THE SUNDIAL

by Shirley Jackson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 17, 1957

A fantasia, which extends some of the playfully perverse to eccentric elements of her earlier writing, is concerned with the curiouser and curiouser events which take place in an enormous mansion in a small New England village. If there is little meaning- or perhaps a larger meaning, it is also provokingly provocative. The story opens in the home of the Hallorans at the obsequies of Lionel- the only son - whom young Mrs. Halloran, Maryjane, claims old Mrs. Halloran- his mother- has pushed down the stairs. It closes as old Mrs. Halloran dies in just the same way. And in between, Aunt Fanny sees the apparition of her father- by the sundial in the garden- with his prophetic message that the end of the world is at hand. Others join the household-where many incivilities are exchanged; there is a visit from the True Believers, as well as a second visitation- at the sundial-and strange landscapes of the future read in a mirror. All await the day of doom and prepare for the new world which old Mrs. alloran greets at the foot of the staircase... For the coterie, perhaps piquant- for others puzzling.

Pub Date: Feb. 17, 1957

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1957

Categories: FICTION