We Have Always Lived in the Castle
By Shirley Jackson
Penguin Classics, October 2006, 160pp.
The Short of It:
An odd little read.
The Rest of It:
Two sisters, Merricat and Constance Blackwood live in an old, dilapidated house called The Castle. They live there with their disabled Uncle Julian. Disabled from a freak poisoning “accident” that killed their entire family.
This family is hated by the villagers in town. The Blackwoods are odd, unable to fit in and ostracized whenever they show up in town for supplies. Merricat, the youngest endures the bullying with a watchful eye. As nasty as the townspeople are, they’re also a little bit afraid. No one wants to be around a family that damned near killed everyone at dinner. Do they?
The house is surrounded by Merricat’s idea of protection. Buried items, idols of some sort posted on a fence, all to keep the townspeople away. It’s rather “witchy” in nature and will keep you guessing.
To shake things up, Cousin Charles makes an appearance. An unwelcome appearance. Merricat despises him. Julian, not all together there, also takes to disliking him; continuously calling him the wrong name and insisting that people are dead when they are clearly alive. This is when we learn of Constance’s insufferable nature.
She really needs a good slap across the face. Cousin Charles mows over her, tries to sell the house out from under her and she just smiles and goes about her day. It’s all too much. Clearly Charles is not there to support their lives in any way.
Then, tragedy strikes. Yes, more tragedy. Here, the story gets very weird. I questioned whether these characters were even alive or if they were actually dead, but refused to leave The Castle.
Here’s what’s true:
- Jackson does an amazing job depicting the isolation of these characters.
- She creates some really strange characters. Annoying ones with quite the air of mystery about them. You wanna know more.
- The house is a main character. Falling in on itself, damaged later on, in disrepair yet still called home.
- Jackson’s handling of the villain/s in this story piqued my interest.
- There is no cut and dry way of interpreting this story.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a literary classic. It should be experienced but not everyone will love it. In fact, I think most won’t like it at all. It was adapted to the big screen. I am curious to see how they interpret the story. I am discussing this with a group and my interpretation is quite different.
Source: Borrowed
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Book Chatter 
I read this one several years ago for a book group meeting. As I recall, Shirley Jackson was our ‘author of the month’ and I listened to this one and also the Hill House book. Anyway, my comment on the blog was ‘what a weird book’. Ha! I don’t recall what we said at our discussion as it was maybe 6 years ago or so. Odd book indeed!
Your comment about it being weird is accurate. I wanted a little bit more and I have my own theories on what it was really about but the rest of my club didn’t agree.
This sounds truly odd. I’ll tell you that when I read “She really needs a good slap across the face” I laughed out loud. The story and characters evoked something for you and that’s good.
This is one that I can skip. Sounds very strange!
It was so odd. Parts of it intrigued me and then it went cold.Over and over again.
I absolutely adore Shirley Jackson and have never read a novel or short story of hers that did not absolutely enthrall me. She was brilliant as shifting her narratives in subtle ways that couls leave a reader feeling uneasy, but not fully understanding why. The ambiguity she purposefully wrote with also never fails to capture my imagination. I still haven’t read this one, but it’s been on my TBR for what seems like forever.
You should find a copy. It’s classic Jackson.
Yeah I liked this strange little novel. Just a dark shadow and you don’t know what to expect. The two sisters woowoo.
Here’s my review of it from 2020. https://www.thecuecard.com/books/time-to-move-ahead/
Yes, those sisters were odd. I wouldn’t mind seeing the movie version. The trailer looked good.
There is something in this description of this family that reminded me of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher in that the house is also a character. Jackson’s work is deeply unsettling, but I haven’t read this one yet. I’ll have to pick this up! I’d also be interested to see a movie version of this.
That’s a good comparison. It’s been so long since I read Usher.
It has been a long time since I read this one, but I recall enjoying the ‘weirdness’ of it. I think it was my first Shirley Jackson read. Nowadays The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favourites and I’ve reread it a few times. I might have to pick up this one again as well…
Exactly. It was good, weird, if that makes sense. Enjoyed.