From the author of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always
Lived in the Castle, four classic novels of subtle psychological
horror.
Shirley Jackson--the beloved author of The Lottery, The Haunting of
Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle--is more and more
being recognized as one of the finest writers of the American gothic
tradition, a true heir of Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James. Now,
Jackson's award-winning biographer Ruth Franklin gathers the subtle,
chilling, hypnotic novels with which she began her unique career. Her
haunting debut tale The Road Through the Wall (1948) explores the
secret desires, petty hatreds, and ultimate terrors that lurk beneath
the picture-perfect domesticities of a suburban California neighborhood.
In Hangsaman (1951)--inspired by the real-life disappearance of a
Bennington College sophomore--the precocious but lonely Natalie Waite
grows increasingly dependent on an imaginary friend. The Bird's Nest
(1954) has not one but four protagonists: the shy, demure young
Elizabeth and, revealed with a series of surprising twists, her other,
multiple personalities. At the beginning of 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 in the house shall be saved. In what is perhaps her most
unsettling novel, Jackson follows their crazed, violent preparations for
the afterlife. Here is the perfect companion to Shirley Jackson:
Novels & Stories, Library of America's edition of Jackson's landmark
story collection, The Lottery, and her brilliant late novels The
Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
