The Lottery and Other Stories

by

eBook, 320 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 2005

ISBN:
978-0-374-52953-6
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2 stars (3 reviews)

The Lottery and Other Stories is a 1949 short story collection by American author Shirley Jackson. Published by Farrar, Straus, it includes "The Lottery" and 24 other stories. This was the only collection of her stories to appear during her lifetime. Her later posthumous collections were Come Along with Me (Viking, 1968), edited by Stanley Edgar Hyman, and Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995) and Let Me Tell You (Random House, 2015), edited by her children Laurence Jackson Hyman and Sarah Hyman Stewart. Jackson's original title for this collection was The Lottery or, The Adventures of James Harris. Characters named James Harris appear in the stories "The Daemon Lover," "Like Mother Used to Make," "Elizabeth" and "Of Course." Other characters with the surname Harris appear or are referenced in "The Villager," "The Renegade," "Flower Garden," "A Fine Old Firm" and "Seven Types of Ambiguity." The collection also contains a short …

1 edition

reviewed The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

The bizarre rules of "normal"

3 stars

From what I gathered from this, Shirley Jackson is very much focussed on the perceived "normal" and it's concequences, often highlighting the oddity of social rules once they are challenged. The stories are a bit hit or miss for me, probably based on what I can relate to and what I can't. At the same time, the mundane nature of most of the stories did in places feel quite dull to me. As a collection of stories this work quite effectively creates a sense of hightend uneasyness, almost anxiety. With every new story I found myself more and more wary of the worlds they are set in. In that regard, having The Lottery be the final story of the whole is quite genius, spelling out directly what the other stories generally only hint at.

At the end I am torn, I don't know if I am bored or fascinated.

reviewed The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

Review of 'The Lottery and Other Stories' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

my first surprise was how short a short story could be. there are more than 25 in this collection.
my next surprise was that, although stephen king lists her as a strong influence, her stories are not nywhere close to horror/suspense. no, her stories aremore a study in human foibles
my last surprise was that i'd read some of these tales before. i knew and liked her work already.

Subjects

  • Short Stories