Twice a year, Simon of Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy of Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings sponsor a Read the Year club, for which they randomly pick a year in the first three-quarters of the 20th century, and participants select books published during that year to read. This time, the year is 1962, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my first selection for the club.
However, as usual, I have already posted reviews for three other books published in 1962:
- The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie
- The Moon-Spinners by Mary Stewart
- The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a true modern gothic novel (or maybe novella—it’s very short), moving gradually but compellingly to reveal its secrets. Mary Catherine Blackwood lives with her sister Constance and their Uncle Julian in the family home, isolated from the rest of the village. We first meet Mary Catherine on one of her biweekly trips to the village for food, where she carefully plots her course to try to avoid people. However, she is mocked by the villagers, both young and old.
Slowly, we learn the first secret—that six years ago when Mary Catherine was twelve, most of her family was poisoned. Mary Catherine survived because she had been sent to bed without supper, Constance because she seldom used sugar, which had arsenic in it; Uncle Julian ate very little, so he survived but has since been feeble and muddled. Constance was tried for the crime but found not guilty. Ever since then, the girls have avoided other people.
Mary Catherine’s narrative hints that things are going to change. First, Helen Clarke arrives for tea, as she does once a week, but she brings along a friend, and Constance seems to be responding to her suggestion that she get out more. Mary Catherine worries about this, for she is very protective of Constance. Then Cousin Charles arrives. Naïve Constance accepts him, but Mary Catherine thinks he’s a bad one.
Mary Catherine is a dreamy girl who has strange compulsions and rituals, but one by one, Charles dismantles her protections around their property. We can see that the sisters are soon to be shaken from their oddly comfortable existence.
Jackson was a master at evoking an atmosphere. I think only her The Haunting of Hill House surpasses this one in power.
whatmeread 
Some good novels here. Enjoyed reading your reviews on both the Stewart and Georgette Heyer.
Both Heyer and Stewart are two of my old-time favorites; I don’t think Heyer EVER wrote a bad sentence, she is that good a stylist, as well as her “golden” characterizations.
And as you point out in a review, Stewart is just excellent at setting and atmosphere.
Shirley Jackson is also excellent at atmosphere, though I must admit, after reading The Lottery, I stopped reading her.
Horror just isn’t my thing.
Thanks for the memories!
You’re welcome! Shirley Jackson does love eeriness.
Thanks, I really need to try it.
I actually preferred this to Hill House. I loved the character of Merricat – a true original, and I felt it was like reading the origin story of all the mysterious old witches in fairy tales.
I think they are both excellent, but yes, Merricat is really interesting.