Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories
"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...
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"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 twentieth 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.The New York Times - Terrence RaffertyOates's selection is canny. The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are the best of Jackson's six novels…and the 21 uncollected and unpublished stories here are drawn largely from the posthumous 1968 volume Come Along With Me, wisely put together by Jackson's husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman…Jackson wrote wonderfully at every stage of her career, but it's the later work, from her difficult last years, that sticks most tenaciously in the imagination, stories about desperate homebound fantasies and overfamiliar fears.
THE LOTTERY; OR, THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES HARRISI The Intoxicated, 5The Daemon Lover, 10Like Mother Used to Make, 26Trial by Combat, 35The Villager, 41My Life with R.H. Macy, 47II The Witch, 53The Renegade, 57After You, My Dear Alphonse, 69Charles, 73Afternoon in Linen, 78Flower Garden, 83Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors, 108III Colloquy, 117Elizabeth, 119A Fine Old Firm, 153The Dummy, 157Seven Types of Ambiguity, 164Come Dance with Me in Ireland, 171IV Of Course, 179Pillar of Salt, 184Men with Their Big Shoes, 199The Tooth, 207Got a Letter from Jimmy, 225The Lottery, 227V Epilogue, 239THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, 243WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE, 421OTHER STORIES AND SKETCHESI UNCOLLECTEDJanice, 565A Cauliflower in Her Hair, 567Behold the Child Among His Newborn Misses, 572It Isn't the Money I Mind, 579The Third Baby's the Easiest, 583The Summer People, 594Island, 608The Night We All Had Grippe, 621A Visit; or, The Lovely House, 627This Is the Life; or, Journey with a Lady, 651One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts, 662Louisa, Please Come Home, 673The Little House, 691The Bus, 700The Possibility of Evil, 714II UNPUBLISHEDPortrait, 727The Mouse, 729I Know Who I Love, 733The Beautiful Stranger, 745The Rock, 753The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith, 772APPENDIXBiography of a Story, 787Chronology, 805Note on the Texts, 814Notes, 820
\ Terrence RaffertyOates's selection is canny. The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are the best of Jackson's six novels…and the 21 uncollected and unpublished stories here are drawn largely from the posthumous 1968 volume Come Along With Me, wisely put together by Jackson's husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman…Jackson wrote wonderfully at every stage of her career, but it's the later work, from her difficult last years, that sticks most tenaciously in the imagination, stories about desperate homebound fantasies and overfamiliar fears.\ —The New York Times\ \
