Gothic Literature Book Reviews

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, first published in the USA in 1958 by Farrar, Straus and Cudady. Paperback Penguin edition of 2014 reviewed. In an odd sense, this reminded me of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. In The Sundial, Mrs Halloran, a woman prone to internalising events, prepares for a party in her house, but that may be where the comparison ends. Mrs Halloran is expecting the world as we know it to end, with only the inhabitants of her house being saved. Her sister-in-law, Aunt Fanny, has been given a prophetic message of doom by Fanny's dead father, and the family, friends and retainers must prepare for the apocalypse. Mrs Halloran inherited the house on the death of her son, as her husband is paralysed and confined to a wheelchair and also suffers from dementia. Her son died after falling down the stairs in the house, giving rise to rumours of foul play among her relatives, not least because Orianna Halloran is a tyrant, presiding over the lives of her sick husband, daug...

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, first published in the USA by Viking Press in 1962. This is a short novel/novella about mental illness, social pressures and isolation. Mary Katherine Blackwood, known as Merricat, lives in the family's large house in an unnamed New England town, with her elder sister, Constance, and her invalid uncle. Six years previously, her mother, father, brother and an aunt died from arsenic poisoning. The arsenic was in the sugar bowl. Constance was arrested, but acquitted. The townsfolk, however, believe she was guilty and only got off because the family were rich and influential. Since the trial, Constance has not ventured from the house and its garden, devoting her life to looking after Merricat and her uncle and spending most of the time cooking. The story is told from the viewpoint of Merricat, who was twelve when the murders occurred. She was not at the table as she had been sent to her room for misbehaviour. She is now eighteen, ...