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  • Published: 27 November 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241308493
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $22.99

Dark Tales




Step into the unsettling world of Shirley Jackson this autumn with a collection of her finest, darkest short stories

There's something nasty in suburbia. In these deliciously dark tales, the daily commute turns into a nightmarish game of hide and seek, the loving wife hides homicidal thoughts and the concerned citizen might just be an infamous serial killer. In the haunting world of Shirley Jackson, nothing is as it seems and nowhere is safe, from the city streets to the crumbling country pile, and from the small-town apartment to the dark, dark woods...

  • Published: 27 November 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241308493
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco in 1916. She first received wide critical acclaim for her short story 'The Lottery', which was published in 1949. Her novels - which include The Sundial, The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, The Road through the Wall, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House - are characterised by her use of realistic settings for tales that often involve elements of horror and the occult. Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages are her two works of nonfiction. Come Along With Me is a collection of stories, lectures, and part of the novel she was working on when she died in 1965.

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Praise for Dark Tales

Shirley Jackson's stories are among the most terrifying ever written ... No-one can touch her

Donna Tartt

The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable

A. M. Homes

One of the great practitioners of the literature of the darker impulses

Paul Theroux

An amazing writer

Neil Gaiman

Dark Tales reveals a superior gothic writer ... Shirley Jackson's menacing gothic tales are a joy to rediscover

The Times

An excellent primer for her short fiction

The Pool

In each story in the collection, the everyday world becomes tinted with an odd sheen of terror ... In Jackson's world, the safe house is a trap. Enter it, and you might get lost in the dark

Ottessa Moshfegh