The Night of the Tiger

by Stephen King

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Audiobook, Animals

Unknown Binding

First published August 1, 1978

About the author

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father's family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen's grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

Reviews

[Ruth Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uncollected.

THE NIGHT OF THE TIGER:

Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1978: Number 321.

A fast good read.

[Jaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in Tails of Wonder and Imagination


First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (February 1978)

Later reprinted in:
More Tales of Unknown Horror (1979)
The Year's Best Horror Stories (1979)
The Third Book of Unknown Tales of Horror (1980)
Chamber of Horrors (1984)
The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1988)
Horrorstory, Volume Three (1992)
Tails of Wonder and Imagination (2010)
Midnight Under the Big Top (2020)

[Jonathan Dunne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early lesser-known SK short story. It's okay. Well written...obviously.

[Léah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick short story with a good ending. I enjoyed it. Kind of made my eyebrows go up at the end. King does that, you know. I love it.

[Kandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

King must have a thing for tigers. Here There Be Tygers, The Wind Through the Keyhole and now The Night of the Tiger. I read this as a PDF online and it's obvious this was not a finished piece of work. It hadn't been copy edited and it didn't have his usual polish.

The story is told by a circus roustabout and had a very Carnivale (HBO), AHS Freak Show, or Water for Elephants vibe. The setting was nicely painted and so were the conditions of circus life, it was the story that wasn't that great. We get to see a cat-tamer lose his mind and eventually his...body to internal anger, disquiet and flat out rage.

A good ten minute investment, but that's as far as I'll go.

[Christophe Rodo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une bien belle nouvelle de Stephen King qui flirte avec le fantastique.

[Caitlin Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the stories from Night shift, this one seemed a light for one by Stephen King. It was a change of pace, and probably one I'd like to get a physical copy of someday.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

not at all bad, but still a bit tame (get it?!?!?) for King... early story, for sure, which keeps it from a 2-star/skip it tale, but it definitely lacked teeth (get it?!?!?)... OK, you've figured out i'm not at all funny by now, but i am a serious reader and this one just kinda works... more of a "King Completist" sort of read, i'd say...

[Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read "The Night of the Tiger" by Stephen King from this collection. It was okay, sort of weird and fantasy-based. Traveling carnival, the big cats, and a newbie roustabout. The end is a bit vague and, for me, unsatisfying. But, I'm a Stephen King fan, and I like to read as much of his works as I can!

[little blue haired old lady X · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Night of the Tiger is a short story that focuses on what appears to be a long standing feud between two people and is set back in time at circus. It's Stephen King, so of course there is a wonderful supernatural ending. The writing is good and the story worth reading, but not one of my favorites as he's not writing in what I recognize as his voice from later works.

[Chandni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always find Stephen King short stories hit or miss and this was a serious miss. I really don't understand it at all. A circus with a scary tiger keeper and an ornery tiger. I don't know what this was about at all.

[Renzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buen relato corto del maestro. King tiene la capacidad de atrapar(me) desde el inicio de sus historias, y ésta no fue la excepción. Le di 3 estrellas por el final que, en mi humilde opinión, es muy previsible.

[Sytze Hiemstra]

Nice early story

[Kyle Talbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story! I love how King manages to craft a full captivating story with just a few pages.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool story, solid but not like the best SK short ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c4Z3...

[Kieran Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

5.8/10

[Egghead · Rating 4 out of 5]

read on a hot day
thankfully no tiger here
no madmen, either

[Lars · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's OK but nothing you have to read.

[Geri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my fav short story of his for sure.