
The Lottery and Seven Other Stories
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $15.44
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Carol Jordan Stewart
-
By:
-
Shirley Jackson
About this listen
It's just townspeople picking numbers for the annual lottery...why, then, is there an ominous feeling to "The Lottery"? Find out just what this lottery is for, and listen to seven other unique stories. The collection reveals Jackson's remarkable range, from hilarious to horrifying, dealing with modern issues of alienation, empowerment, racism, and economic class. The stories are "The Lottery", "Flower Garden", "Come Dance with Me in Ireland", "Men with Their Big Shoes", "Trial by Combat", "Pillar of Salt", "Like Mother Used to Make", and "Colloquy".
©2010 The Estate of Shirley Jackson (P)2010 BBC Audiobooks AmericaListeners also enjoyed...
-
Lord of the Flies
- By: William Golding
- Narrated by: William Golding
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marooned on a tropical island, alone in a world of uncharted possibilities, and devoid of adult supervision or rules, a group of British boys begins to forge a society with its own unique rules and rituals.
-
-
Great story - bad narration
- By A Mom on 03-05-08
By: William Golding
-
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
- A Song of Ice and Fire
- By: George R. R. Martin
- Narrated by: Harry Lloyd
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young, naïve but ultimately courageous hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall towers above his rivals—in stature if not experience. Tagging along is his diminutive squire, a boy called Egg—whose true name is hidden from all he and Dunk encounter. Though more improbable heroes may not be found in all of Westeros, great destinies lay ahead for these two . . . as do powerful foes, royal intrigue, and outrageous exploits. Featuring more than 160 all-new illustrations by Gary Gianni, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a must-have collection that proves chivalry isn’t dead—yet.
-
-
What separates Lloyd from Dotrice
- By Pusang Tulog on 10-14-15
-
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- A Hunger Games Novel
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Santino Fontana
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low.
-
-
Bad part
- By Edgars Dumins on 05-19-20
By: Suzanne Collins
-
The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of: a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
-
-
Phenomenallly detailed...
- By Branden on 01-27-09
-
The Valley of Amazement
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Joyce Bean, Amy Tan
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a "virgin courtesan." Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West - until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.
-
-
Just could NOT get past the ugliness
- By Pamela J on 11-25-13
By: Amy Tan
-
Pandemic
- The Extinction Files, Book 1
- By: A. G. Riddle
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO.
-
-
Read this before buying, too much hype
- By Bradley on 06-23-17
By: A. G. Riddle
-
Lord of the Flies
- By: William Golding
- Narrated by: William Golding
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marooned on a tropical island, alone in a world of uncharted possibilities, and devoid of adult supervision or rules, a group of British boys begins to forge a society with its own unique rules and rituals.
-
-
Great story - bad narration
- By A Mom on 03-05-08
By: William Golding
-
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
- A Song of Ice and Fire
- By: George R. R. Martin
- Narrated by: Harry Lloyd
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young, naïve but ultimately courageous hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall towers above his rivals—in stature if not experience. Tagging along is his diminutive squire, a boy called Egg—whose true name is hidden from all he and Dunk encounter. Though more improbable heroes may not be found in all of Westeros, great destinies lay ahead for these two . . . as do powerful foes, royal intrigue, and outrageous exploits. Featuring more than 160 all-new illustrations by Gary Gianni, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a must-have collection that proves chivalry isn’t dead—yet.
-
-
What separates Lloyd from Dotrice
- By Pusang Tulog on 10-14-15
-
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- A Hunger Games Novel
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Santino Fontana
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the 10th annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low.
-
-
Bad part
- By Edgars Dumins on 05-19-20
By: Suzanne Collins
-
The Historian
- By: Elizabeth Kostova
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael
- Length: 26 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor", and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of: a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
-
-
Phenomenallly detailed...
- By Branden on 01-27-09
-
The Valley of Amazement
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Joyce Bean, Amy Tan
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a "virgin courtesan." Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West - until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.
-
-
Just could NOT get past the ugliness
- By Pamela J on 11-25-13
By: Amy Tan
-
Pandemic
- The Extinction Files, Book 1
- By: A. G. Riddle
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC's leading epidemiologist, she's among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It's a lonely and dangerous job, but it's her life - and she's good at it. This time she may have met her match. In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death's door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO.
-
-
Read this before buying, too much hype
- By Bradley on 06-23-17
By: A. G. Riddle
-
The Nix
- A Novel
- By: Nathan Hill
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 21 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. Now she’s re-appeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet, and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart.
-
-
Is There An Editor In The House??
- By Sara on 11-03-16
By: Nathan Hill
-
The Bone Clocks
- By: David Mitchell
- Narrated by: Jessica Ball, Leon Williams, Colin Mace, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following a scalding row with her mother, 15-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people," Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.
-
-
Not Short Listed, This Time
- By Mel on 09-23-14
By: David Mitchell
-
True Believer: Booktrack Edition
- Jeremy Marsh & Lexie Darnell, Book 1
- By: Nicholas Sparks
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part love story and part ghost story, this is an unforgettable New York Times best seller about a science journalist and a North Carolina librarian who dare to believe in the impossible. As a science journalist with a regular column in Scientific American, Jeremy Marsh specializes in debunking the supernatural - until he falls in love with the granddaughter of the town psychic. When Jeremy receives a letter from Boone Creek, North Carolina, about ghostly lights appearing in a cemetery, he can't resist driving down to investigate.
-
-
Distracting
- By Amber on 06-11-19
By: Nicholas Sparks
-
The Dark Tower I
- The Gunslinger
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces listeners to one of his most powerful creations: Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.
-
-
LIKE A DULL AX THROUGH A CALF'S BRAIN
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-14-16
By: Stephen King
-
The Stand
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 47 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides - or are chosen.
-
-
My First Completed Stephen King Novel
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-20-12
By: Stephen King
-
The Evening and the Morning
- Kingsbridge, Book 4
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined.
-
-
I was really waiting for this book!
- By Firebolt on 09-20-20
By: Ken Follett
-
New Spring
- The Wheel of Time Prequel
- By: Robert Jordan
- Narrated by: Kate Reading, Michael Kramer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For three days battle has raged in the snow around the great city of Tar Valon. In the city, a foretelling of the future is uttered. On the slopes of Dragonmount, the immense mountain that looms over the city, a child is born, an infant prophesied to change the world. That child must be found before he can be killed by the forces of the Shadow.
-
-
Read it after reading others in the series
- By Stacy Fair on 12-13-07
By: Robert Jordan
-
The Handmaid's Tale
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Claire Danes
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a staged terrorist attack kills the President and most of Congress, the government is deposed and taken over by the oppressive and all-controlling Republic of Gilead. Offred is a Handmaid serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name.
-
-
My Top Pick for 2012
- By Em on 11-30-12
By: Margaret Atwood
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
The Passage
- A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)
- By: Justin Cronin
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Adenrele Ojo, Abby Craden
- Length: 36 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born". An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy - abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued, and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape - but he can’t stop society’s collapse.
-
-
You love it or you hate it...
- By Nikki on 06-23-10
By: Justin Cronin
-
The Witching Hour
- By: Anne Rice
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 50 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Demonstrating once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of four centuries of witches - a family given to poetry and incest, murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being called Lasher who haunts the Mayfair women. Moving in time from today's New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and the France of Louis XIV, from the coffee plantations of Port-au-Prince to Civil War New Orleans and back to today, Anne Rice has spun a mesmerizing tale.
-
-
THANK YOU AUDIBLE!
- By Wendy on 10-22-15
By: Anne Rice
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Lottery, and Other Stories
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Kathe Mazur, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The Lottery," one of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was first published in the New Yorker. "Powerful and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with 24 equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range - from the hilarious to the truly horrible - and power as a storyteller.
-
-
Title List:
- By Cay K on 10-28-19
By: Shirley Jackson
-
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years after four family members died of arsenic poisoning, the three remaining Blackwoods—elder, agoraphobic sister Constance; wheelchair-bound Uncle Julian; and 18-year-old Mary Katherine, or, Merricat—live together in pleasant isolation. Merricat has developed an idiosyncratic system of rules and protective magic to guard the estate against intrusions from hostile villagers. But one day a stranger arrives—cousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortune.
-
-
The narration changed my interpretation
- By jaspersu on 10-28-12
By: Shirley Jackson
-
The Haunting of Hill House
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House.
-
-
Well written horror tale
- By C K White on 02-11-14
By: Shirley Jackson
-
Selected Shorts
- Family Matters
- By: Shirley Jackson, Frank O'Connor, Toure, and others
- Narrated by: Lois Smith, Malachy McCourt, Daniel Alexander Jones, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hilarious and colorful episodes in the lives of families, many depicted from a kid's-eye-view, are the theme for this compilation. Being part of a family is often trying, and stranger than any fiction, but never dull and always worth it in the end. Join these very different families as they face the shrinking of parents, the pre-emptive guilt of First Confession, the secret worlds of children, and more!
-
-
Can I have my point back?
- By deborah lozzi on 05-18-21
By: Shirley Jackson, and others
-
The Witchcraft of Salem Village
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stories of magic, superstition, and witchcraft were strictly forbidden in the little town of Salem Village. But a group of young girls ignored those rules, spellbound by the tales told by a woman named Tituba. When questioned about their activities, the terrified girls set off a whirlwind of controversy as they accused townsperson after townsperson of being witches.
-
-
A true historical horror
- By Felicia J on 10-14-16
By: Shirley Jackson
-
Dark Tales
- By: Shirley Jackson, Ottessa Moshfegh - foreword
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Kimberly Farr, Karissa Vacker, and others
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 listeners with more of her unsettling, dark tales, including the “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Summer People”.
-
-
Spoilerific Foreword
- By Erik N on 10-29-21
By: Shirley Jackson, and others
-
The Lottery, and Other Stories
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Kathe Mazur, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The Lottery," one of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was first published in the New Yorker. "Powerful and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with 24 equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range - from the hilarious to the truly horrible - and power as a storyteller.
-
-
Title List:
- By Cay K on 10-28-19
By: Shirley Jackson
-
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six years after four family members died of arsenic poisoning, the three remaining Blackwoods—elder, agoraphobic sister Constance; wheelchair-bound Uncle Julian; and 18-year-old Mary Katherine, or, Merricat—live together in pleasant isolation. Merricat has developed an idiosyncratic system of rules and protective magic to guard the estate against intrusions from hostile villagers. But one day a stranger arrives—cousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortune.
-
-
The narration changed my interpretation
- By jaspersu on 10-28-12
By: Shirley Jackson
-
The Haunting of Hill House
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House.
-
-
Well written horror tale
- By C K White on 02-11-14
By: Shirley Jackson
-
Selected Shorts
- Family Matters
- By: Shirley Jackson, Frank O'Connor, Toure, and others
- Narrated by: Lois Smith, Malachy McCourt, Daniel Alexander Jones, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hilarious and colorful episodes in the lives of families, many depicted from a kid's-eye-view, are the theme for this compilation. Being part of a family is often trying, and stranger than any fiction, but never dull and always worth it in the end. Join these very different families as they face the shrinking of parents, the pre-emptive guilt of First Confession, the secret worlds of children, and more!
-
-
Can I have my point back?
- By deborah lozzi on 05-18-21
By: Shirley Jackson, and others
-
The Witchcraft of Salem Village
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stories of magic, superstition, and witchcraft were strictly forbidden in the little town of Salem Village. But a group of young girls ignored those rules, spellbound by the tales told by a woman named Tituba. When questioned about their activities, the terrified girls set off a whirlwind of controversy as they accused townsperson after townsperson of being witches.
-
-
A true historical horror
- By Felicia J on 10-14-16
By: Shirley Jackson
-
Dark Tales
- By: Shirley Jackson, Ottessa Moshfegh - foreword
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Kimberly Farr, Karissa Vacker, and others
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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 listeners with more of her unsettling, dark tales, including the “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Summer People”.
-
-
Spoilerific Foreword
- By Erik N on 10-29-21
By: Shirley Jackson, and others
No Pauses Between Stories
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I can see how "The Lottery" influenced The Hunger Games. That town had some archaic ideas.
The other two most memorable short stories were "Flower Garden" and "Pillar of Salt" because they were the most developed. "Flower Garden" was about racism and "Pillar of Salt" was about anxiety.
I would have to listen again and really pay attention the second time to have more to say about the other stories, because they didn't leave the same impression the three stories mentioned above did.
4 out of 5 Stones.
Three of the eight were memorable.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Needs to be re-edited
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved this collection
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting collection
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
TW
one of the stories has some kids yelling the N word.
wasn't edited for digital upload, but...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Brilliant
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The stories themselves are priceless — a delightful commentary on various aspects of modern life. Jackson had the ability to break down ordinary experiences into their parts and show you why they were bizarre, peculiar, ironic, even terrifying. The Lottery - a famous classic - isn’t even the best or most interesting of these stories. They are especially fascinating if you grew up in the time Jackson was writing or if you’re curious to know what life was like in the 1950s or 1960s. There are so many aspects of the stories that seem almost quaint today yet were common features of life in those times: the exceptionally polite and tactful manners, having a maid in your home, glorying over a collection of silverware or the careful decoration of a tiny home or apartment. These details are practically characters in her stories and serve to move the drama along. For an older person they are also a trip into the past that is at least as gratifying as the craft of the stories themselves.
The second story in the group accurately describes the strange way race prejudice could interrupt our lives - how it was there on one level and yet be completely denied by those who practiced it. Like a dirty secret. I especially enjoyed the second to last story, where a bachelor describes and celebrates his immaculate apartment in minute detail — only to have a less fastidious female guest hijack it for romantic pretense. The final story is a gem. Few writers are capable of saying so much in so few words. Jackson catches her characters on the crux of the crisis, mid 20th century, when life was being completely transformed. It’s magic.
Just Wonderful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I didn’t get it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just ok
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.