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Post by sean on May 2, 2008 17:14:17 GMT
Now this is a writer that at least deserves a mention on the Vault. I'm sure I've seen a couple of posts about her somewhere, but I can't find 'em... Really there should be pages of praise for her huge, off-kilter talent... but just to get started here's some cover scans and blurbs! __________ We Have Always Lived in the Castle (first published 1962 - cover scan of 2006 Penguin edition)  (illustration by Thomas Ott) BLURB:
My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a were-wolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantaganet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.
You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine. Is it still in use? you are wondering; has it been cleaned? you may well ask; was it thoroughly washed?
This edition also contains the most patronising and unnecessary introduction I have ever had the misfortune to read, by some jerk whose name I can't remember. __________ The Haunting of Hill House (first published 1959 - cover scan of horrible Penguin 1999 film tie in edition)  BLURB:
Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits...
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and light-hearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own...
"Makes your blood chill and your scalp prickle... Shirley Jackson is the master of the haunted tale"
- The New York Times Book Review
__________ The Sundial (first published 1958 - cover scan of Penguin 1986 Penguin edition)  (illustration by Jeffery Smith) BLURB:
Aunt Fanny knows when the world will end...
Aunt Fanny has always been somewhat peculiar. No-one is surprised that while the Hallorhan clan gathers at the crumbling old mansion for a funeral she wanders off to the secret garden. But when she reports the vision she had there, the family is engulfed in fear, violence and madness. For Aunt fanny's long-dead father has given her the precise date of the final cataclysm!
"Shirley Jackson is unparalled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders"
- Dorothy Parker
"Miss Jackson chills her readers with inexplicable horrors"
- The Wall Street Journal
(I'm reading this one at the moment!) __________ The Lottery, and other stories (First published 1949 - scan of Noonday press edition from 1991)  BLURB:
'The Lottery', one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in THe New Yorker. "Powerful and haunting", "horrible", "superbly contrived", "cancel my subscription" 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 Jackson's remarkable range - from the hilarious to the truly horrible - and power as a storyteller.
"The stories remind one of the elemental fears of childhood"
- James Hilton, New York Herald Tribune
"In her art, as in her life, Shirley Jackson was an absolute original. She listened to her own voice, kept her own council, isolated herself from all intellectual and literary currents... She was unique"
- Newsweek
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Post by dem on May 2, 2008 21:21:54 GMT
Some more cover scans. Corgi 1977 and Robinson 1987 editions of The Haunting Of Hill House and The Lottery (Avon, 1965) |
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Post by sean on May 3, 2008 16:59:14 GMT
I like the Corgi cover for 'Hill House'.
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Post by Calenture on May 3, 2008 18:18:08 GMT
This edition also contains the most patronising and unnecessary introduction I have ever had the misfortune to read, by some jerk whose name I can't remember. I hope that introduction didn't put you off reading the book, Sean. Known as Poppy Z Brite's favourite novel. I like the Thomas Ott cover of that Penguin edition. Also glad to see that it was reissued as recently as 2006. These books are said to be difficult to find. Another worth tracking down is Come Along With Me, a posthumous collection, edited by Jackson's brother. It includes an essay on writing which she wrote for her sister. Here's the 1965 Four Square edition: "...frightening and tender-hearted story about the three survivors of a mass poisoning - arsenic and blackberries for pudding - Constance, believed by the villagers to have been the poisoner, her young sister Merricat, and dotty Uncle Julian who lives mostly in the gorgeous memory of the crime." ---Siriol Hugh-Jones, Tatler  Claire Bloom from the MGM filmFour Square 1960 |
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Post by sean on May 3, 2008 18:55:35 GMT
I hope that introduction didn't put you off reading the book, Sean. Known as Poppy Z Brite's favourite novel. Nah, 'Castle' is one of the greatest novels ever! On the point of availability of these books, I have to say that all the Penguin editions I own are in fact Canadian Penguins... |
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Post by sean on May 4, 2008 17:08:24 GMT
The Sundial
Nutty rich family hide themselves away in their huge mansion and await the apocalypse from which they are to be spared. Well, that's the gist of it, but its the style and the humour that makes this a superb book, up there with the best of Jackson's work.
The novel starts in the aftermath of a funeral. The Hallorhan son has died (some say he was pushed down the stairs by his own mother) and the atmosphere is somewhat tense. The elder Mr Hallorhan is wheelchair bound and quite often mentally elsewhere, his wife is somewhat vicious and cold, unwilling to give up anything which she perceives as 'hers' - and that now includes the mansion and presumably all who live in it. The dead Hallorhan's wife is pretty much cut off from the rest of the family, and her ten year old daughter, Fancy, is seen by most to be remarkably unpleasant. Her teacher, Miss Olgivie, is a quiet sort, and Essex (the man who has been brought in to cataloge the enourmous but pointless library) seems to be there just for the easy life.
Then there is the unfortunately named Aunt Fanny, the brother of the wheelchair bound Mr Hallorhan. The morning after the funeral she manages to get herself completely lost in the overgrown gardens, where she receives the first of several rather garbled messages from something she decides is the spirit of her dead father. The gist of the messages seems to be that the end of the world is coming, and that only those who choose to remain in the house will be able to survive. The speed with which (with many a reservation, naturally) the characters come to believe this is pretty frightening, as well as quite amusing.
Several other characters come to visit and are taken in, including Mrs Willow and her two daughters. One of the daughters decides that she wants to leave, and the scenes where she finds herself outside the mansion grounds and lost in the fog are genuinely scary. The rest seem content to stay put, and supplies are gradually ordered and preparations continue to be made.
Not everyone is welcome though. A small local group who also believe that the end is nigh are turned away - as they assume that salvation comes in the shape of flying saucers from Saturn. Also, one a definite date for the end has been worked out, all the servants are sent packing the day before so as not to have them cluttering up the brave new world.
Mrs Hallorhan is falling into her role as a leader with dreadful ease. She decides to take to wearing a crown, and prints up a list of rules and regulations for life aftere the apocalypse. As a farewell to the everyday people that live in the town near the mansion, a party of farewell is held, in the guise of a wedding anniversary. This dengenerates into a farce, with much drunkenness and mischeif. Many of the characters thus face the end of all things with a stinking hangover.
As the winds get up and the hours pass, final preparations are made, interupted only by what could be another murder...
Wonderful stuff, especial inasmuch as it is never made clear if the end really is on its way. A comedy of manners set in one of those eccentric families that Jackson does so well, the main event itself is not as important as the build up.
Highly recommended.
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Post by clarence on Mar 1, 2015 22:27:03 GMT
Great to find this post. S J has a Wikipedia post to herself - she died at a fairly young age, I remember seeing the original film with Claire Bloom many years ago. I must check this one out.
Clarence
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Post by ripper on Mar 2, 2015 9:22:08 GMT
Jackson's 'Haunting of Hill House' is, in my opinion, among the very best, if not best, of novel-length haunted house fiction. That's not to say it is perfect by any means. I first saw the 1963 film version before reading the book and I preferred the characterization of Mrs. Markway in the film to that of Mrs. Montague (renamed Markway in the film) in the novel. I thought the interplay between Dr. Markway (open-minded scientist) and Mrs. Markway )hard-nosed sceptic, who believes her husband is wasting his time investigating haunted houses), to that of Dr. Montague and Mrs. Montague in the book, where she is a true believer in spiritualism and even brings along a fellow spiritualist when she turns up at Hill House. BTW I don't know why Montague was changed to Markway for the film.
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Post by bobby on May 30, 2015 20:52:50 GMT
This edition also contains the most patronising and unnecessary introduction I have ever had the misfortune to read, by some jerk whose name I can't remember. I like the Thomas Ott cover of that Penguin edition. Also glad to see that it was reissued as recently as 2006. These books are said to be difficult to find. I think most (all?) of her novels have been republished recently by Penguin, as trade paperbacks with new introductions. So far I've bought The Bird's Nest (which I've seen the film adaptation of) and The Sundial, both of which have a publication year of 2014. (I already had an ancient paperback edition of The Haunting of Hill House, which I think is contemporary with the original release of the film adaptation.) Also, in the 1990's all of her uncollected stories were published in the collection Just An Ordinary Day. Unfortunately my copy is currently in a storage facility, so I can't provide a listing of contents. According to amazon.com it's a whopping 54 stories! |
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Post by jamesdoig on May 30, 2015 22:27:08 GMT
I've got these two Shirley Jackson paperbacks - pretty battered but nice to read because of it:   |
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Post by piglingbland on Jul 1, 2015 8:18:22 GMT
JUST AN ORDINARY DAY Bantam Books, 1997. CONTENTS: Introduction (By Laurence Jackson Hyman & Sarah Hyman Stewart) Preface: All I Can Remember PART ONE: UNPUBLISHED STORIES The Smoking Room I Don't Kiss Strangers Summer Afternoon Indians Live In Tents The Very Hot Sun In Bermuda Nightmare Dinner For A Gentleman Party Of Boys Jack The Ripper The Honeymoon Of Mrs. Smith (Versions I And Ii) The Sister Arch-Criminal Mrs. Anderson Come To The Fair Portrait Gnarly The King Of The Jungle The Good Wife Devil Of A Tale The Mouse My Grandmother And The World Of Cats Maybe It Was The Car Lovers Meeting My Recollections Of S. B. Fairchild Deck The Halls Lord Of The Castle What A Thought When Barry Was Seven Before Autumn The Story We Used To Tele My Uncle In The Garden PART TWO: UNCOLLECTED STORIES On The House Little Old Lady In Great Need When Things Get Dark Whistler's Grandmother Family Magician The Wishing Dime About Two Nice People Mrs. Melville Makes A Purchase Journey With A Lady The Most Wonderful Thing The Friends Alone In A Den Of Cubs The Order Of Charlotte's Going One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts The Missing Girl The Omen The Very Strange House Next Door A Great Voice Stilled All She Said Was Yes Home I.O.U. The Possibility Of Evil Epilogue: Fame  |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jul 1, 2015 8:26:02 GMT
I recently read HANGSAMAN, a very strange but flawed and not entirely enjoyable novel. I think my favorite Jackson story is the chilling "The Daemon Lover." When I was younger I was a great Jackson enthusiast, but I now find that in large doses her rather depressing stuff is a bit off-putting.
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Post by piglingbland on Jul 1, 2015 8:26:21 GMT
2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Shirley Jackson's death. I have written an appreciation of her work which will be published in the forthcoming BFS Fantasycon 2015 programme book (edited by Peter Coleborn).
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jul 2, 2015 12:44:20 GMT
I recently read HANGSAMAN, a very strange but flawed and not entirely enjoyable novel. I think my favorite Jackson story is the chilling "The Daemon Lover." When I was younger I was a great Jackson enthusiast, but I now find that in large doses her rather depressing stuff is a bit off-putting. I read Hangsaman a few years ago, and that was my reaction as well. For me, it did not compare to The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House, or We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which are three of my favorite novels by any author. As for her short stories, I'll always remember coming to the end of "The Lottery" in my 6th grade English class; it left such a mark on me that I have a difficult time thinking about the story in any other light. Other than that one, I particularly liked "A Visit" (a.k.a. "The Beautiful House"), yet another variation on her beloved "woman psychologically trapped by a house" theme, and the darkly comic "The Missing Girl," which is reportedly based on the same real-life incident (the disappearance of a student from nearby Bennington College) as is Hangsaman. |
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 20, 2015 15:52:54 GMT
It has occurred to me that Jackson seems to have been writing with "goth" kids in mind before there actually were any.
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