Today’s newsletter concludes my review of Shirley Jackson’s less-known novels.
Shirley Jackson employed numerous iconic elements to create this darkly hilarious novel. Bits of Hansel and Gretel, Robinson Crusoe, Chicken Little, Lizzie Borden, the Book of Revelation, Jane Austen novels, and Greek tragedy join forces to portray a snobbish family preparing for the end of the world.
The Hallorans have just returned to their cloistered mansion after burying Lionel Halloran. His widow Marjorie claims that her mother-in-law Orianna pushed her own son down the stairs in order to cheat her granddaughter Fancy out of the estate. Blithely, Orianna takes the accusations in stride and assumes leadership of the household.
The next morning Aunt Fanny has a terrifying experience that culminates with the voice of her dead father warning of an imminent disaster. Taking Aunt Fanny at her word, Orianna decides the Hallorans are a chosen people and should prepare themselves for a holocaust that will destroy the world outside their vast property and leave them to inherit a new Earth.
The Hallorans have derived their twisted outlook from their wealthy patriarch, who built his estate on a foundation of whims, swallowing up neighboring lands, filling the library with books neither he nor anyone else has ever read, and walling off his property from the nearby village. The characters are a curious lot: Orianna’s demented husband; Essex, a manservant who goes around quoting Shakespeare and commenting on the proceedings; Gloria Desmond, a reluctant prophet; Miss Ogilvie, Fancy’s timid governess; Augusta Willow, an old friend who insinuates herself and her young daughters into the family in hopes of marrying them off; and “the Captain,” a stranger Aunt Fanny drags in from a village street.
The village itself is a curiosity, subsisting on tourists attracted by the legend of a local girl who murdered her parents and brothers. The world surrounding it seems to have a sinister life of its own, as one character discovers when she tries to escape the mansion in a heavy fog. While Aunt Fanny stockpiles great quantities of survival gear, Orianna presides over the household like a nesting spider. On the eve of the apocalyptic date, she invites the villagers, whom she is convinced are doomed to die, for a feast on the Halloran property.
Shirley Jackson’s work often defies interpretation, and The Sundial is no different. It’s the reader’s place to enjoy the craftsmanship she puts into every scene and character while we wait to find out if the world is, indeed, going to end.
Except for a few profanities here and there, The Sundial is an admirable book by an author whose legacy continues to attract new readers like me. I recommend it enthusiastically to all lovers of great literature.
Chevron Ross's novels include Weapons of Remorse, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and The Samaritan's Patient. Click here for more information.