We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) [Paperback]

Shirley Jackson (Author), Thomas Ott (Illustrator), Jonathan Lethem (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Visitors call seldom at Blackwood House. Taking tea at the scene of a multiple poisoning, with a suspected murderess as one's host, is a perilous business. For a start, the talk tends to turn to arsenic. "It happened in this very room, and we still have our dinner in here every night," explains Uncle Julian, continually rehearsing the details of the fatal family meal. "My sister made these this morning," says Merricat, politely proffering a plate of rum cakes, fresh from the poisoner's kitchen. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel, is full of a macabre and sinister humor, and Merricat herself, its amiable narrator, is one of the great unhinged heroines of literature. "What place would be better for us than this?" she asks, of the neat, secluded realm she shares with her uncle and with her beloved older sister, Constance. "Who wants us, outside? The world is full of terrible people." Merricat has developed an idiosyncratic system of rules and protective magic, burying talismanic objects beneath the family estate, nailing them to trees, ritually revisiting them. She has made "a powerful taut web which never loosened, but held fast to guard us" against the distrust and hostility of neighboring villagers.

Or so she believes. But at last the magic fails. A stranger arrives--cousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortune. He disturbs the sisters' careful habits, installing himself at the head of the family table, unearthing Merricat's treasures, talking privately to Constance about "normal lives" and "boy friends." Unable to drive him away by either polite or occult means, Merricat adopts more desperate methods. The result is crisis and tragedy, the revelation of a terrible secret, the convergence of the villagers upon the house, and a spectacular unleashing of collective spite.

The sisters are propelled further into seclusion and solipsism, abandoning "time and the orderly pattern of our old days" in favor of an ever-narrowing circuit of ritual and shadow. They have themselves become talismans, to be alternately demonized and propitiated, darkly, with gifts. Jackson's novel emerges less as a study in eccentricity and more--like some of her other fictions--as a powerful critique of the anxious, ruthless processes involved in the maintenance of normality itself. "Poor strangers," says Merricat contentedly at last, studying trespassers from the darkness behind the barricaded Blackwood windows. "They have so much to be afraid of." --Sarah Waters --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

A marvelous elucidation of life. . . . A Story full of craft and full of mystery.--New York Times Book Review

A witch's brew of eerie power and startling novelty. --New York Times

Praise for Shirley Jackson:
In her art, as in her life, Shirley Jackson was an absolute original. She listened to her own voice, kept her own counsel, isolated herself from all intellectual and literary currents. . . She was unique. --Newsweek Review

Praise for Shirley Jackson:
At certain moments, quietly, in quick, subtle transitions of tone, Miss Jackson can summon up stark terror, make your blood chill and your scalp prickle. . . .Shirley Jackson proves again that she is the finest master currently practicing in the genre of the cryptic, haunted tale. To all the classic paraphernalia of the spook story, she adds a touch of Freud to make the whole world kin. --New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Deluxe edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143039970
• ISBN-13: 978-0143039976
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #33,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IN ONE AFTERNOON, MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH BOOKS CHANGED FOREVER, February 25, 1999

By	Annika ([e-mail]) (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Paperback)

He pressured me into reading this book. "No, no," I objected, "I know about this Shirley Jackson; she's the one writes those scary books. I'd like to sleep tonight, thank you." Finally I gave in and picked it up. I didn't put it down until I had read the last word, and then only for long enough to get a glass of apple juice and demand to know why there wasn't more of it. Two weeks later, as I was reading it for about the ninetieth time, he suggested perhaps I ought to get some sleep, or some fresh air, or at least, if it wasn't too much to ask, a different book. "Fine," I snarled, "I'll try this HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE." But that's another review, and I still haven't gotten around to why I loved this book so much. It's been said, I believe, that Shirley Jackson was incapable of writing a bad, or poor, sentence. More accurate, I think, would be to say that she cannot (could not) write an imperfect one. Every word of every sentence on every page of WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE drew me in, captivated me, and made it impossible for me to not believe everything I was reading. It was as if, while reading the words of Merricat Blackwood, I was her; her "madness", if that is the word for the way she thought, felt, and acted, consumed me and I thought as she did. I cannot imagine a more magical book, a more fascinating story. I urge you to read this book if you care one shred for literature. It is, truly, a masterpiece.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This novel is a twisted tale that should be treasured, March 18, 2001

By	Adam Days (Castle Rock, Maine USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Paperback)

This novel is a wonderful, delicous tale that only the late Ms. Jackson could possibly bestow on her fans. This novel is a deep journey into the psychological powers of us all. Merricat is a very real character, one that will and should be treasured by future generations as a wonderful priceless work of art. This is so much more than words on paper, this novel is a eerie lingering taste of true horror. Not the horror that authors such Stephen King or Anne Rice would write, not Shirley Jackson. This is another superb master-piece of psychological horror that can only be described as cryptic and beautiful. I HIGHLY recommended that you read this novel, it will teach you how to view circumstances and events in a different perscpitive...the Shirley Jackson perscpitive. I would love to rate this book with at least eight stars. ******** Wonderful, you won't be sorry if you read this. Constance is such a caring person, and Uncle Julian is so real that you actually begin to feel sorry for him. And Charles you will not like Charles. But Merricat, she is a divine work, a sweet little niave girl who wishes to live on the moon with Constance and Jonas, her cat. Breath-taking saga that only Shirley Jackson can create.

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easily digested at one sitting, July 8, 2004

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Paperback)

I read this book in one sitting, silently turning page after page, totally caught up in the story.

The story is written in very simple format, unravelling like a favorite and somewhat familiar mystery, and though largely predictable, the slim tome sticks to your hands by some supernatural force, and doesn't release you until the last page is turned and the last word read.

Mary Katherine Blackwood, known as Merricat, the main character, lives with her reclusive sister Constance and their Uncle Julian, the surviving members of a large family that came to a sad end through the consumption of arsenic laced sugar.

The intriguing Merricat tells the story, regaling the reader with her rituals, talismans and magic, but these alone are not enough to counteract the interloper, who threatens her familiar lifestyle, and tries to destroy the strong family unit.

The conclusion was not quite was I was expecting, being of macabre humor and vivid imagination, but was fitting and satisfying.

A haunting but not chilling read.