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    The Lottery and Other Stories
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    The Lottery and Other Stories
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    The Lottery and Other Stories
    Ebook312 pages5 hours

    The Lottery and Other Stories

    By Shirley Jackson

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    About this ebook

    This anthology of short stories brings together some of author Shirley Jackson’s most celebrated pieces of short fiction. It includes her most famous story, “The Lottery,” about a small American town preparing for their strange annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win.

    The Lottery and Other Stories was the only short story collection published during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime. Her story “The Lottery” stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history.

    HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 5, 2016
    ISBN9781443451093
    Unavailable
    The Lottery and Other Stories
    Author

    Shirley Jackson

    Shirley Jackson was an American author who is best known for the short story “The Lottery” and the horror novel The Haunting of Hill House. Married to the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, Jackson cultivated a literary lifestyle, writing full time and developing relationships with literary colleagues. A gifted writer, Jackson frequently took inspiration from the events and locales of rural Vermont, where she and her family resided, and from the exploits of her children, which were chronicled in Life Among the Savages. Jackson died of heart failure in 1965.

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    Reviews for The Lottery and Other Stories

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    • 3/5
      Read this book in high school as part of our required reading. Very eerie story. I don't know if I could live in a town where they held a "death lottery". It's been a long time since I read the book, but I still remember parts of it and it still creeps me out.
    • 5/5
      The LotterySubtle/Eerie mix4.5 starsPositioned in the center of town an annual (June 27th) lottery is held. Everyone has to attend. Each person takes a slip of paper from a black box. The person with a marked paper is the recipient of a rather unorthodox prize. The cheeriness and tone of the book doesn't prepare the reader for its epic ending.
    • 3/5
      I love the main story. It still has the same impact for me that it had in high school. Human nature is frightening.

      None of the rest of the stories grabbed my interest.
    • 5/5
      Well I feel like a complete ass for not reading beyond The Lottery until now.
    • 4/5
      This is a volume of Shirley Jackson Short stories, someone who defined American Gothic style of writing. Its not something I understood until reading this book, but now I get - its the uneasiness/wrongness of living a very normal life. Its the friction of being who you are vs conforming to society expectation, and its a difficult thing to define as a style.As for the stories, as in any short story collection, some will be better than others. The stand out story is, of course, "The Lottery", which is the last story in the collection. I read it in high school for class, but didn't get the emotional undertones, or the hypocritical, I'll go along with the system and until it focuses on me...Of course, there are other stories in the volume. I think my second favorite is the "Flower Garden", this is a story of a woman who married into a large family, pillars of the town. When she makes a friend with a widow who hired a black man to help in the garden, she finds herself getting ostracized by the town folk. So, she needs to decide - stay with society, or stay with her new friend....There are 26 stories in this volume, and all of them have a feeling of being off somehow.... Anyway, its a volume of stories I will be revisiting.
    • 4/5
      These stories fit nicely together. Effectiveness is inconsistent, but the overall feeling of dread is quite delicious.
    • 5/5
      The title story is simply incredible! Haunting and powerful, this collection is truly unusual, but in a good way. Jackson deals with some pretty grave subjects in her stories, such as racism and social morality, with a refreshing and vivid poignancy that leaves the reader gasping fro breath. This collection is a "can't miss" literary opportunity.
    • 3/5
      It can be so hard, sometimes, to really give a proper review for an anthology, since there are so many different stories them to talk about. But, once again, Shirley Jackson doesn't disappoint. Every story here, including the very short ones, tend to all leave you thinking by the end, and I'm not a bit sorry that I spent a little over nine hours listening to them in all. Great stories and definitely worth a look for anyone who has liked other works by Shirley Jackson or just tends to like thought-provoking stories that don't always end happily.
    • 5/5
      This collection of Shirley Jackson’s short stories is a subtle store of tension and under-played drama, absolutely enjoyable in small doses, and rather overwhelming when read straight through. I thought Jackson was a gifted storyteller in the gothic tradition after reading both The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but to create such atmosphere in small, often seemingly trivial pieces of writing lifts her above ‘gifted’ and into the realm of ‘genius’. The Renegade and Pillar of Wisdom stand out as strikingly fraught, while The Tooth and The Lottery - which was the only story I’d read before – are actually shudder-inducing. Others are far more subtle, allowing the reader to bring their own interpretations of the source of the tension, and there are a few that might be considered ordinary stories in ordinary settings, ranging from ‘amusing’ (Got a Letter from Jimmy) to ‘unpleasant’ (Flower Garden) in tone, but told from that slightly acute angle that makes them uniquely Jackson’s.
    • 3/5
      This collection of short stories by author Shirley Jackson's, unites her well known story "The Lottery:" with twenty-four other stories. Though Jackson is probably best known for her horror novels, this set of stories are not really of the horror genre—though some of the characters are quite horrifying. Though I really loved the Lottery, I found most of the stories less than engaging, odd or weird (The Tooth) or difficult to understand the point. Some almost felt like the start of an idea that faded into nothing. The other thing that seemed to run through many of the stories is how perfectly “normal” people and can be quite monstrous (The Lottery, The Witch, The Renegade). A few of them are comments on racism, sexism, elitism-without stating the words and without personal commentary (After you My Dear Alphonse, Flower Garden, Come Dance with me in Ireland). The material is well written, but if one is looking for something to read by Shirley Jackson, I would recommend We Have Always Lived in the Castle, rather than this collection of stories. 3 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      My first impression was that the individual stories are a bit hit and miss but the longer you think about them, the more you realise that Shirley Jackson manages to bring out the monster in the most ordinary people, so not a horror story in the usual sense. Even though I find some of the stories featured still a bit disappointing, some others linger on in the mind: "The Lottery", of course, but in my opinion also "Flower Garden" and "Of Course". Others deal with the seemingly pointless struggle of human lives and the amount of time wasted in the pursuit of a goal that will never be achieved: "The Daemon Lover", "Elizabeth" and "Seven Types of Ambiguity". A good read and one that will keep your thoughts occupied for some time.
    • 3/5
      This is a series of short stories mostly dealing with the way we human beings treat each other sometimes in very despicable ways. A lot of these stories ended so abruptly that it is a bit jarring but each of these stories leaves you with something to think about.I didn't enjoy this as much as We Have Always Lived in the Castle but it still showed she is a good writer.I listened to this on audio narrated by, Carol Stewart I enjoyed her narration very much.
    • 4/5
      The ending was surprising! Great,quick read. This story makes you think!
    • 5/5
      The Lottery and Other Stories is an uneven collection. If you've read any of my reviews about a collection of short stories, you've probably heard this before. “Uneven” sums up my feelings for every short story collection I've ever read. There are different levels of uneven, but it's only natural that some stories will resonate powerfully and others will simply be okay. Consistent writing is not an easy task for a writer of short stories, anymore than it is for a novelist. Creative ventures in any medium are going to fluctuate and people will have differing opinions about them (personally, I loved The Casual Vacancy).The “problem” with this collection is that it's unevenness is on fully display. This is like watching a team of all-stars face off against a team of one superstar and a bunch of novices who barely know the rules of the game. This is like watching a bulky grown man on a teeter-totter with a toddler, adorable, but not carrying her weight. This is a collection of some of Jackson's best stories opposite of some that you could say are lacking (with “The Lottery” thrown in at the end). Keep in mind, that when I say these stories are “lacking,” some are quite alright. It's Shirley Jackson, so there's no such thing as a horrendous story. But her greatest moments of insight, development, and storytelling are there at the beginning to entice the reader. And her most famous story, “The Lottery,” is at the end to keep a reader going. Personally, were I to compile such a collection, I'd mix it up. Otherwise, a reader is given false hopes for an amazing second half and what follows is grueling. Throw in some of the less wonderful stories between great stories and the reader will be more forgiving, if they notice at all. And so this collection ends on a low note (especially if you've already read “The Lottery” several times before).Jackson is most famous for her paranormal tales that explore dark aspects of human nature. The majority of the tales in The Lottery... contain no elements of horror or oddity, but they do largely explore human nature. I have previously read two of Jackson's more famous novels, We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, but what really struck me about this collection is how deeply Jackson delved into the psychology of her characters. She was a wonderful explorer of what drives the human brain and how we react to changes in our environment. Though many of the stories in this collection lack a significant plot, always the story moves because of the actions and reactions of the characters.Although I do wish The Lottery and Other Stories had been structured differently, it is still a collection of the highest caliber. Readers looking for stories with highly-engaging plots will likely grow bored with Jackson, in general; for those hoping for great characters and character development, Jackson is a treat. Already, I am eager to read more of her great work.
    • 3/5
      Picked this up after finishing We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but I didn't enjoy it as much. The stories are interesting and well-crafted, though not always satisfying, and the overall effect is rather depressing. Themes include: loneliness, disenchantment, disenfranchisement, mob rule, and general sadness.
    • 3/5
      I listed to the audio book version, so first let me say that the narrators deserve five stars. They are all great, with wonderful voices able to bring distinct sounds to various characters.But, as for the stories themselves, I was surprisingly disappointed. I'm a huge fan of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. And I first was read "The Lottery" in Junior High School and it was an unforgettable experience, certainly one of the best short stories in the English language. Of Jackson's other short stories, "The Summer People" (not in this collection) is also a classic. This collection does feature the oft-anthologized "Charles" -- which is quite good in a much less horrific manner. But as for the other stories in the collection, they become tiring, especially when taken one after the other. The lead characters are a collection of timid men and (mostly) women who are either afraid of just about everything or almost totally incapable of asserting themselves. Reading about Jackson's own struggles and phobias, this makes more sense, but it doesn't make it all that much fun or all that interesting. The stories are also dated in a way that many older short stories aren't. The settings are well done, but the attitudes and subject matter place these stories in a time that seems centuries removed from our own day. This is not to say that the subject matter of many of these stories, whether it be the stereotyped women's roles of the mid-20th century or the prevalent racism of that time, aren't still around to a larger extent than we like to admit, but rather that Jackson's treatment of them holds no surprises. There is good observation here, but no hint that anything can or will change. The nadir of the book for me was when a wife on vacation with her husband in New York City finds herself unable to even cross the street. Light change after light change is described in excruciating detail. It was all too much. But it's over now. Thank God.
    • 4/5
      I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed at what literature has to offer. And I know I've only just scratched the surface. This is the second collection of short stories I've read and they each had a similar affect and gave me a similar impression. I sit there at the end of each story just stunned at the affect and wondering exactly why. It's a new experience to read stories where the story doesn't seem to be as important as something else that's not immediately identifiable - the impression. At the end of so many of them it feels like I'm experiencing a painting. Like what takes place in the story are the brush strokes. Each stroke by itself doesn't seem to have much meaning until you see the end result and sit there in awe and wondering how it happened. Some seem like an intense form of character exposition where you see into the character's soul and that insight is an end in and of itself - is the whole point of the work. I'm sure other short stories will take other forms but this particular form has been very interesting and enjoyable - and strange. I like it.
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars!

      It's no secret that I love Shirley Jackson. I have been known to engage reviewers about what I consider to be less than awesome ratings for The Haunting of Hill House and/or We Have Always Lived in the Castle. One of the things I'm always honest about is books, and despite the fact that this book was written by Shirley, I wasn't crazy about it.

      I was aware going in that this was not a collection of horror tales, though certainly, some of them are horrific. Even so, I didn't find a point to a lot of these tales. I liken them to someone peeking into the window of a normal American family-it's mostly boring. One or two of them (The Tooth, for sure), were just plain weird.

      However, a few of these tales have serious subjects without seeming to-a few of them are outright diatribes on racism-without stating the word and without personal commentary. The fact that some of these families were so racist and didn't even realize it was commentary enough. I also found that a few stories seemed to be about the place of women in society, which was quite different in the 40s as compared to now. Lastly, a few of these stories were horror, in my opinion, The Lottery the most well known and the most horrific.

      There is a whole 'nother thing going on with James Harris, a character that is featured in some of these stories. There's some talk in blogging communities about who he is, exactly, and what his presence symbolized. I don't pretend to have a complete handle on the whole thing, but it deserves a mention.

      Overall, this was a well written collection, (from Shirley Jackson we would expect no less), but I found it to be slightly confusing at times and overall, I was not completely satisfied with this collection.
    • 5/5
      The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly grown.

      A number of these short stories start off in this vein, painting an idyllic existence, before reality intrudes. Some highlight racism, others address self identity, or casual cruelty. The worst crime is left to last in the most famous story, The Lottery. If you've read the stories leading up to it, it is merely a continuation of the critique of a rigid, unthinking society. In the context of the time in which they were written these stories must have been akin to subversive acts. Many reveal unpalatable truths hidden under constricting social constructs – especially those in place for women. I remember reading how the author (trapped in an unhappy marriage) didn’t much enjoy writing such tales and wanted to work on happier ones. Sadly she died before she got the chance. Fearless and honest writing.
    • 4/5
      The Lottery is one of the most powerful short stories around. Read it and you will definitely have some thoughts about it. The story stays with you forever...
    • 5/5
      It's too bad Shirley Jackson didn't publish more during her lifetime, since what she did publish is so taut and creepy. It took a second reading of these stories to see the character James Harris woven through them like a thread—and a frayed thread at that. A fave.
    • 4/5
      While I picked this up to see if "The Lottery" has held up since I read it in high school (and it has), this collection is far more than just its title story. Whether she's writing about social issues such as race ("After You, My Dear Alphonse", "Flower Garden") or class ("Men with Their Big Shoes"), Jackson is a master of the short story. She succinctly captures a child's point-of-view ("Afternoon in Linen", "The Witch") as well as that of an outsider in the city ("Pillar of Salt", "The Tooth"). While Jackson wields a skillful pen (see such finely crafted stories as "The Daemon Lover", "Like Mother Used to Make" and "The Villager") I feel that she's at her best on shorter stories, such as the affecting and sharp "Got A Letter from Jimmy", rather than longer ones.
    • 4/5
      5546. The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson (read 25 Mar 2018) When I read the biography of Shirley Jackson by Ruth Franklin I decided I should read The :Lottery again--I read it years ago--since it was such an important factor in the author's life. This book has 24 other short stories included so I read them all, even though I do not like to read lots of short stories in a book since one keeps starting over so many times in the course of reading the book. This book has The Lottery as the last story in the book. I found the stories of uneven merit. Probably the best ones I guess were "The Daemon Lover" , "Trial by Combat", and "Charles", but of course the most sensational story is "The Lottery". I had sort of thought it was laid colonial,like the witch trials, but the story talks of tractors and is laid in present time--which makes it highly unlikely,of course. The matter-of-factness of the town people is striking and chilling. It is less than 12 pages long and if you have not read it, you should as it is a good illustration of Shirley Jackson and her unusual mind and ability..
    • 4/5
      This is an odd little story collection. Most of the stories in it are, on the face of things, just tiny little captured pieces of ordinary life, usually featuring housewives in domestic settings. Often they start at seemingly random moments and end abruptly with nothing in particular having happened. But running through them all, often very, very subtly, is this vague feeling of quiet desperation, of people -- usually women -- hemmed in by fences of social conformity that they can never quite perceive, reaching vaguely for some sense of personal identity that doesn't quite exist. Taken individually, many of them might seem incomplete or pointless, but as a whole, I think the collection adds up to something more than the sum of its parts. I will admit that, towards the end, I began to feel it had all gone on a bit too long, and my interest began to flag... But then, after putting the book down for some sleep, I picked it up again and read "The Tooth," which I thought encapsulated a lot of the themes of this collection beautifully, followed soon after by the quietly chilling title story, which I think is made much more effective by the context of everything that comes before it, and I was impressed with what Jackson's doing here all over again.
    • 3/5
      Well, back on the side of not liking Shirley Jackson. Thankfully, the collection ends with The Lottery, so I had the opportunity to get reacquainted with that excellent short story. If I had never heard of The Lottery and managed to slog through the rest of the stories to get to it, it would have been worth it, but I wish I just skipped to it and enjoyed myself for the few minutes it takes to read it, cutting out all the other stories that weren't very good. If not for The Lottery, no one would have known "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" (another enjoyable, but maybe lesser work from Jackson). Without either of those stories, I can't imagine there being any interest in these shorts or some of her other work. Maybe the Haunting of Hill House is worthwhile...I'm not sure if I have the confidence to find out.
    • 3/5
      Review: The LotteryShirley Jackson222 PagesCollection of Short StoriesStory Diversity: standard—there are long stories and two-stories; there are poems, and stories that deal with various issues. But there’s little character diversity or setting diversity; the only story that really stands out is the Lottery, which is the single item this book is most praised for.Vocabulary: standard; the word choice is great, but I rarely encountered one of those ‘out-there’ words. The writing, as I would describe it, is flavorful, but certainly nothing unique.Twists: nearly all the stories feature twists, but these aren’t the type that make your jaw drop. With the exception of the Lottery’s they’re very subtle twists that sometimes go unexplained.Strengths: the short story, The Lottery—without a doubt, brilliantly written; dialogue is well written (surprising, since I read the Haunting of Hill House before this); while the same set of characters might have been used throughout just a different names, they were still well written.Weaknesses: lots of the short stories are underwhelming and don’t leave much of an impressionBottom Line: you either like Shirley Jackson’s work or you don’t. I didn’t care for the Haunting on Hill House, but I thought I’d try the Lottery to see if there were any differences. The only stand-out difference was the vast improvement in dialogue. Personally, I think she receives a lot of hype, but her work doesn’t deliver. With the exception of the Lottery (I can’t repeat it enough: read this story) I find her that her work isn’t scary or creepy or anything that her reviewers say. In fact, I find a lot of her work to be—while not exactly unimaginative—a bit dull. Simply put, it was an underwhelming experience to read this book.
    • 4/5
      Shirley Jackson is a master at taking everyday life and twisting into ominous shapes, and whilst these very short tales are a mixed bag there are more than enough good ones to make this a must read. Morality and social life are viewed through odd perspectives. The loneliness and alienation we all feel at times is pinned and displayed in delicious biteszied vignettes and you ride happily along with polite society until you feel the creeping horror as things go awry, when it's rules create racism or death. You share the horror at the strangers that kids can become and then sit inside someone's else head with growing murderous rage at their husbands unthinking actions and what's more you can understand it. This empathy is what makes the horror all the more real.. I mean what if she is talking about our own lives?It is in an intense, wonderful read and though I didn't always like every story (and I missed the growing evocative atmosphere of her novels) I would highly recommend to anyone.
    • 5/5
      As many of you probably have, I read The Lottery while still in high school. I found it to be a chilling story then; and I found it to be as chilling today. The other short stories leading up to this were a genuinely nice surprise, as I wasn't familiar with any of Shirley Jackson's other short pieces. Little snippets of life, written with such plain language. I found them to be fascinating in their simplicity. The beginning writer could learn a great deal from Shirley Jackson.
    • 5/5
      I fell in love with Jackson’s crisp, exact prose and dense ambience when I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle last year, and have been looking forward to reading more. I was not disappointed.This is brilliance. Jackson’s sense of ever so slightly tilted everyday stories, beautifully composed is a creepy joy to read, and I’ve been savoring this book. The title story is, apparently, very well known to American readers as a must-read in school, and it’s easy to see why. Without really stating anything, just casually describing a process, it’s a chilling look at conformism and people’s willingness to follow tradition. For pure shivers down the spine-value, it’s hard to match, and it’s probably a good move from the editor of this collection to put it last in this collection. But even though most of the stories here are much less explosive, there are many more eerie moments of everyday cruelty, of identity slipping or of lives falling apart in a less obvious way. Sometimes the animosity never even surfaces, like in the story of two war mothers discovering that the petty things keeping them apart are stronger than the ones bringing them together. All during polite, even warm, conversation.Among my many favorites in this bouquet of poisonous flowers are: the story about the perfect host being driven out of his own dinner party, cuckoo style, the sickening everyday racism surrounding Ms. MacLane’s flower garden, the woman realizing the new neighbors are some very strange people indeed, and the surreal and scary trip to the New York dentist. The list could be much longer. One or two of the very short stories might be a simple pun, but most of them are here, in me, to stay. Already in mid-january, this is a strong contender for read of the year, I suspect.
    • 5/5
      Just as dizzingly breathtaking the second time 'round.