Novels & Stories

by Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates (Editor)

Slipcased edition of ISBN: 1598530720 (ISBN13: 9781598530728)

"The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable," writes A. M. Homes. "It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse." Jackson's characters-mostly unloved daughters in search of a home, a career, a family of their own-chase what appears to be a harmless dream until, without warning, it turns on its heel to seize them by the throat. We are moved by these characters' dreams, for they are the dreams of love and acceptance shared by us all. We are shocked when their dreams become nightmares, and terrified by Jackson's suggestion that there are unseen powers-"demons" both subconscious and supernatural-malevolently conspiring against human happiness.
In this volume Joyce Carol Oates, our leading practitioner of the contemporary Gothic, presents the essential works of Shirley Jackson, the novels and stories that, from the early 1940s through the mid-1960s, wittily remade the genre of psychological horror for an alienated, postwar America. She opens with "The Lottery" (1949), Jackson's only collection of short fiction, whose disquieting title story-one of the most widely anthologized tales of the 20th century-has entered American folklore. Also among these early works are "The Daemon Lover," a story Oates praises as "deeper, more mysterious, and more disturbing than 'The Lottery, ' " and "Charles," the hilarious sketch that launched Jackson's secondary career as a domestic humorist. Here too are Jackson's masterly short novels: "The Haunting of Hill House" (1959), the tale of an achingly empathetic young woman chosen by a haunted house to be its new tenant, and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" (1962), the unrepentant confessions of Miss Merricat Blackwood, a cunning adolescent who has gone to quite unusual lengths to preserve her ideal of family happiness. Rounding out the volume are 21 other stories and sketches that showcase Jackson in all her many modes, and the essay "Biography of a Story," Jackson's acidly funny account of the public reception of "The Lottery," which provoked more mail from readers of "The New Yorker" than any contribution before or since.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Literature, Gothic, Anthologies

827 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."

Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".

In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of one of my favorite authors' work. It includes the two most famous novels--We Have Always Lived in the Castle (her best, in my opinion) and The Haunting of Hill House (a great and influential work)--along with a generous selection of stories, including of course The Lottery, the story that put her on the literary map. Having these novels and stories all together invites comparisons between them, and you can see how the sense of an eerie unquiet mind, and of pervasive and banal small-town evil, carry over from work to work. The Library of America has done a great service to include Shirley Jackson in its series, for she was (and remains) an under-appreciated master--not just of gothic horror, not just of the slippery line between reality and fantasy, but of the seamy underside of American life itself.

For a detailed review of The Haunting of Hill House, see my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Library of America edition contains Shirley Jackson’s short-story collection The Lottery and Other Stories; the novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle; and a section titled “Other Stories and Sketches.” Having read and at least rated the others already, I’m only reviewing the latter (and the volume as a whole) here.

“Other Stories and Sketches” is divided into ‘Uncollected’ and ‘Unpublished.’ (I recently read a few of these in Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories.) A very short story, first published in Syracuse University’s literary annual, leads off, immediately displaying Jackson’s dark quirky humor. (After reading the story, Jackson’s future husband sought her out as the woman he was going to marry.) Collected together as they are, several of the stories seem to display a recurring theme of houses (as do some of her novels), whether big or small, seemingly benign at first, eventually displaying frightening qualities, even if these are in the character’s mind. (Perhaps the editor, Joyce Carol Oates, was drawn to this theme in her choices of stories to include.) A story delving into the mind of an elderly woman reminded me of a story in The Lottery that also uses imagery of an island beach as a means of (mental) escape. Jackson lived in a rambling house she increasingly didn’t venture out of, so it’s tempting to project onto Jackson her characters’ feelings about home and escape. Two other stories end with a reversal, or ambiguity, that had me paging back to reread the masterful dialogue of each. Even the previously unpublished stories (one the beginning of an unfinished novel) range from good to very good.

The appendix, “Biography of a Story,” is the transcription of a talk Jackson gave several times relating the mail she and The New Yorker received after the publication of “The Lottery.” It’s told in a humorous way, but some of the letters reminded me of the illiterate hate mail Mary McCarthy received after the publication of the essays that comprise her Memories of a Catholic Girlhood.

I haven’t read a biography of Jackson so I learned some new things in the “Chronology,” including some activity by her community that certainly fueled the writing of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. In an article I came across online https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20... I read of a Newsweek critic who “protested” Shirley Jackson's inclusion in the Library of America as “an exercise in barrel-scraping.” The volume shows how wrong that unnamed critic was.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Egal, wie oft ich die Erzählungen und Romane von Shirley Jackson lese, sie begeistern mich jedes mal wieder und ich entdecke immer Neues. Dass diese großartige Autorin zumeist als Genreautorin wahrgenommen wird, ist eine Schande. Jacksons Texte sind vor allem auch brillant psychologisch grundiert und beleuchten die Gender=Themen der 1950er Jahre. Ich würde nicht zögern, sie in einem Atemzug mit Sylvia Plath und Anne Sexton zu nennen, in deren Werk die Frage nicht minder zentral ist, wie eine Frau nicht in ihrer gesellschaftliche Rolle untergehen kann.
Leider gibt es in Deutschland kaum Studien, die sich eingehend(er) mit dem Werk von Shirley Jackson befassen. Angerissen sei beispielhaft nur, dass gerade der Roman HILL HOUSE hierzulande als reiner Spukroman gelesen wird, während er doch zahlreiche Allusionen auf das Werk Shakespeares hat und so eine zweite, tiefer liegende Sinnebene bekommt, die leicht überlesen werden kann (nämlich genau dann, wenn man den Roman in die Schublade "Unterhaltungsliteratur" quetscht).

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moral thread through Jackson's tales: She who sees evil in everyone around her should look in a mirror. Especially if she lives in a village.

A few notes on this edition:
Although Joyce Carol Oates is the editor, she only selected the included novels and short stories. Sadly, there is no preface or comment from her. Also, the book is printed on exceedingly thin paper, which you can clearly see the type through from the other side. It makes it quite hard to read. I probably won't be reading a similar edition again.

The Lottery: 5/5
An excellent collection of short fiction with recurring motifs and a mysterious and somewhat menacing outlying character, James Harris. Like multi-colored threads through the tales, Jackson unobtrusively challenges the reader to find those connections, and draw comparisons. David Mitchell used this technique in Cloud Atlas, but Jackson is a master weaver. Some stories are outright horrific, but most would be classified as mid-century gothic - full of subtle, eerie charm. The recurring objects, words, names, and motifs were drawn from an old Scottish Ballad "The Daemon Lover," a stanza of which is included as an epigraph.

In an essay included in this collection, "Biography of a Story," Jackson tells about how "The Lottery" (the eponymous story, first published in The New Yorker in 1948) created more hate mail and buzz than the magazine had ever seen. She insists that there is no hidden meaning and allegory in the story. "It's just a story." She republished snippets from these troll-ish letters, and they look so tame and twee compared to today's internet trolls. She was shocked how many people wrote to her insisting on knowing what village, in what State these events took place. With her usual dry humor, she says "...if I thought this was a valid cross-section of the reading public, I would give up writing."

The Haunting of Hill House: 3/5
A fun little haunted house story. A bit divulgative, though. It lacked the subtlety of The Lottery, but quite entertaining nonetheless. It was fun to see a few objects mentioned in The Lottery make reappearances in The Haunting of Hill House. This would be a perfect quick, spooky read around Halloween. You'll spend most of your time trying to figure out "Whodunnit?" and "Who's the red shirt?" Finally, for the last bit of fun, there are lesbian undertones throughout the story, which hints to Jackson's own close relationship to a French student in college. (I'll freely admit, I'm interpolating from the chronological sketch, but it's hard to dismiss.)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: 5/5
Well, holy crap. Creepy, crazy, wild story. After reading about Jackson's life story, I can understand Jackson's general vitriol towards village residents. In her real life in Vermont, her family was harassed, bullied and house defaced because they were "outsiders." Jackson herself became housebound after social interactions became too difficult to bear.

This story had one of the more interesting male characters - Old, crazy uncle Julian. It's curious how most of Jackson's stories have female protagonists who are either deceptive or going against the grain. Jackson's mother continually referred to younger brother was the "obedient" child and Jackson as the "willful" child. In turn, most male characters are sketches or

Other stories and essays: 3/5
Like most short story anthologies, it's quite a mixed bag here, presented in chronological order. It was fun to watch Jackson's writing evolve and mature - she became sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and a master of twists. The best of the bunch were: "A Visit," dedicated to Dylan Thomas, an admirer of Jackson's; "Louisa Please Come Home"; and The Bus. There are also a few of Jackson's sketches from her own family stories.


After overdosing on Shirley Jackson, if you are only going to read one book of her's, read The Lottery.

[Mauoijenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's Shirley Jackson.
WINNER!!!
Need I say more?

[R.a. · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0 stars.

I am so tempted to write an inviting introduction to this review; but, especially with Shirley Jackson’s writing, such an introduction would spoil “the fun.” Suffice it to say, the reader takes one exciting, startling, yet joyful “ride.”

With the Library of America volume, a reader cannot help but “fall” into her world. And, I certainly now understand why some readers have exclaimed, “I love Shirley Jackson,” or even, “I am in love with Shirley Jackson.” She casts quite a spell.

And so, two novels, 46 stories, and one essay make up this wonderful anthology.

As standard with the Library of America series, the books themselves are GREAT; and, the font and size of the book make it extremely easy to read and carry.

I review here only the anthology as a whole, Other Stories and Sketches, (a 4.7 rating itself), and the essay. For reviews of the larger works, please see reviews posted under the respective titles.

And so, here we go . . .

“Other Stories and Sketches, Published:”

—“Janice”
A “Short-short story.” And, with this, her first story, Jackson plants that quality which becomes almost singular to all of her work: “Menace,” with a capital “M!”

—“A Cauliflower in her Hair”
An upper, middle class family’s various reactions to a visit from a friend of one daughter, Jackson seems to explore “middle class” values and sensibilities as well as “freedom.” From this early story forward, the Jackson “grotesques” variously will involve three recurring images: play on the color “blue,” play on the color “red,” and women’s make-up, used variously for garish effect.

—“Behold the Child Among His Newborn Blisses”
Here, and hereafter, Jackson presents middle class values as judgment—judgment of parents for their children, and vice versa. Innocence is “swatted down,” and role / gender play becomes an element here.

—“It Isn’t the Money I Mind”
Here, the grotesque has both a sad and a humorous quality. Like other work, Jackson builds her “effect” through repetition as the reader follows a vagrant bragging of connections to “famous” children.

—The Third Baby’s the Easiest”
A magazine story or vignette with both irony and dark humor. Although ironic, her titular repetitive phrase unfortunately does not work so well here. We can anticipate the ending, and the irony.

—“The Summer People”
Here, another recurring dynamic occurs: “city” vs. “country.” This story deals with upper, middle class values and ideas. Jackson puts into relief “country” practicality against a metropolitan, or “city” comfort sensibility. Like other narratives, children and estrangement from the world figure prominently. Both Samuel Beckett and Jack London came to mind while reading this little gem.

—“Island”
Oh my! Again, we see a horrible condemnation / judgment of “lower classes” by an upper middle class character. Here is another grotesque; yet, this “little” story is crafted differently. Here, we see one of Jackson’s first “monsters,” horrible and yet “sad.” I particularly liked how “innocent” little Miss Oakes is not so innocent, after all.

—“The Night We Had the Grippe”
A witty, article-type piece organized as a domestic mystery. Jackson lightly pokes fun of the mystery genre while delineating the absurdities of domestic life. Entertaining yet frustrating in places, this piece fits with the anthology, and yet does not fit. The goal, here, seemed to be to include pieces that revealed Jackson’s “other career” as a magazine contributor of domestic articles. Oh, and “No, I did not solve the “whodunit.”

—“A Visit” or “The Lovely House,” (written for Dylan Thomas)
This seems to be Jackson’s second haunted house story, (the first being “The Rock,” an unpublished story written a year earlier). This story contains many of the gothic romance elements as well as a climax that will become another Jackson “staple:” mirrors and reflections which disorient her characters, and sometimes, the reader.

—“This is the Life” or “Journey with a Lady”
Thus far, this is one of the best stories I have ever read that has brought the reader into conspiracy with the character(s), (ye ole Shakespearean Othello Iago device). This story is joyful, funny and sad, and explores our desperate need for freedom. A story where one feels “guilty” laughing! Oh Shirley, you manipulated me! Horribly! Wonderfully! I love this story.

—“One Ordinary Day with Peanuts”
Another “Oh my!” A seemingly simple reversal occurs. The Poe-like craftsmanship is fine, and Jackson’s own style develops. And, these two aspects make this story, like so many others, so satisfying. This little jewel runs the gamut from altruism to pure evil. I cannot help but wonder which character becomes more influential, Mr. or Mrs.? Would an inevitable progression ensue? Or would balance return?

—“Louisa, Please Come Home”
With such a contemporary sensibility, “Louisa, Please Come Home” may beguile the reader into thinking the story is only a decade old—not five and counting. The character, plot, and build to climax create a chilling irony. Jackson explores relationships between siblings as well as the expected relationships between parents and children.

—“The Little House”
The Jacksonian “intruding community” element becomes heavy, here. This extremely disturbing story evokes the fairy tale, yet in a contemporary vain. Like other stories, all are guilty. And, the suggestions at the end become very dark and menacing.

—“The Bus”
Like “Louisa, Please Come Home,” this is a story that is so contemporary that it becomes a surprise that it was written 50-plus years ago. And, like “The Tooth,” in The Lottery or the Adventures of James Harris, the plot, dream sequence, and surprise ending can be anticipated by many a Poe, King, mystery, or science fiction reader. Yet again, Jackson’s crafting emerges as so fine since it reveals Miss. Harper’s character in such a way that our interest stays piqued. And, like other narratives, the author leaves some aspects “open”—meanings and consequences suggested, but never concluded.

—“The Possibility of Evil”
So wonderfully evil. Here is a story more reminiscent of Hawthorne than Poe. Like Wharton before her, the New England culture depicted is stifling—wrought to a Puritan perfection by old money, and here, blue-blood Miss Strangeworth. Once again, we see parallels to Shakespeare’s Iago of Othello and following, to Stephen King’s Mr. Gaunt of Needful Things. Jackson’s focus on household items, especially the uses of varying grades of paper is wonderfully reflective. And, of course, the ending—such a release!

And, the previously “Unpublished Stories and Sketches:”

—“Portrait”
More melancholy that “menace,” this short-short narrative seems more a prose poem than a “tale.” Although a prose “sketch,” this piece conveys an impression akin to a Wallace Stevens or William Carlos Williams poem.

—“The Mouse”
“The Mouse” represents one of Jackson’s best wherein ethos of character is revealed. A mere character study, it explores a married couple’s reaction simply to the appearance of a mouse in the kitchen. Here is a story very reminiscent of Chekhov in terms of style, and of Wharton in terms of the depth of suppressed hatred on the part of men. And, like Medea, Mrs. Malkin seems just short of a monster.

—“I Know Who I Love”
Apparently, Jackson reworked this from an idea for a novel. Appearing autobiographical with regard to the threatening love relationship, this story carries a haunting sadness with it. And, consistent with an autobiographical strain, the cruelty of both children and parents are explored—the respective judgments as well. There seems so many similarities to King’s Carrie, especially the cruelty with which other adolescents apply while picking on the girl “outsider:” “Ratty Catty, / Sure is batty . . .” Relationships become confused; and, the issue of “money,” only overtly highlighted earlier in “Island,” works into the confusion.

—“Two Beautiful Strangers”
Illusion and reality becomes the driving dynamic as the question of whether “Two Beautiful Strangers” is a ghost story. It nevertheless becomes most definitely another story of one being “lost.” Once again, recurring elements of appearance, power, and antipathy surface. And, consistent with Jackson’s style, the ending becomes only suggestive.

—“The Rock”
Seemingly, the first “haunted house” story penned. I enjoyed this one more that the later “A Visit.” A house made completely from an island rock, indeed seemingly part of its landscape, draws the reader into the story as does the strange Mrs. Carter, Charles’ illness, and, of course, the mysterious “other guest.” Both the gothic romance and Poe-esque elements are here. The end, typically suggestive, becomes primer for the later “Lottery” James Harris stories.

—“The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith”
Yet another “Oh my!” Yet another “best.” Again, “The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith” is one of the most wonderful and horrible stories I have ever read. The story showcases yet another Jacksonian theme or motif: women trapped by their roles / convention. And so, Mrs. Smith, seemingly trapped, marries Mr. Jones. Consistent with a “woman’s role,” and necessarily a woman’s “world” at the time, the town market, especially the grocer, become extremely important.

—And, the essay, “Biography of a Story”
This considered reaction to reader response to the short story, “The Lottery,” twelve years after publication simply is fun. Jackson presents a sampling of responses from readers as well as her refusal to elucidate some of the story’s elements. I enjoyed this stance, since the work remains the work unto itself—and ultimately, true to “craft.”

This volume, and the Library of America series, indeed may spoil you.

Kudos to:

Shirley Jackson, and,

Joyce Carol Oates for assembling such a representative body of this author's work.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He was confused between trying to look hurt and trying to see if anyone heard what she was saying."

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality."

Watch your back Willa Cather because there's a new lady gunning for the distinguished honor of being my favorite female author. This was basically a collection of almost everything Shirley Jackson ever wrote during her brief lifetime. It is fantastic!

I had only known her before through her most famous short story "The Lottery" and another humorous short story called "Charles." Recently, I noticed her being name dropped by a lot of my favorite authors as a major influence on them and an underappreciated master of storytelling. After reading this, I can see why.

The vast majority of her work is short stories. They are hard to categorize but if I had to I guess I would call them Gothic slices of domestic life. She was able to put her finger on the pulse of the evil, bigotry, racism, sorrow, and unrequited love that seethes just below the surface of modern life.

She tackles the fear of the unknown and misunderstood in stories like "Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors." Drug induced insanity in "The Tooth" and "The Bus." The depths of human cruelty in "The Mouse","The Possibility of Evil", and "Flower Garden." She confronts life's disappointments in "Like Mother Used to Make" and "Elizabeth."

But don't think this was a serious, heavy, unentertaining read. She is hilarious and satirical in "After You, My Dear Alphonse", "Charles", "The Night We All Had Grippe", "It Isn't the Money I Mind", and "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts."

She confronted terror and horror directly with "The Summer People", "The Lottery", and her novella's "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived In The Castle."

There really is something for everyone here. The writing and characters are top notch and she really has an ear for dialogue. I am so sad that she died so young and can only imagine what further treasures she would have given us. I can't recommend this collection highly enough.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago I read a review of an anthology of short stories in which a story by Joyce Carol Oates was praised as "a study of loneliness worthy of Shirley Jackson." For that and many other reasons how apropos that it's Oates herself who has compiled the contents of this very welcome volume, which features Jackson's three best books in their entirety: her 1949 collection The Lottery and Other Stories, and her classic novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Not only that, but a bumper crop of 22 of her other short stories are included as well, some of which are among her very best: "One Ordinary day, With Peanuts," "A Visit, or The Lovely House," "The Summer People," "I Know Who I Love," and "The Bus." Jackson's been my favorite author since I was a teen, and I've been really happy to see her literary rep growing again in recent years; I'm hoping this volume might do well enough that The Library of America might release a companion volume collecting her four other novels: The Road Through the Wall, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, and my favorite of the bunch, the underrated bildungsroman, Hangsaman (I'd also throw in her book of very funny family stories, Life Among the Savages, as well as the novel she was working on at the time of her death, Come Along with Me).

At any rate what we have here is a feast of Jackson's particular brand of mystery, fear, humor, tragedy, and misanthropy, as always communicated in her clear, unmistakably Jacksonian prose, and starring such unforgettable characters as the mysterious, tragic Eleanor Vance, who goes to Hill House for a summer stay and never leaves; Mary Catherine Blackwood and her sister Constance, who together find their very peculiar happy ending in their "castle;" not to mention the nameless protagonist of "The Daemon Lover," likely whom the reviewer above was referring to with his reference to human loneliness (I would add Catherine Vincent from "I Know Who I Love" in that delineation as well); and of course the terrified Mrs. Hutchinson from Jackson's main claim to immortality, "The Lottery." There is also a veritable constellation of dreadful old bats populating these tales as antagonists, tormenting our heroines with their prudish propriety, and worse (Mrs. Montague in The Haunting of Hill House is a good example); and many, many perfectly horrible small town denizens, who play out smaller-scaled but similar versions of Jackson's famous lottery in many stories, practicing or promulgating ostracism, narrow-mindedness, racism, and just plain petty, spiteful, mean-spiritedness in general. Jackson regularly narrated the meme that human beings carry evil within them, and some of the most fearful, anxiety-provoking stories in her oeuvre disturb so because their descriptions of the sheer banality of this herd-pack mentality still ring true ("The Renegade" may yet be the cruelest of all the contes cruels I've encountered). Jackson had her lighter side as well, and in stories such as "The Night We All Had the Grippe," "Charles," and "My Life with RH Macy" her wry humor shines, though still with an almost indefinable air of something off-kilter; through light and dark, the author peered at life with a detached, slightly warped lens.

As this book clearly proves, Shirley Jackson's entire body of work exists today as an integrated whole, with a distinct vision and overall worldview that remains universal yet curiously her own; something I suppose every artist would strive for. Love this book: 5 out of 5 stars.

[Francisco Barrios · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the sole (and debatable) exception of the uncollected (and unpublished) tales gathered at the end of this book, everything Shirley Jackson wrote in her lifetime is astonishing —to say the least—, and deserves to be read not only several times, but more and more widely across the world.

Dubbed the undisputed Lady of the Macabre, her short stories (collected under the title The Lottery and Other Short Stories) will blow your mind; her novels The Haunting of Hill House (deceptively adapted by Netflix) will cut your breath short in a matter of two lines, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle will prove to you (no doubt) there's no need to rely on the supernatural when writing a thriller: Human beings are more wicked and evil than the most vicious creature you could ever imagine... Everything wrapped around in one of the most refined and exquisite prose written in the United States in the first part of the twentieth century, and with a sharp and impervious style not to be found anywhere else.

Believe me, if you are lucky enough to be fluent in English and may get your hands on any of the aforementioned works (or in this beautiful Library of America volume), you are about to embark on one of the most exciting adventures any reader might experience. This book is recommended to the upmost degree.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lover of short stories and a dark mind, Shirley Jackson fulfills both. If your stories can convey terror, an impulsive jaw drop or troublesome head-scratching for days or weeks on end, you have accomplished perfection. I had previously read The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle but was delighted to reread them again, interspersed among some of the most chilling tales I have ever consumed. Shirley Jackson is a quiet master of the macabre and the human eccentricities that plague all of us. Her women were fearsome and fragile. Frightened and frightening. Perhaps reflecting her own cloistered internal ideas in regards to speaking publicly about her work. Perhaps it was the quiet outrage of living under the tyranny of a controlling and unfaithful husband. Wherever the shadows were conjured from, I am humble, grateful and consider her to be one of the greatest short story writers every to grace the literary world.

[Ashley Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I did not read every story in this anthology, I’d say I read a good 3/5ths of it. And due to it being a library book, I decided to hold off on The Haunting of Hill House (which I have in my Kindle), so you won’t see a review of that work here. There will be little to no summary or interpretation in my reviews, just a fellow reader and Jackson fan’s ratings.

First, I perused some short stories. Though I deliberately held off on rereading “The Lottery” for the first time since junior college (almost a decade ago), I remembered the gist of it, the bold, delectable darkness of it. So I had high hopes for the rest of her works, and I was not disappointed with a number of awesome stories. My favorites are as follows:

★★★★★ “The Witch”, one of the most amazing, terrifying short stories I’ve ever read; “Seven Types of Ambiguity”, “Trial by Combat”, “The Beautiful Stranger”, “The Tooth”, “Charles”

★★★★ “The Intoxicated”, “The Daemon Lover”, “The Night We All Had Grippe”, “The Renegade”, “Janice”

★★★ “After You, My Dear Alphonse”—pretty funny portrait of a woman who tries too hard to combat racism, “Men With Their Big Shoes”, “A Cauliflower in Her Hair”—something disturbing lingered under this one’s surface, and though I could only feel it, I couldn’t quite figure it out.
Stories I read but didn’t particularly care for: “My Life with R. H. Macy”, “Come Dance With Me in Ireland”, “Flower Garden”—I had high hopes for this one, and while I enjoyed the movement of the story and where I thought it was going, it disappointed me in the end. Then again, that a story can even evoke disappointment as opposed to just an apathy (how I felt about “My Life with R. H. Macy”, though I liked the concept)is still meaningful, I think. Also, out of the almost twenty stories that I read, that I only gave three stories less than four stars is still pretty damn amazing.

★★★★★ I also read and loved We Have Always Lived in the Castle. From the first line, this elaborately wrought, elegant, poetic, plaintive, terrifying novella sucked me in. I shan’t say any more than that lest I give anything away.

Finally, when I had gotten through a large enough chunk of the book, I allowed myself the joy of revisiting

★★★★★ “The Lottery”

While it was enjoyable, it was made even more so by The Biography a Story at the end of the anthology. Seeing the evolution of “The Lottery” and the lash back it generated was exhilarating. I won’t give anything more away than that—the story and the reactions it garnered are well worth the read. Also, Jackson's chronology was fascinating; reading it after having read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I was astounded at how much of it derived from Jackson’s experiences. After reading about her issues with addiction and exclusion and her researching methods before her novels, I loved her a little more. Next on the agenda “The Bird’s Nest” and “The Haunting of Hill House”.

[Stefani · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something profoundly unsettling about Shirley Jackson's stories. And while we are certainly living in unsettling times at present, Jackson's writing suggest something far more threatening and foreboding about the state of the world we live in now.

Jackson's true genius is her ability to firmly anchor a reader in a quotidian domestic scene that appears eerily normal on the surface, but soon twists itself into something disturbing and sinister and unrecognizable enough that we're left questioning the true reality.

Many of her stories start out with a bucolic scene of sorts: the sun will be shining, the birds are chirping, and our main character is most likely strolling down Main Street to go to the grocery store. Nothing out of the ordinary until.....you enter a store and every single customer stops talking, a sinister comment rolls off the tongue of an elderly neighbor, an old woman composes menacing anonymous letters to people in her town. There's little here that would qualify as gory or horrific in a modern sense; the true terror comes from the slow creepiness of these interactions, which build to a horrific crescendo once the characters realize their inescapable fate after an entire town or group of people seems to conspire against them.

Thanks to a timeline in the appendix of this book, we learn that Jackson and her family were victimized and harassed by townspeople in Bennington, Vermont for YEARS, supposedly because of a complaint she lodged against a popular schoolteacher. This eventually led to Jackson's agoraphobia and refusal to leave the house for long periods of time. It's also known that Jackson was unhappy with her husband and dissatisfied with domestic life in general; “The Haunting of Hill House” rejects its occupants in much the same way that Jackson probably felt rejected by her home and its demands, despite the fact that she spent most of her time there.

The strongest stories in this collection seem to be her best-known: “The Lottery,” “The Haunting of Hill House,” and “We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” A few others certainly made my skin crawl, like “The Bus,” about an old lady who is dropped at the intersection of a deserted country road at night by a callous bus driver, and “The Daemon Lover,” about a disappearing boyfriend.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a 6 star book for me. Prior to reading this Library of America collection of Shirley Jackson's work, I was only familiar with her most recognized story The Lottery, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but that I now appreciate is only a teeny-weeny taste of what Shirley Jackson has to offer.

The book is comprised of The Lottery, a collection of short stories that includes the short story by the same name, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, both short novellas, and then other stories and sketches, previously uncollected or unpublished.

The majority of the works included in this 800 plus page collection are examples of literary excellence in the areas of psychological suspense, horror, and dark fiction and make me think that this is what you would get if you mixed Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, and Stephen King.

My favorite would have to be We Have Always Lived in the Castle , which is delightfully disturbing.

And as a bonus, this collection includes Biography of a Story in which Shirley Jackson writes about her most famous work The Lottery and the overwhelming attention it received after appearing in The New Yorker, very interesting all by itself, as well as a chronology and notes on the text.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys well-written psychological suspense and dark fiction with interesting and memorable characters and, often but not always, bizarre story lines straight from the Twilight Zone.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

By the time of her death at the age of 48, Shirley Jackson was a full-blown agoraphobic shut-in who refused to leave her house. Ironically enough, though, the vast majority of the works in "Novels and Stories" are pretty unrelenting attacks on the bourgeois American home; deconstructions of the idea that women should find any safety or comfort in the life of a mid-century housewife. In fact, the only time that the women in these stories are more uncomfortable and lonely and exploited and miserable than they are at home is when they... leave their home.

we are lost, lost; the house is destroying itself. She heard the laughter over all, coming thin and lunatic, rising in its crazy little tune, and thought, No; it is over for me. It is too much, she thought, I will relinquish my possession of this self of mine, abdicate, give over willingly what I never wanted at all; whatever it wants of me it can have.

[SoulSurvivor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a very well-read , and somewhat unhinged ) librarian who new I like off-balance stories and have a wierd sense of humor . I enjoyed the novels , but really enjoyed the short stories more . I would highly encourage anyone with bizarre tastes to try some Shirley Jackson , who seems to be adding fans even though most of her work was published in the 1940-1955 period .

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me nearly a month to read this book - clocking in at over 800 pages, it's quite large. The pages are very thin and the type a little small, so fortunately it looks and feels smaller than it really is.

I picked this up because Jackson's infamous story The Lottery is included in this collection. For such a short story, it caused quite a stir when it was originally published in The New Yorker, and while I think the response may have been a bit severe, I can certainly see why it made so many uncomfortable. Like many of Jackson's short stories, it dealt with the quiet evil that pervades ordinary life. Things - or more accurately, people - are not what the seem. A lot of the stories deal with the mundane, it seems, but Jackson adds her trademark macabre touch.

This collection also included The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, two of Jackson's longer stories. Notably, Hill House has been made into 2 feature-length movies, one of which is fairly recent. Both were creepy, but in the scary-something-jumping-out-to-scare-you type of way, but in a more insiduous and lasting way. Jackson scares more by what she doesn't say. Her descriptions are downright minimal at times, and she suggests rather than explains and implies rather than reveals. The House is its own character, almost, and appears fairly ordinary; it's not the decrepit or rundown mess that one would normally associate with a haunted house. Stephen King is a big fan of Hill House and it's often cited as one of the best literary ghost stories of the 20th century.

Jackson is an intereting character herself; she died at the age of 48 of a heart attack during her afternoon nap. She was overweight, a smoker, and abuser of prescription drugs, she was acutely agoraphobic towards the end of her life, a theme that was often reflected in her stories.

Overall, this was a good read and gave me a really good feel for Jackson and her works. Despite its length, it was a good read.

[Beverly Diehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," for book club, I thought I'd take a gander at "The Lottery" and some of Ms. Jackson's other works.

832 superthin pages, with small font, and some regrets were had. None about the writing itself, which was superb, but there's a lot of really scary stuff here, and that's not usually my pleasure reading. Also, somehow I missed the "book due" e-notices and have my first overdue fine since I was a child.

What is really interesting is watching Jackson develop as a writer, and her skill i stories of varying lengths. Some of the short-shorts I loved, and some I felt "meh" about.

"Castle" was also rather creepy, and it was hard as a reader to know who to root for, although the townsfolk weren't real charming. The Lottery... there's a short film, watch it. None of it will make you feel real sanguine about the way people are happy to turn on each other, even their friends.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen King is right - he can't hold a candle to Jackson. A terrific read for October, near the light of a jack-o-lantern. "Haunting of Hill House," and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," are as good the second or third time around as any short novel anywhere else, and "The Lottery," remains one of the most gripping short stories in American literature. (This book also includes the witty "Biography of a Story," about the blowback from "The Lottery.") The short stories are equally as good - especially the notable "The Summer People," and the flat-out scary "The Beautiful Stranger." My absolute favorite "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts," which has a terrific pay-off.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I have a soft spot for women who write, this collection was right up my alley.

My favorites were (of course) both novels in the collection: I listened to loads of radio plays to "The Haunting of Hill House", watched the Netflix adaption and all movies about it before even reading the book and yet the whole theme of Hill House is so creepy and mysterious that it always leaves me feeling like it was my first read of the story. Truly magical!

"We Have Always Lived In The Castle" blew me away for good! Will definitely need to read this one again.

What surprised me the most were her short stories since she became famous for stories like "The Lottery" and most of her short stories were rather ordinary because she mostly wrote about everyday life.

Impressive work, call me a fan from now on :-)

[Becka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my time with this book and only read it at night because...WOW, love her stuff. I read a couple of her works in college but did not remember much.
The two books/nóvelas were so good. Timeless, spooky, intersecting and beautiful.
ALL the short stories were mind-boggling. Some I tended to think about for days!

[Kristina Doucet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shirley Jackson's writing is beyond - her characters and her stories are fun and weird and creative, and this collection was a perfect reminder of that.

[Christian Engler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Library of America edition of the Novels and Stories of Shirley Jackson is certainly a must-have for any novice writer or true appreciator of the genre of the gothic and psychological. It is a spot-on collection that encompasses all the vital works, like The Haunting of Hill House, which was a nominee for the 1960 National Book Award and which also inspired the famous black and while film by Ray Wise. Also included is the classic novel of human alienation, We have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as a whole gamut of superb short stores, obviously the most notable ones being The Lottery, Louisa, Please Come Home and The Possibility of Evil, the latter two being winners of the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award. However, awards aside, I think all the stories are fantastic and unique in their own way, and I cannot personally choose one story over the other and declare it as being the best. Usually, The Lottery, captures that coveted honor, but there are others that could easily claim first prize. Each story is very satisfying, and if a reader does have a gravitational pull towards literary works that explore themes on the darker side of human nature, this collection will certainly whet the hungry reading appetite.

Shirley Jackson has always been a favorite writer of mine, primarily because of her strong grasp and liberal use of the psychological. Her insights into the mind numbing and chilling elements of certain human behaviors and thought processes often convey a deeper and more probing definition of what evil horror is and what more it can become. A little act of evil is not so little in the grand universality of human existence, for any small nondescript villainous deed-even verbal-can connote drastic long term repercussions that can swell into newer and larger evils. Time and place is not so important in Jackson’s work. It plays second fiddle. The real drama lies in the psychological development and inherited warped belief systems of her numerous characters, what they say, how they interpret what they say and how they justify what they say. What’s even worse is when they (the characters) put their beliefs and justifications into practice. That is what is so disturbing! All of these things are clearly evinced in her use of the most mundane of circumstances and the most bucolic (or not) of settings. Some writers feel it is necessary to offer a generically ghoulish bad guy wielding a knife with evil intentions to convey a larger sociological and or political and psychological truth. But with the realism of Shirley Jackson, it’s her subtlety that starkly highlights the horrors. If one were to give Shirley Jackson a lone gothic structure with a rumored killer on or near the premisses, she would roll with it to the hilt, and by the end of the work, as so happens with We have Always Lived in the Castle, the monster would not necessarily be the person you’d immediately suspect. Her work is unsettling and disconcerting, to say the lest, and it can leave you very much off kilter, especially when you find yourself in the same ordinary places of life that she so sparingly yet eloquently writes about, like a kitchen or a small apartment or a place of work, etc. The continuity is shaken. Nothing is off limits, because places aren’t evil - people are.

This is definitely a worthy collection for anyone’s home library, and while it does not contain all of Shirley Jackson’s works, it does have the essentials, enough to satisfy her hard core admirers and more than enough to introduce to a new generation of readers unfamiliar with her work. This collection was selected and edited by none other than Joyce Carol Oates, another great chronicler of the emotionally dispossessed. This and Jackson’s other books, especially Come Along With Me, would be worthy of ownership, as the latter work has many of her essays on writing. But overall, a great collection.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an omnibus collecting “The Lottery and Other Stories”, “The Haunting of Hill House, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” and a number of other stories selected by the editor. I will be happily repurposing my reviews of the first three books, followed by discussion of some of the individual stories at the end.

“The Lottery and Other Stories” is a book jam-packed with misanthropes. And yet, I believe the underlying thesis is that most of society is populated with misanthropes and monsters.

This collection is broken into five sections, seemingly thematically. The first section seems to be largely introspective on identity and gender roles. Some feel rather thin on story, but frequently deliver a sense of discomfort. “Like Mother Used to Make” is probably the most representative of this section, as it includes an inversion of traditional gender roles followed by a slow displacement of our protagonist from their relationships and their home. If this is through the lens of unreliable narration, this could lend itself to even more interpretation.

The second section seems to deal with deals with prejudices and bigotry. “The Witch” is a delightfully misanthropic story where a stranger punishes a mother for having an uncontrolled and generally terrible child by encouraging him to greater depths of savagery. “The Renegade” is the strongest story in this collection after “The Lottery”. The social manipulation rife throughout this collection is needle point precision in the ostracism of outsiders and the destruction of the spirit of those deemed weakest in the pack. “After You, My Dear Alphonse” effectively sticks with pins, mounts, and frames the soft bigotry of low expectations while leaving the protagonist blithely unaware.

The third section seems to be firmly rooted in showing how terrible humans are to each other, frequently through oppressive politeness. “Colloquy” documents one woman’s unraveling with her doctor prescribing platitudes. “The Dummy” not only shows a ventriloquist living through his dummy, but an outsider being so upset by the behavior that they lash out. Yet they curiously lash out at the dummy rather than the ventriloquist.

The fourth section seems to be where despair wins. “The Lottery” remains an incredible masterpiece where the pieces slowly come together into the horrific crescendo asking us to question blind adherence to tradition. The next most fascinating piece from this section was “The Tooth” which follows a surreal journey of a woman in a broken physical and mental state to have an extraction. Part of me wonders whether this was an oblique story about abortion rather than about dental work. It seemed an absurd amount of effort for dental work, and the destruction of self and sanity would seem better suited for a different kind of extraction.

The fifth section is a grim epilogue. This collection merits further consideration and a spot on the future schedule for a re-read.

“The Haunting of Hill House”

Gosh I loved this novel a lot. While We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a subtler and more masterful tale, this one is significantly more fun and has had a much greater impact on the horror genre and popular culture.

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

This book made me seek out the 1963 film adaptation, and I was stunned at how faithful an adaptation it was (while making the necessary changes for translation of medium) and also at how amazingly well it held up. Even with a less than impressive streaming experience, the tension, pacing, characters, and visuals were amazing. For example, when this line from the novel was used “I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.” The shot had Eleanor framed by bed canopy that resembled an open maw waiting to consume her. Also, there are so many shots from this film that Sam Raimi has made an homage to, particularly in the Evil Dead series.

I couldn’t help but think about how this novel is the cornerstone of the American Gothic tradition. The house is monstrous and “born bad” with its wrong angles creating a sense of disorientation and unease, and preventing the doors from remaining open or shut when you want them. The European castle has been replaced by the country manor built by an eccentric, and the characters are distinctly of the New World.

We can also draw some straight lines between this novel and King’s Carrie. I know King has cited Jackson as an inspiration, but I was unaware that Eleanor is the mold from which Carrie sprang. The oppressive mother and rain of rocks are straight homage.

I also couldn’t help but think about Cabin in the Woods. We have our archetypes of the virgin, the whore, the scholar, and the fool. They have been warned multiple times and been provided opportunities to turn around. This novel sets up everything that Cabin in the Woods deconstructs, and yet still comes out all the smarter and surprises with the layers and the conclusion.

“We Have Always Lived in the Castle”

One of the things most difficult for a book to do is to deliver a sense of unease[1]. This book managed to provide that. The characters are strangely compelling, provoking sympathy and antipathy simultaneously. Throughout the story, there's the sense of waiting for more awful things to happen to the characters, some of which is of their own creation. The terrible and pitiable relationships in this family are well drawn.

I was not expecting this to be a book about the creation of a haunted house. The witch house on the edge of town that inhabits the nightmares of all the townsfolk. That rather blew me away. I will be coming back to this book.

[1] Hierarchy of horror writing per Lovecraft: At its purest, horror writing delivers a sense of unease, dread, and tension. Below this is fear-literature, followed by the literature of mere physical fear and the mundanely gruesome (e.g. jump scares and gore).

Or per Stephen King, “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.”

The final section is “Other Stories” which is interesting, but less cohesive than The Lottery and Other Stories. There’s a lot of unease in these additional stories, most of which are full of misanthropes. And some of the best misanthropes who write feedback letters about “The Lottery,” compiled in “Biography of a Story.” “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” is a nice fantasy story that shows off her biting wit.

“A Visit; or, The Lovely House” while not entirely satisfying on its own, was a fascinating look at the themes and the core of the protagonist who would later return in the masterpiece The Haunting of Hill House.

“Louisa, Please Come Home” is a delightfully grim tale about a runaway and how her family changes after that. “The Beautiful Stranger” follows one housewife’s disassociation with her life, and her acknowledgement of her new utopian experience which never quite banishes her fear that it will all be snatched away. “The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith” takes the theme of this last and ratchets it up leaving us wonder at whether it is the self-destructive acceptance of the patriarchy or masochistic nihilistic dreams.

Probably my favorite of this section is “The Summer People,” which is excellent work that touches on both the insularity of small towns and the rural poor as the monstrous other. And the tension is meticulously cranked up, as the invaders of this bucolic setting are slowly cut off from the outside world up to the ominous ending.

This omnibus is rewarding and worth including in your library. As of the time of this review, I have gifted this book at least four times.

[Mary Havens · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?"
While my list would be long, Shirley Jackson is definitely near the top.
Reading 800ish pages of her made me want to read more of her; to consume her, to be friends with her, to have book club and drinks and dinner and have playdates with our children and be mom friends with her, before her life became like one of her short stories. Really, it probably always was or at least she felt that way. But on to the stories!
My favorites: "The Renegade" was like reading my own life. Brilliant in it's description of routine and exhaustion felt by all mothers everywhere. My other favorite slice-of-life piece was "The Third Baby's the Easiest" which details Jackson's own account of labor and delivery of her third child, possibly under Twilight Sleep or other hallucinogen. It's hilarious and heart breaking and I longed to help her through the process.
Other favorites included "The Daemon Lover", "Charles", "Janice", and "This is the Life" because they were all a bit twisted in their own way whether twisting into the pathetic-ness of the character or twisting out into the subversity of the world/outsiders.
Jackson covers all the major themes: racism in "The Flower Garden", anti-semitism in "Fine Old Firm", and just downright meanness in "Elizabeth" and "The Summer People". It seems that every person that has a bit of an advantage over someone presses it to the annoyance or ruin of others.
Probably my favorite section of the collection were Other Stories and Sketches. Some of these works were written later in her career and seemed to take on a supernatural approach, such as in "The Beautiful Stranger" and "The Rock."
"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is a good study in haunted houses and crazy old ladies before they become "that house" and "those witches." It's a good study in isolation, eccentricity, and the role that community has in forging and fostering rumors and urban legends, something Jackson came to know personally.
I've reviewed The Haunting of Hill House separately because it needed it's own entry.
And finally, "The Lottery". Probably one of the most perfect short stories ever written. It never disappoints. What's even more interesting is that, in this collection, Jackson includes an essay titled "Biography of a Story" where she recounts the origin and reaction from "The Lottery." Can you believe that she completely conceived the story while pushing her daughter in a stroller on her way home from the grocery store??? What a genius!! Even better, Jackson includes many reactions from the publication of "The Lottery" in the New Yorker in 1949. It wasn't good and my favorites were "What the hell?" and "It certainly is modern." And timeless. And brilliant. And awesome.
Sadly, Shirley Jackson died at the age of 48 in 1965 of heart failure. But reading all of these stories and the chronology of her life, I feel like she died of a broken heart. An odd duck in a world of common swans.
It's amazing to me how much she and Flannery O'Connor are similar in their tragic lives, young deaths, and Gothic tastes. But O'Connor is very much Southern Gothic and Jackson is Northern. And that's a big and wonderful difference.

[Diann Blakely]

I, for one, am profoundly grateful that the Library of America chose to enshrine Jackson's work in this way, for her "novels and stories" can no longer be confined to "minor" or be called by that dreadful term, "cult classics." Joyce Carol Oates' work as editor and introduction writer are likewise superb; look at IN ROUGH COUNTRY (Ecco Press), which I haven't yet finished, for her essay on "We Have Always Lived In The Castle."

Hooray to the HUFFINGTON POST as well, for last summer I came across the following announcement there:

"The Shirley Jackson Awards for excellence in 'literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic' will be awarded over the weekend, and the nominees are a refreshing mix of well-known and emerging writers, from large and small presses working in both literary and genre traditions -- or..."

As a child, I somehow came across THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, in both of its book and film incarnations; and the latter frightened me just as badly when I came across it on TMC not long ago. (Its only competitors in the Nightmare-Bestowing Movies Category are THE INNOCENTS, which is based on THE TURN OF THE SCREW and was adapted for film by Truman Capote; perhaps IN COLD BLOOD itself; and THE SHINING).

Re-reading "The Lottery," a long story / brief novella is a profoundly resonant experience in this our time, considering the xenophobia in our country that has given rise to what more and more states are boasting as the "toughest anti-immigration laws" in the country. Even though, here in Georgia, I heard a farmer on the news not long ago saying that he had six acres of blackberries rotting because Mexican workers without green cards were afraid to step foot over the Florida state line. "No way," said the interviewee, "anybody's going to convince me that these people are taking away jobs from Americans, since neither white people nor African-Americans want to do farm work any more." Think of the unemployment rate in this country: we may as well all be holding that piece of paper with a black dot.

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I found this lovely at the library I was cautiously optimistic, I have read so much Shirley Jackson I was just not sure there was much I had not read.
Well, I was wrong--not only were there many short stories here that I had not read but there was a section of unpublished work that was truly amazing--I also loved the extensive notes, dates and short bio of Ms. Jackson's life. I am seriously considering declaring her the Master of the Short Story (yeah, I'm playin' God--that's how I roll...:)
Every story was a gem--and truly she defines the word versatile--I loved her amusing family/autobiographical stories such as "The Night We All Had Grippe", detailing a night of musical beds with both parents and all children sick and trading spots as well as her creepy fear based stories--The Lottery being the most famous of course and " The Summer People" which starts gently and ends with a bang, as does "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts". Another story, "Behold the Child Among His Newborn Blisses", is truly shocking, and painful and beautiful in it's awareness.
I also was amazed while reading her short bio what a fascinating life she had--the woman who so famously stands up for the downtrodden, the different and the poor came from upper middle class and repressive parents. She married a man from an Orthodox Jewish background despite both families resistance, and proceeded to have 4 children while she wrote--there is an amazing story by Ms. Jackson herself in which she describes writing "The Lottery" and it shows that true talent will out--she was walking her baby in a pram and came back and put baby down for a nap and sat down and wrote out the story--which by the way suffered nearly no editing.
She managed to be a loving mother and wife and one of our great writers. I know now that when I read "After You My Dear Alphonse" as a child and adored it so, that I was founding a life long love affair with Ms. Jackson and her work.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection, who's stories were selected by one of my favorite authors, Joyce Carol Oates.

I had read a few of Shirley Jackson's stories in high school and remembered really enjoying them, so when I saw this collection, I knew it had to be mine.

I had read The Lottery of course and Charles in high school, however there were the two novels and sketches I hadn't read yet and throughly enjoyed just as much, if not more. If I was to rank the content by most enjoyable to least enjoyable I would have to say my selection would be something like this:

1. The Lottery
2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle
3. The Haunting of Hill House
4. Other Stories and Sketches

Shirley Jackson is a master of psychological horror and suspense as well as mystery and intrigue. I got sucked into her world and liked every minute of it. It's no wonder she's influenced many modern day horror writers and Gothic novelists like Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Joyce Carol Oates.

This is a must read for this time of year as we approach Halloween and I'm looking forward to reading Shirley Jackson's other novels and writings that weren't published in this lovely anthology.

[Geve_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really don't even know how to review this one.
I think Shirley Jackson is quite unique. It took me 3 chapters of Hill House to get it (that's assuming I 'get it' completely). That book has the best, most successful use of unreliable narrator I've ever read. It's so often used lazily, and as a trick on a reader, but this was perfect.
Her characters are so unique, and so far from trope it was just so refreshing to read them. I love reading a story and suddenly relating perfectly to a character for something I had never even thought about until I read it. That requires some real depth of thought on the author's part, and these stories were full of such moments. Shirley Jackson is such a skilled writer I'm a little sad to have finished this book. All I have to look forward to is the re-read, which I suppose is okay, since I know for sure that I've missed things!

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed revisiting Shirley Jackson's novels, The Haunting and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and reading so many delightfully disquieting short stories I hadn't encountered before. I found The Lottery; or The Adventures of James Harris darkly enchanting, subtly tied together by references to that elusive daemon, Mr. Harris. Then, I think some of my favorites of the uncollected or unpublished stories were "The Bus", "The Possibility of Evil", "The Rock", "The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith", and "The Summer People".

Finally, Jackson's recounting of the responses received to "The Lottery" after being published in The New Yorker were hysterical, and I believe, a decidedly clever note with which to end this collection.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked out this edition from the UNC library with the intention of just reading "The Haunting of Hill House," but I think I will probably go ahead and read "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" as well. "The Haunting" was everything I wanted from a Halloween-time book and more. I was genuinely disturbed (and also angry at the stupid 1999 movie 'The Haunting.')