Best Books of the Decade: 1950's
171 books |
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book data
139 ratings,
3.83
average rating, 17 reviews
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published
January 7th 1986
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
(first published 1958)
details
Paperback, 192 pages
isbn
0140083170
(isbn13: 9780140083170)
description
THE SUNDIAL is a chilling, suspenseful, blood-curdlingly marcabre novel of 12 strange people awaiting the end of the world in a fantastic house like n…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 209)
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5 stars (43)
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4 stars (44)
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3 stars (39)
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2 stars (11)
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1 star (2)
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avg 3.83
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in March, 2010
Shirley Jackson was such a kooky genius. Emphasis on genius. Also, emphasis on kooky.
I'm learning that there is a whole world of Shirleyana beyond that one story which shall remain nameless because everyone read it in high school.
The premise of this one is simple but also highly bizarre. A wealthy family, plus assorted hangers-on, waits around in a big old house for what they believe to be the imminent apocalypse. Most of the family members are pretty awful in one way or...more
I'm learning that there is a whole world of Shirleyana beyond that one story which shall remain nameless because everyone read it in high school.
The premise of this one is simple but also highly bizarre. A wealthy family, plus assorted hangers-on, waits around in a big old house for what they believe to be the imminent apocalypse. Most of the family members are pretty awful in one way or...more
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this is among my favourite novels. every time i read it i am just as struck by its harmonious discord as i was the first time: this story is to me, a perversely uneven amalgam of a drawing room comedy, and creepy gothic haunted house tale. i think i only like the book more for the fact that the pieces don't quite fit together, and the scene that scares me the most isn't the one i'd expect, though there are several claustrophobic and uncomfortable moments in the sundial, and i always smile at thi...more
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I just re-read this and still enjoyed it. As in her The Haunting Of Hill House, she is subtle and often humorous in hadling her supernatural elements. In this case, we have a large country estate somewhere, dominated by a sixty-ish Mrs. Halloran, who married her now invalid husband for the money and the house. She is bright, sarcastic and enjoys weilding her power to make other people squirm. Some of the other people are: her daughter-in-law (who believes she killed her son to keep the house)...more
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone
While Shirley Jackson's genius will be noted for The Haunting of Hill House and her story "The Lottery," The Sundial is of equal importance. Containing one of the best villains I have yet read (Mrs. Orianna Halloran who may or may not have killed her son) and many enchanting pieces of sniping and ironic conversations, this is truly Shirley Jackson at her best. I only wish it could have been longer.
I am willing to loan my copy out to those who would take care of it and ret...more
I am willing to loan my copy out to those who would take care of it and ret...more
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I find myself giving this book five stars rather to my own surprise. It's not her best by any means, and it can be wildly uneven, but it has a couple moments that absolutely scare the living bejeezus out of me, more than anything else she's written. Once again the action centers on a house, this one belonging to a wealthy woman who rules it and its inhabitants as her own little domain. She's convinced the world is about to end and only those inside the house will survive, to walk out into a new ...more
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Read in September, 2009
I love Shirley Jackson, but I love other books she wrote more than this one.
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Read in February, 2008
Wow! This is the best book I've read so far this year. A rich, eccentric family receives a message from their late patriarch, telling them the end of the world is at hand, and the family (plus a few extra guests, for repopulation, of course) will be the only survivors. They begin making preparations in their family house, and fight and backstab one another right up to the end. Does the world really end? A great book, now out of print. Find a copy and buy it!
Read in April, 2009
recommends it for:
hardcore SJ fans but no one else really
I love Shirley Jackson so I really wanted to like this. I didn't.
I got bored and annoyed trying to remember who was who (introducing 12 characters in +/- 5 pages is not cool.)
As the book wound down, I was more invested but it never got as close as my affections for We have always lived in the Castle.
I got bored and annoyed trying to remember who was who (introducing 12 characters in +/- 5 pages is not cool.)
As the book wound down, I was more invested but it never got as close as my affections for We have always lived in the Castle.
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Read in April, 2008
All the Shirley Jackson staples are there -- an old gothic house in an isolated setting, a group of neurotic characters, and vaguely supernatural overtones -- but this one never came together for me. I like the way it teetered between moments of dark humor, almost British-like in tone, and ominious, threatening intensity, but I didn't feel the escalation led anywhere. That said, there is one sequence that is absolutely stone-cold chilling to the bone.
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Read in May, 2008
Her weakest work. I kept waiting and waiting for it to grab my interest but it never did. The characters are shallow and uninteresting. Try "The Haunting of Hill House" or, "We Have Always Lived in the Castle."
And of course, there's always "The Lottery" and the rest of her short stories.
And of course, there's always "The Lottery" and the rest of her short stories.
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Read in December, 2007
this book is awesome. i usually think of great writers as having some kind of sympathetic connection to all of their characters (flaubert, m.b., c'est moi, etc) but then shirley jackson comes along showing another way to do it. oh - s. was reading shirley hazzard, transit of venus, this week - another great, great shirley.
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Read in June, 2002
I love Shirley Jackson, but I didn't enjoy this one at all. It wasn't scary and wasn't funny. Maybe I'm missing something on this one; Stephen King liked it and mentioned in his Firestarter dedication.
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Read in June, 2008
I couldn't quite make heads or tails of this novel. But it's so bizarre I couldn't help but kind of love it.
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I remember I loved it, but lent it out and never saw it again....
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an obnoxious family waits for the end of the world in
their old house. fun!
their old house. fun!
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