The Shrinking Man
First edition
|
|
| Author | Richard Matheson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Mitchell Hooks |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Gold Medal Books |
|
Publication date
|
1956 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 192 |
The Shrinking Man is a novel by Richard Matheson published in 1956. It has been adapted into a motion picture twice, called The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957 and The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981, both by Universal Pictures. Another adaptation of the story has been proposed, which has been pushed back several times from 2001 to the current day. The novel was retitled The Incredible Shrinking Man in some later editions. In 2012 it was included (under the original title) in the Library of America two-volume boxed set American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, edited by Gary K. Wolfe.
While on holiday, Scott Carey is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he accidentally ingests insecticide. The radioactivity acts as a catalyst for the bug spray, causing his body to shrink at a rate of approximately 1/7 of an inch per day. A few weeks later, Carey can no longer deny the truth: not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was and deduces, to his dismay, that his body will continue to shrink.
The abnormal size decrease of his body initially brings teases and taunting from local youths, then causes friction in his marriage and family life, because he loses the respect his family has for him because of his diminishing physical stature. Ultimately, as the shrinking continues, it begins to threaten Carey's life as well; at seven inches tall, he is driven outdoors, where he is attacked by a sparrow in his garden; the conflict drives him through a window into the cellar of his house. He has to survive on tiny scraps of food and bits of water. At one point he has to try and jump to reach a hanging spar of wood one half inch away—a leap whose distance seems over four feet away to him. A cat goes after him when he is about four sevenths of an inch tall. He is forced to engage in a victorious battle with a black widow spider that towers over him.
As Carey continues shrinking, he realizes that his original fear that he would shrink into non-existence is incorrect; that he will continue to shrink, but will not disappear as he originally feared, his epiphanic thought being, "If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence."
...
Wikipedia