Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the gender neutral pen name Currer Bell. Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature.
Constance is a female given name that derives from Latin and means "constant." Variations of the name include Connie, Constancia, and Constanze.
Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories.
Crooked House is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1949 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 23 May of the same year.
Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth, home to many of his family and the setting for numerous tales and adventures. The stories were written between 1915 and 1975.
Shirley, A Tale is a social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë, first published in 1849. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre. The novel is set in Yorkshire in 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry.
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller. In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship. Since 2011, he has taught creative writing at Pomona College.
"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that was first published in The New Yorker on June 26, 1948. The story describes a fictional small American community which observes an annual tradition known as "the lottery", which is intended to ensure a good harvest and purge the town of bad omens. The lottery, its preparations, and its execution are all described in detail, though it is not revealed until the end what actually happens to the person selected by the random lottery: the selected member of the community is stoned to death by the other townspeople.
The Haunting of Hill House is a 1959 gothic horror novel by American author Shirley Jackson. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and has been made into two feature films and a play, and is the basis of a Netflix series.
Charles Delauney Bravo was a British lawyer who was fatally poisoned with antimony in 1876. The case is still sensational, notorious and unresolved. The case is also known as The Charles Bravo Murder and the Murder at the Priory.
"The Possibility of Evil" is a 1965 short story by Shirley Jackson. Published on December 18, 1965, in the Saturday Evening Post, a few months after her death, it won the 1966 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery short story. It has since been reprinted in the collections Just an Ordinary Day (1996) and Dark Tales (2016).
A sugar bowl is a small bowl designed for holding sugar or sugar cubes, to be served with tea or coffee in the Western tradition, that is an integral part of a tea set.
Alexandra Anna Daddario is an American actress. She had her breakthrough portraying Annabeth Chase in the Percy Jackson film series (2010–2013). She has since starred as Paige in Hall Pass (2011), Heather Miller in Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013), Blake Gaines in San Andreas (2015), Summer Quinn in Baywatch (2017), and Alexis Butler in We Summon the Darkness (2019). She has also guest starred in television series such as White Collar, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, True Detective, New Girl, and American Horror Story: Hotel. In 2021, she starred in the first season of the HBO series The White Lotus, for which she received widespread critical acclaim and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie in 2022. In 2023 she began playing the lead role of Dr. Rowan Fielding in the AMC show Mayfair Witches based on a series of novels written by author Anne Rice.
A Man About the House is a British drama film directed by Leslie Arliss and released in 1947. The film is a melodrama, adapted for the screen by J. B. Williams from the 1942 novel of the same name by Francis Brett Young. A theatrical adaptation A Man About the House by John Perry had been staged in London's West End in 1946, with Flora Robson as Agnes, Kieron Moore as Salvatore, and Ernest Thesiger as Sanctuary. The film was produced by Edward Black and edited by Russell Lloyd, with cinematography by Georges Périnal and music by Nicholas Brodszky. Shot at Shepperton Studios and on location around Naples, the film's sets were designed by the art director Andrej Andrejew.
A Head Full of Ghosts is a 2015 horror novel by American writer Paul Tremblay. The plot involves an Massachusetts family under financial and emotional strain while their fourteen-year-old daughter, Marjorie Barrett, exhibits signs of severe mental illness. The Barretts come to believe she is possessed by a demon, and her behavior is publicized when the family stars in a reality TV show. Marjorie's younger sister, Merry Barrett, relays the experiences of her childhood fifteen years later. Themes include elements of Catholic exorcism and reality television exploitation.
The Girls is a 2016 debut novel by American author Emma Cline. It is loosely inspired by the Manson Family and the murder of actress Sharon Tate.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a 2018 American mystery thriller film directed by Stacie Passon, written by Mark Kruger, and starring Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario, Crispin Glover, and Sebastian Stan. It was based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson.
Crooked House is a 2017 mystery film directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, based on Agatha Christie’s 1949 novel of the same name. The film stars Max Irons, Terence Stamp, Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, and Stefanie Martini. Principal photography began in September 2016, and the film aired in the UK on Channel 5 on 17 December 2017.
Mary Katherine Blackwood is the main character in Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The eighteen-year-old "Merricat" lives with her remaining family members, Constance and Julian Blackwood, on an estate in Vermont. As a result of a tragedy six years prior the family remains isolated from the surrounding village. The Dictionary of Literary Characters designates a "definition" to Merricat as follows:
Reclusive, psychotic 18-year-old who lives in the family manse with her older sister, Constance Blackwood, and her uncle, Julian Blackwood, as a child, poisoned most of her family in Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
The Haunting of Hill House is an American supernatural horror drama streaming television miniseries created and directed by Mike Flanagan, produced by Amblin Television and Paramount Television, for Netflix, and serves as the first entry in The Haunting anthology series. It is loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson. The plot alternates between two timelines, following five adult siblings whose paranormal experiences at Hill House continue to haunt them in the present day, and flashbacks depicting events leading up to the eventful night in 1992 when the family fled from the mansion. The ensemble cast features Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Victoria Pedretti as the siblings in adulthood, with Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas as parents Olivia and Hugh Crain, and Timothy Hutton appearing as an older version of Hugh.
