Shirley Jackson: Four Novels of the 1940s & 50s

by Shirley Jackson, Ruth Franklin (Editor)

In such unforgettable works as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson took the American gothic tradition of Poe, Hawthorne, and Lovecraft and brought it down to earth, revealing that broad daylight held more subtle but no less chilling horrors. She was a master, as Dorothy Parker put it, of “beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders,” exploring the uncanny recesses concealed within the prosperous, conformist world of the postwar 1940s and 50s—and within our own unacknowledged selves.

Here, for the first time in a single volume, Jackson’s award-winning biographer Ruth Franklin gathers the four hypnotic novels with which she began her irreplaceable, all-too-brief career. Jackson’s haunting debut, The Road Through the Wall (1948), explores the secret longings, petty hatreds, and ultimate terrors that lurk behind the manicured lawns and picture-perfect domestic facades of a California suburb. In Hangsaman (1951)––inspired in part by Jackson’s own troubled years at the University of Rochester––precocious Natalie Waite, newly arrived on campus, grows increasingly dependent on a friend who may or may not be imaginary. The Bird’s Nest (1954) pits four unforgettable characters against each other in a battle for control: the shy, migraine-prone young office worker Elizabeth versus Elizabeth’s other multiple personalities. In The Sundial (1958), the eccentric Halloran clan, gathered at the family manse for a funeral, becomes convinced that the world is about to end and that only those who remain within the house will be saved. In what is perhaps her most unsettling novel, Jackson relates their crazed, violent preparations for the afterlife.

Genres: Fiction, Horror, Classics, Literature, 20th Century, American, Novels

850 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2020

About the author

Shirley 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.

Reviews

[Heather]

Officially giving up on this one. 150 pages into the first story and nothing really happened. I couldn’t really keep the different characters straight because there was no story line and nothing interesting - maybe that’s the point and some kind of comment on suburban America but I prefer Jackson’s awkward scenarios in short story form.

I read someone else’s review that matched my opinion on the first story, but he had soldiered on through all four and had a similar opinion in total. Decisions made to give up - too many other books out there to waste 800+ pages.

[Simone Martel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wish I could give two and a half stars. I liked The Bird's Nest quite a lot but couldn't finish The Sundial.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shirley Jackson was a helluva writer. The Haunting of Hill House is one of the best haunted house stories ever, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a masterpiece and many of her short stories are superb. So I always meant to go back and read her earlier, lesser-known novels because they’d probably be as good or at least pretty decent, right? Wrong! Shockingly, all four of these novels were absolutely terrible. How she went from these to her later successes is a mystery but I would recommend to fans of her famous books to ignore her less famous novels altogether - they’re not well-known for a reason! They. Stink. I reviewed each one separately as I trudged through this dreary volume over several months, all of which appear below:

The Road Through the Wall = 1/5 stars
Hangsaman = 2/5 stars
The Bird’s Nest = 1/5 stars
The Sundial = 1/5 stars

Overall = 1/5 stars

*

The Road Through the Wall = 1/5 stars

I’m a big fan of Shirley Jackson’s - The Haunting of Hill House is great, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a masterpiece, and her short stories are mostly amazing - but I was shocked at how utterly bad her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was.

Nothing happens. There’s no story. It’s set in small town America in the 1930s in a middle-class neighbourhood. Kids play, adults adult. There’s the vaguest suggestions of transgression like a couple having an affair, one woman possibly prostituting herself to pay the bills, some anti-Semitism - all so very lightly hinted at in that subtle way of Jackson’s. But nothing that adds up to a clear or even remotely compelling story.

There are far too many characters nearly all of whom are indistinct - they were just names to me and never individuals I could tell apart. That’s largely because they all seem to have the same personality (perhaps intentionally - Jackson commenting on the conformity of the society?) but also because none of them do anything to set themselves apart from the others. They’re such a horribly dull bunch to read about.

The only characters that stood out were the r-worded kids who move into the neighbourhood about halfway through and nothing happens with them besides them moving in. Jackson ends her rambling, unimpressive narrative with something that comes out of nowhere and has no impact because it comes out of nowhere and because the character was just another non-character - who could care? And what’s the point anyway? It’s so gratuitous and silly. A little girl dies after either accidentally falling and braining herself on the rocks or got murdered by one of the other kids. And then the little boy accused of killing her decides to hang himself immediately. The latter death was so melodramatic as to be farcical more than anything.

I was expecting to see something of the kind that went into the spooky stories Jackson became famous for but there was literally nothing here (there’s a passing reference to an old lady being dubbed a “witch” by the kids but she’s just an old lady who doesn’t do anything, like every other character). Unimaginably boring, I wouldn’t recommend Shirley Jackson’s The Road Through the Wall to anyone, fans or otherwise - spare yourself the tedium!

*

Hangsaman = 2/5 stars

17 year old Natalie is becoming an adult. Before setting off to college, she attends a disastrous party and then finds herself increasingly isolated and fraught in her new surroundings. That is until she meets the mysterious Tony, another outcast at the school - but who is Tony really and what does she want with Natalie?

Shirley Jackson’s second novel, Hangsaman, is only slightly better than her first, The Road Through the Wall, though that isn’t saying much as her first novel was utterly terrible. Hangsaman is better because Jackson has pared down the cast significantly. Rather than trying to write an ensemble, she instead focuses on the kind of character she would go on to perfect in her later books: a troubled young woman, socially ostracized, with a secret or two, and emotional/mental problems that escalate as the story goes on.

That said, there’s not much about Natalie and her world that was particularly of interest. She’s introduced as already kinda unbalanced, being interrogated by an imaginary detective for an imaginary crime in her family home (which turns out to be foreshadowing), and she has a weirdly close relationship with her pretentious dad. The denouement of the party was sorta interesting if only for being one of the few eventful things that actually happens in the book!

There’s a theme of sad wives married to dickhead academic husbands that I wonder isn’t autobiographical - Jackson expressing her true feelings in being married to her academic husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman (who was also unfaithful to her). I didn’t like Tony either - I called it immediately she’s not real and the reveal wasn’t impressive, nor was the ending, which was flat.

Mostly, I was really, really bored reading this. Nothing much happens. The academic couple Natalie befriends were dull, the things Natalie does and thinks are dull, the prose is dull - it’s just a very dull coming-of-age novel. If you’ve read Jackson’s later, much better novels, you can see the foundations for the types of story she would write superbly here, but it’s not enough to recommend Dullsaman even to fans of the author.

*

The Bird’s Nest = 1/5 stars

So I’ve been reading Shirley Jackson’s early novels and they’ve been surprisingly awful. But I know she becomes a great novelist eventually because I love The Haunting of Hill House and, her masterpiece, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, so I thought the early novels were on an upwards trajectory - The Road Through the Wall was dismal, Hangsaman was still terrible but better; The Bird’s Nest would be ok… wouldn’t it?

Unfortunately no! This is as bad as The Road Through the Wall but I would put it even lower because at least that novel had something happen at the end - it was stupid but it was something. Nothing happens at the end of The Bird’s Nest - it’s so utterly tedious from start to finish!

The novel is about a young woman called Elizabeth Richmond with multiple personality disorder. She lives with her long-suffering Aunt Morgen and she works with a Dr. Wright (whom she waggishly calls Doctor Wrong - har har!) to resolve her personalities into one.

Most of the novel is made up of discussions between Elizabeth and Wright as she cycles in and out of the personalities - Betsy is the evil one, Beth is the innocent child, Bess is… whatever, and I think there’s a fourth (it’s honestly so boring that I barely cared enough to note who was who); just talking, talking about nothing. And it’s pointless too because the multiple personalities are resolved without the doctor’s help!

Nothing else really happens. Elizabeth goes on a trip to the big city then comes back. Not much stood out to me. There’s a bit at the start where she was working at the museum that was mildly interesting - she sees a giant hole near her desk, that seems ominous, and starts receiving threatening letters. Both are clearly emblematic of her illness, once you find out she has multiple personality disorder. A sketchy old woman on the bus in the city tries to steal her money. It’s a pitifully small offering of engaging moments for an entire novel.

There were elements here that could have been interesting: the evil personality doing something truly evil, aka murder, (the worst she does is put mud in the fridge!), the inheritance money that Aunt Morgen is apparently scheming to take from Elizabeth. But Jackson doesn’t do anything with them. They’re introduced, go nowhere and ultimately mean nothing - really weak storytelling.

I’m not sure if the story was, per Jackson’s reputation today, meant to be horrific (it wasn’t anyway) but I didn’t think much of the psychology aspects either. A scene near the end - where Elizabeth is cycling in and out of personalities by the sentence - felt more farcical than anything, and the psychological resolution is feeble.

The Bird’s Nest is an unimpressive, persistently uninteresting and irritatingly dreary novel. I’ve read almost all of Shirley Jackson’s novels now and this is definitely the worst of the bunch. Avoid the early books and stick with the later, more overtly horror, novels instead.

*

The Sundial = 1/5 stars

The Sundial is the last Shirley Jackson novel I haven’t read and that was the only thing that propelled me to finishing it: so I’d never have the foolish urge to pick it up again and finish it sometime in the future. It’s over, it’s done, I hated it, and - like her previous three, rightfully lesser-known novels, The Road Through the Wall, Hangsaman and The Bird’s Nest - I’ll never read it again.

It’s not a good sign when you finish a book that you have to go on Wikipedia to find out what it was about! All that I got was that a bunch of obnoxious rich people were in a big house wittering on about how the world was going to end. I’m not sure where they got this idea - the spooky sundial told them probably - and I didn’t care. Then the book’s over. Ugh.

Besides a lack of plot, there are way too many characters (Jackson can’t handle big casts - this and The Road Through the Wall are testament to this), all of whom were indistinct, unmemorable, uninteresting, and sounded the same. I think there was a nightmare sequence where one of these ciphers ran around the garden droning on about the sundial and another one (or maybe even the same one) tried to leave but didn’t. Oy, it ain’t much and man alive was I bored!

Amazingly, Jackson’s next novel and the one after that - The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle - are modern masterpieces of horror. How she went from this and the previous three novels of such shoddy quality to that is a mystery, but maybe she just needed to get all this crap out of her system before getting the skills needed to create her good books.

If you only read Shirley Jackson’s two most famous novels and her short stories, you’re not missing anything by ignoring everything from The Sundial back to her first novel - all four of those novels are truly horrible snorefests!

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderfully educational, and I hope I never have to read them again. These stories are definitely of their era; no TV, radios are not ubiquitous, people's entertainment comes from theater, movies, talking, and reading.
This translates into (what modern readers might consider) agonizingly long paragraphs, some more than a page long, not much dialogue and not much action.
What Jackson does wonderfully is describe a character's internal states. Almost all conflict occurs inside people's heads, in their internal responses to each other. In that sense, these are truly screwedup people, but that's what Jackson was familiar with through childhood and into adulthood.
So good reading for craft and technique, and not something I could recommend to casual readers.

[Zachary Houle · Rating 3 out of 5]

There seems to be an undercurrent of interest in Shirley Jackson lately, probably owing no small part to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. She was, perhaps, the ultimate American Gothic writer of her time — impressive given that she wasn’t from the Deep South. She might have been a bit of a misanthrope, and that aspect shows itself in some of her writing, so, in an era of social distancing, that might be appealing to some. You can now see the evolution of her work as a writer in a new collection that brings together Jackson’s first four novels — or the novels she wrote that didn’t cement her fame, as The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) later did. These earlier novels, which are published here, are The Road Through the Wall (1948), Hangsaman (1951), The Bird’s Nest (1954) and The Sundial (1958). None of these novels are perfect, and some are more successful than others, but if you want to look at the author before she was famous, this is an interesting collection to dive into — with caveats.

The challenge in writing this kind of review is holding four books simultaneously in your head and trying to remember what it was about each book that appealed or detracted. In the case of The Road Through the Wall, there is, unfortunately, more to hate than like. Though the book is said to be based on Jackson’s childhood growing up in small-town California in the mid-‘30s, it could very well double as a satire about a gated community or suburb in the post-World War II era. The problem with the book is its ambition. It has at least 30 major characters, without descriptions indicating who’s who, so it’s easy to get lost in this plodding tome built largely on dialogue. Jackson was most successful when she was writing a little more compactly, as she did later in her career with The Bird’s Nest. The Road Through the Wall is a start, but it’s inherently flawed.

Read the rest of the review here: https://zachary-houle.medium.com/a-re...

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marvelous collection of the earlier novels.

The Road Through the Wall

A suburban gulag of judgments.

Hangsaman

Still haunting, still a good preview of the character dynamics better developed in The Haunting of Hill House .

The Bird’s Nest

One part psychoanalytical melodrama, two parts character studies of obsessive and narcissistic personalities.

The Sundial

A classic potboiler. The mansion, the ensemble, the use of the supernatural and the terror words can portend.

If you’re already familiar with The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle this novel proves an excellent continuation of Jackson’s impressive legacy.

Some cracks in the style but like the man says, that is how the light gets in.

[Dr Goon Taco Supreme · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Shirley Jackson Novels and Stories,” is a volume that includes, “The Lottery,” “The Haunting of Hill House,”
“We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” and lots and lots of short stories.

First, let me just say that Shirley Jackson is worth reading for her writing style alone. She writes such detailed and beautiful prose that it’s a pleasure to read her words as they come alive on the page.

With that being said, some of her short stories were lots of fun to read and I understood them clearly. These stories are read rapidly and with pleasure.

Jackson frequently adds a negative, dark twist to most of her tales, but that’s all right. I guess she’s supposed to be a horror writer, but I sort of felt like she was writing more of what I would consider to be social commentary— disturbing social commentary perhaps, but social commentary nonetheless.

Anyway, long story short, I think I probably understood maybe 60% of the stories in this volume, and you know what, I had to google an analysis of the rest of the stories because I had no idea what Shirley Jackson was trying to say. I felt like a kid taking some kind of a crummy English class while I looked up some of these stories in online study guides.

Basically, I’d read a story, and then I’d read an analysis of the story. I got so used to looking the stories I didn’t understand up that I even looked up the stories that I thought I understood. It became a game. Did I truly understand what that story was about? I better go check on sparknotes.com, or whatever English class has an interpretation.

Most of the stories were easy to find explanations for online so I don’t think I’m the only person in the world who has some trouble understanding what Shirley Jackson was trying to communicate.

Jackson is also very subtle with her writing and loves to be ambiguous. She likes hinting at things and suggesting things and some of her social commentary is from years and years ago and times have changed and I don’t always know what she’s talking about.

As I spent so much time looking things up, I also went ahead and watched a film version of “The Lottery,” and “The Haunting”—a movie from the 60s based on “The Haunting of Hill House” and another movie based on the book “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”

So I’ve been messing around with this book for a while now, looking the stories up and watching reenactments.

My favorite novel in this volume was “We Have Always Lived in the Castle.”

I’d never read it before but it made cry, and I ruminated about the ending for several days. I felt that, while I didn’t particularly like the characters, I could identify with their feelings of being rejected outsiders. The people who were horrible to the girls didn’t even have the story straight and rushed to judge and abuse the sisters, one of whom was crazy (not gonna lie), but the other sister was lovely and didn’t deserve to be treated poorly.
It was a great book. It made me feel things and I don’t even have any feelings, so well done Shirley Jackson.

“The Haunting of Hill House” was less interesting for me and kind of a let down. I thought the movie was absolutely awful. The movie was actually annoying, and the book wasn’t scary.
It just wasn’t scary. I am addicted to ghost shows though. I’ve seen all the episodes of “A Haunting” at least three times through and it’s hard to scare me with a ghost story

I read a comment online that said you you didn’t find “The Haunting of Hill House” to be scary that you should read “Hell House” because that’s actually scary. So I’m getting “Hell House” from the library and we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, I looked up the various readings of the book and I subscribe to the theory that the house was pulling the main character in, taking over her mind and probably plotting to eventually possess her fully.

I won’t tell you what happens if you haven’t read the book but it’s not scary, it’s more a book about the psychology of the main character. You never really can tell if the house is haunted or if she’s haunted or what. Let’s just say that I read the book a long time ago and forgot about it completely. The only thing I remember was checking it out of the library and then reading it lying flat in my bed. I don’t think I found the book scary then and it wasn’t scary the second time reading it either.

I also already read “The lottery”
I reread it in this volume and I watched a video of it on YouTube.

Excerpts from the letters of outrage about the story that had been sent to Shirley Jackson were published in this volume and they were funny. I guess people were really very offended by the story. I guess we’ve since come to accept that humans are terrible and will go along with all kinds of horrific acts as long as it’s socially sanctioned and considered acceptable because I never knew anyone was offended by “The Lottery.”

I personally like Shirley Jackson when she’s funny though and I enjoyed her more lighthearted stories. I also found some of the stories she told where she described racism, like “After You, My Dear Alphonse” and “The Flower Garden,” to be particularly moving and very sad. “Come Dance with Me in Ireland,” was also commentary slapping those who believe they are “better” in the face.

I really loved “Louisa, Please Come Home,” and “The Bus,” just because I thought they were fun to read.

Shirley Jackson is a great writer but I guess I enjoy her insight and her humor more than anything—along with her great writing style too, of course.

[Ferio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recopilación de las cuatro primeras novelas de la autora, algunas de las cuales no tuvieron traducción al castellano (estoy pergeñando sin comprobarlo). Opino que su lectura consecutiva ayuda a ver su evolución como escritora de formato largo, que culminaría en sus dos obras más conocidas (que aún no he catado): The Haunting of Hill House y We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

The Road Through the Wall me pareció extraña; mi desconocimiento me hacía pensar que esta autora siempre se había dedicado al terror de corte gótico y me encontré con una novela algo surrealista cuya fuente principal de incomodidad es la vida privada de las familias de un suburbio de San Francisco en contraste con su vida pública. Tremenda, aunque quizá no lo que buscaba.

Hangsaman es diferente, más cercana al texto clásico de paso de la juventud a la edad adulta; me pareció una sosez durante su mayor parte hasta que llegué al diálogo de la penúltima escena, que releeré en el futuro por sus fuertes vibraciones de The Catcher in the Rye.

The Bird's Nest me gustó más. Sigue sin ser lo que buscaba, pero creo que está muy bien escrito y tiene personajes muy bien construidos sin los que la trama quedaría deshilachada. Fue curioso porque, justo cuando lo terminaba, jugué una partida de rol (La ira de los cándidos para YSystem) que gira alrededor del mismo concepto y que fue muy exitosa.

The Sundial: he aquí la joya de la corona que justifica por sí misma la compra del volumen completo. ¡Me ha gustado mucho! Aquí ya se ven el terror gótico y el amargor del ser humano menos (o más) humano. La estaba leyendo y no podía dejar de ver una gran obra de teatro o una adaptación cinematográfica a manos de Darren Aronofsky o Yorgos Lanthimos (tiene una de su época que pasó sin pena ni gloria). Ha sido mi favorita del volumen y, además, sí tiene traducción al castellano por si alguna persona prefiere leerla así.

[Lucas Chance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jackson’s novels are like her short stories where the ambiguity and the journey with her characters is the appeal rather than the flaw. While her most famous novels, Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived at the Castle, are the pinnacle of her art, these four really showcase her ability and her development. The only piece that feels juvenile is he first novel The Road Through the Wall which has more in common with Sinclair Lewis or Richard Yates rather than the gothic she became famous for employing later. However, even that story has the same acerbic eye towards small town life and personal isolation that her best short stories possess.

I would argue that the rest of the novels are masterpieces in their own right. Hangsaman, my favorite of the novels here, does such a fantastic job having us follow the alienated Harriet as she becomes a student and processes the trauma of her past and the need to express that in her current life. The Bird’s Nest is the template for the multiple personality novel so a lot of its initial novelty may be lost, however, it does have a fantastic use of voice and multiple perspectives which give an insight into the causes rather than simply focus in on an illness. The Sundial is such a pitch perfect black comedy about family that believes themself so special that they see the end of the world and believe themselves to be immune to it.

All in all, expecting straight horror or gothic like her last two novels will set yourself up for disappointment. But if you come in to see the same claustrophobic worlds that she nah it’s in her stories, you will se the development of a singular voice in all of fiction.

[Rebecca]

Having read Shirley Jackson’s later novels, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as her memoirs and several collections of short stories, I decided it was finally time to dive into her early novels. I’ll be adding comments on each as I go.

The Road Through the Wall (1948) - A masterpiece of malice, prejudice, and the undercurrents disturbing a seemingly perfect neighborhood community. 4/5 stars

This delightfully spite-filled novel follows the upper-middle-class residents of Pepper Street, from the well-regarded Desmond family to the maybe-witch Mrs. Mack. Jackson delves into the psychology of more than a dozen characters, mostly women and children, as they go about their daily lives, gossiping at social gatherings and playing games on the street. While some might see the plot as lacking action, readers who pay attention will be rewarded by biting and insightful portraits of characters who could just as easily be living in a WASP-y community in 2021. Although the ending was not quite what I expected, I found Jackson’s first novel to be just as deliciously nasty as some of her later work.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Road Through The Wall" - On Pepper Street in Cabrillo, California, something is going on. Girls are writing 'inappropriate' letters to the boys. And then a wall comes down and a child goes missing. And Pepper Street is changed forever.


“Hangsaman” - 17 year old Natalie is a thin nervous girl who lives a dull life with her dull family. And she has a detective questioning her - inside her head!
The gatherings in this book are uncomfortable. Family, friends, students, and especially with the professor and his wife, all seem uneasy and stiff. One could even call them strange!
Actually, the whole book is strange. Engaging, but very weird...

“The Bird’s Nest” - “No one at the museum had mused, slide rule in hand, ‘Now, let’s see, this shaft down the building ought to pass somewhere close to Miss Richmond’s left elbow; will it, I wonder, trouble Miss Richmond to find one wall gone?”
“Betsy: all went together to find a nestegg elizabeth beth betsy and bess”
“But may I point out that you have just eaten your four sisters?”
A really good read about multiple personalities (or demon possession?) and what the causation of that condition can be. But I didn't like the ending.

“The Sundial” - Pretty much creepy as heck to read! Especially for the apocalypse! If it is, in fact, happening. The end of the book is almost exactly as it should have been! A fun, and semi-spooky, read!

“When shall we live if not now?”

“The sundial showed no hours at night.”

“We are all measured, good or evil, by the wrong we do to others…”

[Karis DeHaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

NOTE: I only read Hangsaman; I did not read the other three novels in this collection.

So, I had to look up what this book was about after I finished it. And I'm still not sure. At least I know now that it's NOT "an eerie novel about lesbians", because Shirley Jackson herself strongly repudiated that theory (seemed like a perfectly plausible theory to me). It's a coming-of-age novel, except I'm convinced that Natalie, the main character, has a touch of schizophrenia. Basically, it had no plot, and what plot there was never got resolved. I really wanted it to come back to the little rhyme Natalie concocted: "Vick's the butcher / Anne's the thief / And Langdon's the boy who buys the beef." But it never did. I found theories positing that Tony was imaginary, which I don't think she was, but now I'm extra confused about that too. In short, this book left me feeling stupid.

[The Starry Library · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a big fan of 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' and have wanted to read Shirley Jackson's other books. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy reading them...in fact, I could not finish any of them.

I thought they were pretty boring. Jackson includes needless dialogue, too many characters, and an impending sense of gloom that doesn't pay off. Her domestic Gothic storylines are cluttered with too many unnecessary characters and banter that takes away from the uncomfortable spinning out of control atmospheres she's trying to create.

I like books that have a more supernatural twist to them which I mistakenly assumed Shirley Jackson's bibliography would contain.

[Brian Landon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The highlight of this collection was The Bird’s Nest. Jackson’s take on multiple personality disorder was captivating and thought-provoking throughout. The other novels in this collection were still decent, but not as intriguing as The Bird’s Nest.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shirley Jackson is always a well worth it read for me.
I hadn't read all of these short stories and really enjoyed them.

[Echo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sundial was my favorite as it surprised me with the humor and absurdity. It seems to be relevant in current times too...would love to see it as a stage play.

[Amanda (Klontz) Derico · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sundial is the best of the 4.

[Alma · Rating 3 out of 5]

the road through the wall: 3/5
hangsaman: 5/5
the bird's nest: 3/5
the sundial: 2/5