We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Shirley Jackson
- First Published: 1962
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Gothic fiction
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Villages, Fire, Massacres, Houses, mansions, or manors, Poisons or poisoning
We Have Always Lived in the Castle was Jackson's only novel written in the first-person voice. She uses this viewpoint to introduce one of the most charming psychopaths in literature. Mary Catherine (Merricat) Blackwood tells the reader important things about herself in the first few sentences: She is eighteen years old, she lives with her sister, she dislikes washing herself, but likes her sister Constance. She then states bluntly, “Everyone else in my family is dead.”
Merricat and her sister, Constance, live with their invalid Uncle Julian on the fine old Blackwood...
[The entire page is 859 words long]
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