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We Have Always Lived in the Castle by…
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle (original 1962; edition 1984)

by Shirley Jackson

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
8,0734231,070 (4.07)1 / 808
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.
Member:CurrLee33
Title:We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Authors:Shirley Jackson
Info:Penguin (Non-Classics) (1984), Paperback, 224 pages
Collections:Your library, Favorites
Rating:****1/2
Tags:None

Work Information

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)

  1. 181
    Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (teelgee)
  2. 121
    The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (taz_)
    taz_: I suspect that Iain Banks' "Wasp Factory" character Frank Cauldhame was inspired by Shirley Jackson's Merricat, as these two darkly memorable teenagers share a great many quirks - the totems and protections to secure their respective "fortresses", the obsessive superstitions that govern their daily lives and routines, their isolation and cloistered pathology, their eccentric families and dark secrets. Be warned, though, that "The Wasp Factory" is a far more explicit and grisly tale than the eerily genteel "Castle" and certainly won't appeal to all fans of the latter.… (more)
  3. 30
    A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (sturlington)
    sturlington: Sisters named Merry. Tremblay was clearly influenced strongly by Jackson.
  4. 30
    Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (alalba)
  5. 53
    The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (citygirl)
    citygirl: Castle is much darker and Flavia is more adorable than creepy (Merricat is quite creepy), but if you're interested in unusual young protagonists, with a very particular world view, try these.
  6. 20
    The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams (sparemethecensor)
    sparemethecensor: Two sisters with a mysterious relationship and dark history together, unreliable narrators, dark, old, rural houses with mysteries of their own... Though the books take different plotlines, they share so many similar elements that people who enjoyed the setting and storytelling of one will likely enjoy the other.… (more)
  7. 20
    Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns (laytonwoman3rd)
  8. 33
    The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley (kraaivrouw)
  9. 22
    The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey (lahochstetler)
  10. 11
    The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen (Nialle)
    Nialle: Young, emotionally complex, imaginative narrators in isolated situations - have something going on that the reader only glimpses before the big reveal
  11. 00
    Where I End by Sophie White (BillPilgrim)
    BillPilgrim: It owes a major debt to We Have Always Lived in the Castle
  12. 01
    Heartstones by Ruth Rendell (isabelx)
  13. 01
    The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor (passion4reading)
    passion4reading: Though set within completely different landscapes, situations and time periods, each novel has the central theme of an outsider intruding upon an isolated close-knit family group, with disastrous consequences.
  14. 01
    Goblin by Ever Dundas (wandering_star)
    wandering_star: Similar tone (and Dundas credits Jackson in the book's afterword).
Ghosts (273)
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» See also 808 mentions

English (409)  Italian (4)  Catalan (2)  French (2)  Spanish (1)  Swedish (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (420)
Showing 1-5 of 409 (next | show all)
Yeeesh!! Creepy. ( )
  bookem | Mar 27, 2024 |
This is a book I think I need to read analysis of our discuss with others to really get something from it.
  Jenniferforjoy | Jan 29, 2024 |
Huh. Kogu aeg on olnud plaanis ja nüüd lõpuks sattus kätte. Väga. Hea. Lugu. Meenutas natuke "Herilase vabrikut" ja "Tüdrukut, kes armastas tuletikke", aga tegelikult ei ole sarnane. Ainuld see ... tunne, mingi õhkõrn vaib, millele ei ole võimalik kuidagi näppu peale panna.
Lõpp oli natuke mehh, aga ainult juuksekarva võrra ja võtan süü selle pärast täiesti enda peale - kuna minu aju seostas loo millegipärast eelmainitud kahe raamatuga, siis säärast pööret nagu seal ei tule.
Aga hea. Väga hea. ( )
  sashery | Jan 29, 2024 |
4.5 stars ( )
  EllieBhurrut | Jan 24, 2024 |
I'm a big fan of authors who practice what they preach. The best horror writers from Poe to Lovecraft were, and I believe this is a medical term, totally bonkers. Shirley Jackson is an excellent example of someone whose fiction is enhanced because her peccadilloes leaked onto the page. Jackson's works frequently feature a "hysterical" woman who, despite the condescending and paternalistic reassurances of the men around her, is somehow better attuned to supernatural occurrences that may or may not exist. It is impossible not to read these scenes as drawn from her personal experience. She would of course be a worse author if she were simply writing fictional self-validations. But Jackson is also a master of ambiguity. The screaming woman says she saw a ghost; maybe she actually is crazy or maybe we are the guilty party for ignoring her.
This ambiguity is what makes We Have Always Lived in the Castle so great. It is a book that features if not the king of all unreliable narrators than certainly the fairy princess of all unreliable narrators. It is difficult at first to decide whether Merricat's ramblings in the forest and playacting at being a witch are simply childish games or a symptom of something weirder. It is not initially clear that her whimsy masks something quite monstrous.
The ambiguity covers everything. There's no denying that the Blackwoods are persecuted by their bigoted neighbors, but there's also no denying that the Blackwoods were once cruel and elitist and are now totally unhinged. It is evident that cousin Charles is an avaricious snake, and his attentions toward Constance and the Blackwood fortune are domineering and creepily pseudo-sexual. ​But he's not wrong when he castigates Merricat for her arrested development or Constance for her enabling passivity.
The ending makes this a masterpiece. It is a fairy tale made real, a happily-ever-after that the heroines always desired and is therefore truly horrifying. There were always connotations of the Blackwoods as fearsome medieval lords: the house is a castle, their neighbors a village. But the ending transforms them into something even stranger: guardian spirits to be feared but also placated. The peasants give supplications to the white sisters in the ruin to ward off a curse. Merricat becomes the ghost she always wanted to be by a combination of collective trauma, superstition and dysfunction. Brilliant. ( )
  ethorwitz | Jan 3, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 409 (next | show all)
Of the precocious children and adolescents of mid-twentieth-century American fiction ... none is more memorable than eighteen-year-old "Merricat" of Shirley Jackson's masterpiece of Gothic suspense We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962).
 

» Add other authors (33 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Jackson, Shirleyprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bliss, HarryCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dunne, BernadetteNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Franzén, TorkelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lethem, JonathanIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Oates, Joyce CarolAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ott, ThomasCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pareschi, MonicaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Serra, Roseanne J.Cover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Teason, WilliamCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Dedication
For Pascal Covici
First words
My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.
Quotations
Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you’ll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!
You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine. Is it still in use? you are wondering; has it been cleaned? you may very well ask; was it thoroughly washed?
Our house was a castle, turreted and open to the sky.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
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Wikipedia in English

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We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
The quiet, isolated life of the Blackwoods—eighteen-year-old Merricat; her older sister, Constance, who may have poisoned their parents six years ago; and their wheelchair-bound uncle—is disrupted by the arrival of a cousin pursuing the family fortune.
Haiku summary
Charles strives to drive the
lioness from her den, but
Merricat has claws.
(passion4reading)

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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141191457, 0141194995

 

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