The Lottery: A play in one act

by Brainerd Duffield (Adaptation), Shirley Jackson

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Plays, Fiction, Classics, Theatre

17 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Lydia Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lottery was dark and scandalous.
It had a lot of biblical references, which intrigued me and showed depth.
The idea of a human sacrificial lottery is such an abhorred yet eye-widening concept for a story.

The whole time, you are wondering what's going on.
The entire tale has you begging for a clue as to what the ceremony is for.
It is a total tale of suspense.

When you reach the ending, you are almost blinded, having to do a double-take, rereading the revealing lines with disbelief.
The absolute last part of the tale is a cliffhanger.
I enjoyed that.

As a writer, I would LOVE to be able to do a story like this.
It is so deep, so twisted, so very imaginative...
I think it is a rare treat when someone can actually pull off this sort of writing.

Shirley Jackson perfects it, though.
Making the twisted commonplace and the voice of reason inaudible.

[Χριστόφορος Νικολάου · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspense writing doesn't get any better than this.
Pure genius!

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, powerful play that highlights the danger in doing things "the way they've always been done" without examining why. Ideal for community theatre groups, and especially relevant now.

[Mhaey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is so screwed up. That is the one sentence that comes to mind after I read it. Jackson is so deceitful with her writing. It's like a normal happy day at the beginning and then all of a sudden the end is up in your face and it turned the tables so drastically that you won't even have time to accept what is going on. Think 'Hunger Games' but with less fan fare, and more-- reality. Like, this can happen, and maybe still happening somewhere, right now. It's that twisted; it's that real.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every year, this little town holds a lottery as a means towards population control. Disturbing stuff.

I remember putting on this play my sophomore year in high school during our night of one-acts. This was how we started the evening. Needless to say, it was kinda hard to win back the audience after that.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Often plays are more powerful: the dialogue, the action. This is a play that takes an incredibly powerful story and almost ruins it. Brainerd gives away the ending long before the end actually comes. The suspense of the short story is actually lost in this version.

[Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel as though I enjoyed and pulled more out of this story the first time through then I did now years later. This still holds up as one of my favorite short stories but it just felt lacking this time around.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting short story that I think is the epitome of the saying, "Not everything is always as it seems."

[Tajma · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my top ten short stories of all time....

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this every once in a while to remind myself why I hate society.

It is so perfectly written. Happy, happy, happy, OH GOD WHAT?

[Madison Salem]

Read this for English class last year as a freshman, and again this year.

[Kulsoom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not exactly a horror story but it is quite horrific!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great short story with a twist. My English teacher had me read several that year.