Manhunter - Red Dragon

Thomas Harris - Author
Thomas Harris in 1981


Red Dragon was first published in 1981. It was his second novel following Black Sunday in 1973. It marked the first appearance of the character, Dr. Hannibal Lector, a creation that only caught the attention of the public at large with publication of the follow-up novel, The Silence of the Lambs and the subsequent movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Hannibal Lecter was not the only character in Silence of the Lambs to first appear in Red Dragon. Graham's former FBI superior and friend Jack Crawford is introduced. Dr. Fredrick Chilton who runs the facility were Lecter is held appears too.

		Director Michael Mann deviates from Red Dragon in his Manhunter screenplay in three main areas. i) In the first instance, he disposes of the back-story of Dolarhyde's awful childhood. ii) Another part of the book deals with Dolarhyde's destruction of William Blake's painting in an art Gallery. iii) Thirdly the novel has a twist double ending which while it works fine on paper would have been difficult to pull off convincingly on film. This gives the movie a happy rather than bittersweet finale. In 1986, Red Dragon was republished under the title 'Manhunter' to coincide with the release of the film

There are two 'talking book' versions of Red Dragon. One is read by the author Thomas Harris and is very enjoyable with a running time of over three hours across two audio cassettes. Another version is narrated by character actor Chris Sarandon. This is also well executed although overall, Harris's narration wins. There are also foreign language talking books available in some territories too. On the second page of this section are some more book cover designs.