Items related to We Have Always Lived in the Castle: (Penguin Orange...

We Have Always Lived in the Castle: (Penguin Orange Collection) - Softcover

 
9780143129547: We Have Always Lived in the Castle: (Penguin Orange Collection)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback

Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books | 50 Covers competition
 
For the seventieth anniversary of Penguin Classics, the Penguin Orange Collection celebrates the heritage of Penguin’s iconic book design with twelve influential American literary classics representing the breadth and diversity of the Penguin Classics library. These collectible editions are dressed in the iconic orange and white tri-band cover design, first created in 1935, while french flaps, high-quality paper, and striking cover illustrations provide the cutting-edge design treatment that is the signature of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions today.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
 
Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is perhaps the crowning achievement of Shirley Jackson’s brilliant career: a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the dramatic struggle that ensues when an unexpected visitor interrupts their unusual way of life.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Visitors call seldom at Blackwood House. Taking tea at the scene of a multiple poisoning, with a suspected murderess as one's host, is a perilous business. For a start, the talk tends to turn to arsenic. "It happened in this very room, and we still have our dinner in here every night," explains Uncle Julian, continually rehearsing the details of the fatal family meal. "My sister made these this morning," says Merricat, politely proffering a plate of rum cakes, fresh from the poisoner's kitchen. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel, is full of a macabre and sinister humor, and Merricat herself, its amiable narrator, is one of the great unhinged heroines of literature. "What place would be better for us than this?" she asks, of the neat, secluded realm she shares with her uncle and with her beloved older sister, Constance. "Who wants us, outside? The world is full of terrible people." Merricat has developed an idiosyncratic system of rules and protective magic, burying talismanic objects beneath the family estate, nailing them to trees, ritually revisiting them. She has made "a powerful taut web which never loosened, but held fast to guard us" against the distrust and hostility of neighboring villagers.

Or so she believes. But at last the magic fails. A stranger arrives--cousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortune. He disturbs the sisters' careful habits, installing himself at the head of the family table, unearthing Merricat's treasures, talking privately to Constance about "normal lives" and "boy friends." Unable to drive him away by either polite or occult means, Merricat adopts more desperate methods. The result is crisis and tragedy, the revelation of a terrible secret, the convergence of the villagers upon the house, and a spectacular unleashing of collective spite.

The sisters are propelled further into seclusion and solipsism, abandoning "time and the orderly pattern of our old days" in favor of an ever-narrowing circuit of ritual and shadow. They have themselves become talismans, to be alternately demonized and propitiated, darkly, with gifts. Jackson's novel emerges less as a study in eccentricity and more--like some of her other fictions--as a powerful critique of the anxious, ruthless processes involved in the maintenance of normality itself. "Poor strangers," says Merricat contentedly at last, studying trespassers from the darkness behind the barricaded Blackwood windows. "They have so much to be afraid of." --Sarah Waters

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 Books.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPenguin Classics
  • Publication date2016
  • ISBN 10 0143129546
  • ISBN 13 9780143129547
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages160
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780143039976: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0143039970 ISBN 13:  9780143039976
Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2006
Softcover

  • 9780141191454: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

    Popula..., 1962
    Softcover

  • 9780143134831: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Penguin Vitae)

    Pengui..., 2021
    Hardcover

  • 9780822212263: We Have Always Lived in a Castle (Play Script) (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

    Dramat..., 1998
    Softcover

  • 9780670753437: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

    The Vi..., 1962
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Seller Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Classics (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 25235048-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.96
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Classics (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Lakeside Books
(Benton Harbor, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780143129547

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 10.62
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Classics (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Soft Cover Quantity: 10
Seller:
booksXpress
(Bayonne, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780143129547

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 14.67
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Books (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Softcover Quantity: 4
Seller:
Books Puddle
(New York, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. pp. 160. Seller Inventory # 26374707950

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.44
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Books 10/18/2016 (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. We Have Always Lived in the Castle 0.4. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780143129547

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.52
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Classics (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ergodebooks
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # DADAX0143129546

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.60
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Classics (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Paperback Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Save With Sam
(North Miami, FL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Seller Inventory # 0143129546

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.78
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

JACKSON, SHIRLEY
Published by Penguin Random House (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
INDOO
(Avenel, NJ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 0143129546

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.97
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Classics (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Paperback Quantity: 2
Seller:
Ergodebooks
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # BKZN9780143129547

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.06
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Jackson, Shirley
Published by Penguin Books (2016)
ISBN 10: 0143129546 ISBN 13: 9780143129547
New Softcover Quantity: 4
Print on Demand
Seller:
Majestic Books
(Hounslow, United Kingdom)

Book Description Condition: New. Print on Demand pp. 160. Seller Inventory # 371337521

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 9.87
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 8.13
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book