Red Dragon (novel)
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| Red Dragon | |
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 First US hardback edition cover |
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| Author | Thomas Harris |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hannibal Lecter |
| Genre(s) | Thriller Crime Horror |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnams, Dell Publishing (USA) |
| Publication date | October 1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 480 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-399-12442-X (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC Number | 7572747 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 19 |
| LC Classification | PS3558.A6558 R4 1981 |
| Followed by | The Silence of the Lambs |
Red Dragon is a novel by Thomas Harris. It was the first novel to features Harris' iconic character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. It was originally published in 1981, but found a new audience in the early 1990s after the success of its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs. The title refers to the figure from The Great Red Dragon Paintings by William Blake, (though Harris refers to one of these, "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun", he actually describes another, "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun"). It was adapted in 1986, as the critically well-received, but with poor box office performance, Michael Mann film, Manhunter, which has since gained cult status. After the success of the sequel The Silence of the Lambs, in which Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for the Lecter role, Red Dragon was made again as Brett Ratner's Red Dragon with Hopkins again as Lecter.
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[edit] Plot
A serial killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy stalks and murders seemingly random families during sequential full moons. Hoping to capture the killer before his next attack, Special Agent Jack Crawford seeks out his protegé, Will Graham, a brilliant profiler who retired after Lecter nearly killed him. Crawford pleads for his assistance, and Graham reluctantly agrees. After checking over the crime scenes, with only minimal insight, he realizes that he must once again visit Lecter and seek his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy.
The Tooth Fairy is actually a disturbed man named Francis Dolarhyde who worships Lecter. Calling himself The Great Red Dragon (because of his obsession with the William Blake painting, "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun"), Dolarhyde is unable to control his violent, sexual urges. These conditions were born from the systematic child abuse he suffered at the hands of his grandmother.
Graham continues to run into complications, the first being Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter who follows Graham relentlessly for leads on the Tooth Fairy story. Further complicating the investigation is the secret correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde, where Lecter provides Dolarhyde with Graham's home address, endangering Graham's wife and child, who are evacuated to a remote farm which belongs to Crawford's brother. Graham discovers the secret communication and tries to intercept it without Lecter's knowledge but the doctor is quick to realise that the Feds are onto him and his protegé and humiliates the authorities by upping the stakes: in return for his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, he requests a first-class meal in his cell and having his book privileges returned.
Hoping to lure the Tooth Fairy into a trap, Graham gives Lounds an interview in which he characterizes the killer as an impotent homosexual. This provokes Dolarhyde but instead of Graham he kidnaps Lounds, tortures him, forces him to recant his allegations before setting him on fire and depositing him outside his newspaper's offices.
At about the same time, Dolarhyde falls in love with a blind co-worker named Reba McClane. Dolarhyde's new-found love conflicts with his homicidal urges, which manifest themselves in his mind as 'The Great Red Dragon'. After his association with Reba, Dolarhyde attempts to stop the Dragon's "possession" of him. In order to stop killing, he believes that he must dominate the dragon by consuming the original painting. Dolarhyde goes to the Brooklyn Museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolor of The Red Dragon.
Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home videos, which he only could have seen if he worked for the home video editing company that transfers home movies to video cassette. Dolarhyde's job gives him access to all home movies that pass through the company. When he sees Graham interviewing his boss, Dolarhyde realises that they are on to him and goes to see Reba one last time. He finds her talking to a co-worker, Ralph Mandy, a man whom she actually dislikes. Enraged, Dolarhyde kills Ralph Mandy, kidnaps McClane and, having taken her to his house, sets the place on fire. He intends to kill her and then himself, but finds himself unable to shoot her. After Dolarhyde apparently shoots himself, McClane escapes.
Graham is given Dolarhyde's scrapbook, saved from the wreckage of the house, which details the killer's tragic childhood and obsessions with murder. Despite himself, Graham feels pity for Dolarhyde, who he realizes was made a monster, not born one.
However, it turns out Dolarhyde did not shoot himself but left behind the body of Arnold Lang, a gas station attendant, in order to stage his own death. Dolarhyde then surprises Graham at his Florida home, where he proceeds to critically injure Graham. Graham's wife, Molly, then fatally shoots Dolarhyde.
After recovering, Graham receives a letter from Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't "too disfigured". However, Crawford intercepts the letter and destroys it.
[edit] Editions
The original hardcover and paperback editions mentioned Lecter being held in the "Chesapeake" hospital. After the publication of the sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, one reprint of Red Dragon has the name of the hospital changed to the "Baltimore" hospital in order to maintain continuity with the sequel. In all following editions, the name is changed back to "Chesapeake".
[edit] Adaptations
- The first film, released in 1986 under the title Manhunter, was written and directed by Michael Mann and focused on FBI Special Agent Will Graham, played by William Petersen. Lecter (renamed Lecktor) was played by Brian Cox.
- In 1996, Chicago's Defiant Theatre produced a full stage version of the novel at the Firehouse theatre, adapted and directed by the company's artistic director, Christopher Johnson. The production included projected "home movies" as were described in the novel, including reenacting the violent murders. Dolarhyde's inner "dragon" was personified by an actor in an elaborate, grotesque costume and seduces the killer to continue on his violent path.
- The second film, which used the title Red Dragon, appeared in 2002. Directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally (who also wrote the screenplay for The Silence of the Lambs), it starred Edward Norton as Graham and Anthony Hopkins as Lecter.
[edit] External links
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