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The Renegade
The Renegade (1949)
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1949
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About the author
Shirley Jackson
341 books11.3k followersShirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.
She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."
Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".
In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.
She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."
Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies", but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb", to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as revealed by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned The Lottery', and she felt that they at least understood the story".
In 1965, Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep, at her home in North Bennington Vermont, at the age of 48.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
September 22, 2018
This is quite possibly my favorite story by Shirley Jackson, as it is unrelenting in the slow build of the society dictating your actions. The stories from multiple neighbors growing crueler with “cures” growing to the community poisoning her children to come home and discuss killing the dog in multiple heinous fashions. This is the quintessential Jackson story of a woman crushed under her need to conform, with that final oppressive line. Masterful work.
April 24, 2017
This is a story about how your day gets to its worst at only 9.30 in the morning.
November 4, 2017
These people all need to chill with their murderous tendencies.
August 6, 2019
Oh wow, what a depressing story. I mean that in the best of ways. Jackson is able to invoke such a feeling of despair with such a simplistic plot. The slow build of this story is masterfully done. It truly takes the reader on an empathic journey that starts with the dreaded, but mundane missed wakeup alarm and ends with a feeling of being literally crushed by the weight of your everyday life and societal pressures. Genius!
October 10, 2020
as a pet owner, this is probably Jackson’s most disturbing story. poor Lady the dog :(
June 14, 2023
anxious and disconcerting in a really mundane way
July 18, 2025
An eerie short story, starting with an anxious morning and ending in a suffocating afternoon, Shirley explores the pressure of the society in this one through the lenses of a tired lonely housewife with no support, forced by everyone to kill her own dog in the most gruesome way before someone else does it.
Again, I'm in awe of how Shirley incorporates fear, anxiety and the strangling sensation of the community in subtle ways and she keeps me hooked the entire story when all that's happening are mundane events.
Truly, reading her short stories has been a unique experience. And I didn't know it was possible, but the more stories of her I read, the more I get addicted. I definitely didn't have such high praise for her writing when I first started, but with each story something in my mind unlocks that allows me to appreciate her work the right way.
Again, I'm in awe of how Shirley incorporates fear, anxiety and the strangling sensation of the community in subtle ways and she keeps me hooked the entire story when all that's happening are mundane events.
Truly, reading her short stories has been a unique experience. And I didn't know it was possible, but the more stories of her I read, the more I get addicted. I definitely didn't have such high praise for her writing when I first started, but with each story something in my mind unlocks that allows me to appreciate her work the right way.
February 15, 2024
reread! love u miss jackson 😘
February 8, 2024
A woman slightly stumbling outside of conventions feeling overwhelmed, a dog killing chickens. Perfect housewives and indifferent men, children who become the byproduct of a chicken ridden society. And dogs being shot, strangled, beheaded...
March 24, 2022
I hated this story, everything that could be wrong was wrong in this story. It also brought up a strange memory. But first, I love my dog, she's a black cocker spaniel with tan markings. Right at this moment she is in bed sleeping under the covers with my husband waiting for me to come to bed. Once I'm there she will crawl up to the top, push as close to me as she can, and put her head on my pillow along side of mine, that's how we sleep. If anyone feels the need to suggest I kill my dog, or have her killed, they are going to be sorry. But in this story, nothing is done the way it should be. The dog in the story killed the neighbor's chickens. Now, the chickens weren't in a cage, just out running around, and the dog chased them, caught them (some of them), and killed them (some of them). Now the neighbors want the dog killed because once a dog starts killing chickens you can't get her to stop. I'll take their word for that. The lady who owns the dog is upset by this news and tries to think of a way to save the dog. I can think of a way to stop a dog from killing anything at the neighbor's, don't let the dog out to go anywhere she wants and do whatever she feels like until she comes back home again. But that seems to be what they do, just open the door and let the dog out and never think of it again until it comes back home. I'm amazed the dog isn't already dead from running across the road anyway. Put a fence around your yard already, save the dog, save the chickens. Oh, and put a fence around the chickens too please.
So the dog needs to be killed according to the chicken lady. And the neighbor down the street who knows all about it agrees, you can't stop the dog from killing chickens now. And the man who owns the grocery store agrees. You can't stop the dog.....we know already. Someone comes up with the strange suggestion of tying a dead chicken around the dog's neck until it rots, and stinks, and falls apart, and the dog will never go near another chicken, I don't know if that would work, they don't try it, not while we're there anyway. Then the kids come home from school and seem excited to tell her that the dog killed the neighbor's chickens - everybody in town knows this somehow - and the kids tell her how Mr. Shepherd (whoever he is) told them to take a collar and get big thick nails and hammer them into the collar, then put the collar loose around the dog's neck, then tie a long rope to it, then take the dog to the chickens, and when he runs toward the chickens, pull back on the rope and the dog's head will be ripped off. The kids seem so happy to try this.
The dog running around crossing the road brought back this memory. A few years ago my son came home from work and I was holding the dog (what else would I be doing). So he says "mom if Willow and I were both laying on the road and there was a truck coming and you only had time to run out and save one of us, which one would you pick? I told him I'd run out, grab the dog, and yell at him to get the hell off the road, he's 30 years old already.
This brings me to my long ago memory. There was this man who lived up the street from us who used to walk his dog every day. I never saw him without his dog except in church. Then one day he came down the street by himself, no dog. So I asked him where she was, and he said she was dead. That was so sad, she was always with him, he must be devastated. I asked him if she had been sick, and he said no, but she was getting old, so he took her out in the back yard and shot her. He's been dead for years now so I guess I can keep getting older without worrying about him showing up in my backyard. As for the dog in the story, I'd tell you to read the story to see what happens, but that wouldn't be much help. That's why I hate short stories, you never know the ending, of course if they were going to rip the dog's head off, I'm glad I'm out of there. Happy reading.
So the dog needs to be killed according to the chicken lady. And the neighbor down the street who knows all about it agrees, you can't stop the dog from killing chickens now. And the man who owns the grocery store agrees. You can't stop the dog.....we know already. Someone comes up with the strange suggestion of tying a dead chicken around the dog's neck until it rots, and stinks, and falls apart, and the dog will never go near another chicken, I don't know if that would work, they don't try it, not while we're there anyway. Then the kids come home from school and seem excited to tell her that the dog killed the neighbor's chickens - everybody in town knows this somehow - and the kids tell her how Mr. Shepherd (whoever he is) told them to take a collar and get big thick nails and hammer them into the collar, then put the collar loose around the dog's neck, then tie a long rope to it, then take the dog to the chickens, and when he runs toward the chickens, pull back on the rope and the dog's head will be ripped off. The kids seem so happy to try this.
The dog running around crossing the road brought back this memory. A few years ago my son came home from work and I was holding the dog (what else would I be doing). So he says "mom if Willow and I were both laying on the road and there was a truck coming and you only had time to run out and save one of us, which one would you pick? I told him I'd run out, grab the dog, and yell at him to get the hell off the road, he's 30 years old already.
This brings me to my long ago memory. There was this man who lived up the street from us who used to walk his dog every day. I never saw him without his dog except in church. Then one day he came down the street by himself, no dog. So I asked him where she was, and he said she was dead. That was so sad, she was always with him, he must be devastated. I asked him if she had been sick, and he said no, but she was getting old, so he took her out in the back yard and shot her. He's been dead for years now so I guess I can keep getting older without worrying about him showing up in my backyard. As for the dog in the story, I'd tell you to read the story to see what happens, but that wouldn't be much help. That's why I hate short stories, you never know the ending, of course if they were going to rip the dog's head off, I'm glad I'm out of there. Happy reading.
March 2, 2022
I'm left feeling this desperation and uneasiness. This short story takes a mundane setting , and with Shirley's presentation of eerie interactions, we view the struggle of a stay at home housewife , pressured to be perfect but nearing cracking the facade, dealing with uncomfortable situations, first dealing with all the chores on her own without being able to take care of her basic needs while taking care if her family's, who seems to not only take it for granted but also are completely indifferent to her feelings, dealing with a husband that won't even give her a proper good morning or thank you, and she just takes it , and continues to be pushed around by the peer pressure of her social circle when she's told that her dog allegedly killed a neighbor's hens and ought to be shot dead .
She seeks advice from others and we see the lack of compassion and plain cruel ways others suggest she takes care of the "problem". Even when she comes back at home, her twins indulge in the disgusting scenario of giving their dog a horrible death. They all lack compassion and are laughing at her misfortune, they all seem part of a nightmarish play she lost the memo of.
The wife feels isolated and alienated by everyone, including her family . She is submissive in that she never speaks up against others, even if she's visibly uncomfortable.
Shirley Jackson is a writer that captures the feeling of a woman in 50s trapped in the norms of the time and the roles they are expected to assume. Small towns have eerie atmospheres ,the people show hostility to the "outsiders " . A ongoing theme in her stories is the idea the women want to be vs the women they're forced to be .
She seeks advice from others and we see the lack of compassion and plain cruel ways others suggest she takes care of the "problem". Even when she comes back at home, her twins indulge in the disgusting scenario of giving their dog a horrible death. They all lack compassion and are laughing at her misfortune, they all seem part of a nightmarish play she lost the memo of.
The wife feels isolated and alienated by everyone, including her family . She is submissive in that she never speaks up against others, even if she's visibly uncomfortable.
Shirley Jackson is a writer that captures the feeling of a woman in 50s trapped in the norms of the time and the roles they are expected to assume. Small towns have eerie atmospheres ,the people show hostility to the "outsiders " . A ongoing theme in her stories is the idea the women want to be vs the women they're forced to be .
February 24, 2025
Good little doggie.
Mrs Walpole is just leaving home for work when she receives some very troublesome news. Apparently her sweet little dog has been slaughtering the neighbor's chickens, and something drastic must be done soon to stop it. Oh no! What will her husband do? What will her little children Jack and Judy think when they find out?
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Well done Shirley, very well done.
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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1949] [12p] [Horror] [3.5] [Recommendable]
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???????? The Lottery and Other Stories <--
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Lindo perrito.
La señora Walpole está por salir de casa para ir a trabajar cuando recibe una noticia muy preocupante. Al parecer, su dulce e inocente perrita ha estado matando las gallinas del vecino, y algo drástico se debe hacer pronto para detenerlo. ¡Oh, no! ¿Qué hará su marido? ¿Qué pensarán sus pequeños hijos Jack y Judy cuando se enteren?
Jesús, María y José. Bien hecho Shirley, muy bien hecho.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1949] [12p] [Horror] [3.5] [Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
Mrs Walpole is just leaving home for work when she receives some very troublesome news. Apparently her sweet little dog has been slaughtering the neighbor's chickens, and something drastic must be done soon to stop it. Oh no! What will her husband do? What will her little children Jack and Judy think when they find out?
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Well done Shirley, very well done.
-----------------------------------------------
PERSONAL NOTE :
[1949] [12p] [Horror] [3.5] [Recommendable]
-----------------------------------------------
???????? The Lottery and Other Stories <--
-----------------------------------------------
Lindo perrito.
La señora Walpole está por salir de casa para ir a trabajar cuando recibe una noticia muy preocupante. Al parecer, su dulce e inocente perrita ha estado matando las gallinas del vecino, y algo drástico se debe hacer pronto para detenerlo. ¡Oh, no! ¿Qué hará su marido? ¿Qué pensarán sus pequeños hijos Jack y Judy cuando se enteren?
Jesús, María y José. Bien hecho Shirley, muy bien hecho.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTA PERSONAL :
[1949] [12p] [Horror] [3.5] [Recomendable]
-----------------------------------------------
Read
January 9, 2023I am going to have to read this one again. I forgot to log it and now I don't completely remember it.
May 16, 2023
shirley jackson's short stories - 7/25
yep, i think i'm understanding the type of short stories shirley jackson likes to write. macabre, open-ended, dreading.
yep, i think i'm understanding the type of short stories shirley jackson likes to write. macabre, open-ended, dreading.
May 11, 2022
F**king country people and their f**king precious chickens. The gleefully sadism directed at the dog in this story enraged me.
December 13, 2018
This story is a horrible read for anyone who loves dogs. I can’t imaging living in a place where your neighbors will laugh at your misfortune and take joy in the idea of torturing or killing your family pet. Small town charm at its finest. Jackson definitely knows how to twist the knife.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2025
Another dull story by Shirley Jackson in which society pressures her to make an unfortunate decision and people behave inhumanely. This story continues her theme of dull plots producing awkward tension.
August 26, 2024
I didn't expect it to get so dark at the end. While it was all just suggestions each was worse than the other. We get an ending that comes to no conclusions. This was a good but very unsettling story.
TWs: Mentions of Blood and Animal Abuse.
TWs: Mentions of Blood and Animal Abuse.
November 7, 2023
One of the few short stories from Shirley Jackson that actually serves up a satisfying, coherent narrative. Read this and “The Lottery”. Skip the rest.
7/10
7/10
December 1, 2025
I'm starting to notice what the themes are with Shirley Jackson's short stories. They all play on paranoia and, typically, tend to focus on the head-strong matriach of a family trying to keep her family together while facing the plot's superstitious situation.
In this case, we follow Mrs Walpole, whose dog has attacked a pen of chickens. All around town, word has gotten out and her hands become tied as to what she must do about the dog.
Maybe it's just me, but if there is some deeper meaning hidden between the lines of Jackson's works, I'm not seeing it. If I purely take this story at face value then, much like her other short stories I've encountered, this story feels like a middle chapter in a bigger book, and yet I do enjoy reading the suspense Jackson constructs and the paranoia she plays on.
In other words, I enjoy Shirley Jackson's worldbuilding in these short stories, but not so much her seemingly anti-climatic conclusions.
In this case, we follow Mrs Walpole, whose dog has attacked a pen of chickens. All around town, word has gotten out and her hands become tied as to what she must do about the dog.
Maybe it's just me, but if there is some deeper meaning hidden between the lines of Jackson's works, I'm not seeing it. If I purely take this story at face value then, much like her other short stories I've encountered, this story feels like a middle chapter in a bigger book, and yet I do enjoy reading the suspense Jackson constructs and the paranoia she plays on.
In other words, I enjoy Shirley Jackson's worldbuilding in these short stories, but not so much her seemingly anti-climatic conclusions.
October 29, 2023
One thing I've noticed consistently with Shirley Jackson is her fantastic ability to make you feel just as isolated and anxiety-ridden as the characters in her stories usually are. A short but unnerving dive into an overworked and underappreciated mind of a housewife who gradually realises the peaceful community she's found herself in aren't exactly the most forgiving of people. No complaints from me at all, it was a brilliant read.
June 3, 2021
I just love how Shirley Jackson creates horror by giving just the little sick twist out of the most mundane situations. The tension slowly building up is like a neverending nightmare. Don't know what's the worst part though, the dog or the fact that the woman never gets a break and can't hope to find solace with anyone, not the neighbors, not her husband, not even from her own kids.
March 22, 2024
Shirley Jackson's work highlights the consequences of stepping outside of stringent social expectations is not to be done and any harm to the collective identity of society will not be appreciated through vivid imagery and progressively violent retaliation. You are to do what you are meant to do and any deviation makes you an outcast to be punished, be you a family pet or your husband's wife.
July 27, 2025
A common, everyday occurrence turned into the horror story it deserves to be. While the surrounding characters’ behavior is horrific, the real horror is the revelation of the main character’s inner world, caged by everyone else’s thoughts of the way things ought to be. A very unintentionally vegan story.
October 26, 2023
Wow.
This story demonstrates how good people can easily be convinced to do evil things and be happy about doing them, and how, for some reason deep in our evolved psyche, some of us really get off on doing those evil things.
This story demonstrates how good people can easily be convinced to do evil things and be happy about doing them, and how, for some reason deep in our evolved psyche, some of us really get off on doing those evil things.
October 20, 2019
Shirley did it again, she beautifully descirbed human nature and how they search the means to relate themselves with familair situtions,
June 22, 2021
Nothing to do about a chicken killing dog.
August 14, 2021
An interesting looking at the loneliness and isolation of domesticity, and the ridiculous interferences and opinions of society.
March 2, 2023
Loving all of these short stories by Shirley Jackson ! She captures the unsettling and terrifying aspects of ordinary life and ordinary issues so well
June 14, 2023
Contains descriptions of animal abuse. The metaphor of this story is amazing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews