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Shirley Jackson

Dark Tales Paperback – October 10, 2017

by Shirley Jackson (Author), Ottessa Moshfegh (Foreword)

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For the first time in one volume, a collection of Shirley Jackson’s scariest stories, with a foreword by PEN/Hemingway Award winner Ottessa Moshfegh

After the publication of her short story “The Lottery” in the New Yorker in 1948 received an unprecedented amount of attention, Shirley Jackson was quickly established as a master horror storyteller. This collection of classic and newly reprinted stories provides readers with more of her unsettling, dark tales, including the “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Summer People.” In these deliciously dark stories, 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. There’s something sinister in suburbia.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Classics
Publication date

October 10, 2017
Dimensions

5.11 x 0.54 x 7.69 inches
ISBN-10

0143132008
ISBN-13

978-0143132004
Lexile measure

1100L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Jackson writes about gentle, familiar suburbia with poison at its heart.”
—Bustle

About the Author

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) received wide critical acclaim for her short story “The Lottery,” which was first published in the New Yorker in 1948. Her works available from Penguin Classics include We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Haunting of Hill House, Come Along with Me, Hangsaman, The Bird’s Nest, and The Sundial, as well as Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons available from Penguin.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (October 10, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143132008
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143132004
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1100L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.11 x 0.54 x 7.69 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #57,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #58 in Horror Anthologies (Books)
- #233 in Ghost Thrillers
- #278 in Gothic Fiction

Customer Reviews:
724 ratings

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Shirley Jackson

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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 1948. 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 characterized 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. All are currently in print (Penguin). Two posthumous volumes of her short fiction are Just An Ordinary Day (Bantam) and Let Me Tell You (Random House). A graphic novel adaptation of "The Lottery" by Miles Hyman, her grandson, was published in 2016 (Farrar-Straus-Giroux). Also in 2016: Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson (Penguin Classics) and an authorized biography by Ruth Franklin: Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (Norton).

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5 star		70%
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3 star		8%
2 star		2%
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Top reviews from the United States

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Carolyn Chatham

Seventeen stories worth reading...

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019

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Until I read this book, the only short story by Shirley Jackson I had read was The Lottery. Most of us read that one in high school, right? If you liked that story, you should definitely buy this book. It contains 17 gems, all with interesting characters and surprising twists. They linger in your memory and pop up when you don’t expect them to pop up. If you like to read or write short fiction, this little book is a good one to peruse.

41 people found this helpful

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rush1313

Beware of Shirley Jackson!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2019

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This woman is utterly scary and she knows where your heart lives. Mrs. Jackson is the One True Monarch of 20th Century horror; she never wastes a word and you have to be smart to even keep up with her. Horrific visions suddenly erupt out of slow-burn suspense when you least expect them, the knife is infinitely sharp and utterly devoid of mercy. There is no sentimentality of prose here, every one is fair game for the restless, ruthless spirits. A literary genius, Mrs. Jackson passed away much too soon, in her late 40's. One of the best collections of Mrs. Jackson's chilling short stories! She continues to haunt me from beyond the grave.

34 people found this helpful

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Louisa, We'll Never Forget You . . . .

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2020

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I love the way Shirley Jackson wrote short stories. She made it all seem so simple and made the characters seem so interesting. (She was also very fond of semicolons, as I am. I'm sure if she were alive today, she would just smirk when told the semicolon was now considered passé. :) While I'm not always impressed by her story endings, it's been decades since these stories were written; and many of us grew up watching shows like the "Twilight Zone"; making us more of a "sophisticated" audience, than the one she was thinking about when she was writing.

Since I once read a huge book of Ms. Jackson's stories, I had actually already read all of the ones in this book, but didn't remember what happened in all of them. (One of the "blessings" of getting older--you don't always remember how stories and TV show episodes ended.) I think my absolute favorite one in this collection is about the girl who ran away from home right before her sister was getting married. She didn't go very far, and her family was still searching for her years later, when she ran into someone from her hometown . . . .

14 people found this helpful

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Michael Griffith

This is the Shirley kackson you remember from "The Lottery."

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2020

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Shirley Jackson is getting renewed attention ad affection, and this collection is a nice companion to her classic story "The Lottery." (That short story is not in this collection. You'll need to but The Lottery and Other Stories" for that enduring gem.)

Each tale here is, indeed, tinged with shadow and the sinister. Psychological horror without monsters, but the occasional spirit makes an appearance.

Each story hold up and reads quickly, but you can savor each, as well. I found myself re-reading passages and entire stories to feel a warm...chill(?) settle in, if that makes sense.

12 people found this helpful

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Elizabeth Wilson

Horrified!

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2018

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Just as I should be following this collection of the masterful Shirley Jackson. I have always admired but never quite figured out how, with her prodigious output, she could have such a terrifying new slant for each story. I wish she were still here ... perhaps she could explain Capote's "Miriam" to me.

20 people found this helpful

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allie marini

Casual Cruelty - The American Way

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2020

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Cross-posted from Good Reads

Most of these stories I'd read in other Jackson collections at some point, but years ago, so they were mostly like reading them for the first time. The foreward by Ottessa Moshfegh is perfectly suited to the tone & tenor of these stories. There's 17 stories in the collection, & the curator of the collection really knows how to bend the arc of narrative with the arrangement of the pieces. It opens & closes with a banger -- The Possibility of Evil (with a shiveringly wicked closing line) & The Summer People, (also with a hell of a last line) that made me creeped out at the thought of my parents (you guessed it...in a cabin by the lake in New England.) The stories in the middle are evenly paced and alternate between the mildly unnerving (Louisa Please Come Home) to the downright creepy (Jack the Ripper.) For me, however, the unsung gem of this collection is The Beautiful Stranger, which is poignant in the helplessness the reader feels at the ending -- particularly so if you've ever had a mean husband & wished that a kind one would just up and take his place. In a way, I feel like this collection of Jackson's work bears a lot in common with Rod Serling's writing for The Twilight Zone -- I could easily envision most of these stories as an episode. I recently finished Jackson's biography, and this was a great way to follow up.

6 people found this helpful

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Chilling and Ironic Tales To Keep You to the edge of your seat.

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2021

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This has been one of the best Shirley Jackson collections I've read. A mix of horror and suspense it's a real page turner. Ms. Jackson often leaves the reader to draw their own conclusions about what happened to the character or characters at the end of the story. Other tales are very straight forward, a good example of this is "Louisa, Please Come Home". This isn't a good book for those that want the endings all tied up with a neat little bow. Many of these tales would have made good Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents teledramas. Jackson was a much more prolific writer than I'd imagined, I hadn't previously read any of the stories in this collection before (and I've read a lot including her novels). If you read "The Lottery", probably Jackson's more famous (or infamous) story--you'd like this.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Some really interesting takes with a twist, reminiscent of Stephen King

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2020

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There are about 10 dark tales from Shirley Jackson. Nothing a what it seems and the stories start out normal but they get scarier as you read them. Each tale has a certain theme, what is the worst that can happen does. Ghosts can kill you, decisions can be distarous, visits that never end, hell, captivity, there is a story for Dylan Thomas. I really enjoy Shirley Jackson because it is so matter of fact but terrifying. She takes you into the dark recessed of the mind and makes a left turn.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Richard Barber

Perfect gothic tales

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2020

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Shirley Jackson has penned what are rightly considered some of the classics in the genre with "The Haunting of Hill House" and " We have always lived in the castle" as well as her short story "The Lottery."
Dark Tales is an extension of her cannon. She has the perfect ability to find the unnerving in everyday experiences, with a tone between 1950s Americana and medieval folklore.

4 people found this helpful

BernarD

Couldn't put this book down.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

I hadn't heard of this author before and only came across her books on Amazon. I really enjoyed this collection of short stories some of which had a twist while others left you hanging. I would have preferred more of the former type of story as I found some of the unfinished ones a little frustrating. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the collection and am looking forward to reading other titles by this author.

Wonderfully creepy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2018

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Wonderfully creepy stories. Every one is told in a setting easy to access. We are lured into a world of quiet normalcy that changes into gothic horror before our eyes. Shirley Jackson may appear to leave some stories unfinished but they sit in our minds and ferment into a fullness. Absolutely brilliant.

4 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

The Twilight Zone in book form

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

A great collection of odd unsettling tales. I had been expecting something closer to M R James or Lovecraft but these stories are far more grounded (in the main). Many end abruptly causing me to read back over and leaving a lot if interpretation.

Angela C.

Brilliant Shirley Jackson

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2018

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Not really scary but some certainly weird and most thought provoking. Shirley Jackson is unputdownable. Her prose is lucid to the point of cutting yet she draws you to her characters, scenarios and settings within a few words, and I didn’t want to leave many of the stories once they’d ended.

2 people found this helpful

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