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  • Published: 1 October 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141927558
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

We Have Always Lived in the Castle





The deliciously dark and funny story of Merricat, tomboy teenager, beloved sister - and possible mass murderer

Eighteen-year-old Merricat may, or may not be, a mass murderer

Six years ago everyone in the Blackwood family was poisoned by sugar laced with arsenic – everyone, that is, apart from Merricat and her elder sister Constance. They live in peaceful, ordered isolation, away from prying eyes in the nearby village, until one day boorish cousin Charles arrives with designs on their father’s fortune. Whether by practical or magical means, Merricat will do whatever is necessary to protect their home.

  • Published: 1 October 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141927558
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

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.

Also by Shirley Jackson

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Praise for We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Her greatest book ... at once whimsical and harrowing, a miniaturist's charmingly detailed fantasy sketched inside a mausoleum ... the deeper we sink, the deeper we want to go.

Donna Tartt

The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable ... She is a true master.

A. M. Homes

A masterpiece of Gothic suspense.

Joyce Carol Oates

If you haven't read We Have Always Lived in the Castle ... you have missed out on something marvellous.

Neil Gaiman

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is Jackson's masterpiece ... Stunning

Elaine Showalter

A marvellous elucidation of life ... a story full of craft and full of mystery

The New York Times Book Review

A masterpiece of Gothic suspense

Joyce Carol Oates

A witch's brew of eerie power and startling novelty

The New York Times

An amazing writer

Neil Gaiman

For me, it is that unique and dreamlike book ... that stands as her masterpiece

Jonathan Lethem

Her greatest book ... at once whimsical and harrowing, a miniaturist's charmingly detailed fantasy sketched inside a mausoleum ... Through depths and depths and bloodwarm depths we fall, until the surface is only an eerie gleam high above, nearly forgotten; and the deeper we sink, the deeper we want to go

Donna Tartt

Manages the ironic miracle of convincing the reader that a house inhabited by a lunatic, a poisoner, and a pyromaniac is a world more rich in sympathy, love and subtlety than the world outside

Time

So eerie, so disturbing, and not a wasted word, it has the kind of economy I wish I knew how to achieve

Jonathan Coe

The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable ... She is a true master

A. M. Homes

This novel brings back all my faith in terror and death. I can say no higher of it and her

Dorothy Parker, Esquire
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