Shirley Jackson

Bloom's Major Short Story Writers

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

-- User's guide
-- Biography of the short story writer
-- List of characters in each story
-- Detailed thematic analysis of each short story
-- Extracts from major critical essays that discuss important aspects of each work
-- A complete bibliography of the writer's works
-- A list of critical works about the short stories covered in the book
-- An index of themes and ideas in the author's work

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

83 pages, Library Binding

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.

Reviews

[Andria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hardly a "Comprehensive Research and Study Guide" to Shirley Jackson, despite the cover's ambitious claim. (Although, how comprehensive can anyone expect this book to be, coming in at 83 pages including bibliography and index?) But it is a decent jumping off point for one just beginning research on Jackson, or would suffice for one writing a brief essay on the short story The Lottery. The leading researchers and scholars of Ms Jackson's works are represented here, but only excerpts from selected essays and reviews are included and not the full text. Overall I found it somewhat misleading: despite being from the "Short Story Writers" series, it concerns itself with only two short stories from the author's extensive ouevre, then examines at some length her novel The Haunting of Hill House.

[Michale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite this volume’s title, only two of its three selections were short stories: “Charles, and “The Lottery”. That Bloom chose to include Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House rather than another of her masterful short stories was unfortunate, as many of the excepts from analyses of the novel were too full of academic or psychoanalytic jargon for me to appreciate.

From A. R. Coulthard about “The Lottery”:

“It is not that the ancient custom of human sacrifice makes the villagers behave cruelly, but that their thinly veiled cruelty keeps the custom alive. Savagery fuels evil tradition, not vice versa.”

[jacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read segments of this text for my thesis on Shirley Jackson. It was a good starting place for my research, but not excellent for me because of my focus on her novels vs short stories.

[SHUiZMZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

For hardcore academics and fans of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" or "The Haunting of Hill House". It serves as sort of a supplemental study guide and sort of condensed Cliff Notes for the story and short novel.