The Breathing Method
Encyclopedia
The Breathing Method is a novella
by Stephen King
which was released as part of his Different Seasons
collection in 1982, and is currently the only story in the collection not to have been made into a movie. It is placed in the section entitled "A Winter's Tale".
lawyer
. At the invitation of a senior partner, he joins a strange men's club where the members, in addition to reading, chatting and playing pool
and chess
, like to tell stories, some of which range into the bizarre and macabre. The club and its butler are also featured in King's short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
".
One Thursday before Christmas
, the elderly physician Dr. Emile McCarron tells a story about an episode that took place early in his long and varied career: that of a patient who was determined to give birth to her illegitimate child, no matter what, despite financial problems and social disapproval. McCarron comes to admire her bravery and humor, and the implication is that he has even fallen a bit in love with her.
The patient masters Dr. McCarron's novel (for the 1930's) breathing method intended to help her through childbirth. However, when she goes into labor and is on the way to the hospital on an icy winter night, her taxi crashes and she is decapitated. McCarron arrives at the crash site and realizes that the patient is somehow still alive. Her lungs in her headless body are still pumping air, as her head, some feet away, is working to sustain the breathing method so that the baby can be born. McCarron manages to deliver the infant alive and well.
On a sweet but haunting end note, the patient whispers "Thank you" -- her decapitated head mouthing the words, which are distortedly heard from the throat jutting from her headless body. McCarron is able to tell her that her baby is a boy and to see that she has registered this before she dies. McCarron and his office nurse pay for the woman's burial, for she has no one else.
The child is adopted, but despite the confidential nature of adoption records, McCarron is able to keep track of him over the years. When the man is in his late thirties and an accomplished college professor, McCarron arranges to meet him socially. "He had his mother's determination, gentlemen," he tells the club members, "and his mother's hazel eyes."
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
which was released as part of his Different Seasons
Different Seasons
Different Seasons is a collection of four Stephen King novellas with a more serious bent than the horror fiction for which King is famous:-Afterword:At the ending of the book, there is also a brief afterword, which King wrote on January 4, 1982...
collection in 1982, and is currently the only story in the collection not to have been made into a movie. It is placed in the section entitled "A Winter's Tale".
Plot
David, the narrator of the frame tale, is a middle-aged ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. At the invitation of a senior partner, he joins a strange men's club where the members, in addition to reading, chatting and playing pool
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
and chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, like to tell stories, some of which range into the bizarre and macabre. The club and its butler are also featured in King's short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands
"The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands" is a short story by Stephen King first published in the 1982 horror anthology Shadows 4, edited by Charles L...
".
One Thursday before Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, the elderly physician Dr. Emile McCarron tells a story about an episode that took place early in his long and varied career: that of a patient who was determined to give birth to her illegitimate child, no matter what, despite financial problems and social disapproval. McCarron comes to admire her bravery and humor, and the implication is that he has even fallen a bit in love with her.
The patient masters Dr. McCarron's novel (for the 1930's) breathing method intended to help her through childbirth. However, when she goes into labor and is on the way to the hospital on an icy winter night, her taxi crashes and she is decapitated. McCarron arrives at the crash site and realizes that the patient is somehow still alive. Her lungs in her headless body are still pumping air, as her head, some feet away, is working to sustain the breathing method so that the baby can be born. McCarron manages to deliver the infant alive and well.
On a sweet but haunting end note, the patient whispers "Thank you" -- her decapitated head mouthing the words, which are distortedly heard from the throat jutting from her headless body. McCarron is able to tell her that her baby is a boy and to see that she has registered this before she dies. McCarron and his office nurse pay for the woman's burial, for she has no one else.
The child is adopted, but despite the confidential nature of adoption records, McCarron is able to keep track of him over the years. When the man is in his late thirties and an accomplished college professor, McCarron arranges to meet him socially. "He had his mother's determination, gentlemen," he tells the club members, "and his mother's hazel eyes."