The Sundial is droll, mocks every social class, spirals rapidly into madness, and is Gothic with a capital G. ( )

In The Sundial, perhaps Shirley Jackson’s most comical novel, twelve rather disagreeable individuals are cooped together in a mansion waiting for the end of the world.

When Aunt Fanny, a rather ditsy spinster is threatened out of her family home by her megalomaniac sister-in-law, she is quite rightfully distressed. Lucky for Aunt Fanny, on that very same day she happens to hear the disembodied voice of her deceased father. He warns Aunt Fanny of an impending apocalypse and tells her not to leave the Halloran estate: “Tell them in the house that they will be saved. Do not let them leave the house.”

What ensues is a comedy of sorts, as the family is engulfed in growing madness, fear, and violence. Lost in the thought of a coming paradise, their interior lives collide into utter madness.

The novel is packed with hilarious observations, and the characters act so strangely in their belief of the coming apocalypse. They create rules to abide by; they destroy books; they throw one last little party for the town. Like the mansion in The Haunting of Hill House, the Halloran estate is a character. Shirley writes:

“THE CHARACTER OF THE HOUSE IS PERHAPS OF INTEREST. IT STOOD UPON A SMALL RISE IN GROUND, AND ALL THE LAND IT SURVEYED BELONGED TO THE HALLORAN FAMILY. THE HALLORAN LAND WAS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD BY A STONE WALL, WHICH WENT COMPLETELY AROUND THE ESTATE, SO THAT ALL INSIDE THE WALL WAS HALLORAN, ALL OUTSIDE WAS NOT.”

This is yet another novel by Jackson that explores the double function of houses: the Halloran mansion is both a fortress—a place of safety—and a prison.

And in the end, as the family awaits the coming paradise, in the midst of a storm, it surely seems like the mansion is more prison than a safe refuge.

The Sundial, written before Hill House, is a slowly haunting book, with no easy answers. Is it about the danger of belief? Is it about the danger of greed? Is it a critique of the privileged?

Perhaps.

It will leave you thinking like all great literature does, long after you close the pages.

( )

“… the sundial arrived inscribed WHAT IS THIS WORLD?”

It arrived at the Halloran estate, ordered from Philadelphia.

“Aunt Fanny’s father had come to tell these people that the world outside was ending.” Her visions are pretty creepy reading. As are the moments when Gloria looks in the mirror!

Aunt Fanny is only 48 years old? She reads SO MUCH older! Julia’s story when she leaves the house is really good! (and GREAT last line of that chapter! HILARIOUS!). “The only books to be included were Aunt Fanny’s Boy Scout Handbook, the encyclopedia, Fancy’s French grammar… and a World Almanac.” Gotta Be Prepared! Especially for the apocalypse! If it is, in fact, happening. The end of the book is almost exactly as it should have been! A fun, and semi-spooky, read!

“When shall we live if not now?”

“The sundial showed no hours at night.” ( )

This one started off with a bang - pushed down the stairs, or fell? Ghost encounter or madness or lies? - but then slowed waaay down. At first I resented the change in tempo, but after finishing the book I understand how necessary that change was to the plot. And it works, it really works. ( )

Now that's how you do an extremely dark comedy! ( )