journey; he saves his mother after encountering

13736-453: The series' third installment, The Waste Lands . In the city of Lud , Flagg saves Tick-Tock Man Andrew Quick , an enemy of Roland's ka-tet left for dead in an earlier confrontation. Quick becomes Flagg's devoted servant, and Flagg assumes the name of Richard Fannin. The character returns in the fourth book, Wizard and Glass , as Marten Broadcloak. Also identifying himself as Flagg, he warns Roland and his ka-tet to abandon their quest for

13872-422: The speaker voluntarily reveals but what he inadvertently gives away, usually while rationalising past actions or special pleading his case to a silent auditor. These monologues have been influential, and today the best of them are often treated by teachers and lecturers as paradigm cases of the monologue form. One such example used by teachers today is his satirisation of the sadistic attitude in his Soliloquy in

14008-475: The story of The Gunslinger, Roland of Gilead , and his quest to catch the man in black , the first of many steps toward Roland's ultimate destination, The Dark Tower. The main story takes place in a world somewhat similar to the Old West but in an alternate timeframe or parallel universe . Roland exists in a world that has "moved on." This world has a few things in common with our own, however, including memories of

14144-504: The succubus, who is also an oracle, to learn more about his fate and the path to the Dark Tower. In a flashback, it is revealed that Roland is the son of Steven Deschain, a Gunslinger and lord of Gilead. Roland received a brutal training at the hand of his teacher, Cort. Roland was tricked into a premature test of manhood by dueling with Cort at age 14, earlier than any other apprentice. He was provoked by Marten , who served as Steven's wizard and seduced Roland's mother, Gabrielle Deschain. That

14280-421: The vendor's string, And broad-edge bold-print posters by the wall. He took such cognizance of men and things, If any beat a horse, you felt he saw; If any cursed a woman, he took note; Yet stared at nobody—you stared at him, And found, less to your pleasure than surprise, He seemed to know you and expect as much. Men and Women (1855) In Florence, probably from early in 1853, Browning worked on

14416-643: The volumes in which they were published. (His only notable prose work, with the exception of his letters, is his Essay on Shelley .) Randall Flagg Randall Flagg is a fictional character created by American author Stephen King , who has appeared in at least nine of his novels. Described as "an accomplished sorcerer and a devoted servant of the Outer Dark", he has supernatural abilities involving necromancy , prophecy , and influence over animal and human behavior. His goals typically center on bringing down civilizations through destruction and conflict. He has

14552-470: The way to Charles Starkweather in the '50s—he is somebody who is empty and who has to be filled with other people's hates, fears, resentments, laughs. Flagg, Koresh , Jim Jones , Hitler —they're all basically the same guy". Although Flagg does not explicitly represent Satan , this does not detract from what King sees as his ultimate goal. He notes that no matter who sees him or how he is seen as Flagg appears differently to different individuals, his message

14688-503: The wizard Maerlyn, who has been imprisoned in the form of a "tyger". While the Covenant Man is not explicitly identified as Flagg, with only the initials "RF/MB" in his signature as identification and at one point being referred to as 'the man in the black cloak', Stephen King confirmed in an interview with Bev Vincent for his book The Dark Tower Companion that the two are one and the same. In Hearts in Atlantis (1999), Raymond Fiegler

14824-619: The work. Allan Cunningham praised it in the Athenaeum . However, it sold no copies. Some years later, probably in 1850, Dante Gabriel Rossetti came across it in the Reading Room of the British Museum and wrote to Browning, then in Florence , to ask if he was the author. John Stuart Mill , however, wrote that the author suffered from an "intense and morbid self-consciousness". Later Browning

14960-501: The world", an excerpt from his poem, Pippa Passes, is the slogan for the fictional organisation NERV from Hideaki Anno 's 1995 anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion . A memorial plaque on the site of Browning's London home, in Warwick Crescent, Maida Vale , was unveiled on 11 December 1993. This section lists the plays and volumes of poetry Browning published in his lifetime. Some individually notable poems are also listed, under

15096-404: The world, Flagg only enjoys causing destruction and chaos. De Camp notes that Flagg fails to see that there is no advantage to his actions. Walter's eyes widen, and for a moment he looks deeply hurt. This may be absurd, but Callahan is looking into the man's deep eyes and feels sure that the emotion is nonetheless genuine. And the surety robs him of any last hope that all this might be a dream, or

15232-492: The world. He sees it with a sort of delight, even though he is obviously on the wrong side of the light-and-dark spectrum. He's someone I've been having a lot of fun with." McConaughey described Walter as " the Devil having a good time, getting turned on by exposing human hypocrisies wherever he finds them". The 2016 miniseries 11.22.63 , based on King's 2011 novel 11/22/63 , incorporates numerous references to other King stories, including an appearance by Randall Flagg, who

15368-408: The writings of Aleister Crowley for inspiration. In his interview with Bev Vincent, Isanove opined that Walter was his favorite character to draw; " Jae [Lee, the original artist for the series] established him as almost androgynous. He's always got this bare chest, and he's very feminine in the way he moves, with his hands raised. He's always moving his hands around. He's got this weird face, with

15504-476: Was 12 years old. They made their home in 17 Warwick Crescent , Maida Vale . It was only when he became part of the London literary scene—albeit while paying frequent visits to Italy (though never again to Florence)—that his reputation started to take off. In 1868, after five years' work, he completed and published the long blank-verse poem The Ring and the Book . Based on a convoluted murder-case from 1690s Rome,

15640-553: Was a serious contender to become Poet Laureate , the position eventually going to Tennyson . From the time of their marriage and until Elizabeth's death, the Brownings lived in Italy, residing first in Pisa , and then, within a year, finding an apartment in Florence at Casa Guidi (now a museum to their memory). Their only child, Robert Wiedemann Barrett Browning , nicknamed "Penini" or "Pen",

15776-555: Was a slave owner in Saint Kitts, West Indies , but Browning's father was an abolitionist . Browning's father had been sent to the West Indies to work on a sugar plantation but returned to England following a slave revolt. Browning's mother was the daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in Dundee , Scotland and his Scottish wife. His paternal grandmother, Margaret Tittle, had inherited

15912-471: Was a sweet, innocent young woman who suffered endless cruelties at the hands of a tyrannical papa but who nonetheless had the good fortune to fall in love with a dashing and handsome poet named Robert Browning." At her husband's insistence, the second edition of Elizabeth's Poems included her love sonnets. The book increased her popularity and high critical regard, cementing her position as an eminent Victorian poet. Upon William Wordsworth 's death in 1850, she

16048-403: Was a time of instability and revolution. Roland defeated Cort in battle by choosing his hawk, David, as his weapon and sacrificing David to distract Cort. Jake and Roland see the man in black at the mountain. He says he will meet just one of them on the other side, which aggravates Jake's fears that Roland will either kill or abandon him. Roland and Jake make their way into twisting tunnels within

16184-423: Was asked whether or not Richard Farris's initials signified that he was another manifestation of Randall Flagg; his response was "Maayyybee... He's definitely mysterious, and it's really obvious there's more to him than meets the eye." Chizmar later revealed during a Reddit AMA session that the initials were indeed indicative of Farris being Flagg. In 2022, King stated while the character started off as Flagg that

16320-574: Was baffled by this, and Browning returned to the brief, concise lyric for his last volume, Asolando (1889), published on the day of his death. Browning died at his son's home Ca' Rezzonico in Venice on 12 December 1889. He was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey ; his grave now lies immediately adjacent to that of Alfred Tennyson . During his life Browning was awarded many distinctions. He

16456-633: Was born Walter Padick in Delain to Sam the Miller of Eastar'd Barony. At age 13, Walter set out for a life on the road, but was raped by a fellow wanderer; author Bev Vincent hypothesized in The Road to the Dark Tower that Flagg's later actions toward Delain in The Eyes of the Dragon may have been revenge for the abuse he suffered as a child. Resisting the temptation to crawl back home, Padick instead moves toward his destiny; he learns various forms of magic, achieving

16592-511: Was born in 1849. In these years Browning was fascinated by, and learned from, the art and atmosphere of Italy. He would, in later life, describe Italy as his university. As Elizabeth had inherited money of her own, the couple were reasonably comfortable in Italy, and their relationship together was happy. However, the literary assault on Browning's work did not let up and he was critically dismissed further, by patrician writers such as Charles Kingsley , for deserting England. Browning identified as

16728-477: Was close, was a devout nonconformist and a talented musician. His younger sister, Sarianna, also gifted, became her brother's companion in his later years, after the death of his wife in 1861. His father encouraged his children's interest in literature and the arts. By the age of 12, Browning had written a book of poetry, which he later destroyed for want of a publisher. After attending one or two private schools and showing an insuperable dislike of school life, he

16864-462: Was detected in a vulgar fraud." Elizabeth, however, was convinced that the phenomena she witnessed were genuine, and her discussions about Home with her husband were a constant source of disagreement. He stood and watched the cobbler at his trade, The man who slices lemons into drink, The coffee-roaster's brazier , and the boys That volunteer to help him turn its winch. He glanced o'er books on stalls with half an eye, And fly-leaf ballads on

17000-588: Was educated at home by a tutor, using the resources of his father's library. By 14 he was fluent in French, Greek , Italian and Latin. He became an admirer of the Romantic poets , especially Shelley , whom he followed in becoming an atheist and a vegetarian. At 16, he studied Greek at University College London , but left after his first year. His parents' evangelical faith prevented his studying at either Oxford or Cambridge University , both then open only to members of

17136-472: Was made LL.D. of Edinburgh, a life Governor of London University, and had the offer of the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow . But he turned down anything that involved public speaking. At a dinner party on 7 April 1889, at the home of Browning's friend the artist Rudolf Lehmann , an Edison cylinder phonograph recording was made on a white wax cylinder by Edison 's British representative, George Gouraud . In

17272-453: Was no longer the case: "I saw him as a force of evil when I first started to write about the box. By the time I realized he was a force of the White, it was too late to change the initials." King was influential in deciding who would play Flagg in the 1994 television adaptation of The Stand . He felt Flagg was the best villain he had ever created, and wanted the actor playing him to be right for

17408-531: Was over 9000 words (35 pages) in length. Some changes include: In 2023, the book was banned, in Clay County District Schools, Florida . Stephen King and Nikolaj Arcel have confirmed that the 2017 film The Dark Tower is a sequel to the events of the Dark Tower book series, following Roland Deschain on his "last time round" the cycle to the titular Dark Tower, equipped with the Horn of Eld. The film

17544-485: Was probably suggested to him by the Comte Amédée de Ripart-Monclar, to whom it was dedicated. The publication had some commercial and critical success, being noticed by Wordsworth , Dickens , Landor , J. S. Mill and the already famous Tennyson . It is a monodrama without action, dealing with the problems confronting an intellectual trying to find his role in society. It gained him access to the London literary world. As

17680-555: Was published anonymously by Saunders and Otley at the expense of the author, Robert Browning, who received the money from his aunt, Mrs Silverthorne. It is a long poem composed in homage to the poet Shelley and somewhat in his style. Originally Browning considered Pauline as the first of a series written by different aspects of himself, but he soon abandoned this idea. The press noticed the publication. W. J. Fox writing in The Monthly Repository of April 1833 discerned merit in

17816-537: Was rather embarrassed by the work, and only included it in his collected poems of 1868 after making substantial changes and adding a preface in which he asked for indulgence for a boyish work. In 1834, he accompanied the Chevalier George de Benkhausen, the Russian consul-general, on a brief visit to St Petersburg and began Paracelsus , which was published in 1835. The subject of the 16th-century savant and alchemist

17952-609: Was recorded on an Edison wax cylinder , and is believed to be one of the oldest surviving recordings made in the United Kingdom of a notable person (a recording of Sir Arthur Sullivan 's voice was made about six months earlier). Browning is now popularly known for such poems as Porphyria's Lover , My Last Duchess , How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix , and The Pied Piper of Hamelin , and also for certain famous lines: "Grow old along with me!" ( Rabbi Ben Ezra ), "A man's reach should exceed his grasp" and "Less

18088-412: Was released August 4, 2017 by Columbia Pictures . The film has been stated to be a combination of the events of The Gunslinger and of the third novel The Waste Lands , while also incorporating significant story points from The Dark Tower . Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among

18224-438: Was reported that Warner Bros. wanted actor Matthew McConaughey for the role. McConaughey was confirmed to be playing Walter, Flagg's alter-ego, in the film adaptation of The Dark Tower in 2016. Nikolaj Arcel , the film's director and co-writer, said, "Matthew is an incredible actor who can do anything. That's how I feel about [Walter]. He could do anything." Arcel described Walter as having "a very interesting way of seeing

18360-573: Was the face of a hatefully happy man, a face that radiated a horrible handsome warmth, a face to make water glasses shatter in the hands of tired truck-stop waitresses, to make small children crash their trikes into board fences and then run wailing to their mommies with stake-shaped splinters sticking out of their knees. It was a face guaranteed to make barroom arguments over batting averages turn bloody. — Stephen King, The Stand Randall Flagg makes his first named appearance in King's 1978 apocalyptic novel The Stand , where he tries to construct

18496-618: Was the first and only time, I'll swear,— Look at me,—see, I kneel,—the only time, I swear, I ever cheated,—yes, by the soul Of Her who hears—(your sainted mother, sir!) All, except this last accident, was truth— This little kind of slip!—and even this, It was your own wine, sir, the good champagne, (I took it for Catawba —you're so kind) Which put the folly in my head! Dramatis Personae (1864) Browning believed spiritualism to be fraud, and proved one of Daniel Dunglas Home 's most adamant critics. When Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended one of his séances on 23 July 1855,

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