Jackson, Shirley

Average customer rating:

Always a pleaser....
"The Lottery" Rigged Against Women
Illuminating snapshots of life

The Lottery: And Other Stories
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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ASIN: 0374529531
Release Date: 2005-03-09

Book Description

The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery:" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jack son's remarkable range--from the hilarious to the truly horrible--and power as a storyteller.

Customer Reviews:

Always a pleaser...........2007-06-09

Shirley Jackson is currently one of my favorite authors. (And, incidentily always has been, since elementary school.) She is the author that everyone has some sort of familiarity with, unbeknownst to them. From The Lottery, to The Haunting of Hill House, to We Have Always Lived In the Castle, there is a sort of haunting timelessness in her work. No matter where you grew up, what your background, you will always find a common thread to link you to her world. And in her world, you will find, (if you pay attention) a parable to our times, a guessing game of "could it really?.." and, "did it ever?"... After all of these questions, you will find yourself answering, yes, yes it did...

"The Lottery" Rigged Against Women.......2005-12-03

In the society of Ms. Jackson's "The Lottery," the reader's initial reaction to the surface appearance of both the town and its people is a favorable one. She pictures a healthy and happy small town that is simply brimming with a robust sense of nature: "The morning of June 27th was clear and shiny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green" The town seems centered on its annual lottery, an event which appears harmless enough, but as the story progresses, the reader learns the full and horrifying truth behind the lottery. The winner, chosen at random, is then ritually stoned to death by the willing participation of the town's inhabitants. Thus the "winner" is not a winner at all. With this ritualistic killing of one whose only misfortune is to pick the winning (losing?) paper, Ms. Jackson passes judgment on a society that seems to be full of the corn-fed Middle America types that abound in any painting by Norman Rockwell. It is the very ones who seem most like us that fill her tale with creepy horror.

The killing that terminates the plot may not have come as a surprise to the careful reader. Ms. Jackson drops hints from the second paragraph that this unnamed small town may have been the forerunner of the village that housed the robotic wives of The Stepford Wives. These delicate hints become obvious after multiple readings. The action begins with some little boys playing with pebbles and stones: "Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones." One of the other boys "made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys." It is these stones which will be later used against poor Tessie Hutchinson, the woman who pulled the X-marked ticket. Ms. Jackson also makes a subtle stab at a society which is male dominant. As the boys play with their lethal collection of stones, the girls do little more than watch as they are forbidden by their gender to participate. It is only against the one female who dares to speak out against such a rigid anti-female society that the Lottery punishes with a ritualistic killing.

Tessie Hutchinson is no angel of a woman. She is shrewish and is almost man-like in her attempts to break the gender barrier by speaking and acting in ways that the other townspeople disapprove. Tessie seems almost eager to join in the festivities as she crowds her way toward the mysterious black box that houses all the tickets. "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now would you, Joe?" she asks.

Little by little it becomes increasingly clear that the object of the Lottery is to lose, not win. As the villagers begin to draw their tickets, Tessie thinks that another villager may have been given an unfair advantage; "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair," she shouts. Her husband Bill shows no sympathy for her as he responds, "Shut up, Tessie." Later Tessie yells, "There's Don and Eva. Make them take their chance!" Again Tessie moans, "It wasn't fair." It is this repetition of fair that suggests that deep down Tessie suspects that she will draw the losing ticket. Indeed, when Tessie does draw the ticket with the X, she shouts out in a vain attempt at sympathy, "It isn't fair, it isn't right." And then her friends and relatives kill her by stoning her in the Biblical way of death for adulterers. Even her little son Davey joins in with the killing of his mother.

In "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson portrays a society that looks much like ours on the outside, but in the killing of the scapegoat, she suggests that on the inside, we are perhaps much more like her friends than we might like to think.

Illuminating snapshots of life.......2005-09-11

Many people are familiar with the story "The Lottery," but it is just one of many incredible vignettes of life filling this collection. It is hard to understand today why "The Lottery" originally provoked such a strong reaction, yet it still packs a punch for first-time readers. While it does have aspects of horror, the remaining stories are basically literary. "Flower Garden" and "After You, My Dear Alphonse" deal with racism and would seem to be pretty bold statements for the time period (the book was published in 1948); the latter story seems particularly groundbreaking because of the unusual perspective it provides. "Charles" is a humorous yet illuminating look at the behavior of children, while "Afternoon in Linen" is an important statement on why children sometimes behave as they do. Jackson is at her best when describing the disenchanted adult. The helplessness of women is an important theme in many stories; many of the women described here feel helpless and subservient to their husbands, their neighbors, and their community. "Elizabeth" is a fairly long study of how one woman's wishes and dreams remain unfulfilled in later life. The housewife in "Got a Letter From Jimmy" is thoroughly exasperated by her husband's feelings, and since she cannot speak her mind to him, she is forced to fantasize about killing him. In "The Villager" a woman spontaneously chooses to become someone else entirely for a few minutes, and most of Jackson's heroines spend much time contemplating what could have been. In "Of Course," the fact that a new family has a few unorthodox views builds an unbreachable wall between brand-new neighbors. The women in these stories are always wondering what other people think about them and worrying about what others will say about them. Even when a group of women try to do something good to help the less fortunate, it backfires on them in "Come Dance With Me in Ireland." When a female character vacations with her husband in New York in "Pillar of Salt," she soon becomes "lost," afraid, and desperate to return home. "Colloquy" is the shortest story in the collection, but its protagonist speaks for most of Jackson's female characters when she asks whether she alone or the whole world has gone insane.

My favorite story here is "The Daemon Lover." Herein, Jackson offers one of the most poignant, touching looks at loneliness, desperation, and fragility I have ever read. In the story, we spend a day with the protagonist as she prepares for her wedding, having become engaged just the night before to a James Harris. It is a depressing yet beautiful story, and I actually rate it higher than "The Lottery." The character of James Harris actually flitters throughout several of these stories, a phantom of sorts haunting several of Jackson's more memorable female characters.

Jackson deals with very serious subjects, and the illumination provided by her unusual perspectives on life is vivid and poignant. When addressing racism, she shows how even an individual with the best of intentions and good will can still represent an unfortunate racist attitude. In speaking to morality and social values, she shows how hard it can be for an individual to go against tradition and the community to do what is right. She offers powerful insights on child (and adult) psychology. Even the couple of stories I did not really "get" offered insight into the living of life. Readers should not expect a book of horror stories when they pick up this book. The stories can be maudlin and even depressing, but they are philosophical, psychological, and sociological rather than creepy or spooky.

Average customer rating:

a fun shift from the dense strangeness of Jackson's short stories
Wonderfully Great!
I LOVE THIS BOOK
Twisted & Unsettling
The haunting of hill house

The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Lottery: And Other Stories

ASIN: 0140071083

Amazon.com

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has unnerved readers since its original publication in 1959. A tale of subtle, psychological terror, it has earned its place as one of the significant haunted house stories of the ages.

Eleanor Vance has always been a loner--shy, vulnerable, and bitterly resentful of the 11 years she lost while nursing her dying mother. "She had spent so long alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without self-consciousness and an awkward inability to find words." Eleanor has always sensed that one day something big would happen, and one day it does. She receives an unusual invitation from Dr. John Montague, a man fascinated by "supernatural manifestations." He organizes a ghost watch, inviting people who have been touched by otherworldly events. A paranormal incident from Eleanor's childhood qualifies her to be a part of Montague's bizarre study--along with headstrong Theodora, his assistant, and Luke, a well-to-do aristocrat. They meet at Hill House--a notorious estate in New England.

Hill House is a foreboding structure of towers, buttresses, Gothic spires, gargoyles, strange angles, and rooms within rooms--a place "without kindness, never meant to be lived in...."

Although Eleanor's initial reaction is to flee, the house has a mesmerizing effect, and she begins to feel a strange kind of bliss that entices her to stay. Eleanor is a magnet for the supernatural--she hears deathly wails, feels terrible chills, and sees ghostly apparitions. Once again she feels isolated and alone--neither Theo nor Luke attract so much eerie company. But the physical horror of Hill House is always subtle; more disturbing is the emotional torment Eleanor endures. Intense, literary, and harrowing, The Haunting of Hill House belongs in the same dark league as Henry James's classic ghost story, The Turn of the Screw. --Naomi Gesinger

Book Description

<B>The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre</B> <BR><BR> First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

Customer Reviews:

a fun shift from the dense strangeness of Jackson's short stories.......2007-06-24

If you are looking for a fun, fast read, but one that lingers in your imagination as its significance begins to sink in, this is the book for you. The Haunting of Hill House possesses both popular and literary genre markers, and can be all the more appealing as a result. Don't be surprised to find this novel more airy than Jackson's dense and bizarre short stories (which you may love as much as I do). And don't assume that if you've seen the movie, you may as well not read the book, since radical changes were made in the movie, which took one possible interpretation and asserted it as the only possible reading. Jackson's book is more suggestive, and addresses several important themes for its time period with special attention to the psychological development of the novel's female protagonist.

Wonderfully Great!.......2007-06-14

"The Haunting of Hill House" is one of my favorite novels. in its evocation of atmosphere, landscape, and disquietude, its on the same level (as another reviewer noted) with James "Turn of the Screw."

Eleanor Vance is one of the most singular and affecting characters in fiction. Where can you finally find a home? Is it already too late?

Afterwards, I passed the novel on to Edgar Allan Poe. He dug it.

I LOVE THIS BOOK .......2007-05-11

What more can I say ... I read it after seeing the original movie in the 70's . I have reread it several times . It's both spooky and a wonderful haunted house story . One of the best ever written .

Twisted & Unsettling.......2007-04-28

This is a very strange book. Everything in it seems off kilter and half mad. The style of Jackson's writing, her characters, nothing seems right or normal or sane. Miss Jackson (as she was known) is widely regarded as one of the greatest American horror writers and rightly so. But do not expect a Stephen King or an Anne Rice although both writers are said to have been influenced by her. This is completely psychological stuff and really bizarre, twisted stuff. Miss Jackson prefers her characters to be odd and isolated and out of touch with reality and this book, written from the viewpoint of Eleanor, who to say the least is a completely unreliable narrator is that and more. The house as a character in itself is absolutely evil. Things happen which are truly horrific but everything settles down again and one can't be sure of exactly what has happened. Everything falls neatly into place until the next time. The characters visiting in this house, brought together for an "experiment in the occult", regularly turn on one another and play up faults and speak behind the other's back, friendships and kinships fall in and out, everyone generally acts completely horrible. The house has them in its grasp, they appear to have fallen under the spell of two sisters who lived in Hill House with their deranged, fanatical father. The guests in the house speak to each other childishly, they play silly games, they tease and bully and bait. There is more than an insinuation of overt sexuality, of a kind of undetailed love affair between Eleanor and Theodora, Theodora and Luke (who stands to inherit the house), and Luke and Eleanor. The doctor who initiated the experiment wavers between clarity and delusion and when his wife turns up late in the book with her creepy assistant Arthur everything flies to pieces and the end of Eleanor is at hand. This book will unsettle and unnerve and stick with you for some time.

A bit about Jackson herself might be in order as the woman reflected her writings accurately. Jackson wrote "The Lottery" the most controversial story ever published by The New Yorker magazine. She had four children, was married to teacher and critic Stanley Edgar Hyman who supported his wife's writing talents but was a typical man of the time and did little to help in domestic affairs. Jackson was a devoted mother, interested in magic and witchcraft, and by all accounts a delightful hostess and witty conversationalist. She was also very troubled. Eventually she became a recluse and suffered many health problems. An eccentric iconoclast she smoked too much, ate too much, was addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. She suffered from intense anxiety and depression and felt persecuted by the citizens of the small Vermont town in which she lived. The fears that plagued her however were a source of her creativity. In an unsent letter to poet Howard Nemerov she wrote, "...I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from these...I delight in what I fear. ..it is about my being afraid and afraid to say so, so much afraid that a name in a book can turn me inside out."

Well said.

The haunting of hill house.......2007-02-20

This book was a very quick read for me and the characters were VERY well written. A very basic "ghost" story. I must add that I am a huge Stephen King fan so it would be difficult for me to call this book HORRIFYING, it was written during a different time. Still worth reading but not a CLASSIC in my opinion.

Average customer rating:

On the moon...
One of Jackson's best, almost.
Oh, What a Great B&W Movie This Would Make
Captivating....
Amazing psychological thriller

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140071075

Amazon.com

Visitors call seldom at Blackwood House. Taking tea at the scene of a multiple poisoning, with a suspected murderess as one's host, is a perilous business. For a start, the talk tends to turn to arsenic. "It happened in this very room, and we still have our dinner in here every night," explains Uncle Julian, continually rehearsing the details of the fatal family meal. "My sister made these this morning," says Merricat, politely proffering a plate of rum cakes, fresh from the poisoner's kitchen. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel, is full of a macabre and sinister humor, and Merricat herself, its amiable narrator, is one of the great unhinged heroines of literature. "What place would be better for us than this?" she asks, of the neat, secluded realm she shares with her uncle and with her beloved older sister, Constance. "Who wants us, outside? The world is full of terrible people." Merricat has developed an idiosyncratic system of rules and protective magic, burying talismanic objects beneath the family estate, nailing them to trees, ritually revisiting them. She has made "a powerful taut web which never loosened, but held fast to guard us" against the distrust and hostility of neighboring villagers.

Or so she believes. But at last the magic fails. A stranger arrives--cousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortune. He disturbs the sisters' careful habits, installing himself at the head of the family table, unearthing Merricat's treasures, talking privately to Constance about "normal lives" and "boy friends." Unable to drive him away by either polite or occult means, Merricat adopts more desperate methods. The result is crisis and tragedy, the revelation of a terrible secret, the convergence of the villagers upon the house, and a spectacular unleashing of collective spite.

The sisters are propelled further into seclusion and solipsism, abandoning "time and the orderly pattern of our old days" in favor of an ever-narrowing circuit of ritual and shadow. They have themselves become talismans, to be alternately demonized and propitiated, darkly, with gifts. Jackson's novel emerges less as a study in eccentricity and more--like some of her other fictions--as a powerful critique of the anxious, ruthless processes involved in the maintenance of normality itself. "Poor strangers," says Merricat contentedly at last, studying trespassers from the darkness behind the barricaded Blackwood windows. "They have so much to be afraid of." --Sarah Waters

Book Description

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

Customer Reviews:

On the moon..........2007-05-31

While certainly not as well-known as her famous short story "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson's novel "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is still a great work in its own right; one worth reading and savoring. A word of warning however; this is not a who-dunit or a psychological thriller, as some readers might think. Don't expect shocking plot twists, morally-grounded characters, or a neatly resolved ending. This is, instead, a powerful and hauntingly beautiful exploration of madness, culpibility and family dysfunction closer to Patricia Highsmith and Lovecraft (see "The Outsider" and "The Tomb") than Agatha Christie. At the center of it all is the wildly disturbed, and strangely likable, Mary Katherine ("Merricat") Blackwood, whose psyche is gradually revealed to the reader throughout the novel. At times loving, cruel, innocent, hateful, tender and controlling, Merricat is above all facinating. Jackson definitely shows true literary genius, balancing reality and fantasy to create an unforgettable story. If you prefer interesting characters, real psychological tension and a rich gothic atmosphere over the conventions of the suspense/thriller genre, read this book.

One of Jackson's best, almost........2006-08-07

This novel, written by the Stephen King of her day is a psychological horror story. About two young women who are forced to live alone by cruel townspeople. Then one day the older is seduced by a cousin appearing as a "friend." Although not as good as two of the author's most famous works "Lottery, Haunting of Hill House." The characters are very well drawn and the writing disturbing. In fact there is one scene in the book that was very similar to one I had and was so affected by it that I almost "lost" the novel.

Oh, What a Great B&W Movie This Would Make.......2006-06-26

If someone could be described as deliciously evil, I guess it would be Constance Blackwood -- never eat her food if you reviled her good nature.

The central characters are Constance -- a late 20's spinster matriarch -- who tends to a few surviving relatives. Before the times outlined in this book, a meal Constance had prepared poisoned her mother, her father, her aunt and her uncle. Her uncle lived, but extremely infirmed. Her teenage sister Merricat (Katherine) lived without infirmity -- for reasons we learn later in the book.

The people are polite in a Victorian way. Merricat is tomboyish like Scout of "To Kill a Mockingbird." With the vast land holdings, Merricat's world is her "Secret Garden." Their world is brilliantly innocent in the land and home provided by their dearly deceased parents. Yet, their poisonous meal is complicatingly ferocious and conniving.

Constance's inner feelings about her place with the family are slowly revealed to us. But, not entirely. Much like the painting movements of the middle 20th century, this 1960's novel's minimalist disclosure of the girls' characters and reasons for Constance's murderous actions are the mastery of the art to which we view.

Many of the items herein may be symbolism at its sublest. Written post-McCarthyism era, the rioting judgmental crowd may symbolize more than small people with small minds. Constance may be more than a young spinster who is tired of parental pressures.

This is a page-turning book. Short in length, and fast in style, Jackson delivers a ghoulish, eerie, and creepy experience to us. Oh, what a great black and white movie this would make.

Captivating...........2006-04-21

This is a captivating and hard to put down book. Needless to say I read it in one sitting. The writing transports you to a world that's almost upside down....twists and turns. Dark corners. You're not quite sure what's real and what isn't. It was an enlightening journey, don't miss it!

Shirley Jackson...when she's good.....she's GRAND. Check out her other works as well.

Amazing psychological thriller.......2006-04-13

This is one of those books I will never forget, one that I will re-read soon. I don't like to recommend books, but I have to say this is one of the most chilling things I've read in many years.

Average customer rating:

A fine anthology for the horror afficianado
Multitudinous tome for the horror and preternatural aficionado
Alone in the Library---with Spooks.
The best
An excellent textbook!

The Dark Descent
Clive Barker , Ray Bradbury , John Collier , Shirley Jackson , Stephen King , and Joyce Carol Oates
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312862172

Amazon.com

If you could have only one anthology of dark stories, this would be the one to have. Having observed that "fans of horror fiction most often restrict their reading to books and stories given a horror category label, thus missing some of the finest pleasures in that fictional mode," David G. Hartwell assembles here 56 important tales within an insightful critical framework; his purpose is to "clear the air and broaden future considerations of horror." Several well-known classics are included, but there are also dozens of lesser-known horror tales, including many by science fiction and literary writers. Get one copy for yourself. Get another for that friend or relative who doesn't understand why you like to read horror.

Book Description

In The Dark Descent, hailed as one of the most important anthologies ever to examine horror fiction, editor David G. Hartwell traces the complex history of horror in literature back to the earliest short stories. The Dark Descent, which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, showcases the finest of these ever written--from the time-honored classics of Edgar Allan Poe, D.H. Lawrence, and Edith Wharton to the contemporary writing of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Ray Bradbury.

Customer Reviews:

A fine anthology for the horror afficianado.......2005-12-22

This huge, (topping out at just over 1000 pages!) collection of some of the finest tales from the masters of horror has it all. It was wonderful to read works I had not encountered over the years, along with some of the classics of the genre. Some personal favorites were the Lovecraftian "Crouch End" (King), a truly bizarre and unclassifiable tale, "The Swords" (Aickman), a masterful work of understated horror, "The Summer People" (Jackson), and a classic ghost story, "The Beckoning Fair One" (Onions) A one stop shop for the fan of all things scary.

Multitudinous tome for the horror and preternatural aficionado.......2005-08-23

This publication rivals most of the horror/ mystery compilations printed elsewhere. Some of the most consequential and prolific ink slingers of the creepy and the dreary are featured here, and they don't disappoint.

Here, in this volume, you will find it all. The works of King, Bradbury, Jackson, Lovecraft, Poe and many others are at your reading pleasure. Some of my personal favorites: The Beach (King); The Call of the Cthulhu (Lovecraft); Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper (Bloch)...I could go on for ever.

Alone in the Library---with Spooks........2004-10-26

Disaster! That super-secret hush-hush Project the military was supposed to have under control has torn a rift into another dimension just ten miles from town, and maniacal flesh-hungry monsters are pouring through by the score, tearing their shrieking victims apart and turning the world as you know it into a charnel house. You've got to pack up and get outta Dodge quick---but what to take? Clothes, boots, food, hunting knife, guns and ammo, extra fuel cans, chainsaw---oh, and if you're a horror junkie like me, you've gotta have reading material during the Siege, right? And since you'll be holing up a long time---maybe forever---the tome you choose had better be a good one.

Forced to haul one single volume off your horror shelf before you pack everything into the heavily armored civvie Hum-Vee, I would choose David G. Hartwell's masterful compilation "The Dark Descent." This Leviathan of a book is chock-full of more than one-thousand pages of the best horror ever written by some of the Grand-Masters of the genre (H.P. Lovecraft, Poe, Stephen King, M.R. James) and some of their lesser known adepts and apprentices. For such a modest price, having this much shivery, ghoulish goodness stuffed between the covers is nearly an embarrassment of riches.

Anthologies are often treacherous ground, and success hinges on an editor's style and judgment. Hartwell demonstrates his impeccable taste and considerable acuity in the selections he makes; best of all he begins the collection with a remarkably astute, entertaining---and mercifully concise---little essay tracing the evolution of the terror and horror tale. Certainly we are treated to the seminal classics of the genre, and a few of the tales are overly represented in many other collections---but as horror crown jewels, they have their place here. H.P. Lovecraft is represented by two ensanguined ambassadors: "The Call of Cthulhu", a sweeping account of global panic, terror and slaughter spread by the resurgence of a primitive cult of an obscure Squid-God, and the Poe-esque "The Rats in the Walls". M.R. James has a less auspicious presence, "The Ash-Tree" being one of his less powerful works and an inadequate introduction to the Master.

Hartwell's King selections are slightly puzzling; "The Reach" is too languid for its own good, while "The Monkey" is tacky and underawing---but then Hartwell knocks it out of the ballfield with the relatively rare Lovecraftian "Crouch End" which, serves up a viciously psychedelic and very different side of King, to say nothing of providing a little side-trip to a part of London (thankfully) not on any map.

Karl Edward Wagner's "Sticks" presages by a quarter-century the discovery of liches in the woods by "Blair Witch"'s unlucky film students, Clive Barker details an experiment in mortal terror gone horribly awry in "Dread", Joyce Carol Oates proves there is a fate worse than Death in "Night-Side", and Lucy Clifford chronicles what happens to naughty little children in "The New Mother".

There are at least ten riveting tales of vintage dread here, any one of which justifies the price of admission. If you haven't met late British terror-writer Robert Aickman, you have three opportunities in "Dark Descent", although "The Hospice" is by far the most ambiguous---and disquieting. "Seven American Nights", an apocalyptic travelogue written by a young Turkish man traveling through a wasted and genetically twisted future America, is by turns terrifying, acutely repulsive, and melancholy, a peculiarly potent spiked little horror-potion cloaked as travelogue by fantasy master Gene Wolfe. Taken together with Thomas Disch's disorienting "The Asian Shore", they might make you rethink getting away from the tour group the next time you spelunk through a strange land.

Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows" conjures up the horror of the spheres that's moved its haunts to remote islands in the Danube; Walter de la Mare's "Seaton's Aunt" is a rich, deliciously unhinged little crawlfest instantly recognizable to anyone who has forced himself through an unpleasant evening with an unctuous, intimidating in-law.

Hartwell includes a number of authors who rarely ventured into the horror genre: William Faulkner does Southern Gothic proud in "A Rose for Emily", Flannery O'Connor demonstrates the wisdom of never judging a book---even a Bible---by its cover in "Good Country People", and Edith Wharton whips up a kind of delayed-blast spook in "Afteward"---to say nothing of writing one of the finest ghost tales of all time.

Hartwell makes some missteps, perhaps unavoidable in such a massive collection. Bishop's "Within the Walls of Tyre" is pretentious and dull, and "The Roaches", "If Damon Comes", and Philip K. Dick's time-twisting "Little Something for us Tempunauts" may give you chills, but they left me cold and bored. But these are forgivable lapses in a collection so varied and rich.

One story in particular that I can't stop thinking about is Michael Shea's unexpected, grisly little delight "The Autopsy", about an aging, cancerous coroner called to a remote mountain town to conduct autopsies on the bodies of miners killed in a mysterious mine explosion---and who rapidly, terrifyingly shifts roles from examiner to subject. It's not a perfect story---not in style, nor even in its final revelation---but that said it's nasty, and remorselessly surgical, and you'll never forget it. Like most of the darksome little nuggets of terror in this vast volume, it's like a tooth you've had removed---you can't stop yourself from digging your tongue into the raw, fleshy gap.

So remember---as civilization collapses and the howls of the mutated and deranged grow closer to your hideaway, throw the bolts, load the rifle, and tuck yourself in with "The Dark Descent"---at least you'll have the ultimate grimoire containing the very finest tales of terror until those crafty army scientists come up with a solution to save the day. And if they don't? Well, you *do* have 1,000 pages to tide you over.

The best.......2001-11-15

The best one-volume collection of horror stories I've ever read, and I've read a few.

An excellent textbook!.......2001-07-24

This HUGE book is an excellent comprehensive survey of some of the landmark horror stories of the past couple hundred years. Most of the important authors are here. Poe, Lovecraft, Matheson, Jackson, Bloch, Ellison, King, Barker, etc. It'll be tough to read the whole thing cover-to-cover, but it's very good to have.

Average customer rating:

Amsuing
Humor from the Horror Goddess???
one of my all-time favorites
Demonic children
If tamed, LOL so high it could replace internal combustion..

Life among the Savages
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Come Along with Me
The Haunting of Hill House
The Witchcraft of Salem Village (Landmark Books)
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson

ASIN: 0140267670

Amazon.com

Can this be the author of such chilling tales as The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House? An ordinary housewife stuck in a big, shabby house with three marvelous, demanding children and a charming husband who takes detached interest in the chaos they generate? Yes, it's Shirley Jackson all right: the precision of her observations and prose is familiar, even if her humor is something of a surprise. Not until Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions in 1993 would another woman write with such honesty about the maddening multitude of trivial, essential chores that constitute a mother's life. But Jackson nailed it first, 40 years earlier, in her hilarious chronicle of life in a small Vermont town, where getting the kids to school on time requires the combined gifts of a drill sergeant and a lady's maid. The saga of her son's bumpy adjustment to kindergarten, frequently anthologized as Charles, is justly famous, but Jackson's account of the Department Store Trip from Hell (two kids, two toy guns, one doll carriage and doll, mayhem in revolving doors and escalators) is even funnier. Although her memoirs are as merciless as her ghost stories, you may not notice because you're laughing so hard. --Wendy Smith

Customer Reviews:

Amsuing.......2007-02-07

As a stay at home, I enjoyed reading this book. It is very funny. It is also interesting to see the change in times. This book was written in the 1940s. Especially of interest is the author's description of her two week hospital stay for child birth. These days it is pracically a drive by procedure :) I felt the book dragged at times, but all in all this is an enjoyable read and certainly one I would recommend to other moms.

Humor from the Horror Goddess???.......2006-04-15

Yes! This book was so funny, I actually laughed out loud at times! Her descriptions of family life really hit home with me, and I wish she had written more...

one of my all-time favorites.......2005-04-24

I grew up reading and rereading this book, as did all the five children in my family. It's one of the very funniest books I know on the subject of families and their foibles. Shirley Jackson is so well known for her more macabre and adult writing that people are usually skeptical when I recommend this for its outstandingly intelligent humor. Once you read this you must also read Raising Demons, which is the sequel, and every bit as good, although much harder to find.

Demonic children.......2004-08-22

This is Shirley Jackson's hilarious account of her struggles raising an expanding family of children. She is delightfully unsentimental in her account of family life, and any harassed parent will recognise the situations she finds herself in. For instance, what parent hasn't suffered the anguish of trying to eat in a restaurant with young children, how well Shirely Jackson sums of the sheer horror of that situation, among many others. I didn't think there could ever be a book about child-raising as funny as Jean Kerr's 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies' but this one runs it a very close second.

If tamed, LOL so high it could replace internal combustion.........2004-05-31

.
"Our house is old, noisy and full. When we moved into it we had two children and about five thousand books; when we finally overflow and move out again we will have perhaps twenty children and easily half a million books . . ."

This is the beginning of the curiously powerful--and stealth-assault funny--LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES (1952), memoirs of a Mommy, a Daddy, and a powerhouse-ful of children who give up post-World War II's overcrowded Manhattan housing market for roomier digs in a remote Vermont town. These are certainly life-with-kids family memoirs of the late 1940s and early 1950s, but to leave it at that would miss the point--like saying that Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is an anthropological study of a ritualistic New England town, or that THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN is a treatise on rafting the Mississippi River before the Civil War.

The author of LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES is, in fact, Shirley Jackson, and this is the first half of her two comic novels about life with small children. (The latter half being the later, and unfortunately more difficult to find RAISING DEMONS, published in 1957.) I'm not revealing too much to pass on that the hick town just happens to be Bennington, Vermont, the one with the all-female college; and that the harried Papa taught there. And when Mommy climbed into bed late at night "with a mystery" there's a good chance she was working on one of her own stories and a portable typewriter, a pack of cigarettes and a snifter of brandy climbed into bed with her.

In LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES, even the most please-don't-eat-the-daisies events usually hide a shiv or a shiver somewhere amidst the sitcom. When the financially strapped family scrapes up enough cash for some day help, they interview and hire an escaped felon; later they tangle with a motorcycle mama, the ultimate Effie Klinker of negative IQ, and an over-the-top fundamentalist who frosted her cookies with "Repent, Sinner." Not to mention: "From the girls' room, small voices rose in song, and I listened happily, thinking how pleasant it was," reminisces la Jackson. "[Just later] I was out of bed in one leap and racing down the hall. 'Baby ate a spider, Baby ate a spider,' was what they were singing."

Maybe it's just the mixed blessings of heredity--and all those thousands of books--that the marriage of a college professor and a celebrated author would produce a growing family of kids so bright, inquisitive, creative, and, um, let's call it individualistic. "I frequently call [daughter Jannie] Anne and her father very often calls her Jean. Her brother calls her Honey, Sis, and Dopey, Sally calls her Nannnie, and she calls herself, variously, Jean, Jane, Anne, Linda, Barbara, Estelle, Josephine, Geraldine, Sarah, Sally, Laura, Margaret, Marilyn, Susan, and--imposingly--Mrs. Ellenoy. The second Mrs. Ellenoy. . . [M]y husband . . . is addressed in all variants of father from Pappy to Da, even--being a man not easily thrown off balance--Mr. Ellenoy." Son Laurie was so incensed by his temporary amnesia following his bicycle's crash with a car that he made the ambulance driver run HOME with the lights and siren on, "an extremely proud Jannie sitting beside him and traffic separating on either side."

Was life fair to Shirley Jackson? Well, she did produce (and by this book's end) four radiant children, two boys and two girls, all spaced an even three years apart. And she hung her laundry in the basement to dry, just like her neighbors told her to, after the backyard clothes line had flung it indignantly to the ground several times. But the nurses at the hospital were SO cross at her for yelling when she was in deep labor with Sally. And she got blacklisted by the PTA when Jannie said there was a woman at the door who wanted a dollar and Shirley, upstairs painting, assumed it was just another of Jannie's invisible friends . . .

Book Description

Stories of magic, superstition, and witchcraft were strictly forbidden in the little town of Salem Village. But a group of young girls ignored those rules, spellbound by the tales told by a woman named Tituba. When questioned about their activities, the terrified girls set off a whirlwind of controversy as they accused townsperson after townsperson of being witches. Author Shirley Jackson examines in careful detail this horrifying true story of accusations, trials, and executions that shook a community to its foundations.

Customer Reviews:

A very good preface to the subject of the Salem witchcraft trials.......2005-08-16

There were two reasons for my interest in this book; one is the fascinating issue of the Salem Witchcraft trials, a subject that has intrigued me for years (I first encountered this topic while reading articles dealing with matters of child testimony in court and children eyewitness in general) and the second is the writer, Shirley Jackson, whose work I try to read in full.
It is no wonder Shirley Jackson has chosen to write about this chapter in American history. Shirley Jackson, as her biography notes, was interested not only in witchcraft and the supernatural, but more in the power of the community, especially a small one, on an individual person. Jackson experienced this power as an evil force and she describes it as such in her work (a good example would be the book "We have always lived in the castle"). Several efforts were made to link Jackson's personal life with her work. After reading much of her work and biography one realizes how she must have sympathized with the accused in the Salem Witchcraft Trials, as a person who was also an outcast or a "strange" member of the community. It seems that the issue of the Salem Witchcraft Trials was more then just an historical chapter for Shirley Jackson.
But beyond the author herself, this is a description of a dead end situation for those wrongly accused of witchcraft and nothing they may possibly do could prove them innocent. Jackson does well in her effort to describe the political and religious atmosphere of the time before getting to the story itself. This is the horrible tale of a group of girls, who in their fear for themselves wrongly accuse other people in witchcraft. One event leads to another and pretty soon they are many steps beyond return. The atmosphere of the time enabled such misdeeds to happen.
As the book is intended for kids, the language and terminology are rather simple, yet Jackson manages to be clear and precise and does not let her thoughts and feelings (which we can only imagine) evade the writing. Even though Jackson describes the wrongdoings she does not dwell on the suffering of the accused when blamed, in prison, or the after come of the hanging itself. Jackson tries to stick to the historical details and facts and gives an objective description of the events themselves. However, Jackson does not wish to leave her historical story to mere facts, as facts are rather scarce in this case. The author tries to supply reasons and semi-explanations as to how something as terrible as this could have happened. Besides the court summaries, names and details of living people there are no real facts to hang on to, and what could be the facts in this case? The mere facts were only the tales and actions of the "Afflicted children" and the atmosphere in the country during the time of the Salem trials.
I found the book very clear and interesting although as an adult I feel I would like to further dwell into this issue. This is a good job of describing the episode to children ( I believe the readers age should be above the age of 10-11 and definitely not ages 4-8 as recommended in the product description!) with an effort to remain as neutral as possible, as much as can be done in such a story.

Witchcraft Truth.......2005-04-25

Jackson shows me what it is like to live in 1692 and have magic on your hands! I definitly recomend this book for 12- adult!Jackson ROCKS!

Excellent History Lesson for Children.......2003-03-06

This book was an excellent educational book and an easy read for children to understand and learn from. It is clear that this Martha Nassaer has an egotistic issue (arrogance) and has filled her review with what she believes to be impressive words; however, all were meaningless and unimpressive to this reader. It is unfortunate that people would use such a forum to dissuade others from reading such a wonderful book. Obviously, she is not an educator. I highly recommend it for children 8 and up.

MY REVIEW OF THE WITCHCRAFT OF SALEM VILLAGE.......2001-12-07

THE WITCHCRAFT OF SALEM VILLAGE WAS AN EXCEPTIONAL BOOK FOR CHILDREN FROM THE AGES 10-13 WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS. I ESPECIALLY ENJOYED IT BECAUSE IT WAS A QUICK AND EASY READ BUT IT KEPT ME INTERESTED THE WHOLE TIME.IT WAS VERY DESCRIPTIVE AND IT HAD TRUE FACTS ABOUT THE WITCH TRIALS.IT WAS A GREAT BOOK AND I RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!!!

History through Rationalism - an occultic view.......2001-05-25

One must sometimes delve into the background of an author to acquire that person's worldview and how it molds their material, especially when the material being used for historical accounts for educational purposes. "Private Demons" a biography of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer, reveals a plethora of information about the author, including that fact that she was an occultist and active occult writer. This book is written with a religiously unilateral, occcult/rationalistic view. Despite intense political & religious controversy surrounding this story, there was an enormous amount of literature concerning broader aspects of the trials which held alternate views not relayed in many of Ms. Jackson's often innaccurate and spiritually condescending renderings of the account.

Many believed the girls were commissioned by Satan to divide Christ's Kingdom through false accusations. Ms. Jackson mocks these Spiritual leaders by negating their position that the root of the dissention began with the afflicted girls and their occult involvement, and alludes that these leaders were vehicles of dissention in the community, by advocating that the colonists oppose Christian teachings. Spiritual leaders were trying to expose their belief that Satan's ploy was to sow seeds of division in the church. Ms. Jackson makes no tangential, historical reference to this fact, that spiritual leaders believed the root of the dissention began with occult involvement.

Ms. Jackson omits various aspects of the afflicted girl's involvement in occult practices, and substitutes a rationalistic world view to explain the occurences. Rationalism excludes Biblical interpretations and the value of conventions and dangers of popular superstitions. Ms. Jackson does not depict occult activities utilized by the afflicted women to avoid any inference as to the validity of an alternate power. Rather, she alleges that these girls merely "pretended" to be controlled by demons, ignoring the fact that many Christian leaders strongly believed in Satanic influence surrounding these issues.

You will notice that the bulk of the content provided by the author in the "afterword" section expresses her rationalistic viewpoint when she focuses heavily on demonology as a myth, and places blame for the witch trials on religious fervor and intolerance, boredom, psychological pressure, and possible physiological disorders. Ms. Jackson attempts to categorize spiritual leaders as zealots.

Ms. Jackson consistently negates to include accurate historical information throughout her book. Ms. Jackson could not include this information because it would not conform to her rationalistic view. It appears that Ms. Jackson selectively utilized facts she chose to paint the picture she wanted the reader to see by flavoring the historical rendering to that of her own world view. She does this by mocking the power of Satan, and accredits belief in his existence to ignorance. By enmeshing her view within her account of the actual events, Ms. Jackson emphatically and repeatedly negates the significance of a ubiquitous entity believed in by a multitude of religions still to this day. I would not recommend this material to be used in a primary or middle school setting as is has the potential to religiously sway an immature reader. It does not qualifies as a concise, historical rendering suitable to be contained as part of the curriculum in a public school setting based on the conjectural commentaries of religiously sensitive content espoused by Ms. Jackson. This material is more suitable to a mature reader who is readily equipped to separate true historical facts from biased conjecture. Please take notice as to the origin of where this book is listed in the Classified Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, under 100 PHILOSOPHY, PARAPSYCHOLOGY AND OCCULTISM, PSYCHOLOGY, 133.4 Demonology and witchcraft. The rendering is an edited account of history through a rationalistic world view, that is condescending and offensive to any aware Christian reader.

The Lottery: And Other Stories
Average customer rating:

Teh Scary

A few gems in here......

A RARE GEM

A "Lottery" Without a Payoff

Full of surprises

The Lottery: And Other Stories
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

The Haunting of Hill House

Come Along with Me

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson

Life among the Savages

ASIN: 0374516812

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Teh Scary.......2006-06-08

Being assigned to read 'The Lottery: And Other Stories' as part of a university english course, I read most of it in the course of a day. The nightmares I had that night caused me to go without sleep for at least two days afterwards. I can still remember the dread wrapping itself around my mind as it realized what was happening in the small town of 'The Lottery.' I have yet to find an author that matches Shirley Jackson's talent in horror.

A few gems in here.............2006-04-21

I loved the title story and a couple of other ones. But some of the stories seemed pointless and I would get to the end and be....huh? Like it just ended mid-writing. Some were boring. But there are some great ones in between the bad.

A RARE GEM.......2005-11-08

Shirley Jackson is a rare treasure whose work is on par with such exceptional short story writers as John Cheever and J.D. Sallinger.

Jackson's stories on the surface may seem like simple tales of domestic life, but she is one of the slyest observors of the quiet desperation that envelops most lives. She may lead you to believe you know how a story will conclude, then she delivers a twist that may very well cause you to gasp.

A "Lottery" Without a Payoff.......2005-08-08

It's like Roald Dahl without the ironic endings. Or any endings, for that matter. The stories just stop and leave you with a quizzical, slightly annoyed grimace. However, they are well-written, finely observed character studies -- snapshots of quiet desperation detailing the sometimes funny, often contemptible minutiae of human behavior. (If Jackson were around today, she'd probably be the star writer on "Curb Your Enthusiasm.")

There are a few satisfying tales -- the title piece (though a little more predictable post-"Twilight Zone" than it must have been when originally published), "After You, My Dear Alphonse," "Charles" and "Colloquy" -- not coincidentally, the only narratives with some sort of punchline. Meanwhile, there are others I might refer to when trying to illustrate a certain archetype, but that doesn't translate to literary fulfillment.

Full of surprises.......2005-06-03

Shirley Jackson is a wonderfully creative writer and once again she proves it with this fine collection. Many of the stories contain so many twists that you will be left thinking of the outcome - or what you believe it to be - a long time after you put the book down.

Average customer rating:

Jackson's most revealing stories and thoughts on fiction
An intimate tribute to a bright, literary star.
A Must for Shirley Jackson Fans
The Master of the Haunted Story....
Another classic by Shirley

Come Along with Me
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House
Life among the Savages
The Lottery: And Other Stories

ASIN: 0140250379

Amazon.com

If you were thrilled by Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" but aren't familiar with her other stories, don't miss the chance to pick up this important collection edited by the author's husband. In addition to "The Lottery," it includes classics like "The Beautiful Stranger" (body snatcher theme with a twist), "The Summer People" (a tale of sinister villagers), "A Visit" (a lyrical ghost story), "The Rock" (where death is a short, shy gentleman), and "The Bus" (Jackson's most overtly ghoulish and frightening story of all). The unfinished novel Come Along with Me is mesmerizing, and Jackson's "Biography of a Story" is an utterly hilarious account of readers' reactions when "The Lottery" was first published in the New Yorker in 1948. As the New York Times said, "Everything this author ... has in it the dignity and plausibility of myth ... Shirley Jackson knew better than any writer since Hawthorne the value of haunted things."

Customer Reviews:

Jackson's most revealing stories and thoughts on fiction.......2002-04-10

This book is a fitting testament to Shirley Jackson, as the selections span her entire literary career. It is tragic that a writer of Jackson's caliber should be called away during her productive years, but we are quite fortunate to be allowed a taste of the novel Jackson was working on when she died. That taste is a short one, consisting of six chapters (roughly 27 pages), the final three of which are the first draft. The protagonist is a thoroughly Jacksonian character, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes nostalgic, making a new life for herself in her own peculiar way. Her attempts at shoplifting are particularly telling of her character, but unfortunately her story ends at just about that point. The other stories included here are a special treat. While "The Lottery" is included (just in case someone may not be familiar with it, as Jackson's husband tells us in his preface), the other stories are poignant looks into the lives of rather ordinary people. Jackson had an amazing talent for characterization; the smallest actions can tell us more about a person than his/her overt actions and words, and such little things make Jackson's stories incredibly vivid, illuminating, and personal. Shirley Jackson was a wife and mother whose writing always took second place behind her family. Many of these stories center on family life in all its aspects. "The Beautiful Stranger" and "A Day in the Jungle" deals with the sense of unfulfillment and unhappiness that one partner may come to feel in his/her marriage, "The Rock" speaks to the strength of a brother-sister relationship, "Island" is a somber story about one's end-of-life years. "Pajama Party" is a simple tale of a young girl's birthday slumber party. The story sounds so much like real life that it could be a neighbor telling you about it firsthand; it is also the funniest story Jackson ever wrote There are darker stories where characters become "lost," hopeless, and frightfully alone--"The Bus," "The Little House, "A Visitor" (which is a strange ghost story of sorts). The best stories here, in my mind, are "Louisa, Please Come Home," which has a uniquely Jacksonian twist of the prodigal son motif, and "I Know Who I Love," which illustrates the fact that parents can be much too overprotective of their children.

The true highlight of this book, though, are the three "lectures." One gives Jackson's response to the old "where do you get your ideas?" question. Another one addresses the techniques of writing effective fiction. My favorite, though, is an essay describing the reaction of readers to the publication of "The Lottery" in New Yorker Magazine. Jackson includes comments from all sorts of readers, almost all of it negative, which she breaks down into three different categories. While "The Lottery" is certainly an original, successful story, I cannot imagine that so many people would have been so affected that they felt compelled to put their shock and disapproval into words. The responses that Jackson describes to us offer a vivid look at American culture at mid-century.

If you are a Jackson fan, you (should) already own this book. If you want an introduction to Jackson, the stories included here will certainly delight you and win you over to Jackson's unique way of telling stories. These stories clearly reveal Jackson's humanity and family devotion, and the reader comes away with great respect for the author as both a writer and as a human being.

An intimate tribute to a bright, literary star........2002-02-26

Shirely Jackson was a gifted writer who deserves to be regarded with the same prestige heaped upon Ray Bradbury and others. Come Along With Me, a posthumous collection gathering together early works with lectures and a novel fragment, not only allows readers to shiver and giggle as only Ms. Jackson could make us do, it also offers the reader an intimate glimpse into the creative process (compare the sharp focus in the revised segments of Come Along With Me with the somewhat blurred unrevised sections) and, by printing short stories in order of their publication, the growth of Ms. Jackson's considerable talent for the intelligently ghoulish can be seen and savored. As with her other, more famous stories (i.e The Haunting of Hill House), it is what is implied in the methodical unfolding of the tales that makes for the chills rather than in your face grue. This book, along with Jackson's others, is an essential in any literature loving bookworm's library. Highest recommendation.

A Must for Shirley Jackson Fans.......2000-08-18

This book is amazing! If you love short stories with a twist (or twisted short stories), you will be mezmerized by this book. The real gems in this collection are the short stories--you will find it difficult to put this book down. If you loved "The Lottery", get this book! The collection was assembled posthumously by Shirley Jackson's most trusted critic--husband Stanley Hyman--and it is pure gold!

The Master of the Haunted Story...........2000-05-28

It is a shame that Shirley Jackson died before finished what most certainly would have been her most provocative novel, yet we are lucky that a small portion exists. But, if you don't like cliffhangers (even though this one is on purpose), you'll be disappointed.

However, the book contains much more than just the unfinished novel; it is a collection of some of her best short stories and lectures. "The Lottery" is included as is a "biography" of the story displaying some of the reactions received by the shocking story. Other stories such as "Pajama Party" and "A Day in the Jungle" show her talent for the human side, innocence and all. "The Rock" is just as haunting as "The Lottery" and is perhaps even more disturbing.

A book for writers, COME ALONG WITH ME also includes several of Jackson's lectures regarding her ideas on the creation of short stories and their value as literature. This is definitely a book for those wanting to become more familiar with Jackson's spellbinding work.

Another classic by Shirley.......1999-08-24

Wouldn't expect anything less from her. Can only wonder how it would end if she hadn't died before finishing it!

Average customer rating:

THIS IS GOOD NEWS; TWO CLASSICS TOGETHER IN ONE VOLUME

Life among the savages ; Raising demons
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Quality Paperback Book Club
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Life among the Savages
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson
Come Along with Me
The Lottery: And Other Stories

ASIN: 0965780066

Customer Reviews:

THIS IS GOOD NEWS; TWO CLASSICS TOGETHER IN ONE VOLUME.......2006-01-08

Dear Reader,

This is not a review of Shirley Jackson's wonderful memoirs of her life with boisterous and at times eerily unsettling kids in Vermont -- LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES in 1952 followed by RAISING DEMONS in 1957. They have been well covered in reviews under their respective titles.

I write this--hoping it will get thru the Amazon filters--because this is the first time since the late 1980s that BOTH works together in one volume have become available. It was the Quality Paperback Book Club that published the duo back in 1988, and now it's available again thru Book-of-the-Month Club, Smart Reader Rewards, QPBC and other BOMC affiliates.

If you read the reviews you'll see that most people who read the (in print) LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES want to read RAISING DEMONS as well, but are usually stymied by its being out of print. Now interested readers can get both works in one volume at a good price. I hope Amazon carries it too.

--allen smalling

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson

Average customer rating:

A Nice Discovery
oh, so very,very good, mrs. jackson!
just an extraordinary day
The Real Shirley Jackson
Definitely a mixed bag from a master storyteller.

Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories Of Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Come Along with Me
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
The Lottery: And Other Stories
Life among the Savages
The Haunting of Hill House

ASIN: 0553378333
Release Date: 1997-12-01

Amazon.com

The late Shirley Jackson (1919-65) is the author of the classic short story, "The Lottery," a dark, unforgettable tale of the unthinking and murderous customs of a small New England town. She is also the author of several American Gothic novels, such as We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House. Her atmospheric stories explore themes of psychological turmoil, isolation, and the inequity of fate. Just an Ordinary Day is a posthumous collection of 54 short stories (many of which have never been published), edited and introduced by two of Jackson's children. Jackson penned many of the stories in this volume for the popular press, for titles ranging from Fantasy and Science Fiction and The New Yorker to women's magazines such as Charm and Good Housekeeping. The disparity of the intended audience and the divergent styles result in an uneven collection of short stories, some that are outstanding and will be much appreciated by the reading public, others that hold interest only to the die-hard fan or chronicler of Jackson's work.

Book Description

The stories in this edition represent the great diversity of her work, from humor to her shocking explorations of the human psyche. The tales range, chronologically, from the writings of her college days and residence in Greenwich Village in the early 1940s, to the unforgettably chilling stories from the period just before her death. They provide an exciting overview of the evolution of her craft through a progression of forms and styles, and add significantly to the body of her published work.

Just an Ordinary Day is a testament to how large a talent Shirley Jackson had and to the depth, breadth, and complexity of her writing. Though this remarkable literary life was cut short, Jackson clearly established a unique voice that has won a permanent place in the canon of outstanding American literature, and remains a powerful influence on generations of readers and writers.

Customer Reviews:

A Nice Discovery.......2005-11-10

Shirley Jackson was a gem. She was a suburban mom and wife who managed to find the time to crank out loads of short fiction as well as authoring The Haunting of Hill House, easily the greatest haunted house novel yet done. Jackson's uncollected, often unpublished stories are here in this volume that arrives in the world like a late Christmas present. Some of these tales are hilarious, a few are disturbing, many are weird, and a handful are touchingly personal and concern Jackson's life raising her kids in post-War America. (Those last types were the ones I enjoyed most of all.) Shirley Jackson left the world far too soon and her like won't be seen again, but this volume, compiled by her son, is a nice keepsake for her fans, who never knew most of this existed.

oh, so very,very good, mrs. jackson!.......2005-07-10

well, i just loved it.

i adore shirley jackson's style: the way she caputured a time period long gone and dosed it with play and shivers.

i haven't had such a delightful time with a short story collection in eons.

if you've never read shirley jackson, start with 'the lottery' short story collection & you'll be so itchy for more, you'll hug this book to your chest just before you begin eating the pages.

just an extraordinary day.......2001-02-26

that's how i felt when i saw this book on my library shelf. it helped to quell a hunger that i have had for many years. thank you laurence and sarah for compiling these works. i would love to see the out of print works of shirley jackson back on bookstore's shelves.

The Real Shirley Jackson.......2001-01-28

There has been tons of controversy over this book about whether or not is should have been published. My personal opinion is that is should not have been published because these stories were private stories and were not published for a reason. However, now it has been published and there is nothing anyone can do about it but enjoy it as a learning experience. The reason I gave the book five stars was because it is a very accurate representation of Shirley Jackson. Writing was always theraputic for her -- she used it to express the other dimensions of her life and her self which no one could understand. Writing was a way of putting everything that went on in her mind down on paper. Therefore, reading these stories is like reading her diary -- she expressed her emotions through fiction, and the variety of characters and plots that can be seen in this collection are a representation of a certain period of her life through her eyes. If you are looking for the edited fiction that made Shirley Jackson famous, this is not the book for you. However, if you are interested in the inner workings of the author's mind, this collection of stories and essays is the closest one can get.

Definitely a mixed bag from a master storyteller........2000-01-08

As much as my friends and myself admire Jackson's classic works, I must agree that this is a pretty mediocre collection of short stories. Because many have not been seen for over 50 years however, they certainly belong in the library of every Shirley Jackson fan. "The Possibility of Evil" is stunning. Sometimes Shirley either tried too hard, had writer's block or simply experimented with the bizarre; whatever the reason, most of her works were ahead of her time and when she was good she was the BEST-there are, unfortunately too many rather dull and uninspired stories in this collection. Shirley was the female Stephen King of her day!

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