The Hellbound Heart : A Novel

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Clive Barker is widely acknowledged as the master of nerve-shattering horror. The Hellbound Heart is one of his best, one of the most dead-frightening stories you are likely to ever read, a story of the human heart and all the great terrors and ecstasies within. It was also the book behind the cult horror film, Hellraiser. In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia are having an affair. Not your ordinary affair. For Frank it began with his own insatiable sexual appetite, a mysterious lacquered box- and then an unhinged voyage through a netherworld of imaginable pleasures and unimaginable horror! Now Frank- or what is left of Frank -waits in an empty room. All he wants is to live as he was before. All julia can do is bring him her unfulfilled passions!and a little flesh and blood! “Barker's the best thing to happen to horror fiction for many moons... [he] never fails to deliver the compelling prose and relentless horror his readers expect.” —Chicago TribuneThe classic tale of supernatural obsession from the critically acclaimed master of darkness—and the inspiration for the cult classic film HellraiserFrom his scores of short stories, bestselling novels, and major motion pictures, no one comes close to the vivid imagination and unique terrors provided by Clive Barker. The Hellbound Heart is one of Barker's best—a nerve-shattering novella about the human heart and all the great terrors and ecstasies within its endless domain. It is about greed and love, desire and death, life and captivity, bells and blood. It is one of the most frightening stories you are likely to ever read.Frank Cotton's insatiable appetite for the dark pleasures of pain led him to the puzzle of Lemarchand's box, and from there, to a death only a sick-minded soul could invent. But his brother's love-crazed wife, Julia, has discovered a way to bring Frank back—though the price will be bloody and terrible... and there will certainly be hell to pay. Originally Published In An Anthology Collection Called Night Visions, This Long Novella Was The Basis For The Film Hellraiser. Considered By Many Barker Fans To Be Among His Best, The Story Introduces Pinhead, The Leader Of A Group Of Hell-spawned Demons Called Cenobites, As He (it?) Tries To Secure The Soul Of Uncle Frank, Who Foolishly Thought That He Could Arrive At The Gateway To Ultimate Pleasure Without Traveling A Path Of Grisly Torture And Pain. Clive Barker. At last he had solved the puzzle of Lemarchand's box. He was standing on the threshold of a world of heightened sensations. In moments the Cenobites - who had dedicated an eternity to the pursuit of sensuality - would be here. They would reveal dark secrets that would transform him forever From his Books of Blood to The Damnation Game, Weaveworld, and The Great and Secret Show, to scores of short stories, bestselling novels, and now major motion pictures, no one comes close to the vivid imagination and unique terrors provided by Clive Barker. Julia, in love with her evil brother-in-law, provides her blood in exchange for the promise of ultimate sensual pleasure So intent was Frank upon solving the puzzle of Lemarchand's box that he didn't hear the great bell begin to ring.